Forward loop help, with many videos

[LUCARO]

Hey Boardsurfr

That is a great little animation

Thanks

[30knotwind]

This is a picture of me in mid-loop (unsuccessful attempt). Please critique.

To see the sequence (6 photos), go here iwasphotographed.com. The image is copyrighted but I will be buying a batch soon--hope that suffices. The photographer drifts around in a Zodiak in the Gorge, posts the photos, and sells them--pretty cool!

The only thing I see that is incorrect--based on the most recent replies in this thread--is that my front hand is too far forward, which means that my backhand is not far enough back.

This resulted in a crash, but if I didn't know it, I would have guessed that this succeeded: it looks pretty committed and similar to other examples I've been looking at, e.g. mast is windward, biting knuckles, board is tucked.

[manuel]

Wow, the clew should be near the back strap!
Are you jumping downwind? Just like the jibe or surf, sheeting in is not possible unless going downwind.

[DanWeiss]

Yes, your front hand seems too far forward to give enough pressure with your back hand. Either way, its probably a great idea to move your back hand a lot farther back to increase sheeting leverage. The photos suggest that you didn't sheet in enough. Photo 3 shows your sail in a fairly vertical orientation. Sure, you can get mast foot pressure to drop the nose, but you also need help rotating the board downwind. Pulling the rig over you and forward will achieve both and can be done by reaching far back on the boom and looking to the clew.

[bericw]

Oh yeah!!! You are there! From the last photo of your sequence, if you had pulled instead of letting go, you'd have waterstarted away.

I've been wondering how you were progressing, thanks for posting. Thank you also for your website and video posts!

Sequence below is from yesterday with you in mind, upwind. 1st picture, across the wind, pointed into trees on shore. The whitewater is in front of what I popped from. 2nd, popping pointed upwind, above trees. 3rd, board is pointed downwind below trees. 4th, starting rotation by sheeting in, board is pointed back at white water. Blah blah blah... I am just me, and I have no credentials. Others are posting their views which should be learned from.

[30knotwind]

[boardsurfr]

Looks good, you are definitely close.


Your takeoff looks fantastic: depowered sail, mast to windward, board tilted the right way and pulled up to your butt. The only thing that jumps out is that your hands are too far forward.


Nose is going downwind and down, exactly where it should go. You are looking back, good. But your body is a bit low - you could be pushing down more on the boom to get higher above it. Your left arm is going to the back, behind your body - it should be in front.



Your are now falling to the inside, just like you should. You're above the boom, great. The sail is now starting to whip you around, but you let go of the backhand, so this ends in a hard crash instead of a waterstart. If you had been able to hold on with your back hand, the sail would have turned to be parallel to the water, giving you a nice ride. The nose probably would have popped out again, and you would have been around.

Things to do:
1. Move your front hand all the way to the harness line.
2. Move your back hand back further as far as you can (at least 6 more inches).
3. In the sequence from picture 1 to picture 2 above, turn your body as you do, but keep your arms more in front of you. That will sheet in automatically.
4. Push down with your front hand. You'll be able to push better if the arm is more in front of you.
5. Hold on for the ride!

Moving your hands back will give you better leverage to hold on. As a loop beginner, you will have to exaggerate your hand movements. Josh has done hundreds of loops; he actually moved his hands back after the takeoff. You'll have to do it before.

Keep going, you are really close! Inspiring to read your posts - makes me want to try harder

[30knotwind]

Looks like I'll be trying this again today: Hatchery is averaging 30mph now. At 190 lbs, I can sail a 2.9m2 sail in those conditions.

[manuel]

It's difficult to tell the wind angle in photos.

Not to crowd your brain with too much info because it looks like you are super close, it looks like you are scissoring the board with the rig which is very good but not sheeting in to fill the sail.

This is why I was asking about the wind angle. If you don't head downwind, the sail will be nearly impossible to pull and will rip out of your back hand as you go forward.

Another perspective is after you jump, it should be like throw your rig forward and not your body, so throw it forward then pull yourself together with it as you tuck in.

This is for the speed loop everything is exagerated to produce maximum spinning speed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf-ab1mfGmo

[30knotwind]

Today I got the board to change direction in the air, which had not happened before. GoPro of one of the attempts

Today's deep thoughts about the experience:
1) Use long harness lines for larger wind range
2) Put boom high for larger wind range
3) tighten foot straps, loose wave riding straps could trap and break an ankle, this actually almost happened.
4) Stop sailing early in the session to adjust harness lines PERFECTLY (seriously). This allows hands to be almost anywhere on the boom at anytime.
5) Freesail with front hand always just in front of harness line, back hand often very far back, hunch shoulders to get hand back very far, i.e. 75% from mast to clew, get comfortable with this feeling.
6) Do some laydown or duck jibes: these are very sensitive to hand position and must be initiated after turning downwind, similar to sheeting in for the loop.
7) Do some high jumps with hands shifted backward, often get out of the harness for the jumps
8.) Learn to jump off backside of onshore chop, downwind
9) Try a loop by thinking of "climbing to the top of the clew". This visualization gets you to pull yourself up the boom on the top side of the boom. You naturally want to push with the front hand and pull with the back leg.
10) Think of being a flagpole and the sail/board is a flag. When "climbing" to the clew, the rear of your kit, you are becoming a pole at the center of the rotation while the flag, sail/board, rotates around you.