Backside Wave Riding is surfing with your back to the face, holding the heelside rail through the bottom turn and driving off the back foot into the lip.
Also called: backside riding · backside bottom turn · backhand top turn
Prerequisites
Unlocks
Nothing in the tree needs this one yet — it stands on its own.
Schools teach this differently
Our sources disagree on two things. KiteKahunas teaches backside riding as the easiest way onto a wave and says it is easy to perform even on big waves, while IKSURFMAG calls backside wave riding technical and challenging to master. On hookedness, Ben Wilson rides the backhand turn unstrapped and unhooked but unhooks only just before the bottom turn, whereas the Gustavo Foerster sequence works the kite with one hand on the bar and the other hand out of the bar for balance and never calls for an unhook.
Ideal conditions
Ben Wilson calls side-shore to side-onshore conditions ideal, because the kite will readily drift down the line. In straight onshore wind the wind and the waves are both running at the beach, so you end up riding downwind with your back to the wave — backside by default — and that is generally considered the least desirable kind of wave riding, because the wave's movement subtracts from apparent wind speed and the waves are often disorganised and bumpy with wind-driven chop. In sideshore wind, backside riding helps you get upwind at a steeper angle than you can normally sail, because you are getting a boost from the wave. Keep the kite below 45 degrees so it does not lift you off your board. None of the pages opened here gave a wind speed range in knots.
How to do it
1. Set up and take the wave
- Find your wave and set the kite low, at around 45 degrees — roughly where it would sit if you were simply tacking out. Assess the wave and see where it is going to break while you find a steady speed.
- Keep the kite below 45 degrees while you ride. Above that it lifts you off the board.
- Stay hooked in until the very last second. Ben Wilson never unhooks until he has full control of his speed, his position on the wave and his kite position.
- Turn the kite before you turn the board, and keep it moving so it is flying back towards the beach and not left overhead.
2. Drive the backside bottom turn
- Steer the kite up before you start going up the wave. Ben Wilson does this just before he unhooks for the bottom turn.
- Lower your centre of gravity even more so you stay stable as you drive through the bottom turn.
- Lean over your heelside so your backside almost touches the water.
- Hold that heelside rail as long as possible — basically until about three quarters of the way up the wave.
- Put your arm in the water. It gives you a point of reference to really lean over.
- Pull with your bar hand to send the kite to 45 degrees above your head, on the opposite side to the way you are going, then use the other hand to turn the kite again so it is moving in your direction of travel.
3. Hit the lip
- Put more pressure on your back foot as you come up to the lip.
- Head down, so you can send the board more vertical.
- Depower the kite at the same time you hit the lip, and keep the free hand out of the bar to control your body.
- At about three quarters of the way up, thrust all your weight from leaning over your heelside to leaning over your toeside, and really jam off your back foot.
4. Come down and link the next turn
- Steer the kite back down before you start going back down the face of the wave.
- As the board starts to move back, pull your bar hand so you get the power of the kite again.
- Keep the focus on your front foot as the lip sends you back down to the bottom.
- Pull the bar and use the energy from the turn to go and hit the wave again.
Common mistakes and fixes
Mistake
Unhooking too early, before you actually have the wave under control.
Fix
Stay hooked in until the very last second. Ben Wilson's rule is that he never unhooks until he has full control of his speed, his position on the wave and his kite position.
Mistake
Steering the kite back down too late, so your timing is out, you get stuck at the top of the wave and lose down-the-line momentum.
Fix
Steer the kite back down before you start going back down the face, not after.
Mistake
Parking the kite too high, so it lifts you off the board.
Fix
Keep the kite below 45 degrees while you are riding.
Mistake
Leaving the kite sitting overhead instead of working it, so it counteracts the speed your board and body already have.
Fix
Fly it more aggressively through powered carves and keep it moving so it does not counteract your board and body's forward momentum.
If it goes wrong
- If the kite is in the waves, release and detach the kite.
- When you hit white water, bend your knees up to soak up the impact and shift some weight to the rear of the board so the nose lifts over it.
- Going back out through surf, keep the kite low down over the waves. It will tend to pull you out and through them if you get caught in white water.
- Keep the kite below 45 degrees so you do not get lifted off your board.
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
What does backside actually mean on a wave?+
You are riding with your back to the wave. In onshore wind the wind and the waves both run at the shore, so you have to ride downwind with your back to the wave — that is backside by default. Frontside is the opposite: you ride with your body facing the wave, banking off it. In sideshore conditions riders mix frontside and backside on the same wave.
What do I need to be able to do before I try it?+
It is well worth mastering toeside riding upwind first, so you can tack in both directions without switching your feet on the board. Practise your carving turn on flat water or on the flat sections between waves — that is the best way to get the feeling for carving a surfboard — and get the four carving transitions dialled on a twin-tip before you move onto a directional wave board. KiteKahunas reckons an intermediate freeride kitesurfer is as little as ten days of practice away from being a wave kitesurfer.
Where should the kite sit?+
Low, at around 45 degrees, and below 45 degrees once you are riding so it does not lift you off the board. The kite turns before the board, and you keep it moving so it is flying back towards the beach rather than left overhead. Steer it up before you go up the wave, then back down before you go back down the face.
Hooked in or unhooked?+
Ben Wilson rides the backhand turn unstrapped and unhooked, but he stays hooked in until the very last second and never unhooks until he has full control of his speed, his position on the wave and his kite position — the unhook happens just before the bottom turn. Unhooking too early is the mistake he calls out. The Foerster sequence keeps one hand on the bar to steer the kite and the other hand out of the bar for balance, and never mentions unhooking at all.
Is backside riding easy or hard?+
The sources split on this. KiteKahunas calls backside riding the easiest way to get onto a wave and says it is easy to learn and easy to perform even on big waves. IKSURFMAG calls backside wave riding technical and challenging to master. Ben Wilson's page states no skill level at all, so treat any single difficulty rating as a judgement call rather than something a source hands you.
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.
- Ben Wilson Coaching — Unstrapped, Unhooked Backhand Top Turn
- Strapless Kitesurfing: How to ride back side, bottom turn and tail slide (Gustavo Foerster)
- KiteKahunas: Wave riding kitesurfing lessons
- KiteKahunas: Wave kitesurfing lesson overview
- Peter's Kiteboarding – Kitesurfing Handbook: Wave Riding
- Progression Sports — First Steps for Riding Waves with a Kite Surfboard
- Jimbo Douglass: Onshore, offshore, sideshore, frontside, backside
- IKSURFMAG: Riding Waves - Backside, Kitesurfing Technique & Tips