TOESIDE RALEY

The Toeside Raley is an approach to jumping that will give your jump much more amplitude. If you can do simple toeside jumps then you’ll have no trouble doing the raley. So let’s look at how we do it.

The toeside position

First, you’ll need to be in the toeside position with your back foot firmly planted in the strap. Indeed, you will see that if your foot is not well wedged in the strap, you will surely lose the board in the air or on landing and you risk hurting yourself. Once you are in the good position, you engage the wing and max out your speed. The faster you go, the easier the pop will be. Now that you have the speed that you need to jump, you’ll choose a section to boost out of. This section can be a wave, a bump, or some chop or just a gust. It’s still best to throw this trick off a ramp. You will have a much easier time getting into the raley. As soon as you get to your chosen section, you will pop.

To pop toeside, try to put your weight slightly more on the back than as with a more simple jump. This will help you with the rest of the move. Also choose a crosswind type of gait.

The jump

Normally, if everything has gone well, you should have taken off. At this point, you’ll have to move quickly. You are going to let the board rise while lowering your buttocks. Doing this will bring you closer to the board. You will be more compact in the air and you will not have any imbalance. Now that you are in the air above your board with a flexed stance, you will extend your back leg. Extending this leg will move you into a raley position.

As you move your lower body, you will bring the wing over your head by extending your arms upwards. By doing this the wing will catch better in the wind. This will give you more power and help you glide longer. When you start doing this move, you will stay well above the board with the back leg not fully extended. By staying above the board, you are more likely to do a long jump than a high jump. As you do this, you’re going to tilt back a little more during the jump, which will bring the board in front of you.

Then the board will go vertical with the nose down and you will have the true toeside raley attitude. On the other hand, putting yourself in this position will make you jump higher but you will make less length. If you exaggerate the movement to the max, i.e. by really putting weight on the back at the impulse, the board can go over your head. Then, chances are you will have a little moment of panic because you will be surprised to have sent it so much. But first things first. Start by doing small jumps to get the hang of it.

The landing

Now that you’ve climbed up, you’ll be coming down. So you’ll need to prepare yourself for landing. To do this, you’ll start by relaxing your back leg. Once it’s relaxed, you’re going to bring it back behind you. After doing this, you should find yourself with the board in the starting position. To make the landing smoother, you can tilt the board slightly downward. This way, you will land a little nosedive and the foil will tend to want to get back into action quickly. If you do this, be careful not to get caught because the foil will have taken off again immediately. So try to anticipate this by dampening well and flexing. Once you’ve landed, just pump your wing and go.

Now, if you do a very vertical raley, you’ll see that you’ll land in almost the same place as where you jumped. In fact, you will go up and then back down. This happens because your wing is going to take you backwards because you will be very tilted. So you’re going to push on your back foot to turn the board so that it does a 180°. It has to be in the direction of the landing, that is to say the opposite of the takeoff. If you stay in the same position, you risk eating a huge bodyslam on your back (I don’t recommend you do that). Once the board is in the right direction, you will look for your landing point which will make your upper body turn. If you’ve applied the technique correctly, you should drop like a rock and then regain power in the wing at the last moment. It can be a little scary but trust me it’s a very cool feeling. When you land, remember to cushion the impact as it can still be quite violent. Finally, you will have done an Air Jibe but in version XXL. Once you have landed, you have two choices: either you go back in the same direction in which you jumped, in which case you pump the wing and use it to pivot and go back. Or you can go back in the other direction and switch your hands. It’s up to you to choose the solution that best suits the situation.

Malo Guénolé