It's hard to say what's wrong with your front roll....you may be looping the kite but which way? What worked for me when I learned front rolls was letting go of the back hand on the bar during the rotation while keeping the kite at 12. Then because the back hand is off the bar you will naturally redirect the kite with the front hand for a clean landing downwind. As for any rotations that doesn't involve a kite loop you probably should keep your hand(s) centered on the bar to avoid the kite looping. What also helped me with front rolls is using my back hand to grab the tail end of the board to keep your body position tucked in a control the rotation.

For the back roll transitions, it will only work well without a kiteloop if you edge hard upwind to kill as much forward speed as possible, this will help in redirecting the kite to the new direction without the extra resistance from the previous direction forward speed. It also helps to do that in stronger winds.

For lighter winds back roll or front roll transitions you will need to add a kiteloop or a downloop, heaps of fun when you get it right :) then try it in stronger winds as well

This is pretty much where I'm up to also. With backroll I have my front hand normal on the bar and back hand lightly on the middle. With front I tried that but found I was either downlooping or crashing the kite - so I've been trying them with a downloop, hands in that position on the bar and pulling on the front hand as soon as I start to rotate, and land going the opposite way, and without the downloop, have both hands in the middle of the bar, pulling a bit on the front hand as I go around, then as I come around look up at the kite and as it dives down redirect with the back hand so it keeps pulling... In saying that, I've only ever done successful fronts going to the right, when I go to the left, I get halfway round rotation and get disoriented not know where I am or what to pull haha.
With backroll transitions where do you have the kite when you go into backroll. If you have it about 45 would that give kite more power as its diving down opposite direction, as it's not right above you for so long? I'm just curious about this myself also, I've yet to nail one...

doolla, here's some more tips that I hope can help:

For your front rolls try moving the kite very gently from 11:00 (before take off) to 12:00 (during take off). This will help keeping the kite above your head and give your more hangtime knowing where your kite is. You'll also need to slow down your rotation. Then, try sheeting out your bar, this worked well for me especially during bigger jumps. The sheeting out should avoid the kite looping since the back lines would be slacker. I realized when I do a front roll transition I always sheet in more instead of sheeting out and it naturally goes into a downloop, which is what you want for a transition roll but not for a roll in the same direction.

As for the loops in a backroll or a front roll, the easiest ones (first ones to try) is in lighter winds and the loop at the end of your rotation. Then try to start the loop earlier each time until you can do it just before your half-way through the rotation (body facing upwind) this gets very exciting when you do it right but hurts when you get it wrong :) You also have to factor in how much air time you have, i.e. the more air time the slower the loop could be and vice versa. I find the backrool transititions are easier with a front loop (can grab the tail of your board as well) and the front roll transitions easier with a downloop...that's just the way it works for me...

Good luck!

saffer, cbulota - i think you are both right on the money. thanks heaps.

i will put all that together i think and i'm sure I will have better luck with it.

i'll get a little bit more comfortable with the downloop carve transitions going both ways and then I will give the backroll downloop transition a go. how hard could it be? :P famous last words!

a mate of mine also suggested for the backroll transition, try gently sending the kite to 12 from 45deg just prior to entry, use the reversal of your kite to start pulling you the other way gently whilst in mid air. as opposed to me sending to 12 early, washing off speed, then initiating. im sure there's a few way to do it. i'll have a play next time.

cheers guys!

Saffer said...

Provided you loop late there is no risk. If you loop when you are in the air, thats where you get hurt. Loop just before or as you land and it takes a second or two for the pull to hit so you can steer downwind the same way as a downloop carve.

You can practice it by doing conventional jumps and as you land your jump continue steering it forward to get the loop and carve the way you would with your standard downloop carve.

would you want to land switch for these? then have the kite pull you around heelside through the downloop?

For anyone that might be interested.....

Today I landed (almost haha) my first frontroll. Some things that worked and will hopefully get me there in the next session -

- Slowly sending the kite to 12 prior to entering the frontroll is good (this has also improved my backroll completion rate from 7/10 to 10/10). I think a bit more airtime is needed for the frontroll.

- Following on from this, and this might seem obvious, but you need power (at least when you're a bit crap like me and don't rotate very quick), this adds to the airtime thing.

- Similar to backrolls, move hands to centre of the bar. I dont think I was doing this which is why I was sending the kite to places you dont want it to go during the manoeuvre.

I am still pulling the front hand and bringing the kite down from 12 during the manoeuvre which is why I think im struggling to make it around. I am going to try sending the kite slightly past 12 on entry and see how that goes. Or just tell my brain to stop pulling the effing front hand!!!!!

In a couple of failed backroll attempts the other day I managed to do what felt like a triple backroll with a kiteloop transition. It ended atrociously as you might expect but it felt frickin awesome, I hope to nail it soon and add it to my list of tricks.