Progress thoughts:

One day out on the windsup, 9.5, slogging and exploring, made all my jibes and came back totally dry after 2+ hours. Focused on sheeting in, footwork, smooth follow through. Ended up fairly consistent.

Yesterday, very disappointing forecast and had brought my 6.7 as largest and just slogged the dyno 115 around. Focused on sheeting in and keeping weight forward and made all of those jibes ~80% consistent and all my jibes were dry.

I have never had a day where all my jibes were clean on that board before. Sheeting in early and consistently helped. Granted it was VERY flat.

Today was flat but had decent chop, slight overpower for some time. I worked on jibes a little bit and also tried doing some body drags (fun but not that successful) and even a downwind 360 but that didn't come through) as well as just powered up hopping in swells.

Thoughts: I was pretty bad before at getting my harness lines balanced and I was keeping my hand way too far forward. I feel much more locked in and balanced by tweaking them .5-1cm and way less effort.

Planing jibe entry: I'm still not nearly consistent but a hard sheet in and get weight forward was helping a lot. I felt like the board was planing further into the carve and losing speed a lot less quickly. My two best alphas here show I had a dead stop during my best alpha, but slogged through the end on the second best. Timing in a gust wasn't that easy as there just wasn't a lot of room with this location/direction.

I'll hopefully get more practice soon. It also was helping on foil jibe entry.

I feel a bit a for not having done something so basic but maybe I'll get over it.

Had a session yesterday in really strong winds. Took me a while to get equipment sorted (mastfoot, fins, etc) as I was pretty wound up on 5.6 and 5.0 on the dyno 115. I had better success and felt more comfortable on that board than I ever had, and attempted some jibes but it was a bit awkward between overpowered/underpowered on whatever rig I had on the board.

I did finally realize that a strap jibe vs. step jibe felt way more comfortable but I was still stalling at around the flipping point. I was practicing moving my hand to the front and staying switch stance but the power was inconsistent enough I just enjoyed being lit up when I was well powered. Had a couple moments where the flip felt timed a lot better and sail rotated easily, similar to the strap jibe on a foil which I have been most successful at. I think I have a better feel for timing but I'm not so sure.

Hopefully I get more opportunities soon, wondering if that was the end of this high wind season and I'll be back on the foil again for months (barring some storms/cold fronts) until the end of summer.

Overall, I think a lot of different things are coming together regardless of kit.

John340 said..
If you are stalling on the flip, try flipping earlier, then step and steer with back foot on a 3/4 reach. That will keep you on the plane.

I tried this a little yesterday, and I think that you're right.

Was very low tide. I was on my Kode 135 w/ a big weed fin (38cm) and decently powered in gusts on a 6.3 freek.

You can see from some of the tracks below that I'm falling apart w/ speed in consistently a similar spot, but the second from bottom had a really nice flip where the sail got light.

My technique is better but the weed drag is real. As soon as I dropped off plane I felt the fin scraping every time.

Still a great day as I didn't expect to be able to use a sail that small, and I was playing around with footdrags, trying to step into switch stance while planing, and trying to improve my jumping skills. But even with hitting those weeds I was able to get a few 22-23kts carve entry. It jumped onto plane a lot quicker than the dyno 115.

boardsurfr said..
Looking at your tracks, it seems you stop carving when you approach downwind. At times, that may be because you stop planing, but I think there's other issues in play, to. Body posture and sail power are two common issues.
Not dumping the power in the sail can cause you to keep too much weight on the of the board. Then, as you go downwind and the apparent wind is near 0, you sink the tail and stall. The solution is to sheet in more at the start of the jibe, and use the short burst of sail power to get your body into an upright, balanced position. The other thing to look out for is to carve with your "knees in front of toes".

I'm wondering if that's when I'm initiating the flip, or the step, i.e. too early. Some of the other jibes I've had I went further through the carve (can't remember the session or I'd look up the tracks to see).

boardsurfr said..
Looking at your tracks, it seems you stop carving when you approach downwind. At times, that may be because you stop planing, but I think there's other issues in play, to. Body posture and sail power are two common issues.
Not dumping the power in the sail can cause you to keep too much weight on the of the board. Then, as you go downwind and the apparent wind is near 0, you sink the tail and stall. The solution is to sheet in more at the start of the jibe, and use the short burst of sail power to get your body into an upright, balanced position. The other thing to look out for is to carve with your "knees in front of toes".

Echoing this and Shifu's remarks both of which are really good and on point. Where your track turns blue, you shouldn't be at 6 oclock (dead downwind) but at 7-7:30.

Another way I heard that made sense to me is instead of the usual "bend the knees" which encourages a lot of us to sit back on our heels to "bend your ankles".

Paducah said..

boardsurfr said..
Looking at your tracks, it seems you stop carving when you approach downwind. At times, that may be because you stop planing, but I think there's other issues in play, to. Body posture and sail power are two common issues.
Not dumping the power in the sail can cause you to keep too much weight on the of the board. Then, as you go downwind and the apparent wind is near 0, you sink the tail and stall. The solution is to sheet in more at the start of the jibe, and use the short burst of sail power to get your body into an upright, balanced position. The other thing to look out for is to carve with your "knees in front of toes".

Echoing this and Shifu's remarks both of which are really good and on point. Where your track turns blue, you shouldn't be at 6 oclock (dead downwind) but at 7-7:30.

Another way I heard that made sense to me is instead of the usual "bend the knees" which encourages a lot of us to sit back on our heels to "bend your ankles".

