Dogged said..
Thanks again everyone for your gybe tips, i have been out a couple of times on my 86 litre board . My foot change seems to have improved and I am turning the board better. However I still fall in, once I flick the rig. I think I am conditioned to drop in the water after 20 years of sailing & not turning around. Anyhow I will persevere.
Yes, persevere with it. You will be surprised one day when you suddenly make a perfect one, and not even know what had happened. That I believe is "experience". Because you had made mistakes, perhaps too many of it, just like myself in those "painful" days, those mistake are actually your "investment". You invested enough hard work into it, and one day, you find yourself coming out positive, and planing gybes are your friends!
I tend to believe your brain and your muscles become conditioned to the moves. When that happens, you don't even think about what you are doing anymore. Think of driving a manual car...with all the gear changes, steering, brakes, clutch, etc. Then above all, you still need to watch where you are going ! But you don't give it a second thought about all that.
By the way, I have noticed most people failed at the last moment, before they do the sail change. They tend to straighten their bodies rather than leaning into the turn. The moment they straighten up, their weight is transferred to the back of the board.. The board no longer carves and sinks. Once its speed is gone, it is no longer a planing gybe.
The most important element, in my humble opinion, is SPEED. So you need to have a fearless attitude because you can have some rather nasty falls.
