The frontroll is a forward rotation in the air, spinning over your leading shoulder, and most riders learn it after the backroll.
Also called: front roll · front loop
Prerequisites
Unlocks
Helps to know first
Ideal conditions
Learn in lower winds on a bigger, slower kite ('learning powered on a small kite is not for the faint-hearted'), and pick a spot with deep water and lots of space.
How to do it
1. Setup and send
- Come in with a good upwind edge and a bit of speed so the board feels lively: hands centred on the bar, sweet spot trimmed to the centre of the throw, bum low, weight centred, back leg flexed but solid.
- From the kite at 11 or 1 o'clock, give it a short, sharp send upwards — better than a slow drift, so you can hold your edge and have something to kick against — feathering the bar out to follow the sweet spot while you keep edging.
- Jump like you normally would by edging hard and sending the kite to 12, but don't over-send it: try to keep it at 12.
- You don't need much height for a frontroll: a couple of feet is plenty high.
2. Take-off and initiation
- Level the bar while you're still in the sweet spot, before you kick, so the kite parks around 12 o'clock and, if anything, just a tad past 12.
- Start the rotation with your take-off: kick by extending your back leg while turning your head and shoulders, then lift your front knee and keep your chin in to add momentum.
- Think of it as tucking your front shoulder (or elbow) to your back knee while you look over your back shoulder; bending your front knee and keeping your back leg straight helps spin you around quickly.
- Alternative cue: drop your front shoulder and bring your head down and slightly across, like you're trying to smell your armpit.
- Don't pull the bar in until after you've kicked — if you pull first, the kite will pull you up and over the board. The power from the kite and your weight are joined at the harness hook.
3. In the air
- Lift your knees: the smaller you are, the quicker you rotate and the more balanced you remain. Keep the bar level with your shoulders.
- Keep both hands close to the centre of the bar for better kite control; slower kite movement lets you focus on the rotation.
- Don't stop looking over your back shoulder until you spot your landing: if you stop turning your head, you'll stop your rotation.
- Don't look up mid-rotation to see where the kite is; it'll throw you off balance. The kite should stay around 12 o'clock throughout.
- Halfway round, turn your head further and look over your shoulder, waiting for your first glimpse of water downwind — where your head looks, the body will follow — then focus on where you'll touch down.
4. Landing
- When you spot your landing, put pressure on your front hand to steer the kite forward, in the direction you want to go.
- Give the bar a good pull to dive the kite forward and down for landing, keep your focus on where you'll touch down, and lower your legs as you descend.
- Aim to land tail first, over the board, and point off the wind for a smooth ride-out.
- Point the nose downwind and land soft, absorbing the impact with your knees and keeping light bar pressure.
Common mistakes and fixes
Mistake
Throwing yourself over the front of the board to get the rotation: the kite overflies behind you, or the board sticks to the water, you come out of the straps and lose the board.
Fix
Kick yourself upwind and away from the board while turning your head and shoulders — the rotation is a 360 spin around a vertical axis, not a launch across the board — and don't pull the bar before kicking.
Mistake
Landing on your back or not completing the rotation because the kite never got up past 12 o'clock: the send was too gentle (too 'ginger').
Fix
Send the kite more assertively so it's at 12, if anything just past, when you leave the water.
Mistake
Over-rotating on landing.
Fix
Stop looking back once you've completed the rotation, and don't let the bar out during the descent.
Mistake
Yanking too hard on the front hand during the send.
Fix
Keep the kite parked at 12 or slightly behind and resist the instinct to steer hard.
Mistake
Spinning flat instead of rolling.
Fix
Commit to the tuck: drop your lead shoulder and let your head initiate the rotation.
If it goes wrong
- If you feel too disorientated mid-air, do nothing and float down under your kite with no drama. That's considerably preferable to yanking on a hand.
- Learn on a bigger, slower kite in lower winds to take the fear and jeopardy out of it — a blown attempt just means wet hair and relaunching the kite.
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
How high do I need to jump for my first frontroll?+
Not high at all: a couple of feet is plenty. You don't need much height to get the rotation around.
Is the frontroll harder than the backroll?+
Yes — it's described as a more difficult trick to learn than a backroll.
What should I be able to do before trying it?+
Ride upwind with control and a hard edge, do basic load-and-pop jumps with clean, predictable landings, and hold the kite steady at 12 o'clock. If you can't land small jumps consistently or don't feel comfortable with your bar control, 'the front roll will feel like chaos'.
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.