WINDSURF MAGAZINE 109That doesn’t mean just screaming around on the flat a few times and chuck-
ing in the odd gybe – but sailing in as little wind as possible off the plane, ex-
perimenting with trim and seeing where to stand in a lull – and here’s the key,
uphauling it. People are bad at uphauling because they don’t uphaul. It’s a
skill like any other which you get better at the more you practice. There is one
highly technical piece of advice I give to everybody when they’re launching,
turning, waterstarting or uphauling and it’s “stop farting about!” The most
depressing sight is watching people linger for hours in a half waterstarting po-
sition within the break zone, drifting downwind and expending unnecessary
energy. The rule is if you haven’t got going within 10 seconds and the wind is
light and flicky, just get on and pull the rig up. It’s not specifically a technique
piece – but here are two uphauling tips:- Let the board swing into wind as you pull up the rig, so the boom can be
immediately grabbed. - Get the front hand to the top of the rope, snap the rig up and sheet in in
one movement, even with the hand still on the uphaul. Once you have power,
you are moving and floating.
GUST RESPONSE
The wind is always gusty in the waves. Don’t moan about it, that’s just what it
is. If it’s the desirable side of side-offshore, it will have blown over and around
obstacles – and even if it’s onshore, it will still be deflected and sheltered by
the waves themselves. Those who are used to the solid counterbalance provid-
ed by a powerful sail tend to over-commit to the harness, and hence spend a
lot of time over-sheeting and dropping into windward.
The best training is to take out a small rig, stand tall and try and cope
with wind changes off the plane without changing your body position. Calm
down and do your best not to over-react. Use the front arm as much as pos-
sible, bending it gently to depower, extending it to power up – all the time
looking upwind, not at the mast. This is especially key when getting out
through the break when the wind is all over the place.SAIL THE SQUARE
It’s a start line race training exercise where you have to stay within a small
square by sheeting out, backing the sail, or tacking and gybing on the spot, as
if you were trying to hold your position on the line. The mistake many make
wave riding is that of getting out and then heading back inshore hoping a
wave will catch them up. But what so often happens is that they drift into the
impact zone and catch the wave too late as it breaks or after it’s broken. The
skill lies in working out where the waves are first catchable, and then staying
in that spot until the sets arrive. And that’s only an option if you can ...TACK AND GYBE
In waves you can either tack or gybe, but preferably you can do both. If you
can’t turn around on the spot spontaneously no matter the chop or wind,
you are tactically impotent. The most useful day (everyone finally admitted)
on my recent Kerry course, was when we spent a day on windSUP’s or big
FSW’s, just tacking and gybing in light winds. If you’re failing to catch your
fair quota of waves, that’s why. How you say? Check out April ’19 Wind-
surf edition, ‘The Spinny Gybe’ article, or online at http://www.windsurf.co.uk/pe-
ter-hart-masterclass-the-spinny-gybeSAILING IN THE STRAPS OFF THE PLANE
On your first proper wave outing in marginal winds and decent waves, if you
make it out, turn and then sail back again to where you’ve started, you’ve won.
But soon, just being pushed along by whitewater is not enough. The dream is
to ride the green, unbroken face. The problem, it seems, is that in marginal
winds, you have to be out of the footstraps to drive the board down the swell
and catch it – but then you find yourself trying to get in the straps as you drop
down – and by the time you have, the wave has broken. The key skill is in
catching the swell early, but then getting into the straps at the top of the wave,
and then holding your position by sheeting in and out – and then only starting
the ride when the wave is the right shape and you’re ready.
So on flat water and in a 15 knot breeze, practise getting into the straps off
the plane. It’s not comfortable – you have to twist forward, bend the front knee,
unweight the tail and bear down on the boom to load up the mastfoot – but
with that simple skill you will be able to start your wave rides in the best shape.If you’re dealing in old volume, the modern 100 fsw has the same control
and manoeuvrability as a 90 from a decade ago. You must no longer equate
volume with stodginess – it just means extra float at rest. Designers have be-
come adept at hiding volume in secret places so you hardly notice it until you
stop – then it’s there to support you. And as for fins – don’t agonise too much.
You have to be taking up extreme angles in the tastiest part of a steep wave
before you can start arguing the toss between the various multi-fin setups.
The single fin given with a fsw feels familiar in that it offers a little resistance
under the back foot. It’s good for all those situations when speed and early
planing are priorities (e.g. onshore). The more recent models offer the option
of a ‘thruster’ setup for waves. With a smaller centre fin and 2 small side fins,
the board rides lower in the water and is more controllable in the wild. It
yields more easily to foot pressure and hence flows more freely from edge to
edge. The side fins offer more grip so you can initiate turns harder and more
steeply without spinning out. With less drive under the tail, you’re forced to
adopt a more ‘wavy,’ front foot stance, upright over the board and using the
windward edge, rather than the fins, for upwind resistance.
Big people much over 100 kgs are dealt a bad hand in this regard because
there are very few wave or fsw wave boards bigger than 115 litres. To get that
extra float for marginal wave days, the best option is either to develop cute
balance or get a wave oriented SUP with mastfoot. As our featured sailors tes-
tify, they learned more about waves in two hours with a SUP and a sail than
they have from years of blasting about. And will any old rig do so long as it’s
the right size? Funnily enough wave sails do the job best. Their construction
allows them to take a pounding for a start, but more importantly their shape
compliments the manoeuvre oriented wave design – flat profile, reactive and
easy to depower. A freeride sail by contrast has a lot of shape in the bottom
section, which is designed to drive a speedy design onto the water, which is
just what you don’t want when wave sailing.
EXTRA VOLUME IS THE NEW BLACK FOR
WAVE SAILING.
ESSENTIAL SKILLS AND THE PREPARATION PHASE
Say you’re heading west to an area where proper swells are a distinct possibil-
ity. You’ve invested in a floaty freestyle wave board and / or a SUP and have
three months to prepare for the trip. These are the skills to practice away from
breaking waves.
THE RETURN TICKET
In all areas of our sport, but especially wave sailing, the battle that has to be
won before all others is the psychological one. As you stare out at the waves,
kit in hand, there’s a fine line between excited and terrified, if it’s the latter,
you’re lost before you’ve started. The main source of fear is that of being
stranded, not getting back, ending up way downwind etc. Such concerns
can be at least partly quelled if you really get to know your chosen board.
If the rig is overpowering, all you can do is resist it – and that usually means
squatting back on the tail – a position from which the finer points of wave riding will
forever escape you. The less power you’re hanging onto, the more freedom you
have to move.