Switch hand 540

If you have become a master of frontside 360’s we suggest to spice things up by switching your hands and adding a 180° on the water to top it off as shown by our team rider Malo.

Wing foileur : Malo, team rider GONG, en Neutra V2 et Lethal Custom 4’6.

The particularity of this trick is that you are going to start it with reversed hands. To do this, you will let go of your back hand to grab the front handle. As soon as you grab the handle, you’ll let go of your front hand to grab the back handle. Be careful when passing your hand underneath your front arm (former back arm). If you pass it over you would be performing another type of trick. Let’s not skip steps. It is normal that at the beginning you can’t grab the last handle. So you may as well take the low power handle of your wing. This way you will get less ripped off and the rotation will be less violent.

Keep your base speed

Now that you have your hands crossed, there is a good chance that you will get pulled out slightly and go downwind. To alleviate this problem, try to keep your base speed in opposition to the wing. In addition, you can bend your front arm (formerly your back arm) slightly so that the wing has less grip on the wind. Now you have your hands crossed and you are ready to launch.

If possible you will first choose a section like a chop, a wave or a bump. Indeed, throwing this trick on a small ramp will help you to have a better pop, go higher and have more time for rotation. Once you have a section in sight, you’ll drop down slightly to gain some speed. If you throw this trick too close to the wind, you will get off balance in the air and miss the rotation. As soon as you’re on the section, you’ll blast off with your pop.

The rotation

That’s it, if all went well, you’re in the air. That’s when you’re going to engage the rotation. Once your board has rotated 180 degrees, you will gradually uncross your hands by bringing your back hand in front of you. As you uncross your hands, you can pull back on the wing a little to get some support and make it easier to turn. As you do this, try to keep your front hand level. Basically, it shouldn’t go up or down too much, it should only move horizontally. After doing a half turn in the air, you will bring your front hand closer to your head while looking at where you plan to land. Looking at your landing spot will help you continue the rotation.

The rotation on the water

If you have followed all the steps correctly you should be close to landing. You’ve done a complete turn on yourself and you have the wing in front of you. So you’ll have to be prepared to bounce. As soon as you land, you’re going to do the last part of the rotation on the water. You will need to push in your back hand to turn the wing. Opening it a little bit will bring the wind in and give you the power to do the last 180.

On the other hand, if you put too much angle on it, you will get it ripped off and you won’t turn. On the other hand, if you don’t angle it enough and it goes against you, you’ll be pummeled by the wing. So you have to put it up in umbrella position but still with a small angle upwards. While you are pushing in your back hand, you can also bring your front hand slightly towards you. This way, the wing will not hit the water during the rotation.

Normally, after you have pushed well into your back hand while keeping the wing at the right angle, you should have done the 180. As you progress, the rotation will get cleaner and cleaner. Eventually you will have the perfect timing and the perfect wing angle so that the board barely touches the water and goes back. At this point all you have to do is switch your feet. This trick is really top notch in terms of feel so don’t hesitate to give it a try if you’re up for a wipe-out or two. The sensations are worth it ! 😉