the biggest error i see most people committing when trying to carve gybe is flipping the sail too late.

Its counter intuitive at first but you need to learn to let go :)

people who release late typically get into to the following problems:
- board stalls and sail pulls you upright as the apparent wind increases
- sail starts to get back winded if turn too far and becomes hard to flip
- then when it does go its hard to rotate it across your body smoothly - more often than not it will only rotate aout half way then you have to pull it in against the wind to get it in position.

Releasing earlier on carve gybe will
- help keep board speed up .
- keep sail very light and easy to rotate.
- sail should swing all way into exit position before both sail and board can be brought around into the wind togeather.

Personally i disagree with the foot placement on videos and think the strap to strap meathod is much better.
when you strep across if you place it right up next to the other front strap it gets your weight forward and its super easy to slide it into the strap for a powered up exit. Again tho this relys on you flipping the sail EARLY. because you are further forward on the board holding onto the sail too long will pull you upright and probably catapult you :)

other tip is practice doing Big ARCS and really focus on keeping the board on the plane. if you can do this the sail rotation becomes super light and easy. on a perfect gybe the sail feels almost weightless. focus on keeping the board heading down wind until you have the sail flipped. the sharper you turn the more you have to dig the rail in the more speed will bleed off and less time you will have to get the sail powered up for a smooth exit.

Trousers said..

sboardcrazy said..
Ive had a couple of nasty stacks catching a rail entering a gybe in chop..I usually pick a gust and go for it and try to find a smooth spot but that's not always possible..I figure I'm not using enough downforce entering , or going too fast or need to time my gybes for a better spot? Any ideas.. It doesn't happen very often but nasty when it does..

for me:
catching the rail entering a gybe is usually from not starting on a downwinder first and/or stomping hard on the rail too quickly. catching a rail mid-gybe is skipping on chop, which can be mitigated by deep knees and ensuring plenty of that downforce. sheeting in early in the gybe not only depowers the sail and pulls you well over the centreline, it also creates downforce. you feel markedly more stable in the carve (particularly in chop) by sheeting in hard with the back hand as you introduce the rail. i tend to slightly tilt the rig forward when I sheet into a gybe; it gives me space from the sail and harness lines and pulls me forward for more downforce and keeps up speed.

Roar said..
the biggest error i see most people committing when trying to carve gybe is flipping the sail too late.

I feel completely the same way. as I watch people gybe I always think 'now!' when I would flip. almost two seconds later they flip and are already rounding up, killing any chance of maintaining the plane out of the turn. catch it early with anticipation of the power (use exactly the same low down stance you do just after you step onto the board in wind for a beach start) and make sure the 'pull' all goes into the nose via sail and you explode out of the turn.

Thanks. Could be both as I am often on a closereach or work and then go to gybe and sometimes on I've just changed to a smaller board ..I'll keep those in mind.
I need to oversheet better and get settled before I go for a gybe too.. I have been finding lately that when I'm fully powered up I just don't have the strength to oversheet.. maybe Im leaving it a bit late + not holding the boom far enough back..? The adj outhaul lines are a pain too as they get in the way of holding the boom.I may have to fiddle around and move them so they aren't in the way. I have small hands and any extra bulk makes it hard to hold the boom.

Roar said..
the biggest error i see most people committing when trying to carve gybe is flipping the sail too late.

Its counter intuitive at first but you need to learn to let go :)

...

Thanks so much Roar. What you've described is me all over. Fantastic advice and I can't wait to try it out.

Don't wait Moose!! 2035 is spot on. It doesn't matter if you're a newb - get out there and have a crack!! Don't be like me!! I've been sailing for a thousand years but I'm one of those people who still can't gybe properly. That is largely because I felt like you - I really need to do this better before I try, I haven't been sailing long enough to try, when I've mastered this then I'll try blah blah. All that just amounts to wasted time. I now know people who started windsurfing and because they just got out there and didn't place any rules on things were gybing within a year. No rules, no expectations, no limitations, just do it!!

Now where do I sign up for sailquik's gybe clinics...

Also , make sure your body stays inside the turn and forward.
So you dont get either thrown back or outside of board.

Keep the mast very close once you let go on flip.
Use release hand and new tack front hand to both
keep mast to the inside of turn .

I'm not disagreeing with Craig's advice to flip the rig early, but playing around today, I figured you can really get away with flipping the rig really really late. Admittedly I have already let go of it with the back hand, but I can sail out the gybe clew first and then let it rotate itself.

I think my gybes are getting really lazy! If there was more wind I think I could tighten them up, but lately its been light.

I have done some gybes where I have let go of the sail before the right time, let go, and found it magically turn up in the other hand as I carve through the gybe. It feels awesome when it works like that, but reproducing its not easy for me.

My key bit of advice, like a few other people's, is don't make the gybe a 180 degree operation. Make it a run into 45 degrees, maybe a 90 degree carve, and then another 45 degrees after rig flip and well on the plane.

