Learn with Willow-River Tonkin how to do your first strapless pops. A solid pop is the fundament for all further strapless tricks, so make sure you get the fundamentals dialed.

First you should ride cross wind, keep your back leg straight and your front leg bent while jumping. To ensure that the board won’t fall off your feet push the board with your toes into the wind. For landing steer the kite down and also land downwind. And there you go: your first strapless pop!

Now it’s time to learn your first Strapless Jump.

For the jump move the kite to 12, bend your front leg and straighten your back leg. Remember to point your toes into the wind. Hold the kite on 12 until you land Downwind. Here you go, Your first strapless Jump.

For this trick it is essential that you don’t try to reach out and grab the board.  Instead, after you pop you want to tuck your legs in and bring you board close to you.  If you try to reach out for your board it will take a lot of time and it will end up being much harder.  So again, make sure you bend your knees and bring the board close to you and then you can go for the grab.

One of the main things when you want to do a big grab using your kite is to jump quite high. You want to be able to feel the hang time of the kite, you want to be floating up there while grabbing your board. So make sure you steer that kite quite high and pull in your bar to have the maximum amount of lift. The main problem people have with this trick is that they try to reach out for their board. For this trick you have to bend your knees and bring the board close to you and then you will be able to grab it comfortably.

For the Frontside 180˚ you will want to make sure you really pay attention to how you move your board. If you turn it wrong or if you don’t control it using the wind, it will fall away from your feet.  When you land on your nose first, you want to make sure that you keep most of your weight on the nose of the board. If you put too much weight near the tail, the fins will catch and the board will spin out of control.

The Frontside 180˚ to wrapped is actually quite easy if you are managing to first do the Frontside 180˚.   Just like the Frontside 180˚, you want to make sure that you really pay attention to how you move you board.  As soon as you land on your nose with the board pointing fins first, you want to bend your knees to stabilize your landing.  Next thing you want to do is let go of your front hand from the bar and use your back hand to pull the bar around your back.  At the same time as pulling the bar around your back, you want to push a little bit on your fins to initiate the turn.  Once you manage to do the turn, you can then steer your kite down and ride off.

TIP: If you put too much weight near the tail in the beginning, the fins will catch and the board will spin out of control. Use your front hand to help you turn around and to keep your balance.

To do a One Footer jump, you just need to do a normal jump with the kite.  As soon as you pop out of the water you need to pull in your back knee and grab the board near the tail.  Then, kick out your back leg forward off the board.  When coming in for the landing, you want should pull your back leg in and place it on the pad at the rear of the board.

Tip: You can either kick your leg forwards or backwards off the board! Try both, It’s really easy!

The “Toeside 180°” is a fairly simple trick.  Ride toeside, then pop into the wind quite aggressively and release your front hand from the bar.  By releasing your front hand, you will be able to rotate much easier. Land fins forward, keep most of your weight on the nose of the board to keep the fins out of the water and simply ride off.

Trick tip: You can also try and throw in a grab with your front hand, to add a bit of style!

Once you have managed to do the Toeside 180°, you can then start trying this trick.  As soon as you land just like the Toeside 180°, you want to keep all your weight on the nose of you board.  As soon as you land, you’ll want to switch from using your back hand to your front hand. If you don’t switch your hands, you will have trouble doing the second rotation.  By pushing your fins slightly more into the water, it will initiate your rotation.  Make sure when you are doing the second rotation, you spin the bar around you at the same time.

So once you spin the bar around you and ride off toeside again, you have completed this trick!

Trick tip: The more you practice this trick, the faster and more “flowy” you will get!

As a little preview for what you can expect, here one of the probably most stylish and also sophisticated jumps: the strapless frontroll.  The frontroll requires supreme discipline for this strapless tricks.  Make sure you have a good speed before you pop.  Rotate on the vertical axis. To rotate faster, keep spinning your head and push with your hip.  For landing, bend your Frontleg and straighten your Backleg. There you go. Your first strapless frontroll.