Pop Back Loop

The pop backloop is often the first kite trick that kiters learn and once you master it you’ll be eager to learn more advanced tricks.

To perform this trick there are a few key points you must follow:

Speed. You need speed or else the board will stop in the water when you edge hard upwind.
To gain speed you’ll have to momentarily point your board downwind, just before you start edging upwind.
You will be physically jumping up off a coiled back leg, whilst edging the board, corking yourself up and out of the water.
You will not use the kite for a lift, so park your hands close together on the bar. This means that you’re sailing with kite at 11-11:30 or 12:30-13:00. Having the kite heigher will give you more lift.

So, you’re are mentally prepared and you’re ready to start the backloop pop. Now follow these steps.

Ride upwind.
Relax your legs, so that you’re not pushing the board away from you and kite downwind a few meters.
Once you gained enough speed, start carving quick against the wind, up to almost 45 degrees across the wind.
At this point push the board away from you with your legs and turn your shoulders back up the wind. This will initiate the rotation.
Keep turning away from the kite and you’ll continue the rotation in the air and hopefully land nice after turning about 270 degrees (the first 45 degrees are performed with the board still in the water).
That’s it.

This entry was posted on April 3, 2011. It was filed under Beginner and was tagged with back loop, backloop, pop.