Riding Backside

Your back is facing the wave

In this tutorial, Klaas Voget shows you how to ride a wave backside.

As with normal surfing, you can also ride waves backside or frontside when wing foiling. Backside means that when riding a wave, your back is facing the wave.

Waves are always ridden with the wing flagged, the wing is held on the leeward side of the body with one hand on the handle of the front tube. The difficulty in riding waves backside is to follow the wave with your eyes, because the wave is always on the back of your body. Accordingly, you have to turn your upper body and head more than when riding frontside.

The ride on a wave starts on the wave face. You always try to stay on the shoulder of the wave, which is what the unbroken part next to the white water is called.

You ride down the wave and then make a turn of approx. 90 degrees at the bottom of the wave, the so-called bottom turn.

Do not ride too far in front of the wave, otherwise you will lose speed. After this bottom turn, you ride up the wave, where you also ride another turn of approx. 90 degrees - the so-called top turn. This S-shaped curve can be continued as long as the wave is not broken.

When riding backside waves, you stand on the board with your weigth at the center so that you can control the position of the foil in relation to the wave at all times. When riding down, you must push the nose of the board downwards, otherwise the foil will shoot out of the water. On the other side the nose must be raised steeper on the way up.

Tip for the flow when riding waves: By rotating the shoulders to initiate a turn, the rest of the body follows this rotational movement. Try to do this very clearly on a wave, then your turns will be smooth and fluid. Your eyes are always watching the developing wave. Every wave is different and you always have to adapt your ride to the wave.

Waves Backside wave ride Level ★★★☆ Rider: Klaas Voget Text: Jürgen Schall Photos/Videos: Duotone DE

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