So at this point you should be wrapping waves no problem. Now its time to try and boost off the wave and get some air. Doing a good aerial involves a couple things: you need lots and lots of speed; you need to pick the right wave; and your timing needs to be spot on.

Your going to want to approach the wave at an angle to make it easier to land back on the wave. Also you need to time it so that you reach the wave a split second before it breaks. Once going towards the wave begin to turn so your hitting the wave from the side rather than head on. You need to be in a crouched position at the bottom of the wave like your ready to jump because thats what you have to do.

Your going to want to time your jump right at the lip of the wave and don’t jump as hard as you can. It has to be a fluid controlled movement, very similar to a skateboard ollie. You need to jump mainly with your back foot and it helps to drag your front foot up the board at the same time to keep it underneath your feet.

It’s really important to keep your knees bent at the top of the movement to keep the board close to your body, which helps with absorbing the landing. I dont recommend dropping onto the sand because you can get seriously hurt and break your board which is a definite stoke killer. The one thing I found super important to doing aerials is speed and more speed. Once I worked on my speed a lot I found it so much easier to do them. Just check out this photo by Aaron Peluso of Morgan Just boosting off of one at 10th St.

Morgan Just Aerial at 10th st