The Inverted Hover: An Advanced Rev Skill from the Quad-Line Inventor, Joe Hadzicki by Revolution Kites

Transcript

1. ›

   Flying on short lines

   0:00

   Hi, I'm Joe Hadzicki, inventor of the Revolution, and today I'm going to show you some tips and tricks on one of our advanced skills here at Revolution Club 38. You might have noticed I'm flying on short lines. In fact, they're 30-foot lines, and the reason I do that is that it makes it easier for me and the Rev to be in the frame.

2. ›

   Why use short lines

   0:25

   There are a couple of other reasons why you might want to try short lines. Number one, they're super easy to take in and put out, because they're only 30 feet long. You can fly them in a small space or a crowded space, so that's always an advantage. And your Rev is just right over there, so if it comes down, you just go over and pick it up. Then it'll sharpen your skills: the response is so fast and so direct that it sharpens your skills when you're flying it. What I love about it is that I like flying the 3D skills with it, and you already saw part of that when I pulled it out of the air and caught it. Now I'm going to do the toss.

3. ›

   The toss method

   1:08

   For the first method, start with your Rev upside down on the ground. The important thing here is that it's a very sensitive move and people usually overcontrol. So what I want you to do is thumbs forward and rotate smoothly past your hip, and what we're shooting for is a one-second inverted hover. No control, really. If you've got a one-second hover, that is awesome. That's all you're after. If you're not up there for 10, 15, 20 seconds, it's going to take some time to get used to the skill.

4. ›

   What not to do

   1:45

   Okay, here's an example of what not to do. The main thing people do wrong is overcontrol their Rev. They're usually doing the right control; they're just doing too much of it. Here's an example of too much. I launched too aggressively, and then I tried too much control to keep it in the inverted hover. Just float it up. The less control you use, almost the better. It's very sensitive in reverse.

5. ›

   Why the inverted hover is hard

   2:18

   Okay, the inverted hover is a very complicated move, mainly because everything's upside down. Up is down, down is up, left is right, right is left, it's all mixed up. I used to go into long explanations, saying, okay, if the left wing is down, which is actually on the right... I tried to explain it, and then I finally realized you're almost better off just feeling it.

6. ›

   Feeling it off the ground

   2:38

   So I've come to the method where you reverse it off the ground, hold it for a second, and try to get a feel without doing anything too dramatic. Then gradually build your time up, and you will gain experience and feel just by doing it. But if you need an actual technique to use, this is the best one I've come up with so far.

7. ›

   The cross-control technique

   2:57

   What I want you to do is start with an inversion and reverse off the ground. When you see one wing rising, what you want to think about is causing the other wing to rise. The way to do that is to watch for a low wing, and when you see the wing that is low, cross control. That means that if the wing on your left is low, that's actually the Rev's right wing, so you cross control: take your right handle and push it forward, and that will cause that wing to rise. Now the wing on the right side is low, which is actually the left wing, so when you see that wing go low, cross control with the other hand. You're crossing over with the control. You watch the wings: when that one is low, cross control; when the one on the left side is low, cross control with the right. It looks like this.

8. ›

   Cross control in action

   3:48

   Here we go: reverse it off the ground, and now we're watching the wings. See how the wing on that side is low? We've got a cross control. Now the wing on this side, a little cross control. Cross control, cross control, cross control. It's hard to show on the video because the movements are actually very small. I'm overemphasizing them, and that's what's getting those big pops, but as you get used to it, the key is to notice very quickly which wing is low and very quickly cross control, but just give it a little bit.

9. ›

   Staying smooth

   5:05

   Let's see if I can do a really smooth one this time. Cross, cross, cross, cross. A lot of times you'll see that after doing one control, it's going to pop that wing up, and now the other one, so you go back and forth between the two. As you gain sensitivity and touch, you'll be so light on the touch that you don't overcontrol. Overcontrol is the real big problem.

10. ›

    Progressing step by step

    5:32

    Okay, let's go through a quick sequence on how you might actually progress to it. It's not going to happen over two or three minutes. It's going to take some time, depending on your wind conditions and your experience and all those things, but this is how the sequence should progress. Start out with that one-second launch, try to extend a little bit longer, and then maybe throw in a couple of those cross-control methods. Here we go.

11. ›

    Finding the balance

    5:58

    Yeah, I didn't give it enough reverse. Give a little more. Okay, a little bit too much reverse. So it's very sensitive forward and backward, and you want to find that balance. Again, my controls were a little overdone, and I'm not doing them very hard, so it's very easy to get way out of control. The touch is very light. All right, let's get up there and see if we move our cross control. You get to the point where you almost feel that shift in the pressure on the wing, and then you correct it before it even happens. Then you end up with the perfect hover. It looks like that.

12. ›

    Limits of the ground method

    7:07

    Okay, that's method number one, reversing off the ground. A couple of disadvantages: number one, you're on the ground, and the wind conditions are not very good near the ground, so you're kind of reversing up into foul conditions; and number two, you're on the ground, so you're banging your Rev around on the ground.

13. ›

    Method two: dive stop

    7:25

    Method number two is to actually do a dive stop in the air, and then, once you stop in that inverted position, try to hold that hover for one, two, or three seconds. It's exactly the same thing: just try to hold it for a moment, try to get a feel, and maybe even try your cross controls.

14. ›

    Advantages of the dive stop

    7:40

    The advantages of the dive-stop technique are that you're high in the air, so there are fewer things to hit, and the wind is usually much better up there. The other thing is that you can do it multiple times: you dive and stop, practice your hover, and when it gets out of control, dive and stop it again, practice the hover, and dive and stop again. So it's like three tries. Let's give it a shot. Let's take your skills to the next level. We'll see you on the field.