Just a quick question. We are all talking about the same type of gybe aren't we? I usually use a step-gybe and find that spinning the sail doesn't have to be done all that early. Sometimes I will come out of the gybe clew first and spin it when I have completed the turn. I certainly don't spin it before down-wind. I have practiced a couple of carve or strap to strap gybes and with these I think it is important to get that sail around early.

Windxtasy said..

Roar said..

the biggest error i see most people committing when trying to carve gybe is flipping the sail too late.

That sounds like me.
How do you tell when is the right time to flip?

I observe the same thing as Roar. It is very common!

It does apply to the so called 'strap to strap' gybe more than the 'step gybe.' In a step gybe the sail flip is a bit later but, although one can often get away with a very late flip in a step gybe, it almost always compromises your speed out. I think the exception is when you are very underpowered on a larger floaty board, in which case sailing out clew first is sometimes an advantage.

In 'Strap to strap', the time to let go is just before the board is facing directly downwind. It is when the sail first goes almost weightless. It should go like this because you are going as fast as, or faster than the wind and there is no pressure on the sail at this point. If you are really overpowered, it is often an advantage to let go even earlier, keep carving the board with your feet and body position, and then grab the boom again when the board is 3/4 through the turn and you have slowed and settled a bit. Then change your feet.

Edit: I just watched the Step Gybe video earlier in the thread again and something important caught my eye.
A big difference between a 'strap to strap' and 'step gybe' is the angle of the rig when the board goes through the downwind position. In a strap to strap, you need to lean the mast into the turn. It has to be balanced and neutral, so that when you let go of the back hand, the rig will rotate around the mast axis and not fall either way. (It if it is right you should be able to let go with both hands and see it come back to your hands on the other side perfectly balanced!)

In the video of the step gybe, although the sailor maintains the same good angulated body position (hips leaning into the turn), the mast is leaned away from the turn to balance the rig as it goes clew first. Good for a step gybe (if not overdone), but a fatal move in a strap to strap gybe.

See my book review of 'The Talent Code' in a separate post. Highly recommended reading (or audio book listening ) even if, like me, you never read books!!!

Practice light wind gybes!

You can do 20 gybes in no time at all. You will find that you have much more time so you can think about what you are doing more easily until things start to flow and you don't have to think about them.

There is a reason that all the coaches advise people to practice light wind skills - it works.

While I am on a roll I thought it might be useful to post this video to illustrate the point where the rig flips, and also the angle of the mast leaning into the turn as it does. This was about 10 years ago so the board was a Hypersonic and sail 5.9m KA Koyote. The wind was quite light. 13-14 knots only!

If you can manage it, try freezing the playback where the rig flip starts. At this point the board is just before pointing downwind. The sail swings through the flip as the board passes through downwind. Note that the board keeps carving and by the time the sail has flipped through, the board is well past downwind.

If you freeze frame when the rig is swinging through, you can see the mast tilted into the turn.

Sorry for the poor quality. Digital cameras have come a long way in 10 years!



That my 23 YO son on the Start when he was just 13 or 14!

paddymac said..

sailquik said..

Here is another of my good mate Spotty doing a lovely carve gybe for a nice Alpha:

Wow, interesting foot work! Never seen that before. Does he go straight into the front strap after rig flip?

It looks like he does the same thing I do and moves both feet at the same time when he switches from the outside rail to the inside rail. Is that what you are talking about? I don't know where I learned that, but it feels natural. In my case at least, it is never straight into the footstraps, but requires a final shuffle to get the front foot in.

paddymac said..

Thanks sailquik, interesting stuff. Do you only use the back foot forward technique in flat water?

FormulaNova - yep, it seemed he did both feet at the same time and the front foot was immediately in the strap.

Glad to hear you liked it.

Yes, back foot well forward in any water state on a slalom board. On rough water it may be less close to the rail and I just try to get lower and absorb the bumps with my legs and body more. Oh, and I try to pick a smoother spot amongst the chaos!

Maybe not always quite so far forward on my wave board. Almost jammed in the opposite front strap on the narrow speed boards!

I must admit I have done very few step gybes in the last few years, so I'm a bit rusty on them.


I think you will find that Spotty pivoted his back foot first before slipping his front foot into the strap. He just does it so smoothly that it looks like a single movement.

Subsonic said..

Windxtasy said...
Roar said..

the biggest error i see most people committing when trying to carve gybe is flipping the sail too late.

That sounds like me.
How do you tell when is the right time to flip?

Hey Anita,

One thing really helped me was watching the pros gybe during a slalom race, the rig flip is a completely fluent manouver. It happens pretty much straight after they've changed footing, which ends up being straight after the nose of their board has gone past downwind. The other thing they do that helped me out is they keep the rig flip time to a minimum. The more time the rigs dangling off downwind, the more speed you lose. They almost "throw" the rig forward when they change hands.

I know the local hotshots reef the sail back up to windward when they flip and grab it on the other side and I've done it a few times and it really helps.. My lack of fitness makes it really hard with heavy cambered sails but I think I'll practise on the beach and get it down so I don't have to think as I gybe.

Don't think about it, use the Force !