Skip to content
KitesurfingOfficial

KSO Tutorial · Unhooked · Advanced

Unhooked Backroll

See it in the Trick Tree

The unhooked backroll is a backward rotation off pure pop with the kite parked low, and the loaded edge starts the roll on its own.

Also called: wakestyle backroll · unhooked back roll

Prerequisites

Unhooked Riding & Pop

Unlocks

Back to BlindBack to Wrapped

Helps to know first

BackrollRaley

Schools teach this differently

What the head does is taught three different ways. MACkite tells you to look over your back shoulder as the edge releases, while Kiteboarding St Petersburg tells you to look over your front shoulder and hold it through the air. IKSURFMAG's Christian and Karine go the other way and keep the head square between the shoulders looking forward, arguing that leaving the head out of it is what keeps the rotation slow enough to control. The landing splits as well: MACkite wants you centred over both feet, Kiteboarding St Petersburg wants the weight back.

Ideal conditions

Kite parked at 1 or 11 o'clock, good speed, riding heelside — then carve back upwind to load.

How to do it

  1. 1. Setup and unhook

    • Park the kite at 1 or 11 o'clock and carry real board speed into the trick. MACkite gives that as the entry position for the whole move.
    • Pick your take-off spot with the landing already in mind. IKSURFMAG's Christian and Karine put it plainly: where you take off is where you land, so leaving the water further off the wind is what gets you down heading downwind.
    • Before the hook comes out, push the nose of the board off the wind. IKSURFMAG has Karine do it by dropping all her weight back over the tail and softening the back leg.
    • Bear away on your heels. Christian and Karine warn that carving off the wind on your toes shifts your weight forward, and then you have nothing to resist the kite with when you pop.
    • Unhook with your elbows bent and both hands together in the middle of the bar, and don't lean forward as the hook releases. Kite Surfing Trick ties the bent elbows straight to holding a good edge.

  2. 2. Carve and load

    • Carve back up into the wind and lean away from the kite with your hips locked. MACkite's cue is chest and hips facing the sky, the whole body moving as one piece.
    • Straighten the front leg and pull your toes up so the front foot stays in the strap. The back leg stays flexed and loaded.
    • Twist your hips upwind while your shoulders lean back. That is what lets you resist the kite's pull and keeps the board between you and the kite, which is what you pop off.
    • Keep weight on both hands through the carve so the kite doesn't drift up while you drive the board onto its edge.

  3. 3. Pop and rotate

    • Kick down off the back leg and leave the water before the board turns through the eye of the wind. Leave it later and the kite pulls you over the board instead of you popping off it.
    • Pop off the back foot and turn your head into the rotation as the edge lets go. Kiteboarding St Petersburg has you looking over your front shoulder and staying there.
    • Keep your hands in close with your elbows tucked into your sides for the whole roll. IKSURFMAG ties that to holding control of the rotation and the kite at the same time.
    • Bring your knees into your chest and swing your hips around under you. MACkite says keep them tucked or you get stretched out, and hold one knee tighter than the other.
    • Push the kite down with your front hand as you leave the water. IKSURFMAG points out how easily your weight lands on the back hand once you start leaning back into the rotation.

  4. 4. Spot and land

    • As soon as you feel yourself coming around, find the water and lock onto the spot you want. Kiteboarding St Petersburg uses that as the brake on over-rotation.
    • Pull hard on the front hand to flick the kite down and drive the bar into your lead hip. MACkite finds it easier with the back hand off the bar at that moment.
    • Point the nose at the kite and put the board down flat, centred over both feet and not on an edge. MACkite says that is what takes the power out of the landing.
    • A controlled one lands with slack in the lines and no pull from the kite. IKSURFMAG describes it as the feeling of actually dropping down.

Common mistakes and fixes

Mistake

Your arms straighten the moment the hook releases

Fix

Hold the arms in close as if you were still hooked in, keep a hard edge and stay leaning back with your hips and chest to the sky.

Mistake

You fold at the hips and the edge goes soft

Fix

MACkite reads the soft edge and the early edge release as the same reaction to being intimidated by the kite's power. Keep the body working as one unit through the load.

Mistake

The rotation starts while you're still scooping

Fix

Pop hard and get the edge released first, then swing the hips. MACkite has riders who get ahead of themselves finishing part of the rotation before they leave the water.

Mistake

The kite climbs toward noon while you rotate

Fix

Keep both hands near the centre of the bar and pull on the front hand as you pop. MACkite says a kite sent to noon lifts you and then drops you, and that taking the back hand off while you roll stops it happening.

Mistake

You don't go far enough off the wind before the carve

Fix

Bear away properly first. Christian and Karine warn that skipping it leaves you taking off too late and spinning too quickly, with no time to think in the air.

If it goes wrong

  • Falls stay relaxed on this one: throw your legs up and take it on your back rather than forcing a landing you've lost.

Learn this with a coach, not from a page

This is a high-consequence move — riders get hurt on it, and everyone who teaches it treats it as a step you earn rather than attempt. Get coaching, build up in stages, ride with people who can help you, and give yourself deep water and clear space downwind.

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

Do I need to land a raley before I try the unhooked backroll?+

MACkite says no. Their guide puts scoop-and-pop as the actual requirement and calls raley experience helpful without being needed, since plenty of riders get the back roll first.

Where do I park the kite, and does going higher help?+

Kiteboarding St Petersburg starts riders at 11 o'clock going left and 1 o'clock going right, inside a band from 10 to 11:30. They describe the trade directly: the higher the kite, the higher your pop, but the less slack you get.

Why do I over-rotate and come down with no speed?+

IKSURFMAG puts that on a kite that has drifted up, which happens when your weight shifts onto the back hand during the carve. Their fix is keeping the front elbow in close as you drop into the edge, and steering the kite down through the carve if that isn't enough.

I land it and then fall in downwind of the board. What's going wrong?+

IKSURFMAG's answer is extended arms, a kite that has drifted up, or both together. Keep the arms in so your weight stays over the board, look downwind, and dive the kite to pull you out and down.

Should I keep it low and quick while I'm learning?+

MACkite says build the habit of going as big as you can now. Rolling with your back close to the water gets you comfortable, but it holds you back later on variations like the back to blind.

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.