Do you watch video of freestylers passing their bar effortlessly behind their backs, and wonder how on earth they do it? When first trying a handle-pass it seems near on impossible, and you’ve most likely found yourself laying face down in a puddle at least once.

So it’s intimidating, it’s bloody hard work and you’re going to land on your face, but luckily, we found some guys to help in your quest to PKRA stardom! All of very different styles and disciplines, these three know a thing or two about freestyle, wakestyle and competition riding, so we asked them what it takes to land that first handle-pass in the least painful way possible. Follow this guide and you’ll be stomping back-mobes in no time!

PKRA Judge and Ozone rider, Alex Lewis-Hughes is an old hand at passing. Back in the early 2000’s he was working out how to ride a wakeskate behind a c-kite, and still to this day looks to wakeboarding and skateboarding for influence. Now, he’s judging for the PKRA, designing boards and most importantly, doing handlepasses.

When he started he went for the big time, a BS3 or Backside Flat Three. The BS3 is where you pop off a wave or kicker and take your back hand off the bar first. This trick looks simple, but keeping the rotation clean and getting it right is hard! Done right it’s one of the most stylish tricks in the book. As for how to get started:

“I would start with just taking your fins off and sliding around a surface pass on the water. Also bouncing on a trampline and figuring out how that feels really helped me to do it while kiting.”

Andy Yates, 2010 world freestyle champion goes by a different set of rules to most kiteboarders. This guy never even gets his hair wet when doing all manner of tricks, including tricks with multiple passes like 720’s.

When Andy was a teenager, with his floppy hat and zinc all over his nose, he was doing a trick called a Blind Judge. Which is a Railey to blind, with an aerial bar pass. What’s so good about the Blind Judge, is it’s natural progression from a Railey as Andy says:

“Find a trick that you're already good and consistent at. For me it was a railey to blind. The natural progression from a railey to blind is a blind judge. For me the blind judge was a lot easier to land than another trick because I already had the fundamentals from doing railey to blinds. So just picking the right trick to do first is half the battle!!”

As for the progression from there, Andy’s top tips are:
“Pull that bar in as hard as you can to your hip and in most cases, throw your head down. Oh and remember to spin the hand that is passing the bar to stop your receiving hand from grabbing the wrong side of the bar. Good luck and don't give up. Learning your first handle passes is one of the shittest things with the most beatings, but just hang in there because the rewards are worth it!!”

Currently on the search for a PKRA world title, is Ewan Jaspan from Victoria. He’ll be judging the Australian National titles next month, in between PKRA world tour stops. His first ever handle pass was a Blind judge, like Andy Yates, and he recommends you start by really getting the basics down.

“Start off learning your raleys, backrolls and s-bends consistent, before trying any passes. The best thing I found was to take it in steps. Once I learnt a Raley to blind, I took my backrolls to blind and also my s-bends, before learning to pass in the air. Don’t rush trying to just make the pass in the air, it always looks better to stomp a blind landing with style, and this also gives you more time to throw in a grab to mix it up.”

Sound advice from those in the know, if you follow those tips than you’re sure to landing those passes in no time. Just in case you can’t speak the language of a pro kiteboarder, here’s the rundown.

Step 1: Start on the water, take your fins off and do flat spins on the water to familiarize yourself with rotating around the bar.

Step 1.5: Do some bar pass training on a trampoline, or with an old kite bar made into a pass trainer (more on this below).

Step 2: Learn basic unhooked tricks, like Raleys, S-bends and Unhooked backrolls.

Step 3: Learn to ride, and land in the ‘blind’ position.

Step 4: Land all the basic unhooked tricks to blind, pass that bar later.

Step 5: Pass the bar in the air

Step 6: Claim freestyle supremecy! Raise that fist in the air and claim your very first handlepass.

Making your own ‘pass trainer’.
 
One of the most important steps to landing a handlepass is having the muscles in your arms to do it. To help build these up, and to cement the passing motion in your muscle memory, make a trainer at home!

-Get an old kite bar, tie a 1m piece of line to each end.
-Tie the loose ends of the lines to a milk bottle handle.
-Fill the bottle with water or sand.
-Swing the bar around your body, passing the bar behind your back each time.
-The force generated by swinging the heavy bottle will pull the bar out behind your back as you pass.
-A few swings and your muscles will be well-and-truly burning! Keep going and build ‘em up!
-Don’t let the bar go!

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