Take off - setting a rail...

OK, Thanks for all your kind words - glad you loved the paddle out technique section. Hope to do more as time rolls on. I have had a lot of emails from those new to ski's, in particular about nose diving, or 'pearling'. Oddly - I had a neat little bit of vid I've uploaded that should help.

Rail drops

The answer it's all about setting a rail, and how much rail you set (by set, we mean, the rail nearest to the wave, and how much you bury in the wave. Oddly, we can learn a lot form watching longboard surfers... no, really, we can.  If you take off on a steep wave straight, because of the volume of a waveski's tail (and surfyak) the tail will drift, putting pressure on the nose - this will dig in, and disaster comes next.
However, you can take off late and enjoy steep drops. If you watch a longboard, they take off parallel to the wave. As long as you set your rail in deep, you don't even need to paddle, just let the drop do the work.

Technique:

1. Angle your ski almost alongside the wave, near side on. Keep your weight only slightly back. You are trying to keep your weight over the fins, so they stop you slipping. Let the vertical section of the wave got you going - you will notice I don't paddle at all

It's all about confidence and the knowledge that the ski will do it's job...

2. As you drop and pick up speed, release the inside rail, this will let the nose of the ski drift out. From here you can adjust your weight by leaning back, should you want to crank a tight bottom turn, or forward, if looking to make a fast section or looking for a tube. As you are going along the wave and not just 'down' the wave, you won't nose dive

Benefits: This is a very handy technique for reef's and tube riding. But it also has a big benefit on slack 'summer' waves. You can take off where there is lots of speed. And like on the video, the wave has no shoulder and all the speed disappears, you can use a rail drop to give you all the speed you need to do some OK turns. ON this I use the speed to perform a roundhouse cut back, so you rebound off the soup, and keep in the pocket.

Hope you like! Should help some of you Florida boys!