Man, I had no idea Cam was making videos on youtube! I remember being glued to Drop-In TV back in 06 with you making bird noises in BC forests xD . That was the single biggest influence for me getting into riding and later coaching for a national center where I live (that, and the ROAM film), so thank you for that! Great to see you're still at it 😊 It's a hard thing for elite athletes to take something they've worked into an ability and parse it back out into the separate skills when you can 'just do it'. But for those starting out, think of you and your bike are like a 'flag' and a 'flagpole'. The heavier 'pole' runs down through your hips and down through your seat tube where most of the mass of your bike is centred. The lighter 'flag' part is the front end of your bike- pretty much your toptube/downtube onwards) and your arms. The trick with this move is that you're actually using a lot of movement of the flag to correct a little movement of the 'pole', which is why it's so counter-intuitive. With a whip, you're deliberately sending the majority of the bike's weight off in slightly the wrong direction from where the landing is (he mentions set up left and launch right). Then, using the front end, you correct for that 'off-angle' by moving your stem enough in the opposite direction to 'guide' that heavier rear end back in line for the landing. Because the front is relatively light, it requires a magnitude more movement to transfer a small correction to the rear. This larger correcting movement of the stem (by moving it in the opposite direction with your arms) is what makes your bike get sideways (see how little the 'pole'/seatpost part of the bike actually moves to the side? It doesn't, it just rotates.) Eventually, when you can't shift the front anymore sideways, that momentum transfers to the rear a little, changing your bike's overall direction of travel a little more in-line with the landing compared to when you launched. The rest is just bringing your front end back to centre with your hands before touching down :) To see more exaggerated examples, look to motocross, where they have a LOT more weight to correct. Tip: The more 'out of line' you launch, the more aggressively you need to move the front (and therefore get sideways) to create enough correction to straighten up again. Start with subtle angles and correct for those first to get the movement down. Full sending your bike into the next postal code off the launch will not help you do better if you haven't gotten the correction part of the movement down to compensate 😅Your rear wheel will thank you for being patient and thorough with this. Cam's tip to add a dropped shoulder is actually something extra, called 'dumping'. Where if a jump has a particularly steep landing to stick (or you just wanna add more style), you can get the bike to nose-down into the landing more by sending the rear of the bike ahead of you- sending your rear wheel high. In the same way a whip 'interrupts' a 360 using the front to correct out of it. Dumping interrupts a backflip using that rearward shift and then immediately getting back up on-top of the bike to correct (you can see at 12:15 he almost overcorrects forwards because of how hard he committed at launch 😎). The more 'dumped' you are, the longer you've left that backflip movement before getting back on-top and the higher that rear wheel will go before you correct. Bear in mind if your landing isn't steep, that's gonna be hard on your front end, so same tip of start subtle and work it up. Really, a 'dumped' whip (some would call it a 'motowhip') is two moves in one. It's an extra steeze thing (Which Cam just does naturally) but isn't necessary just to get the bike sideways in the air if you're learning, so maybe work on that separately if you're starting out :) Oh, and a nice tabletop jump with about a half second to a full second of air time is easier and safer to learn on than a smaller one to flat. Have fun! 😎
I once went to the fly out jump at Derby Skate Park on the West Side of Santa Cruz with the specific goal of learning to do an unturndown slash shoulder buzzer that you Aptos and Swedish kids were doing. I thought it all out just like you do in these excellent tutorial videos. But I did it all way too well. Instead of turning the bike out in front of me and buzzing my shoulder, I tossed the whole bike Over my shoulder like flipping long hair. I cannot verify that my tire touched my Back instead of my shoulder. But it was close. I never did it again. It was a day of magic.
Finally, someone is talking about body language of the whip, not just carving the take off and bringing it back. Im in the learning process for this trick and I noticed that, in almost every video, people are doing this motion with leaning the body to side and bringing it back but somehow, no one is talking about it. Thanks Cam! great video
this is just RUclips gold. where else can you see Cam MaCaul showing you how to do something this foundational to free ride? if I had the jump and the balls I’d try this…
I'm twenty seconds in and Tyler has a good point... Unless you want to land fully whipped and on the front wheel so the back end has time to come back around as you roll down the landing. That was my favorite trick until I forgot to check my front tire pressure and bruised my spleen.
i like to call these moto whips. because this is how i always whip on my mtb as i grew up racing mx. i wish i could put a bar lock on my bike lol, nothing better than hucking fat whips on a dirt bike going lock to lock. dont even get me started on scrubs. but ya for sure whips must come from the soul, all natural baby. no contrived mechanical whips allowed. definitely some good tips here though. i like how you explain things with ride feels as apposed to too much step by step technical instruction, just a few simple movements or tips, then it's just x feeling and letting it flow. while everyone is going to feel different, i think this approach is nice as you can still get a good idea without getting lost in feeling like you're entering the GTA III cheat code on PS2. my feeling is i like to feel like im trying to throw the rear tire out and up as far as physically possible. where with a scrub your balance on the bike is much more neutral than back like a whip and you also let the bike turn down underneath you as you turn into the lip, soaking up with your legs at the same time.
