Any advice for stomping one-handed S-bends?

KitesofFury · Since 25 Jun 2007 23 Posts Seattle

As of late I've been working on one-handed S-bends or rather S-bends with a board grab. I can make it around sometime but I'm having great difficulty keeping the kite at 45 degrees while getting enough pop to make it steezy and not to flail it. (Getting pop with my kite low isn't an issue for raileys, etc) Any advice?

Chooch · Mon Apr 05, 10 11:14 am

Try changing you hand position on the bar. When I do front rolls with a grab I have the depower line between my index and middle finger.

Inept_Fun · Since 14 Apr 2005 1417 Posts Hood River XTreme Poster

im guessing you mean front roll not sbend. So just pop it like a regular front roll, then just let go and grab, its better with your back hand so if anything your kite goes down not up. .

NateDogg · Mon Apr 05, 10 3:14 pm

Remember: S-Bend is a railey based trick, so to get a feel of things try some big Hoochie Glides and OHH's if you haven't already.

When you grab any kind of roll or S-Bend your rotation is gonna be slowed down because you're opening your body to the grab, so make sure you're getting big pop going in.

To do that, take things step by step. Make sure your boots are tight, go into it with speed, center your non grabbing hand on the bar, unhook, load and pop but make sure you're keeping the bar close to your hips right up into the rotation. The bar should be so close that if someone was watching from the beach they should have a tough time telling whether or not your unhooked until you extend and go for the grab.

Don't even think about grabbing until you're well on your way into the rotation and your board is safely entering rotation above your head. If the board is below your head when you rotate it's a grabbed front roll, but those are fun too and get you that much closer to the grabbed s bend.

If you try to grab early you're going to lose pop and it's gonna look like your flailing. Hold the grab through the roation, tweak it to speed up the rotation and look for landing over your shoulder. Hold the grab right up to extending your knees for touch down.

Claim by immediately attempting the same trick to blind. Thumb's Up

This could probably be applied to any grabbed roll.

UnKooKed · Since 20 Aug 2009 10 Posts

Nate mentioned boots...get some boots Laughing

seriously though, boots are gonna help you on this one. Are you trying this unhooked cause if not than its not a s-bend...good luck and stomp that sh*t!

KitesofFury · Since 25 Jun 2007 23 Posts Seattle

Thanks for the tips guys! If the kite is not below 50 degrees than in my opinion it's not an S-bend. Although i straddle the center line between my index and middle finger, i think I need to move it over still. I also, need to really work on my pop it's amazing to see how some guys can get almost as much height with just pop as others do sending the kite.

PS. Those new ronix boots look sweet.