The bodydrag, one of the oldest freestyle moves in the book.

A completely pointless move that serves no purpose at all but if done correctly can still turn heads today. For some reason it seems to have become almost extinct with very few people doing them, or if people are still doing them they’re not doing them on the beaches that I frequent!

Personally I love doing bodydrags and try to throw a few in every time I sail on flat water.

Now I’m no expert and certainly not a technique guru but I’m going to try and explain how to do them so you can try them next time it’s windy.

Firstly you need to be really powered up, not too much but comfortably planing fast and in the foot straps. Get on to a fast beam reach and gently loosen your feet in the straps, don’t take your feet out just yet or you’ll slow down. You need your hands in their normal positions but they must be overhand grip, no feeding the pony for this move!

The next bit all happens very quickly and you have to fully commit. Bear away slightly, unhook and lean over the boom keeping your arms bent, don’t straighten your arms otherwise you’ll stall as soon as you hit the water. Now you want to drive your weight down into the boom and unweight your feet so you can slide them off the board, I tend to move the front foot just before the back foot. They are called bodydrags but it’s a bit of a misnomer, you don’t really drag your body just your legs and only really from your knees down. If you get your harness wet it’ll be very hard to get back on board.

Right, where were we, so your feet have just slid off the board and hit the water, keep your head above your boom by keeping your arms bent, now you almost immediately want to start trying to get back on, don’t stay dragging too long initially. Bear the board away a touch more whilst you’re dragging and the power of the sail will pull you back on board, a bit like a fast waterstart, but if you leave it too long in the water, your legs will start to sink, you’ll slow down and the sail won’t be able to pull you out.

A common problem now is that you may get overpowered and go into a catapult, if that happens just sheet in hard, you’ll spin around the front of the board without hitting it. And inadvertently you’d have just practiced a board-less forward loop!So that’s pretty much it really, it takes a bit of commitment to go for your first few, especially as you’ll be planing fast anyway but they soon get easier and you get a great rush from doing them successfully.

A good way to practice is to do them as you blast back in towards the beach, as you can see from the pic they are a novel way of dismounting in a race at NWF!