Hear me out: the best way to learn a whip or most any other mtb skill…. Be able to watch a super slow mo video of it, from different angles. Bam. Be able to see where the lean starts, where the body unweights, when/where the bars turn, where the tire starts to slide, etc..
Question: do you think you can learn it starting small? I mean small jumps. Obviously you got less time to do all that, but maybe there is a such a thing like a mini whip for us wimps?
So, I ride with my right foot forward and you're carving the direction I would for a regular 360. You are left foot forward though, which would be an oppo 360 for you. Should I be trying to whip in the opposite direction of my regular 360???
Sick tutorial but i still dont really understand "pulling back on your top hand" so i whip my bike out to the right so back wheel to the right in the air. does this mean I should be pulling on my left hand in the air? ive struggled for whips for like 2 years now man. Thanks Cam!
Cam’s oldest and mine were born a right close to each, and I can’t believe how fast it’s gone. Seems like it was just yesterday that Trek had the post about Baby McCaul on the way, which was shortly after we found out about ours
![It’s Embarrassing, But These 3 “Reverse” Drills Guarantee ENDLESS Manuals [ACTUALLY URGENT]](/img/1.gif)
I just love your vids so much. Somehow equal parts chaotic and chill at the *same* time. Magic sauce.
Damn. Thank you
He's back, once again!
Always a good day when Cam drops some footy! Cheers 🍻 from Tennessee
Man, I had no idea Cam was making videos on youtube! I remember being glued to Drop-In TV back in 06 with you making bird noises in BC forests xD . That was the single biggest influence for me getting into riding and later coaching for a national center where I live (that, and the ROAM film), so thank you for that! Great to see you're still at it 😊
It's a hard thing for elite athletes to take something they've worked into an ability and parse it back out into the separate skills when you can 'just do it'. But for those starting out, think of you and your bike are like a 'flag' and a 'flagpole'. The heavier 'pole' runs down through your hips and down through your seat tube where most of the mass of your bike is centred. The lighter 'flag' part is the front end of your bike- pretty much your toptube/downtube onwards) and your arms. The trick with this move is that you're actually using a lot of movement of the flag to correct a little movement of the 'pole', which is why it's so counter-intuitive.
With a whip, you're deliberately sending the majority of the bike's weight off in slightly the wrong direction from where the landing is (he mentions set up left and launch right). Then, using the front end, you correct for that 'off-angle' by moving your stem enough in the opposite direction to 'guide' that heavier rear end back in line for the landing. Because the front is relatively light, it requires a magnitude more movement to transfer a small correction to the rear. This larger correcting movement of the stem (by moving it in the opposite direction with your arms) is what makes your bike get sideways (see how little the 'pole'/seatpost part of the bike actually moves to the side? It doesn't, it just rotates.) Eventually, when you can't shift the front anymore sideways, that momentum transfers to the rear a little, changing your bike's overall direction of travel a little more in-line with the landing compared to when you launched. The rest is just bringing your front end back to centre with your hands before touching down :) To see more exaggerated examples, look to motocross, where they have a LOT more weight to correct.
Tip: The more 'out of line' you launch, the more aggressively you need to move the front (and therefore get sideways) to create enough correction to straighten up again. Start with subtle angles and correct for those first to get the movement down. Full sending your bike into the next postal code off the launch will not help you do better if you haven't gotten the correction part of the movement down to compensate 😅Your rear wheel will thank you for being patient and thorough with this.
Cam's tip to add a dropped shoulder is actually something extra, called 'dumping'. Where if a jump has a particularly steep landing to stick (or you just wanna add more style), you can get the bike to nose-down into the landing more by sending the rear of the bike ahead of you- sending your rear wheel high. In the same way a whip 'interrupts' a 360 using the front to correct out of it. Dumping interrupts a backflip using that rearward shift and then immediately getting back up on-top of the bike to correct (you can see at 12:15 he almost overcorrects forwards because of how hard he committed at launch 😎). The more 'dumped' you are, the longer you've left that backflip movement before getting back on-top and the higher that rear wheel will go before you correct. Bear in mind if your landing isn't steep, that's gonna be hard on your front end, so same tip of start subtle and work it up.
