STALLED INVERTS
The original invert was dubbed the ‘ear scratched invert’ where the rider’s body board is inverted but their body isn’t. With the development of the move by the young Aussie crew and Tamega the move soon progressed to back breaking inverts pulled anywhere on the wave and on any sized wave. More recently, the move that I’ve seen pulled more and more on bodyboard videos isn’t the fast twisted inverts but a more modern, slower, stalled invert by the likes of Rawlins and Skipper. The following steps describe how I do them.
Step 1
For any sort of aerial maneuver speed is of the essence. So be sure to put in a solid bottom turn and angle your bodyboard flat on to the oncoming section. The most crucial part of this step is making sure that your timing is perfect to allow you to get slingshot outwards rather than being too late and getting an embarrassing lip to the bounce.
Step 2
You should now be airborne and twisting your bodyboard in to the invert. Your head should be completely upside down and your arms should be twisting your bodyboard inverted. You should try to remember that the slower you get into this position, the more stylish it will look.
Step 3
The next step is the hardest as you should now be in the invert position where your natural reaction is to pull your board back around for landing. Instead of this you should try to pause your body for a fraction of a second. This will allow you to keep getting more flight as your body is still pointing upwards.
Step 4
As you feel your legs leave the wave you should begin to slowly bring your bodyboard back around yourself. If you have timed it right the lip should impact the flats just before you do so, breaking your fall.
Step 5
Through out the landing it’s essential to hold on tight, brace your body so that you don’t head butt your bodyboard, then regain trim position as soon as possible. This will help you ride out of the move and ideally straight in to the next.