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KSO Tutorial · Airstyle · Intermediate

Backroll

See it in the Trick Tree

The backroll is a backward rotation around your own axis while the kite sends you up, and the spin starts out of an aggressive edge.

Also called: back roll · back loop · sent backroll

Prerequisites

Basic Jump

Unlocks

Backroll TransitionBackroll with GrabLate BackrollBackroll Hand-DragStrapless BackrollBackroll KiteloopBackroll to ToesideInverted BackrollDouble BackrollBackroll Downloop TransitionToeside Backroll

Helps to know first

Sliding TransitionToeside Riding

Schools teach this differently

Two points where the teaching genuinely splits. On the entry, IKSURFMAG and Elite Watersports send the kite up towards 12 before the carve, while inMotion Kitesurfing and MACkite park it at 1 or 11 and take the rotation out of the edge alone. On where to look, IKSURFMAG and inMotion Kitesurfing both say front shoulder, MACkite says back shoulder, and Elite Watersports uses both words on the same page. This guide follows the sent entry and the front-shoulder wording.

Ideal conditions

Comfortable powered riding with room downwind; flat water makes the first attempts easier to time.

How to do it

  1. 1. Set up

    • Come in moving, but not flat out. IKSURFMAG puts the requirement as enough speed to ride upwind and get airborne, without blatting along at full tilt.
    • She Flies goes further and says the move needs no speed at all to start or finish. Arrive a little slow and with more control, and you have more time in the trick than you expect.
    • Set the kite at 1 or 11 o'clock depending on which way you are riding. That is the position IKSURFMAG starts the move from.
    • Slide both hands to the middle of the bar before you commit. inMotion Kitesurfing gives the reason plainly: hands in the centre mean you cannot steer the kite by accident while you are spinning.
    • Ride slightly powered and put the board on a hard edge against the wind so tension builds in the lines. Elite Watersports makes that loaded edge step one of the whole move.

  2. 2. The send

    • Send the kite up with one short, sharp movement instead of a long sweep. IKSURFMAG uses that same send for any small jump you mean to take.
    • Bring it back towards 12 o'clock and keep the input soft. Elite Watersports is explicit that this is not a yank.
    • While the kite climbs to 12, drive the board the other way. She Flies describes carving sharply away from the kite until the line you leave on the water looks like a Nike tick.
    • Then level the bar. IKSURFMAG gives that single movement two jobs: it stops the kite travelling, and it holds the kite where you put it.

  3. 3. Carve and pop

    • Carve the board further upwind. IKSURFMAG treats that extra bite upwind as what starts the rotation, not the kite.
    • Turn your shoulders and trunk while you are still driving against the edge. In IKSURFMAG's version the turn and the carve happen together rather than one after the other.
    • Pull your knees up towards your chest once you are off the water. inMotion Kitesurfing says it steadies you in the air and makes the rotation easier to get round.

  4. 4. Spot and land

    • Halfway round you should be looking upwind, over your own hands and through the bar. IKSURFMAG calls that the halfway house and notes that stopping there just floats you back down facing the wrong way.
    • Hold that look over your shoulder until you have come all the way round and can see where you are landing.
    • Pick the exact patch of water, not just a direction. She Flies puts it bluntly: look at it and you will land on it, and that is what holds the rotation back from running long.
    • Drop your legs the way you would out of a jump, so the board comes back under you and you land over the top of it.
    • Point the nose slightly downwind as you touch down. Elite Watersports uses that angle to take the impact out of the landing.

Common mistakes and fixes

Mistake

Attacking the trick, riding fast and aggressive to force the rotation round

Fix

Elite Watersports names trying too hard as the most common fault they see when teaching backrolls. Take the pace out and work through it slowly and methodically instead.

Mistake

Pulling the bar in before the carve has finished

Fix

IKSURFMAG says an early pull leaves you unable to carve up or extend. Level the bar instead, which both stops the kite travelling and holds it where you put it.

Mistake

Looking up to check on the kite mid-rotation

Fix

Leave the kite alone and keep your eyes where the rotation is going. IKSURFMAG warns that tipping your head back to look up knocks you off balance and disorientates you.

Mistake

The head stops halfway and you land backwards

Fix

inMotion Kitesurfing traces the half-turned landing to not throwing the head round over the shoulder once the backward rotation has started. Commit the head and hold the look until you come round.

Mistake

Leaving pressure on the back hand through the roll

Fix

She Flies takes the back hand off the bar altogether. Keep pressure on it and the kite runs past 12 and over to the far side of the window instead of coming back down where you want it.

If it goes wrong

  • Backroll falls are forgiving: if the rotation dies, throw your legs up and take the fall on your back instead of fighting for the landing.

Learn this with a coach, not from a page

This guide explains what the move is and what riders get wrong, so you arrive at the session knowing what you are trying to do. It cannot watch your kite, read the gust coming, or stop you committing to something you are not ready for — a coach or instructor can.

Find a certified school

A KitesurfingOfficial tutorial — and no page replaces real instruction. Kitesurfing is a risk sport: real conditions involve wind, gusts, water state, traffic and equipment behaviour that no written guide accounts for. Good schools also teach justified variations — where a move is taught more than one way, this page says so instead of pretending there is only one. Judge your own readiness, use the safety systems on your kite, and never attempt a move because a page made it sound achievable. KitesurfingOfficial accepts no liability for the use of this information on the water.

Questions riders ask

What should I learn before a backroll, and what comes after it?+

Elite Watersports puts the backroll straight after jumps, with load and pop already solid. In their order the front roll comes next, and downloops wait until both rolls are working.

How much wind do I need? Can I do it underpowered?+

The Kitesurfing Handbook advises against it in light wind or on a kite that is small for the day, since good power helps the move along. It also wants the kite kept high, because a kite sitting lower in the power zone will not give you the height to get all the way round.

I keep over-rotating. What actually fixes it?+

She Flies points at your eyes. Spotting the landing is what keeps the rotation from running long, and the instruction is literal: look down at the exact water you want to land on, and you will land on it.

How clean does my first backroll have to be?+

Not very. IKSURFMAG counts simply getting all the way round as a success at the start, even when it ends with you landing on your backside and waterstarting out of it.

Keep reading

Fact-checked

This tutorial was written by the KitesurfingOfficial editorial team and cross-checked against published instruction from the schools and riders below. Where good teachers differ, the page says so.