Free Willie

The Free Willie, also called the Willie Skipper 360, is followed by an additional board 180 so you end on the same course. A sail and body rotation are also fused into this maneuver. Watching a gifted freestylist plane through this maneuver is a liberating experience associated with the feeling of freedom: more like the freedom the whale Willie may have experienced when released from captivity into the open ocean, I suppose, and less like the freedom you experience when relieving the 'willie' between your legs after four beers.

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Rider: Royn Bartholdi

Steps

1) Unhook, get the back foot out of the strap. Make sure the front foot is very loose in the front strap. Relax, and bend your knees.

2) Unhook, get the back foot out of the strap. Make sure the front foot is very loose in the front strap. Relax, and bend your knees.

3) With the front foot in the strap, guide the board around the mast. Keep your body weight forward. Place the back foot in front of the mast as the board swings around.

4) Try to land with the nose hitting the water and the mast vertical. Your foot will naturally come out of the strap as the tail swings around.

5) Slide the board in standard Willie Skipper style.

6) Guide the tail down wind while shifting your body. Grab the back hand under the boom.

7) Make the Hand transition and feet transition. Backwind the sail to extend the Willie Skipper into a Free Willie.

8) Slide the mast toward the nose to complete the board 180.

9) Now bring the mast vertical so you can finish the body rotation.

10) Make the feet transition while the sail is powered clew first.

11) Stabilize the rig.

12) Flip the sail.

13) Trim and sail away. You're free!