How to McNasty in a Hole!

By Stephen Wright

The McNasty is one of those tricks that’s fun on both waves and holes.
It has the potential to get your more air than any other trick in a hole
that’s too shallow to plug your loop hard. This article is going to focus on
how to do the McNasty in a hole. See "how to McNasty on a wave" for the
wave technique. To decide which to do, you need to focus on the speed of
the water in whichever wave or hole you’re playing with. Really fast holes
(like Hell Hole or Rock Island) will do better with the wave technique, even
though there’s lots of foam. The Mcnasty is also exciting to learn because
it’s going to force you drop your upstream edge a bit (prepare for some
SWEET wathunks! as you learn!).

Here’s how to do it (described going RIGHT as in the photos):

1. Set up by getting into a back blast. This is key. You need to get all
the way down into the trough backwards with your stern upstream of the seam.
If you spin backwards at the top of the foam, you’ll probably catch your
stern before you start the trick…..SO start sideways in the trough, reach
back for a reverse sweep in the foam, and push/pry your butt upstream into a
back blast.

2. LOOK, REACH, PULL. Your brain’s going to stop working temporarily when
you first try this (trust me) so try simply remember LOOK, REACH, PULL!
What that means is LOOK over your right shoulder, REACH your left blade all
the way to your bow (forward sweep position–or even slightly cross bow),
and slowly start to PULL on that left blade to get your boat to spin right.

3. Keep your body forward or neutral. Once the stern goes to about 1:00
SLOWLY lift your left knee as you pull hard and "squirt" your bow down.
Don’t drop too much edge too fast–instead SLOWLY pull and edge!
WATHUNK!!! You either lifted too much knee or stopped pulling. Enjoy being
upside-down in the hole, roll-up, and try again.

4. As you achieve the perfect balance of pulling on that left blade and
lifting your left knee, start to stand-up and JUMP as you square your
shoulders to back upstream.

5. Jump with your hands and body, then tuck hard to flip the boat, and
finish on the back deck with a loop stroke to finish in a front loop. For
more information on looping, see the "how to air loop" article. NICE
WORK!!!

Jedi Secrets to help you learn faster than I did:

-REALLY reach that blade way up to your feet so that you don’t run out of
sweep to pull-on when you still need it. Looking ahead of the trick from
the star will help.

-Let the boat spin past a back surf before you start to pull hard or drop
any edge at all. If you drop too much edge to fast you’ll fall on your
head.

-Don’t stand up until you’re mostly facing upstream.

-Pull SLOWLY to stay in control.

Enjoy learning the McNasty. These photos are of Jason Craig in Reno. It’ll
go in even the smallest holes, and doesn’t require as much depth as most
hole-tricks. It should go in the MD Chute, Pushbutton, Hole #3 or 5 in
Reno, Hole Brothers, and countless small spots all over the world!

Live from 30,000 feet on my way back to TN,

Stephen Wright