Technique Time

Arch your way through your first backloops with these top tips from the world’s elite

Everyone dreams of sailing away from their first backloop and then moving onto perfecting them. The backloop is one of the most technical jumps out there - requiring plenty of feel - so we caught up with a few of the world’s elite sailors for their top tips. Read on to find out how to crack the backloop now.

John Skye (RRD / RRD / MFC)

“Really focus on where you want to land. Everyone says look where you want to land, but you really need to focus on a spot. Not just look over your should at the ocean, but look down and focus on an exact point to land.

Think of the backloop as two parts. Most people suffer from over-rotation as they just throw the loop and hope for the best. To stop this I think of the move as two parts. Firstly just do a high vertical jump. Then when you reach the apex, look over your should FOCUS on the landing and start the rotation. 75% of the rotation should be done on the way down.”

Levi Siver (Quatro / Goya Windsurfing / MFC):

“I think a lot of people get so wound up about making the rotation straight away that they don’t even get the take off right, so make sure your regular jumping is fully down. Make sure you get good projection on your jump and then when you reach the top look over your shoulder and bring the nose around, whilst spotting your landing. Once you start to get a feel for the rotation, just make sure you hold on!”

Kai Lenny (Naish / Naish / MFC)

“Make sure when you are leaving the lip of a wave to tuck your body extremely close to the gear and look where you want to go. The best example of where you want to go is by turning your head and almost resting it on your shoulder, by resting your head on your shoulder that is a great indicator of where you should be looking. But always stay tucked in.”

Adam Lewis (Fanatic / North):

“I think one of the most important things is to have the right take and to have the right take off you need the right ramp. So first of all hunt out a nice steep ramp that is going to send you directly up. Once you are in the air make sure your hands are shoulder width apart and as you continue to go up bring the sail in towards you. When you are at the apex of the jump, that’s when we want to start to rotate so we just need to look over our back shoulder. Now there’s a couple of things that need to happen 1) we need to spot our landing and 2) slide your backhand as far down the boom as possible - this is really important as it allows you to control the rotation and hopefully avoid over rotating, which is a common sign that you don’t have your backhand far enough back. For the landing you should keep your backhand on the boom clip and really tuck your back leg up so you can guide the nose of the board into the water."

Boujmaa Guilloul (Starboard / Severne / Mystic)"

“To learn a backloop, you have to be able to jump first, a normal high jump and then you can start trying it. Landing a backloop is not easy after the first 20 attempts; it takes a while before landing them all the time. When its really windy, try to get close to you rig by pushing your chest close to the boom, and once you reach the top turn around and bring your gear in front of you toward the landing surface.”

Kenneth Danielsen (Simmer):

“My backloop tip would be to grip as wide as you can with your backhand, which will help you not to over rotate the backloop.” 

Ben Proffitt (Simmer): 

“My tip for a back loop would be keep your front leg fully straight and back leg bent and tucked in :)”

Martin ten Hoeve (Goya Windsurfing / Point-7):

“Finding a steep ramp when you are trying your first backloops is quite important because you need to be jumping straight into the air and almost coming straight down as well. As you launch into the air make sure that you keep yourself close to the boom. At the highest point of the jump you need to bring your body weight from being underneath the gear to more on top of the gear. The backhand in a backloop is your control hand. If you open your backhand you will immediately start to over rotate, so it’s really important to keep it closed. On the way down keep your weight on your front hand and front foot, whilst tucking up your back leg. Then you just have to really commit to the landing.”

Good luck.