A transfer is when you use the kicker of a transfer box to jump off one feature and land on another one next to it, usually a rail running parallel. It's less a new trick than a jump and a slide stitched together: the pop comes from the box, the slide is the same forward slide you already do. You can transfer toeside as well, but heelside is the easier and safer side to learn on, so that's what this covers.
Before you go anywhere near the rail, spend a few laps just gapping the transfer box. Ride up it and push hard about halfway to three quarters of the way up, and clear the whole box to the water. You're looking for maximum pop and airtime, nothing else. Once that feels solid, do the same thing but glance across at the rail on the way past and check that your board is actually getting higher than it. If you're not clearly above the rail every single time, you're not ready to land on it. That check is the whole trick.
When you do go for it, the only thing that changes is your line. Instead of going straight up the kicker, come in with a medium heelside edge angled towards the rail, almost corner to corner up the ramp, so you carry outward momentum across the gap. Stay about a foot away from the actual rail on takeoff. Getting greedy and taking off close to it is what gets you hung up, and hanging up on a transfer means a taco.
Push halfway to three quarters of the way up the box and get a solid pop. Once you're clearly above the rail, bring the nose of your board up and over it and land in a boardslide, flat base, knees bent. Look at the end of the rail rather than down at your feet, slide the whole thing, then 90 out and ride away.
Watch more here:
Video by JB ONeill
Key tips
- Gap the entire box to the water first. If you can't clear it, you can't transfer
- Check that your board is getting higher than the rail before you ever aim at it
- Medium heelside edge towards the kicker, almost corner to corner up the ramp
- Take off at least a foot away from the rail. Clipping it is how you crash
- Don't bring the nose over until you're clearly above the rail
- Land flat based with bent knees, look at the end of the rail, then 90 out and ride away