Be interested to see what boards people have learned to gybe on.

Currently have a Hypersonic 105, which I think is a bit too technical for me to learn how to carve gybe on and get the basics.... great board for blasting in right conditions, but I find it hard to try and carve gybe... (well I can't do it yet)

The most luck I had was on a 95 ltr slalom board, but put that down to conditions, flat water, great steady wind and good sail mix, but didn't get all the way around, basically didn't flip in time.

What worked for you and why?

Cheers.

K

Bombora 295

We can let Mr. Reflex off a bit as he is a bit of a Starboard fan.
The hypervoimit would not be the best board to learn to gybe on, in fact, it may be one of the worst.
Any modern freestyle wave/freeride board 100-120 ltr's, without massive concaves, will be a great platform for turning round on.

BTW. I nailed my planing gybes on a 115 JP Freestyle (Circa 2002)

Not sure if I can pull off a planing carve gybe properly but the first board I remember coming out of the gybe still on the plane was a Bombora proto. Gybing onto the face waves and swell helped keep on the plane.

Reflex Films said...

Sailboard 295 back in 1985 - it had about 4 wingers and a swallow tail

First one i tried i got.

No surprises on the hypersonic gybing front (formula style gybes anyone ? very techy to do)- but the wind range on those boards is awesome

These days the Starboard Carve is often called as one of the best carve gybers out there as you can vary the turn as you go - anything from early 2000s to the current version will do the trick

100 litres or so seems to be the magic size - although i rode a 121 that turned way better than it had any right to some years ago.

Flat water is ideal - or go straight to large open water chop where the wind has a good fetch to develop troughs you can carve in

- skip short chop - thats the worst

Starting to swing towards the Carve.... maybe the 120.... I tried a 110 a few times and found it very responsive and handles chop well.

What charactistics assist? Narrow tail? Round tail? Vee "hull"? Float?

Vinta 370. weighed a tonne or so of roto-moulded plastic (like the old bomboras). mid-late eighties. the idea was to get as much speed as possible in order to get the big girl round off the wind far enough to flick the sail to bring the nose around without loosing all speed, mind you I said all speed, on a boat this big you lost a lot but not all. She was the first board I learned to chop hop on too. didnt know any better, and couldnt afford to buy anything else as a school student. 5.7 soft sail, two battens on the top, with a very wobbly boom and an ocean and Earth Chest Harness (because at the time Robby Naish sported chest harnesses of course). The simple days.

Go for a modern freeride board - they are pretty forgiving and fast too.

Still learning and will probably spend my life still trying to nail a carve gybe or two per session.

I find smaller boards much easier to carve gybe, they just carry speed better through the turn...which is the key to plainning out of them. Unless you go into the turn full tilt you are not going to plain out as you loose about half your speed going around. I weigh in a 100kgs and my first ever carve gybe was on a 95L freewave, with my 112 and my 120 I don't often plain out of my gybes. I found trying on smaller boards also forced my to learn correct technique as the is less room for error, you'll get wet a lot more but I think you'll master it much quicker, I could be wrong but it worked for me.

...So my vote goes to a freestyle wave for learning to carve gybe, smaller volume boards turn better and don't bounce around in chop.

Bic Alegro for me,great board for laydowns

the Bic Electric Rock was the first board I consistently planed out of jibes on.

I thought that was a great jibing board until I went to a Mistral Flow 93 lt. It is still the best carve jibing board I have ridden. (that includes SB Carve 99, Tabou Rocket Air 95, Mistral Syncro 92 and quite a few others)

…it seemed smoothest and grippiest through the carve and easiest to keep speed up on exit.

….things in shape that will help are a good amount of vee and a board that's not overly wide. (the wider the board, the bigger is the step to the opposite rail and it's harder to keep the board banked over properly as you move your feet (IMHO)

Bic Vivace 270 for me - not recommended.
Then a Bic tribal, thinking it was around 80 litres and it jibed like a dream.

tiga 275 acr

Bombie Tri-fin

My first short board back in the day.

These days I reckon my 111 Futura is the dux nuts for fast planing gybes.

Smaller boards with narrower tails (like my 93 S-Type) are easier to handle in chop, but the width in a larger board's tail will give you the acceleration out of the turn and make it easier to stay on the plane.

Ian K said...

Waterloo said...

Ian K said...

R1DER said...

windrush storm 10

Another for the storm 10. It was a tri fin wasn't it? With an optional mini centreboard?

make that three, great exfoliation on that non-skid deck if you stuffed it.

I had mine for a few years, for some reason I thought it was a twin fin???

Maybe it was a twin fin. It's a long time ago. Learnt to sort of gybe it down at the Snowy River mouth at Marlo.

Mine was a squash tail tri fin with flyers can't remember a centreboard type fin I think it had 7 footstraps.

Bender said...


storm 10 was def a tri fin. I had them all. storm 8, 9, 10, fun 11 and XP.

Didn't complete the range with the Clubman???

confused said...

sboardcrazy said...

I remember I used to plane out of gybes on my windaction slalom c 1990 but I'm relearning with the 'correct ' technique now.I only get the occasional one where I don't lose speed but my 95 ltre Tabou Rocket freeride with a 5 or 4m sail in flatter water seems to be the go. Powered up but not totally overpowered.( which is rare I seem to usually be very overpowered [}:)].The board gybes smoothly and is a fairly forgiving.

5 or 4m sail in NSW?? I think there must be secret wind I don't know about!!

be a lightweight..I've been totally overpowered with a 5 + 3.3m in the last week..