How to Pop to Blind | "Ride With Blake"

Living in Key West Florida has it’s perks. You know, perks like kiteboarding off  of a friends boat in shallow blue water.

In Episode four Blake gives you five simple tips for learning how to pop to blind. Believe it or not, riding blind is a simple progression you can learn once you are adept at riding toe side in both directions. It’s a cornerstone to spice up the landing in literally any trick you can imagine. Best of all you can learn to do it hooked in or unhooked!

We're going to keep these short and sweet. Use these steps to visualize the trick in your mind. If you can see yourself doing it, you can do it. 

Printable Steps for the Beach

Step 1

Stay hooked in to begin with, keeping your shoulders over your knees as you pop. When you bring your knees up, make sure that your shoulders are stacked over you knees.  That way, you get all of your weight centralized and compacted in.

**Biggest mistake is not organizing your center of gravity.  This will cause you to feel unbalanced when you pop and consequently have you landing off axis**

Step 2

Take off your back hand and replace it with your front hand.  In other words, bring whichever hand is on the front of the bar, to the backside of the bar.  This allows you to open your shoulders and spin! 

Step 3

Ninja Kick!

Pull in on your back foot, do the pop, and as you reach the peak of you pop, pull in on the back foot and kick out your front foot to spin your hips around and follow through with your head.

Step 4

Lean forwards against the kite.  Your board is going to be traveling towards the kite and your shoulders are you going to over your back knee. (which is actually going to be your front knees since you will be riding backwards)

Step 5

Open your shoulders which allows you to look over your shoulder to watch where you are going as youre riding backwards.

Blake Olsen

A Michigan boy through and through (even though he was born in Saudi Arabia), Blake is a youth with a lifetime of experiences and adventures. Not only that, he's passionate about sharing his zest for life with others. He is proficient at many fields, including kiteboarding and acting as concierge to any who simply ask. Looking for an adventure? Well, Blake is your guy. From sailing the Gulf and the Caribbean to backpacking Hawaii and Southeast Asia, he knows his stuff and can make your vacation into an adventure.

Instagram: @BlakeTheOlsen

Facebook: BlakeOlsen