Inside Line: Kauli Seadi

If the requests being emailed in are anything to go by, the bottom turn seems to be one of the most sought after moves aspiring wave sailors want to master, and apparently there’s one person the masses want to explain it; three times PWA World Wave Champion, and the man that’s almost single-handedly redefined the way we waveride today, Kauli Seadi (JP, NeilPryde, Mormaii, MFC).  Over to Kauli:

“So, for the bottom turn; to initiate the turn, start by flexing your legs and get really, really low. Make sure that your front knee drives the turn, do this by pointing it straight forward, towards the nose of the board.

With the sail, put your back hand right down the boom, so you have a really wide grip. As you engage the rail, extend your front arm, while laying the sail forward and to the inside of the turn. Make sure that you sheet in really hard with your back hand to give you acceleration.

Once you’re really on the rail, fully locked into a powerful bottom turn, you start to push with the backhand and flatten off the board in relation to the water. Now you’ll be sheeted out and heading up the wave face. How vertical you go will depend on how aggressive you were with the rail, and how committed you were to getting your weight forward.

The next step is the top turn, but that’s a whole other thing!”

Thanks very much to Kauli for taking the time out to explain that one. In his breakdown of the move he did say it’s super hard to explain, as it’s more of a feeling than an exact technique.

Thanks also to all those people that emailed in requesting Kauli’s help. If you want to ask one of the PWA stars a question, send an email to andy@pwaworldtour.com with the subject titled ‘INSIDE LINE’. Remember to include your question(s) and who you’d like to answer them.

PWA / Andrew Buchanan