Really, a 'dumped' whip (some would call it a 'motowhip') is two moves in one. It's an extra steeze thing (Which Cam just does naturally) but isn't necessary just to get the bike sideways in the air if you're learning, so maybe work on that separately if you're starting out :) Oh, and a nice tabletop jump with about a half second to a full second of air time is easier and safer to learn on than a smaller one to flat. Have fun! 😎
Love that your brother named his kid after a bike 😆
I once went to the fly out jump at Derby Skate Park on the West Side of Santa Cruz with the specific goal of learning to do an unturndown slash shoulder buzzer that you Aptos and Swedish kids were doing. I thought it all out just like you do in these excellent tutorial videos. But I did it all way too well. Instead of turning the bike out in front of me and buzzing my shoulder, I tossed the whole bike Over my shoulder like flipping long hair. I cannot verify that my tire touched my Back instead of my shoulder. But it was close. I never did it again. It was a day of magic.
This couldn’t have been a more timely video, I was just looking for whip lessons yesterday. Can’t wait to try and not crash, thanks!
Finally, someone is talking about body language of the whip, not just carving the take off and bringing it back. Im in the learning process for this trick and I noticed that, in almost every video, people are doing this motion with leaning the body to side and bringing it back but somehow, no one is talking about it. Thanks Cam! great video
If I did a whip in the airplane, I'd call it "oh CRAP!!!"
Pull back on your top hand is actually a really good one. That makes so much sense
this is just RUclips gold. where else can you see Cam MaCaul showing you how to do something this foundational to free ride? if I had the jump and the balls I’d try this…
love Remy Morton chilling in the background 😂
Awesome video 😍
I'm twenty seconds in and Tyler has a good point... Unless you want to land fully whipped and on the front wheel so the back end has time to come back around as you roll down the landing. That was my favorite trick until I forgot to check my front tire pressure and bruised my spleen.
i like to call these moto whips. because this is how i always whip on my mtb as i grew up racing mx. i wish i could put a bar lock on my bike lol, nothing better than hucking fat whips on a dirt bike going lock to lock. dont even get me started on scrubs. but ya for sure whips must come from the soul, all natural baby. no contrived mechanical whips allowed.
definitely some good tips here though. i like how you explain things with ride feels as apposed to too much step by step technical instruction, just a few simple movements or tips, then it's just x feeling and letting it flow. while everyone is going to feel different, i think this approach is nice as you can still get a good idea without getting lost in feeling like you're entering the GTA III cheat code on PS2.
my feeling is i like to feel like im trying to throw the rear tire out and up as far as physically possible. where with a scrub your balance on the bike is much more neutral than back like a whip and you also let the bike turn down underneath you as you turn into the lip, soaking up with your legs at the same time.
Your whips are sick Cam!
Hear me out: the best way to learn a whip or most any other mtb skill…. Be able to watch a super slow mo video of it, from different angles. Bam. Be able to see where the lean starts, where the body unweights, when/where the bars turn, where the tire starts to slide, etc..
Still smooth as silk!
If I had to do one thing in the air for the rest of my life I'd choose landing safely.
I think the most importend tip for doing those steezy tricks like whips or tabletops is to not try or think about it to hard
Question: do you think you can learn it starting small? I mean small jumps. Obviously you got less time to do all that, but maybe there is a such a thing like a mini whip for us wimps?
Explaining the whip by comparing it to a 360 or a scrub. 😭😭
gotta say that inside shoulder thing might be the secret!
So, I ride with my right foot forward and you're carving the direction I would for a regular 360. You are left foot forward though, which would be an oppo 360 for you. Should I be trying to whip in the opposite direction of my regular 360???
Sick tutorial but i still dont really understand "pulling back on your top hand" so i whip my bike out to the right so back wheel to the right in the air. does this mean I should be pulling on my left hand in the air? ive struggled for whips for like 2 years now man. Thanks Cam!
The girls are so grown up now... Time flies man.
Cam’s oldest and mine were born a right close to each, and I can’t believe how fast it’s gone. Seems like it was just yesterday that Trek had the post about Baby McCaul on the way, which was shortly after we found out about ours
release Eileen!
what's the slimy thing i need to ask hhahaha
Slime. Very sticky slime
Personally, I would rather do a fat Nac-Nac than a fat whip
Nice skills, you should do riding professionally.