ok said...

buy a kite

Agreed. Much easier to learn.
But maybe ikw777 has a bit more commitment to doing something harder and more rewarding.

ikw777 said...

They suck.

ok said...

buy a kite

analogy: buy a boogie board and forget about doing a bottom turn on your surfboard

[in case you're a kiter in which case you won't understand the meaning of an analogy then this may assist - "Kiting is to Windsurfing as boogie boarding is to Surfing"]

terminal said...


That's also why a lot of people screw the board up into the wind - to get the boom to swing round to them.

I have to admit I'm sometimes guilty of stomping on the (new) windward rail to bring the boom to me.

Windxtasy said...

terminal said...

If you imagine you have stalled and the board is pointing 45 degrees downwind, tha sail would flag totally out of your reach. Thats why you need to exit with speed, so the wind blows the sail back to you.

That makes so much sense I can't believe I hadn't realised it before.
So many times that boom has been out of reach, leading to the impression that the board needs to be more square to the wind to make the boom reachable.
I can now see it's the lack of speed which is the problem.
Thanks.

So you mean the sooner you get going on a reach again after the flip the closer the rig will be for you to grab..so carve up after the flip..?

Getting onto a broad reach will slow you down.
I assume you mean a reach.. a broad reach is more downwind than a reach ( at least in sailing terms..?) I thought what was said above meant that the broad reach exit meant the sail was flying away from you so it wasn't accessable..? ( although yanking the mast back to catch it would fix that would'nt it?

Cripes I'm in overwhelm.. I'll just go out & do them & have a postmortem after

sboardcrazy said...

Getting onto a broad reach will slow you down.
I assume you mean a reach..

Yes I meant a reach. Sorry. I have edited the original post so as not to confuse anyone else.

Jibing is over rated. I excel at the splash and dash version!
Ian, to be fair pulling of jibes at Red is a mission in itself all that confused chop, bull sharks, turtles and those pesky kiters to think about ans those bloody reefs that keep stealing my expensive fins!!!!!! . Those northen shandy drinking flatwater boys have it easy

Improving those loops.

More forward on the board and pulling the sail across hard to windward during the rig flip. These loops are also help by the fact we were gybing in 1.5-2m swell today. Surfing the board gives you a bit more time to get sorted.

I was taught (years ago) to gybe the rig first, (power it up fast just after the flip) and sail away (planing fast) with your feet unchanged from the previous tack. Once planing out of the gybe then move the feet into the new position. So gybe the rig first then feet second. Once you get good at this then the two separate moves become more like one move as they follow quickly at pace.
Of course you must enter the gybe fast travelling downwind. The speed of the board allows the aparent wind to lighten the rig allowing a fast flip, and by the time the true wind starts to build pressure back in the sail, you have already flipped the rig and are sailing out with your feet still back to front. Sheet in hard to keep the rig powered and the board planing before starting to move the feet.
Now days the 'lay down' is gybe is prevalent, (why? Because of the use of big fully cambered race sails?) but it seems to me that the rig gets flipped far to late and planing out is much harder or not a priority.
Anyway, the above is probably a bad gybe technique but it works for me on short boards. (I havn't managed a planing gybe on Formula yet).

sboardcrazy said...

Windxtasy said...

terminal said...

If you imagine you have stalled and the board is pointing 45 degrees downwind, tha sail would flag totally out of your reach. Thats why you need to exit with speed, so the wind blows the sail back to you.

That makes so much sense I can't believe I hadn't realised it before.
So many times that boom has been out of reach, leading to the impression that the board needs to be more square to the wind to make the boom reachable.
I can now see it's the lack of speed which is the problem.
Thanks.

So you mean the sooner you get going on a reach again after the flip the closer the rig will be for you to grab..so carve up after the flip..?

I think if you concentrate on the carve, the rest will fall into place - IF you are carrying enough speed round the carve. If you havent got enough speed, you wont plane out of the gybe and you can give up and tighten up the gybe to sail out of it off the plane.

I've spent the last 2 days in strong wind on flat water on new slalom gear, thinking about this thread, and working on my gybes.
I found the "keep the front arm straight" thing to be enormously useful. It really kept me leaning forward, which maintains speed through the carve, which leads to speed on the exit. Sheeting in at the same time kept the nose down and a nice, fierce feeling carve resulted.
I also found that in my best gybes, with maximum exit speed, I switched feet half way through, but kept carving the board, going form a toe-side turn, into a heel-side turn as I flipped the rig, and pulled the power straight on. I think that may be something that gets missed.
Lots of commitment required, but rewarded by a fast exit, so no pullover the front as the power gets yanked on immediately.

Roger303 said...

I was taught (years ago) to gybe the rig first, (power it up fast just after the flip) and sail away (planing fast) with your feet unchanged from the previous tack. Once planing out of the gybe then move the feet into the new position. So gybe the rig first then feet second. Once you get good at this then the two separate moves become more like one move as they follow quickly at pace.
Of course you must enter the gybe fast travelling downwind. The speed of the board allows the aparent wind to lighten the rig allowing a fast flip, and by the time the true wind starts to build pressure back in the sail, you have already flipped the rig and are sailing out with your feet still back to front. Sheet in hard to keep the rig powered and the board planing before starting to move the feet.
Now days the 'lay down' is gybe is prevalent, (why? Because of the use of big fully cambered race sails?) but it seems to me that the rig gets flipped far to late and planing out is much harder or not a priority.
Anyway, the above is probably a bad gybe technique but it works for me on short boards. (I havn't managed a planing gybe on Formula yet).

I trid doing some strapto strap jibes recently, ie. changing feet after the jibe. However I found I was having trouble getting my foot out of the strap being at a more severe angle after the turn.

Waiting4wind said...

Roger303 said...

I was taught (years ago) to gybe the rig first, (power it up fast just after the flip) and sail away (planing fast) with your feet unchanged from the previous tack. Once planing out of the gybe then move the feet into the new position. So gybe the rig first then feet second. Once you get good at this then the two separate moves become more like one move as they follow quickly at pace.
Of course you must enter the gybe fast travelling downwind. The speed of the board allows the aparent wind to lighten the rig allowing a fast flip, and by the time the true wind starts to build pressure back in the sail, you have already flipped the rig and are sailing out with your feet still back to front. Sheet in hard to keep the rig powered and the board planing before starting to move the feet.
Now days the 'lay down' is gybe is prevalent, (why? Because of the use of big fully cambered race sails?) but it seems to me that the rig gets flipped far to late and planing out is much harder or not a priority.
Anyway, the above is probably a bad gybe technique but it works for me on short boards. (I havn't managed a planing gybe on Formula yet).

I trid doing some strapto strap jibes recently, ie. changing feet after the jibe. However I found I was having trouble getting my foot out of the strap being at a more severe angle after the turn.

I thought about this thread when sailing yesterday. I was wrong when I said 'sail away with your feet unchanged' .I should have mentioned that the back foot should come out of the back strap as you go into the gybe and is placed forward on the board on what is initially the downwind side of the board. Once through the gybe with the sail flipped and sheeted in, fix your feet by releasing your 'old' front foot from the now downwind front strap and settle your 'new' front foot into the upwind front strap, all whilst planing out on a broad reach. Once you link these together, you start to release your 'old' front foot earlier as you get used to planing out whilst sheeting in hard.