This month i’m going to teach you how to do the McNasty.
It’s a great move, you can start it from many different positions and setups, it’s quick to do, impressive to see and is one of the highest scoring moves.
The technique I’m going to show you here is the most commonly used one and is the one I use nearly all the time.
Step 1: Get yourself into a nice stable side surf.
Step 2: Keep your upstream knee up, hold that edge on, then push off the back face of your paddle and sweep your boat into a back surf.
Step 3: Just before you reach a backsurf, lean forwards and drop your upstream paddle blade into the water and start pulling on the green water.
It’s important not to pause too long in a backsurf or drop your edge here, keep your momentum and keep that edge held on.
Step 4: As your pulling keep looking ahead of the boats rotation. If you have the correct amount of edge you’ll start to go vertical now.
Step 5: Now you should be in a normal looping position. Push down hard on your feet for added pop, jump up and then tuck hard forwards smashing both your paddle blades off the water to push you as high as you can.
Step 6: When your body has gone all the way to the front, snappily open out your body as aggressively as you can & kick your feet out in front of you.
Step 7: Once in a front surf again, do a few quick powerful forward strokes to retain the hole.
Top tips for learning this one:
-Play around with how fast you spin the boat, how much edge you hold on and how long you pause before the loop. Find what works best for your features, boat & style.
-Make sure you spot an upstream marker like a tree or a slalom pole before you throw the loop. This will help you to keep it straight and make it more likely to score.
It’s one of my favourite moves and one of the most fun to do, good luck & get out there and try it.
This last year Dagger have been developing their new Playboat the Jitsu.
The project’s aim was to put Dagger back on top at the forefront of freestyle with a high performance, incredibly precise, super loose and fast playboat that would go big, feel great and stay true to Dagger’s roots.
Snowy Dagger’s designer exceeded all my expectations…A kayak I’m proud to have been involved in creating.
This time last year I got to try the first prototype just before Kanumesse at Plattling, it looked really promising but had a lot of work still needed.
Myself along with Rush Sturges, Ben Marr, Andrew Holcombe and Chris Gragtsmans were all involved in giving Snowy our ideas. Then we tested the prototypes ruthlessly and gave our feedback from our experiences on waves and holes all over the world.
I ended up using it in the World Cup series just gone and even with a broken collar bone I still came 7th…so I’m really looking forward to fighting to retain my title at next years Worlds when I’m fit again, trained up and in a boat I feel I can really excel in.
So what do I like about it? Its slicy and precise, so you have loads of control over what the boat does, and you can predict how it will react. It initiates very easily and with much greater control than most of the current playboats. It’s fast and loose, actually one of the fastest boatsI’ve ever paddled, which means you can get it higher in the air and surf much greener waves than you could in other boats. The release off a wave is awesome, and with the volume pocket in the centre it pops really big in a hole too. Pretty much it’s turned out to be a dream playboat for me, it feels incredible to paddle and I’m really enthused by how it’s turned out.
Here’s the video from paddle expo with me and Snowy going over the boat and it’s features along with some actual footage of it in action:
What makes it so great?
A super fast hull, with a great release edge and flared side walls to shoot down the wave and launch.
Sharp precise edges for release, perfect control, precision and predictability.
Contrary to the belief of round dull edges meaning forgiveness a sharp edge on the boat means you can predict exactly how and when the boat will react to certain movements and situations, you just need to spend a few hours paddling it to learn the hull and then your off.
Centralised volume with slicy ends for big pop, smooth initiation and balanced cartwheel based moves in a hole. Being relatively narrow also means it’s much easier to get over the edge to drive it where you want.
It weighs just 14kg. Less weight means more air and less stress on your body. It also has the hull stiffener welded in which means no slippage from the outfitting and an super stiff hull. This means whatever energy you put into a move comes out = more air and faster rotations.
New Contour Ergo outfitting makes it a 2minute job to get the boat setup perfectly with no glue or tools necessary.
Raise the seat with the included foam that just slides under the liner.
Quickly unclip the hip pads insert the required amount of foam shims and clip back in.
Get in ratchet the back band up and you’re ready to go!
You can move the seat one handed whilst still sat in it!
Raise your legs up to hold yourself into the boat with the new innovation from Dagger the ratchet leg lifter. Simple and incredibly effective.
Want to see more: Here is Rush’s Clip of the prototypes in action:
The 5.9, the mid size will be available shortly with the small and large size coming out a little later. So go have a try when they come in, I think you guys are going to love them.
