Essential Improvers Tips
for windsurfing (PART 1)
STANCE
RELAX! This one tip opens most of windsurfing's
technique doors. Whatever you're doing stop from time to time to
consider if you're tense and trying to use muscles that really need
not be working.
PINK KNUCKLES. Whether in or out of the harness,
you will not go any faster if you squeeze the boom until your
knuckles turn white. Tension in the upper body stems from the hands
so relax your grip and your body relaxes with it.
THUMBS OVER. And a way to help relax the arms, use
OVER grip (fingers resting over the top of the boom) and rest your
thumbs over the boom as well. As soon as you wrap them under the
boom, you're in squeeze mode.
BOTTOM AWARENESS! Right trough the levels, the hips
and bottom are your key body parts. No matter the wind strength,
always check that your shoulders are OUTBOARD of your bottom. It's
when you let the shoulders drop inboard of the hips that you place
an unholy strain on your lower back as well as looking like the
classic beginner in lavatorial stress.
STAND UP! Crouching down is the posture of a
threatening beast. Even as the wind gets up try to stand up
normally. It's more comfortable and you are in far better shape to
handle the rig.
FRONT FOOT FORWARD. Moving into heavier conditions,
the improver's niggliest recurring fault is that of turning
involuntarily into the wind. More often than not it's the result of
standing too square to the rig, which in turn leads to over-sheeting
(pulling the sail too far). If you just twist the front foot forward
a few degrees so it faces diagonally towards the nose of the board,
you'll automatically take up a more open stance.
EXTENDED ARMS. It's the oldest tip in the book but
bent arms are responsible for so much grief that they're not even
worth considering. Don't lock out at the elbows, just keep them
extended. The advantages are endless. For example, you gain a much
better view of the road ahead and you divert the rig's load away
from the weak forearms and onto the stronger shoulders and back.
Above all it allows you to obey that greatest of all windsurfing's
adages - GIVE YOURSELF ROOM
SHOULDER CONTROL. Bent arms lead you to control the
sail's trimming angle by extending and contracting the biceps - a
bad habit. With extended arms, power control should come from the
shoulders. Bent arms lead you to control the sail's trimming angle
by extending and contracting the biceps - a bad habit. With extended
arms, power control should come from the shoulders.
ROOM TO TACK. Only hold the mast with one hand when
you're tacking (the new front hand), that way you give yourself more
room and can use the other arm for balance
HARNESS TECHNIQUE
MONITOR YOUR LINES. Experiment with different
lengths until you feel perfection and then remember it!
STRAPS UP YOUR BUM? If the leg straps on your seat
harness tend to work your up to where the sun don't shine, assuming
that the harness fits and is tight, you've been guilty of sitting
down too much and crouching under the boom.
FEEL THE BACK HAND. The harness should carry the
major percentage of the sail's power. However the trick of setting
the lines well back BEHIND the balance point so the body alone
sheets in, makes you numb to the sail's needs and therefore prone to
over-sheeting. For the most efficient trimming. it's best to just be
able to feel the power in your back hand so you can trim it
accordingly.
HIPPY SHAKE. Hooked in, it's your hips that should
control both the trim and direction of the board. Ease them forward
to lower the nose and bear away; swing them towards the tail to lift
the nose and head up.
SPEED TIPS
POINT THE TOES. In pleasant planing conditions,
good speed comes from getting your weight OFF the board. Resting on
your heels tends to sink the windward edge and kill the lift from
the fin, whilst standing up and pointing your toes, flattens the
board off and gets it riding right on the edge.
SPEED THEN POINT. To get a short board to plane
freely upwind, you first have to generate pure speed by BEARING
AWAY. With that speed, you can then head up and maintain that
momentum.
MASTFOOT BACK. Those with long board experience are
used to sliding the mastfoot forward as a way to control the lift
from the daggerboard when going upwind. But improved upwind
performance on a short board often comes from edging the mastfoot
BACK and therefore bringing the power of the rig more onto the back
foot and the fin.
STROKE THE NOSE. Pointing high on a short board
comes from literally DRIVING it upwind by powering your weight
forward through the mastfoot. To make sure your body is moving in
the right direction, let the front hand go (by the way, stay hooked
in) and try to touch the nose of the board.
PARALLEL ARMS. If your boom height, lines and
stance are all good, in normal circumstances your extended arms
should be horizontal and parallel with the water.
DRIVE - DON'T BUCKLE. A windy broad reach over chop
is the hairiest and most exhilarating point of sailing. although
absorbing the chop with knees to give the board a smooth ride, is a
sound notion - but totally impossible given the board may be
smacking as many as three chops a second. So long as the lumps
aren't huge, the accepted speed technique is to brace against an
extended (but not locked) front leg so you drive the nose down and
blast a hole through anything in the way.
THE BIG PUSH. Spin-out arises most frequently from
inconstant pressure against the fin, such as being tentative with
the back foot or from delivering a massive SHOCK load like when
landing from a jump. It is rarely the result of just pushing hard.
As proof, get planing and then try deliberately to break the tail
out just by driving as hard as you can. So long as the board is in
the water and that pressure is constant, it's impossible.
