Tips & Tricks for Learning How To Do an Indy Tantrum
Pro wakeboarder Tara Mikacich admittedly struggled when learning how to do an Indy Tantrum. When she looked for help online to learn how to do it properly she was met with conflicting information that only served to make the learning process more complicated. But after research, trial, error, and correction she's found a way that works for her and is sharing her tips with us.
Video Transcript
Hey everyone, I'm Tara Mikacich and I promised you an instructional on Indy Tantrums. So tantrums are a trick that come super easy for some people, but for me that was not the case. They were really unnatural and because of that I relearned them over and over and I just kept trying to find ways to make this trick feel easier. That being said, I've heard a lot of different theories on how to do tantrums and most of them are pretty conflicting. So today I'm going to take you over the way that makes the most sense to me and the way that I've had the most success teaching other people.
If you can already do a tantrum but you really struggle to get the grab, we're probably going to have to rework your approach. But for me, I could never do a laid out tantrum. It was grabbing the board that really made this trick work for me. So we're going to start with the approach. I like to take a nice wide approach for the tantrum. I find that if you're too narrow, you end up with too much line tension off the top of the wake. And we want this trick to be floaty. So we're gonna start nice and wide and I want you to think of like turning in with a straight hard cut at the wake. You want to establish that load early so that once you get to the wake you can really take the trick up. So for me, turn in, get that solid cut and as you're getting to the trough, that's where your edge changes. I know a lot of people say you want to square up, you want to turn your back to the boat or to the wake. But for me I really struggled with that concept cause it always put me really heavy on my back foot when I would turn. So to avoid that, the way that we're going to square up is by bringing the board underneath us at the top of the wake.
As you're edging in and you're looking at the top of the wake, you've got your board out in front of you, right? An edging board is out in front of you. As you get to the bottom of the wake and you stop edging, that's the key. This is not a progressive edge. You're going to bring the board underneath you and I want you to watch your front foot line up underneath you and you're going to push off of that front foot right off the top of the wake. That is key. You want your body to be aligned vertically so that all the energy from the weight can travel up through your whole body. So once you've gotten that pop and you're going vertical off the wake, you can bring your knees up for the Indy Grab. The problem that most people encounter is that their chest is already kinda cheating. It's way to go upside down into the flip. And if you're doing that, your legs are never going to catch you. So the key is in that takeoff, being vertical, getting the energy. You don't pick your legs up on the takeoff. It's a hard push. Once you've gotten it, then you kick your legs up towards your chest to get the grab and it will come so much more easily.
Now, there may be a point in your flip that look back to find your landing, or there may not be, it's totally fine either way, but as you do come down to land and you see where your board is going to touch down, I want you to keep looking where you're gonna ride after you land. It's gonna make your landing a lot softer. I hope that these tips have helped you troubleshoot your tantrum and land it with minimal frustration. It's a really fun and gratifying trick once you get it. So comment with your progress and keep checking back for more instructional videos brought to you by Monster Tower.
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