sboardcrazy said...

I sail a 105ltre bump & jump board & am 65kgs odd.I can uphaul it if it isnt too choppy & Im very careful.Sailing in gusty 5 - 20kts winds .The wind drops to buggerall I'm out of the straps . I start to gybe with the rail weighted but then some chop will throw me off balance & I'll weight the other foot & go straight for a bit and then wobble all over the place trying to get my balance & the board under control & generally fall in..@#$$!!!!... If I try & use the sail as well I find it heavy & hard to control & generally lean too far back & fall off .
Gybing used to be so easy..?

what sort of a gybe are you talking about? Are you planing?

If you're not planing, then rail pressure will do nothing...

Sub planing gybe technique is this...

1 Head slightly upwind to a close reach
2 Move your backhand back around 2 foot
3 Straighten your front arm and your front leg
4 Bend your back arm and your back leg (rig will sheet in)
5 Lower your weight and touch your back hand against your ear to start the rotation
6 Step forward when you're on the new broad reach (this will be clewfirst)
7 Compose yourself a bit and find your balance
8 Flip the rig

I think Gingerpom is right. The key is to keep the sail powered up as much as possible to keep as a counter balance. Flip the sail after the turn.

I'm having the exact same problem as sboardcrazy at the moment. My main problem I gybe (planing) and the wind will hull unexpectedly (usually during my foot switch), the wave behind will then make me go faster than the wind at the critical time, the sail back drafts.. and a proverbial cropper ensures. I put another nice ding on my board before I giving up yesterday and going back to tacking .

GP: what do you mean by putting back hand against ear ?

Ja

Here's a quick video of what those guys are talking about:



The only thing I'd say about this one is that the sailor's weight should come forward a bit earlier -- just before doing the flip is about right. When doing this sort of gybe on my 80 litre wave board you need to get your front foot right up to the mast foot pronto, or it all sinks backwards like the titanic.

im no expert with my gybes but i allways keep my knees bent and sail sheeted in hard ... as my board passt dead down wind i step my old front foot into the new position imbetween front and back strap amd straight away ajust my font foot further forward .. ruffly equal with mast base .. come out clew first on a broad reach and flip rig when stable .. if over powed i keep further back on board a lil for the rig flip so i dont CATAPULT but the only way to get better at jybeing is by doing them .. al the time ... no tacks

your feet stay pretty much in the same spot as when sailing. unless you standing up near the mast in which case you need to move back further on the board to initiate the transition. the thing is to make the transition fairly quick and throw the rig forward and to windward as ginger pom said.

the longer you stall the gybe or sail dead downwind, the more chance of falling off as the swells keep unbalancing the board. to start with it's ok to fall backwards into the water as you scissor the board. you will be in a clue first waterstart position. with practice you get used to it and learn to use the rig to stop yourself from getting wet.

i agree with pierrecs comments also. it can be very helpfull to sail along clew first to practice the technique. easiest way to do this is to come out of your normal gybes and just keep sailing along clew first. the local freestyle guys practice sailing along switch stance all the time.

with your normal carve gybe.....

i reckon you're right, thinking about it is a killer. i read somewhere (may have been guy cribb) that a gybe takes 4 seconds. so if you think about what you are doing it's too late to release the sail. like nicko i also usually start to change feet when pointing downwind. that is a step gybe. also try to keep my knees well bent.
just be carefull with the sheet in advice as this can lead to oversheeting the gybe and getting hammered on the sail flip. you need to start to sheeting out before you are pointing dead downwind.

that said, i am certainly no expert at gybes. i only really plane out of 2 or 3 in 10 gybes. people like guy cribb and Co are the experts. the 2 incorrect things i seem to do are 1. stall the gybe by not timing the rig rotation. 2. exit on a beam reach instead of a broad reach.

If Im powered up for a planing gybe (with my rare good ones ) I usually change my feet after I have come out the other side & flipped the rig...Although I often end up with a foot in both front straps so i suppose I must change something... I think one problem I have is in the old days I used to do a large radius planing turn so i didnt lose speed.Now I am thinking so much of not losing ground upwind that maybe Im trying a too tight radius turn which then puts more weight/power in the sail...? I used to just get it carving flat out & then let the rig flip early & grab it as I came out planing..the rig would be weightless ..none of this pull the rig on & battle it as you do the gybe like I seem to do these days...

I change my feet position prior to getting dead-downwind. This enables me to keep the board turning.

sharkbiscuit said...

I'm having the exact same problem as sboardcrazy at the moment. My main problem I gybe (planing) and the wind will hull unexpectedly (usually during my foot switch), the wave behind will then make me go faster than the wind at the critical time, the sail back drafts.. and a proverbial cropper ensures. I put another nice ding on my board before I giving up yesterday and going back to tacking .

GP: what do you mean by putting back hand against ear ?

Ja

If you end up catching a wave during a planing gybe (which I often do so I don't have to go over waves during crucial moments) the technique is more like surfing, in that you won't be using the wind in the sail as a counter force to lean against. In these cases you just have to be prepared to flip the sail with no resistance and find your balance without the sail. First few times it is quite exhilarating and scary so you tend to panic and fall off, just prepare for it. Once you flip the sail and head back across wind the sail will fill up again.

If you're really powered up in a flat water planing gybe and sheet in hard the sail will become weightless anyway as you go past the downwind mark, so it's good practice.

sboardcrazy said...

I used to just get it carving flat out & then let the rig flip early & grab it as I came out planing..the rig would be weightless ..none of this pull the rig on & battle it as you do the gybe like I seem to do these days...

i reckon you've answered your own question sbc.

in my mind and without seeing you you are not flipping early enough. try flipping earlier. if you are doing tighter arcs then you need to release the rig earlier still.
(planing gybe)

i'm stoked things work out sbc

the cat isn't happy cause to be honest i am also guilty of not flipping the rig early enough . i know i'm doing it but i still do it.

there really is some quality advice from the guys above. i'm thinking ginger pom is actually guy crib.