Finally landing frontside heel 360s more often than failing them, I felt it was time to move on a different trick. I did a few backside and switch heel 3s as I was telling to myself modestly (which quite frank was a bit stupid): “5s? That’s something for the really good riders. I keep it to my levels.” Well, screw that attitude! Try what you wanna try!
One of the beauties about wakeboarding is that there is rather a free way of progression than in some other sports (– of course there is a bit of a progression to follow, e.g., manage a straight air before moving on to tantrum for example, but I don’t have to master all eight 360s in order to move on the next spin, if you know what I mean.) You do what you want when you’re out on the water, you can get all creative, some days more ballsy than others, and hit that plastic as you like. That’s what I love about wakeboarding so much. So, I put my insecurities about not being a good enough rider aside and started spinning more than a frontside heel 3 off a kicker. First time, I jumped and span right into my front edge. Man, you gotta love a good front edge. Hit the water. Eyes wide open. Lost one of my contacts and got my eyeballs washed. That faceplant, boiii, that hurts! Yeah, that first 5-attempt went well…
Faceplants were to be expected of course. That’s part of deal. They make you feel alive haha. So, with a sore jaw, a bit of a headache, but two very clean eyeballs I went back to basics and practiced spinning a few 5s on water, on the fun box, on whatever plastic which seemed long enough for me to manage the rotation to build up some confidence first.
I think it took me two full days of full-on practice to land my first 5 ever – we’re talking two whole days of spinning on water, off water, on plastic, on the dock, in my living room – like literally everywhere. Going all dizzy from all the pirouettes I gave it a few more goes on the kicker. My eyeballs just got a lot cleaner those days as well.
And then, this time, early spin on the take-off, super sketchy landing, but maaaan, I finally landed my first 5 ever! I screamed and yelled and ollied and celebrated proudly holding the handle while the cable kept pulling me along. I couldn’t believe it! Dan celebrated with me at the dock! I heard whistles and shout-outs from people at the wakepark. It felt so amazing! Best feeling! If you’re a rider yourself you know what I am talking about! If you’re not, book yourself a wake session and start! That new trick vibe! Worth all the sweat! Not worth holding back and playing cool (I’m so bad at playing cool anyway) – have yourself a little inner firework and let it out! I-M-P-E-C-C-A-B-L-E!
I was smiling from ear to ear all the way round the park until I mentally prepared myself to try to land that 5 again. I’ve done it once; I can do it twice! Super pumped with adrenaline, confidence and the most positive can-do attitude I approach the kicker on my heelside right foot forward, giving it a medium edge, feeling the speed increase, flattening out just when I hit the white of the feature. This time I thought I was going to wait a bit longer with the take-off to avoid any pre-spin movement on the kicker. I hit the lip and immediately jumped, looked over my right shoulder to initiate the rotation. “I’m flying so high”, I thought to myself. In the air, I managed to do the handle pass somehow. I’m like, “Yeeeeah, I got this! This is going sooo well!”, as proud as Larry until suddenly, my front edge hits the surface, digs deep into the water and stops me from whatever I was doing at instance. Faceplant! Might not have flown as high as I thought I did… My face ate right into the water. Not the eyeballs again!!! All I could see was a sudden white flash in my eyes, I looked in the direction of the cable and saw the wooden handle bouncing on the water and away from me in a blur… my contact has gone once again.
All good though. Just gotta try it again. And I did. Eventually, I got a few 5s in the bank – not sure if it happened that day or the next. Anyway, I landed three in a row which, obviously, is the ultimate and official proof that you can claim that trick now! Also, it means you'll never have to do it again… Just kidding.
New tricks usually don’t come easy to me and where consistency is not my immediate friend, persistence surely is! Where’s a will there’s way.
Anyway, here’s some footage of the progress:
(Music: Ragga Groove by Peyruis https://soundcloud.com/peyruis
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/ragga-groove
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