HOW TO CLAIM A TRICK
Yesterday Julia Rick became the first female in history to land a backside 900 on wakeboard and it was flawless. Julia has been stomping tricks that no other female has ever landed before and every single one has been legitimate and clean. In 2014 she became the first female to land an Air Back Mobe 540, in 2015 she became the first female to land a 315 (aka Raley 540), earlier this year she was the first to land an Air Front Mobe 540 and now she's the first to land a Back 9.
This brings us to a point we think we should make about riders (male or female) landing tricks that no one has landed before. In the history of cable wakeboarding a lot of riders have received a lot of backlash for claiming they've landed tricks that have not been legitimate.
These days their are two big no-no's that you should never do in cable wakeboarding. The first is pre-spinning (initiating a spin before you've reached the top of the kicker). By pre-spinning, a rider can eliminate a full 180 from their trick, making a Backside 1080 become a Frontside 900 or a Frontside 1080 become a backside 900. So for you riders claiming you "landed" a 1080 or what-have-you but you spun 180 degrees on on the ramp - think again. Congratulations on your five handle passes, but no legitimate athlete in any sport will tell you that was legit with that much pre-spin.
The other no-no is butt-checking (when your butt hits the water upon landing). This is something that has happened a lot in the history of new tricks being landed and it's shameful. If you were on a snowboard, you'd end up tumbling down the hill on your ass, or your face wondering what direction was up, but since you're on a wakeboard and you have a handle with a rope, you can just pull yourself up and hooray! You landed the trick! No. Wrong. If you're butt hits the water when you land, it's not clean, it's not legit, and you shouldn't be able to claim it. We're stoked you just rode away from a trick that no one has ever rode away from before but you shouldn't be able to claim it unless it was clean.
Advice for the Pros: If you ride away from a trick that no one has ever landed before but you pre-spun or butt-checked, (or ever worse, back-checked) Awesome. Good for you. Post it. Share it. Talk about it. Don't claim it. When you make a post that reads,
"So happy stomped the first ever DOUBLE S-BEND BACKSIDE 360!!!"
But your entire body hit the water upon landing - sorry dude - didn't count. It should have read something like,
"Just became the first rider to ride away from a Double-S Bend Backside 360. I won't claim it until I can land a clean one on film".
Trust us when we say you'll get the same amount of exposure from the trick, while also gaining respect in the industry for not claiming a trick you didn't land. And the same goes goes for those guys over at WakeboardingMag handing out awards for "landing" Double-flips. No disrespect to the person who "landed" it but the ones handing out awards should be ashamed of themselves.
While we wanted to make this point, it brings us back to how perfect Julia's backside 900 is and how much respect she should get for landing it so cleanly. No one can claim it wasn't legit. Julia stomped it - and we're stoked on how clean it is.
This is how you claim a trick.