180 - How to Wakeboard Tricks English

The 180 is one of the basics that you must learn. It’s an Ollie, so a small jump, with a 180° rotation. The easiest 180 is rotated frontside, such that you can keep looking into the direction of travel while doing the 180. If you are a Goofy rider, so you ride right foot forward, then you rotate like THIS to the left and if you are a Regular rider, so you ride with your left foot forward, then you turn like THIS to the right.
Before you start trying the 180 you should have mastered the Ollie already and should have a solid height. If you still have issues with the Ollie you should definitely work on it before, because every second of airtime helps a lot at the 180. Furthermore, you should be able to do the Switch as well and ride with both feet forward.
The approach of the 180 is very similar to the one of the Ollie. You ride a little bit to the outside or inside, depending on whether you are a Regular or Goofy rider. This way you can get some speed which will help you to get more height on the Ollie.
Different from the Ollie, you keep both hands at the handle. Your arms should neither be too straight nor to close to your body. Try to find a balance in between.
Jump off just like for a normal Ollie, but your front leg can have a tendency to go outwards. Then, pull the handle to your back hip. So if you are right foot forward then to the left and if you start left foot forward to the right. In addition you rotate your whole upper body in that direction.

It is important that your upper body and not your legs control the rotation. The board will follow automatically.
Take note, that your nose, which is at the back now, will be higher than your tail. So try to land on both feet at the same time. Bend your knees at the landing and bring your upper body a little bit over the board.

This way you can be sure, that you do a complete 180 and not only rotate let’s say 150°.
The 180 is a very important basic trick, because it teaches you a lot of body and board control. Once you can do the Heelside Frontside 180, you can try the same trick but approach on the Toeside. As you may have suspected the resulting trick is called Toeside Frontside 180. Try Switch 180s as well. It helps a lot if you can jump each 180 back and forth.

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