Backside Air

Exercise for the backside aerial

The backside air is a jump in which you don't jump straight ahead, but instead jump with the board to windward and then rotate it back in the air to land on a downwind course.

This is exactly the sequence of movements you perform when riding waves as a backside aerial (more specifically: a powered up backside aerial = wing held with both hands).

On the wave, you take off backside (with your back to the wave) at the wave’s lip and land back in the same wave. That’s why you rotate the board in the air - so you can catch the same wave again.

This can be practiced quite well in flat water. To do this, you luff up and take off at the same time. You can see what happens in the video: Your upper body follows the lift of the wing in the original direction of travel, while the board shoots out of the water to windward. As soon as it’s in the air, it’s immediately turned back to position it under your body and at the right angle for landing.

You can start this backside air as a small hop and then gradually increase the intensity of the kick of the board to windward - as shown here in the video.

If you put even more momentum into the takeoff, the whole thing quickly turns into a Raley (where your body flies high and almost horizontally through the air).