How to Wave McNasty

The Mcnasty is a super-cool move that allows you to do a front-loop on a wave starting from a back surf! It’s always exciting to throw, because you get to drop your upstream edge, and risk a major wathunk 🙂 The Mcnasty is also one of the most bang-for-your-buck tricks to learn, due to the fact that you can throw it on almost every kind of spot. Many people think that you need a big wave to learn a Mcnasty, but it’s actually possible to stick this trick on just about any tiny, flushy wave once you dial it in. I’m going to focus on the wave technique, which is slightly different from what you might need to do in a hole.

Here’s how you do it (I’ll explain as though you’re going right as in the photos):

1. Get to the top of the wave, and spin to backwards, so you build up a little upstream speed down the face of the wave in a back surf.

2. Reach your left blade up to your bow and do small forward sweep as you smash your feet (and bow) down into the water. This will start the spin, and get your stern up and out of the water.

3. Lift your left knee as you aggressively roll around to face forward–looking over your right shoulder as you go. As you’re rolling around to face forward, stand up and almost jump. You’ll also want to plant the back face of your right blade at your hips and push on the water a bit as you go around. This will help you push your boat and body out of the water, so you don’t just face plant.

4. QUICKLY throw your body to the front deck (before you face plant) as though you were looping. Take that right blade, that’s now near your bow, and begin to pull on it, like the loop stroke covered in the “How to do big Air Loops” article.

5. To make the boat finish flipping, throw your body and paddle aggressively to the back deck. This should pull the stern through as quickly as possible. You’re done!

Jedi secrets: -Throw your body around to face forward as fast as possible–this will help drive the stern up into the air. The harder you throw, the easier the move will go! -Practice bringing you stern through straight with that loop stroke even if you flush. It’ll probably take a few tries before you can get the entire thing snappy enough to stick on a flushy wave. -Don’t be afraid to try the Mcnasty in spots that are too shallow to loop.

Enjoy the photos that Clay shot of me. This Mcnasty was done on the small wave just below Pillow Rock rapid on river right. Have fun!

Live from Deep Creek Lake, MD

Stephen Wright