She's done one. A Shove It. It's Nina's first new-school aerial. Congratulations!
Nobody saw it. But we saw a lot of tries that looked good. The picture above is from one of her not-so-good tries. Also, we know Nina. She did not claim to be planing out of jibes for a long time, after Andy Brandt and I said she was. Only after she planed through with tons of speed, and was caught on camera, did she admit it.
Her first tries were 4 years ago in Corpus Christi. There were few tries after that, including a few at last year's Hyannis camp. But overall, she's probably done many more Flaka tries, and at least 10 times as many Duck Tack tries before she got her first Duck Tack.
Some freestylers think the Shove-It is a hard move. Nina now can explain it really easy. So easy it fits into the limited free space in my brain. I'll try it again soon. That tells you how easy it sounds!
Her success came after first seeing photos that Eddie had taken from Chris and Mike doing Shove-Its and Shakas at Kalmus. The second important part was when Marty told her "It's like a backside wave ride". Something clicked, and she did not just get air and get backwinded, but she also had a decent landing.
I only told you part of Nina's secret. Marty and I are eager to try out what she said. We should get wind today. I'll report back what happens. Maybe we can even get Nina to take the GoPro.
