Q&A Series- How to ride the Flowrider.

To start we will talk about foot placement on the board, first determine if you are regular or goofy. Then you are going to want to have your back foot as far back on the board as possible without having your toes or heel over the edge. If while riding you feel your back foot being pulled off by the water that is because you are too far back on the board. You also want your back foot to be perpendicular to the wave, if you have it tilted toward the wave that will through off your hips and cause you to spin.

Now you are ready to get on the water, depending on the wave there are a few different ways in which to enter the wave. Before covid cruise ships would start you on the side with your back to the water and help push you into the wave while holding your wrist for stability. Now I am seeing more waves start riding from the nozzle (where the water comes out). This is done by the instructor holding the board on the nozzle while the rider gets onto the board, then the instructor lowers the back of the board till it catches the water and slowly backs the rider onto the wave. The biggest draw back with this entry is as you are getting pushed into the water riders struggle with keeping just enough weight on their back foot without getting stuck to the mat. To compensate for this the rider should stay as even on the front and back foot as possible. This will lead to the cleanest entrance into the wave.

One of the main things to focus on while learning to ride the Flowrider is that the board can and will ride without you. With that being said you will need to learn to trust the board to do most of the work for you. The first thing you will want to try to do is what I call “being a statue”. This is the process of being out on the wave and finding that sweet spot where you stay as still as can be just to get the baseline feel for the wave. Once you can statue for a couple of moments you are going to want to start experimenting with the different motions of riding. These motions include more or less weight on your front foot. This will move you up and down on the wave, with more weight on your front will move you down the wave while less weight