Maybe you're going into the gybe too fast on a board with a lot of nose rocker. If the nose catches it wants to do a tight turn, a turn that you're going too fast for.

For me a board with less nose rocker - say a slalom board is easier to punch through on its rail. I have trouble gybing a wavy sort of board with any speed in chop, though I've seen it done.

Not enough front foot pressure is probably causing the problem

Bend your knees through the gybe.... worked for me, now lay down gybes are quite easy

Reflex Films said...

bend your elbow , sheet in and look over your trailing shoulder while holding the boom 2ft from your body

then look over your lead shoulder

sheet in

sheet out

look into the turn

look away from the turn

make sure you are not hooked in just as you flip the rig

push down on front foot about 2/3 pressure of back foot

grab mast

grab boom

sail away

That's easy for you to type

Bloody difficult if you're covered in red fur

get yourself a gopro and a flymount record then look at your gybes in slow mo, after watching a few of my gybes I have picked up a few points that I have to work at.
the first gybe in this series got me a 23 knot alpha which I was pretty happy with but most of the rest are rubbish.
I should have slid my back hand back as I initiated the turn and let my front hand slide up to the mast as I started the rig flip as I did a pretty big reach when doing the swap, any othe criticism welcome

i'm not sure where you bury the nose but i sometimes dig the nose initiating gybes in choppy/overpowered conditions when powering upwind and then trying to instantly stomp the inside rail. this is like a 'skip' of the rail followed by a 'splat' of the rider.

so i work on setting up properly: time the gybe to occur in the flattest section i can find and let the board go downwind first and then load the rail with increasingly pressure. that way the edge engages lightly at first to gets a hold, then i can load it. deep knees and keeping the weight on the nose will slice through almost anything.

having the sail forward after the flip is a good position for it to be powered and pull you out of the turn. reckon you're on the right track - on the flip pull it back to windward...and you!

Trousers said...

i'm not sure where you bury the nose but i sometimes dig the nose initiating gybes in choppy/overpowered conditions when powering upwind and then trying to instantly stomp the inside rail. this is like a 'skip' of the rail followed by a 'splat' of the rider.

so i work on setting up properly: time the gybe to occur in the flattest section i can find and let the board go downwind first and then load the rail with increasingly pressure. that way the edge engages lightly at first to gets a hold, then i can load it. deep knees and keeping the weight on the nose will slice through almost anything.

having the sail forward after the flip is a good position for it to be powered and pull you out of the turn. reckon you're on the right track - on the flip pull it back to windward...and you!

Sounds what it is..After gybing in flat water I think I've got slack looking for a good spot to initiate the turn and I'm just jamming it on..I need to work on bending my knees more..I try & keep my body below boom level as I'm gybing but I still sometimes stand up half way through..then thinking oh s..t..splat
Re the rig..I'm slack with the smaller boards and don't change my feet till after but as a result I'm not in as strong and braced a position for the power. Maybe next summer when the water warms up I'll reteach myself the step gybe with my smaller boards too.I only do it on my bigger one and that can get me into trouble too when I swap boards as I have to remember which board I'm on..Although the rig being sometimes out of reach has me wondering.
I wish I could get some video of me gybing as it is so much easier to work out what you are doing wrong if you can see it...Even someone watching telling me what I'm doing wrong would help.I know videoing + mirrors really helps my horseriding.

sick_em_rex said...

I'm a devotee of looking over your shoulder too. I find it a very similar scenario when riding my motorbike and looking where I want to be at the end of the corner or turn rather than right in front of me. The body will compensate with correct pressure etc. Give it a try and I think you'll be surprised as I used to suffer a very similar thing to what you're talking about.

yep I know that one..often when I'm lying in the icey water having a post mortem I think..I wasn't looking at the exit!

Reflex Films said...

Kp said a cool thing once - slow down before you gybe - if you are on chop back it off to 2/3 throttle then find a groove to turn in.

Go in flat chat and you are coming off (unless the water is butter flat)

drop in a quick body drag to bleed off speed

Then

sheet in

sheet out

bend leg straighten arm

pull leg up bend arm

squat

straighten up

turn head left and right

and then left again

Turn left right now

exit!

Especially why straighten up and look LRL etc? If you straighten up you'll lose it in chop..?

Reflex Films said...

Kp said a cool thing once

"Sometimes you just gotta sail"

Some boards have very sharp rails and that can make them a bit twitchy when gybing. Thin rails bury more and bite more, so are more likely to trip, especially if there is little rocker. Rails with more volume or rounded can be more likely to bounce out of the water or lose grip.

The fin can also influence the gybe. A more upright fin needs to be steered round the gybe more, and a swept back fin will tend to flow round the gybe better. In chop, the swept back fin makes it easier to adjust your path through the chop or waves.

Key thing is to concentrate on absorbing any bumps with bent legs and steer the board round in the correct tightness of turn. If there are small waves in the chop, you try to come out of the gybe travelling along and down the face of the wave, so you need to adjust the turn to try to achieve that.

in the 90s i used to drive well

but these days when i am driving i just drive across verges and straight through roundabouts

i dont have the time to be picky about where i drive

(are we sure this isnt just posting for the sake of posting ?)

grabbing rail as you enter a gybe?

...i think you may have just invented a new freestyle move!! skillz!!!!