The flaka is one of the most important manoeuvres in freestyle, often labelled as a 'gateway' move as it opens up the door to so many other freestyle tricks that involve an aerial 360.

It can seem tricky to learn at first, but if you preserver and keep going for it you will be rewarded with one of the greatest feeling moves in windsurfing. A great place to start is by practicing your upwind 360's in light wind and keep going from there. Once you have it cracked you wont be able to stop, and you will be trying all the other super-fun variations.

We asked the freestyle fleet to provide their top tips for learning to flaka.

Phil Soltysiak (Starboard / Dakine)
"I think the most important part of the flaka is that you never want to push the sail. Move it forwards neutrally before you jump so that it is far enough away from you that you can jump into the clew with your hips to start sliding backwards. From there it's easy."

Rafael de Windt (Hot Sails)
"The tip I would give for flaka is that you don't throw your sail against the wind but throw it half wind and when you throw the sail make sure that your front hand is stretched and that your back hand kind of against your chest."

Cyril Moussilmani (Starboard / North)
"Just go for it."

Steven Max (Starboard / Hot Sails)
"My tips for learning the Flaka are; don't kick to much with your feet in the jump, lean to the opposite side of which your standing and to the front of the board and keep your clew close to your body and your mast far away from it!"

Paul Zeper (Patrik / Hot Sails)
"Keep your front arm stretched out to the front of the board, back arm close to your body."

Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard / Severne)
"Make sure you slide you're back hand far to the back of you're boom like with a forward.

Steven Van Broeckhoven (F2 / Gaastra)
"Before you go for the move make sure you bring the body over the board."

There is still plenty of time to submit your questions to the riders, so whether you would like a tip for the waves, slalom or freestyle post it on the PWA Facebook wall.