SAM ROSS / 5-SECOND SHRED

Quick Tips For Improving, Whatever Your Level

(This Technique feature originally appeared in the October 2011 issue of Windsurf Magazine. Print and digital subscriptions for readers worldwide are available HERE.)

When we first start learning moves there tends to be one way to judge your success. The old saying “a good tack is a dry tack” sticks with most people and that need to stay upright and dry is the way we measure much of our progression.

However it is sometimes this need and desire to keep our hair looking good that has the opposite effect, impacting on how well we approach the move.

The gybe is one example that personifies this perceived choice between a guaranteed dry exit and that go-for-broke, perfectly smooth planing gybe. So glory or safety seems to be the choice.

For sure there are merits in going for it – the more you put in the better the outcome – but this feature has a simpler and maybe more effective undertone.

The need to stabalise ourselves and feel secure often undoes all the hard work we put in. We rarely fall in whilst we have two hands on the boom, so our natural default in any transition is not only to try and keep both hands on the boom, for as long as possible, but to reach and grab to reassert this, seemingly, secure position.

So this flailing backhand is the thing we need to combat. If the sail is in an unstable position and we reach for it we will, by nature of then being attached to it, be in an unstable position.

If you go back to the beginning of your windsurfing career this was still the case. We up hauled the sail, got into the ‘secure position’ (both hands on mast) and immediately would try and reach across the centerline and grab hold of the boom. Off balance, and unable to counter the power, we would end up on top of the rig or in the water rather quickly.

So back to our carve gybe and, as we flip the sail, we need to let the boom come to the backhand. By doing this we can keep looking out of the turn and keep the board carving. When we get that hand on we are then in the best position to sheet in and keep the board planing.

The same on the tack. Once we go round the front we need the boom to fall to the backhand. Again this way we’re in a stable position and can power out of the transition.

So don’t reach out with that back hand, let the boom come to you. Play hard to get and that way you’ll never compromise your stability. Suddenly our flashier exits are actually the safer bet.

For more tricks. tips and general coaching knowledge head over to
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