Description: A successful nose stab involves launching your ski vertical off the face of a wave and bringing it up and over to nose it back into the water. This article applies to standups as well as sitdowns.  Once this trick is dialed in, it leaves some nice room for personal style.

Difficulty: Difficult

Requirements: Deep water so you don't lawn dart, footholds/footstraps, and the quick-steer mod is recommended. And of course, a helmet!

Whuchya do (surf):

1. First check the depth of your landing area. It is not "safe" to stab in less than 6-8 feet of water depending on how big you are going and depending on how well you are at controlling your dive. I'll discuss shallow water technique later.
2. Find yourself a good steep wave right before it peaks and starts to break. Be careful not to hit the wave right as it peaks or else you'll be in for a little different experience....
3. Like most surf launches, I like to unweight the rear of the ski with a little pre-jump. This will provide more height and better control of the rear of the ski with your feet.
4. As you approach the top of the wave, give it some good gas, lean forward into the ski and turn the bars approximately halfway in the direction you want to go (assuming an average 2-3' wave). The primary control of your arch pattern depends on how far you turn the bars in relation to the height of the wave.
5. Cool you are in the air. If you hang on for dear life and do not let the ski get away from you, you should be fine. Do NOT let the ski get too far ahead of you and hang your ass off the back of the ski - you must maintain a single center of gravity.

Whuchya do (flats):

1. It's all the same, just use a setup wake and turn the bars sharper

Tips:

1. The secondary control of your stab lies in your chest, in my opinion. The more you guide your stab with your chest, the more your body and the ski will follow.
2. Really pull the bars into your waist. This will force your chest in line with the center of gravity of the rider/ski and give you free movement of your legs.
3. Another factor in controlling your stab is to pick up the ass end of the ski with your feet and pull it in line with your chest (assuming freestyle stance). The more you pull in, the easier it will be to keep a uniform rider/ski arching motion. However, this will also speed up your rotation - you'll get the hang of it when you get to this point.
4. Shake it up some - smile for the beach, give your buddies the bird, throw out a leg, whatever.
5. In shallow water, it helps to pull the back of the ski in before landing, and then shoot your feet out right as the nose of the ski hits the water. This will or should keep you from submerging.