I want to say that my knees are pretty bent now but I didn't have a camera rolling at the time so maybe not so much? My weight was definitely forward. Wonder if I'm still sheeting in poorly based off comments.

aeroegnr said..
I want to say that my knees are pretty bent now but I didn't have a camera rolling at the time so maybe not so much? My weight was definitely forward. Wonder if I'm still sheeting in poorly based off comments.

Apologies - meant that part (bending the ankles) as a more general comment not at you specifically. Just a variation of what boardsurfr had said and I think they both help others reading the thread. We keep getting told to bend our knees and it's easy to do that and not get the expected result. It's an incomplete instruction.

You're doing great - kudos on the efforts!

aeroegnr said..
When I was first trying my entry and setup was really bad and I was trying to flip wayyyy too early. Now I kind of don't know.

Interesting, because that is a rare problem. Flipping too late is much more common - "carve fascination" describes the problem.

If you're using a big sail in relatively flat conditions, chances are you're going quite a bit faster than the wind. When you then do a normal flip, you'll get backwinded because your apparent wind is coming from the front. That may have given you the impression that you flipped too early. But if you wait until you can do a regular sail flip, you'll have lost so much speed before the flip that planing out becomes almost impossible. The alternative solution is to change the way you flip the sail, by slicing it forward and using the apparent wind to help the rotation, like in a heli tack. That's not too back on your Freeks, but gets much harder on a cambered sail.

aeroegnr said..
I "think" I'm getting in the right position but I see sometimes in video that I am wrong.

I can jibe ok on flat water, but every time I look at videos or picture series, I see that my knees are bent a lot less than I thought, and that the sail is not nearly as much sheeted in or oversheeted as I thought. Every time. The really good guys, who get alphas that are a few knots better in the same conditions, tend to have a much more pronounced oversheet, and be much more dynamic in the jibe (no signs of carve fascination!).

Videos or pictures taking by someone from shore would be great, anyway - without, any tips are based on assumptions about what you're doing, based mostly on what the most common issues are.

Sea Lotus said..

boardsurfr said..
Looking at your tracks, it seems you stop carving when you approach downwind. At times, that may be because you stop planing, but I think there's other issues in play, to. Body posture and sail power are two common issues.
Not dumping the power in the sail can cause you to keep too much weight on the of the board. Then, as you go downwind and the apparent wind is near 0, you sink the tail and stall. The solution is to sheet in more at the start of the jibe, and use the short burst of sail power to get your body into an upright, balanced position. The other thing to look out for is to carve with your "knees in front of toes".

Reason you straighten up to switch feet maybe because you "jump switch" at once. Most of your wight is at your back foot while carving so you can unweight your front foot to take out of strap. If you do the switch one foot each slowly, it will be smoother and you won't need to straighten up.

You can olso try delaying your feet switch till a little after your board starts to turn to the new direction (maybe 110degrees instead of 90), so you keep carving more without stalling.

Don't forget to turn your head and keep looking to the inside/exit of turn, otherwise it is very unintiutive to lean inside.

Thanks, worth a shot. I do know that I do a lot of jump switching and have slowed it down every now and then, but inconsistent. Seems like a slow step of old front to directly in front of the old rear is the ticket. I'll need to try to be very deliberate with that.

Try and practice broad reach to broad reach, it is easier to maintain speed. Make sure to exit low and pulling hard on the boom.

powersloshin said..
Try and practice broad reach to broad reach, it is easier to maintain speed. Make sure to exit low and pulling hard on the boom.

This is good advice. I think I am still fascinated too much on fin jibes that I lose track of how much I am turning back upwind. I need to concentrate on looking out of the turn. On a foil I'm a bit more relaxed and have been watching how far I am turning upwind on the new course because I'm not looking at the sail but looking through the turn controlling height.

Shifu said..
The best time for getting on top of your gybes is when you have good solid (but not nuking) wind. Conditions where you're using 8m and 9m sails are no good. It's got to be at or around force 5.

That's a bit sad. We don't get many days here where <8.0 will do for me. I think if I do some deeper downwind runs right before the turn to pick up speed then lighter winds will still be achievable?

This morning was actually representative, gusts up to 15kts or so maybe a little more and I went foiling because it was a bit more than predicted. Was able to keep speed during foil jibes but did not maintain height as well, at least I came out on the other side planing.

I really do think I am stepping too heavy on fin jibes as well as foil jibes after flying out in switch stance. Need to practice on that more and soften it up.

There are some good tips in the video. It would certainly be easier using a small freeride sail like in the video..

All these tips are helping...

Had some decent wind today, enough to get planing on the 6.3 and dyno. Thought there would be a little bit more but I think that this is the furthest I'd planed through. Started feeling the power come back on, think I fumbled the flip.

Definitely think I my step/flip has been too early, and power leaving way too early. Was sheeting in more aggressively at the beginning and feeling more of the pull over the board. Think it was consistent with the foil too as I went and switched up the already rigged sail to the foil board when the wind dropped and noticed I could go in further. Had a couple of pretty high flying jibes but then turned up too far upwind and immediately knew what I did wrong...

Progress.
Also my gopro is finally toast. Wont even turn on.

Shifu said..
This could be useful. The final segment is very illustrative.

Yes I love these. Now I just need more wind!

Shifu said..
If you are on facebook this is a gorgeous gybe:
www.facebook.com/watch/?v=359684789536396&ref=sharing

I'm feeling so dumb for stepping/flipping so early so many times