The grabbed backroll is a backroll with a hand on the board through the rotation, ridden once the plain backroll lands consistently.
Also called: grabbed backroll · back roll with grab
Prerequisites
Unlocks
Nothing in the tree needs this one yet — it stands on its own.
Schools teach this differently
Schools teach this one differently. IKSURFMAG treats it as a single sent-jump move (gentle send, slow rotation, grab by the halfway mark), while MACkite's Ride With Blake builds it as a four-step progression across sessions: flat 360, off-axis roll, reaching without grabbing, then the grab. Both agree on the core — back-hand grab, slow rotation, and bringing the board to your hand instead of reaching down.
Ideal conditions
If conditions allow, ride a larger, slower kite: it gives you more float and confidence while you're flying one-handed with the front hand only, and feels less twitchy. You want enough power that the board feels alive and you can get airborne without forcing it — no explicit wind-speed numbers are given.
How to do it
1. Setup and send
- Come in on a decent upwind edge at a comfortable speed, kite parked at 1 or 11 o'clock, with enough power that the board feels alive and you can get airborne without forcing it.
- Position both hands butting up against the centre line of the bar — this deters the kite from moving too fast once you release your rear hand.
- Give the kite a gentle, progressive send — don't wang it — and feel the bar out to follow the sweet spot so you hold your edge. Keep your rear leg stiff.
- Before take-off, level the bar to stop the kite just past 12 while you're still edging in the water, heading upwind rather than carving.
2. Take off and rotate slowly
- Fully extend, kicking yourself up and off the water while turning your torso, and pull the bar in for extra lift.
- Look over the bar as you take off — it guarantees the slow rotation you need so there's time for the grab.
- Look over your back shoulder and twist your hips, keeping the board aligned with your shoulders — and make sure you breathe throughout the move.
- Extend fully before bringing your knees up — if you spin uncontrollably you'll struggle to squeeze in the grab, and struggle even more to land it.
3. The grab
- Only take your rear hand off once you feel balanced and floating. Make sure you're supported by your harness — don't support yourself with your front hand — and ease the bar slightly toward the sweet spot so the kite doesn't steer forward.
- Lift your knees up in front of you to bring the board closer, and focus your eyes on the prize: the heelside-fin area of the tail.
- Don't reach for the board — bring it to you by tucking your back knee toward your chest.
- Extend your back arm and grab the tail, aiming to have the grab by the halfway mark of the rotation, while you're still upwind.
- Try to lift the board to you rather than reaching down towards it, and hold the grab as long as you feel comfortable — bar on the sweet spot, not pulled in.
4. Come around and land
- Turn your head to look over your shoulder to encourage yourself around, and steer the kite slowly forward from its static position so it pulls you through the rest of the rotation.
- Once it's clear you're coming around, dive the kite — as it comes over 12 it will lift and hold you for a soft landing.
- Right as you're about to land, give an extra pull on your front hand to dive the kite.
- Look slightly downwind towards where you'll land and drop the board underneath you.
- Aim for a tail-first, downwind landing with the board down and legs extended, landing over the board and balanced — then carve back onto your edge and steer the kite up out of its dive.
Common mistakes and fixes
Mistake
Rotating too fast — you're coming around before you've even got your knees up, so there's no time to grab.
Fix
Keep your back leg stiff and avoid leaning back into your takeoff. Extend up and around and you'll have oodles more time.
Mistake
You can't reach the board for the grab.
Fix
Don't lean back while raising the board — keep your head up and work those abs, and try lifting your back knee more than your front knee so the board's tail angles closer to you.
Mistake
Grabbing the toeside or heelside of the board instead of the tail, drifting into a 'tindy' grab habit (somewhere between an indy and a tail grab).
Fix
Make a point of establishing the habit of grabbing the tail early so you don't pick up bad habits — practice grabbing it as early as possible and holding it as long as possible.
Mistake
On the roast beef variation, you keep missing the grab through your legs.
Fix
You're not tucking the front knee enough — bring it hard into your chest so the heelside edge of the board comes right into your back hand.
If it goes wrong
- If you concentrate on only one thing, it's to rotate slowly — it gives you outs: if the trick isn't happening mid-air, you can always throw your head and dive the kite to get yourself around, or even float down gently, facing backwards.
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 schoolEducational reference, not instruction. Kitesurfing is a risk sport: the steps here describe what named schools, instructors and technique libraries teach, and the page lists exactly which ones, but real conditions involve wind, gusts, water state, traffic and equipment behaviour that no written guide accounts for. Schools also teach justified variations — where our sources disagree, the page says so instead of picking one. Judge your own readiness, use the safety systems on your kite, and do not 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
Which hand grabs the board, and where?+
Your back hand. Keep the front hand on the bar for steering and landing; the grab target is the heelside-fin area of the tail, with the bar eased to the sweet spot while you hold it.
When am I ready to add the grab to my back roll?+
Once the plain back roll is dialled: MACkite frames the tail grab as the next step after mastering basic back rolls, and as the foundation for all other back-hand grabs paired with a roll. Their progression even drills the reach (flying the kite one-handed mid-roll) before you ever actually grab.
Are there other grabs that work with a back roll?+
Yes — Elite Watersports singles out the stalefish (back hand behind your back leg on the heel edge between your feet) as working exceptionally well with a backroll, and their core grab advice matches the tail-grab tutorials: bring the board to your hand, tuck your knees, and let grabs teach you to fly the kite with one hand.
Keep reading
Sources
Every step on this page traces to the sources below. Where they disagree or stay silent, the page says so instead of guessing.