Taking off and near stall maneuvers came to me naturally because the only other experience I have on this was on motorcycles and I applied the same principles on the tandem. I have the passenger COMPLETELY mount up after I'm already straddling the bike with both feet on the ground. Then I really commit to accelerating and I have never felt any balance issues taking off. With very slow speed maneuvers, I have always learned to look through my turns, look at where I want my bike to go, and always keep accelerating while turning. When in doubt and you feel like you might tip, accelerate/pedal harder. I guess the same rules applies to most things on 2 wheels, lol. It's pretty funny to make U turns on the tandem, because it feels like your rear wheel is just pivoting in a 1 square foot box.