WA
178 posts
Went in the surf today first time secret harbour west aus,hardly shoulder high,but still got a feel for the shore break pushing through waves,didn't catch any good waves but pumped any way. my question is ,coming in ,with cross on shore,15knt ssw I found myself going right with my back to the wave but most video I've seen is riders going left facing the wave it appears to be down wind.so I'm going up wind on my backhand on a right can anybody give me some tips cheers
328 posts
So, you were riding backside and want to do frontside? I suggest, when you're approaching backside (upwind) the lip of the wave, you put your backhand as far back on the boom as you can and start jibing down the wave, carve hard to make a short radius turn to keep the speed up the wave. While doing bottom turn extend your front arm and open the sail so it still gets some wind (almost clew first , if possible), when doing a top turn, put your back hand more forward. My biggest problem that appears on Cross-on is that I make long bottom turns and tend to loose speed to get back up to the lip of the wave...it's improving but slowly, hopefully I'll sort this out in Sardinia, Italy within a week when I head down there.
WA
12872 posts
Mort, typical seabreeze at secret harbour is quite onshore, this wind direction makes it hard to go down the line because as you say it's very downwind.
The more side shore it gets the easier it becomes to go downwind.
The more onshore it is the easier it is to go upwind on the wave.
To go down the line in onshore conditions you have to sheet out, you loose most of the sail power and in some cases the sail even acts as an air break. It becomes more of a surf than a wave sail.
If the wind is side off, you power up going down the line.
WA
7268 posts
Note to : Sailquik
Sir,
I rest my case.
Carantoc
