Life is a cycle - new board hands me my @rse like a newbie

jingebritsen · Joined: 21 Aug 2002 Posts: 3371

not meant to make fun of anyone.

only meant encourage.

friend of mine did not know the finer nuances of pumping until quite later in his windsurfing experience. he had not been coached or schooled....

wernerhickey · Joined: 13 Jun 2015 Posts: 76

No offence take with me - I am a lazy pumper(no double entendre intended) and this is also something I have to focus on. I have the Exocet X-Longboard that makes this type of chaos easy(though I do not have it where I am sailing atm) - now paying the price to get into a board that will take a foil. Thanks for all the multi-faceted responses - got some things to try and also I am going to dig out the 9.6 S-Type North I retired and find out what the damage was that forced the retirement and see if I can repair it for now. Cheers!

DanWeiss · Joined: 24 Jun 2008 Posts: 2296 Location: Connecticut, USA

Regarding your strap entry while sheeting out, drop that habit. Sheeting out reduces mast base pressure. This reduction will create less lift from the tail. You need lift in order to counteract the shift aft of your own foot pressure/body weight. Sheeting out also slows the board, doubling your issue.

konajoe · Joined: 28 Feb 2010 Posts: 517

Pumping technique is a contributor. Watch a few videos of Olympic racers. Pumping is not sheeting in and sheeting out. (I guess bad pumping is). Gotta start your pumping with your feet where they are going to end up. If you're marginal, and you move your feet after barely getting on a plane, you'll lose it.

wsatl · Joined: 30 Sep 2014 Posts: 66

You may find this worthwhile: https://www.windsurf.co.uk/peter-hart-up-and-riding-in-a-flash/

A lot of good stuff in general and especially this near the end:

wernerhickey · Joined: 13 Jun 2015 Posts: 76

Thanks, wsatl - this resonates with me, esp the last part as you say. I have discovered that small incremental movements are required in a smaller area of the board. The conditions continue to be marginal for the gear and my weight. Am taking possession of a super cruiser next week - something to add to the learning curve. Thanks for all the ideas have taken them on board and tried most of them out.

jpf18 · Joined: 13 Aug 2000 Posts: 347 Location: San Francisco

wernerhickey · Joined: 13 Jun 2015 Posts: 76

Back to report in. It hit fierce 10-11 knots today - success with the SB Super Cruiser. tried all of the suggestions - they all helped in such marginal conditions(thanks) and I was able to increase board speed to where I took my first flight on the foil - around 200 meters. I did have to change my approach to being more upright and over the board. The moving the boom a bit higher was also significant I feel as was being back further when I pumped. I also moved the mast track back - thanks wasti, interpreted this from the article you pasted. Feels good to have that monkey off my back!

wsatl · Joined: 30 Sep 2014 Posts: 66

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

Just like our boards have at least three steering wheels (roll, sheeting angle, and rig rake), there are at least three ways to manage fore'n'aft weight distribution (move our feet fore'n'aft, shift our weight fore'n'aft without moving our feet, and load the mast foot through the harness. (There are other techniques, but they're more subtle and transient, such as pushing down on the boom or pulling up on a strap.) Each of those has its place in any given reach or turn, and it's usually much simpler, quicker, and natural to shift our cg (aka hips) back and forth than to take feets out of straps and take a hike when we want to plane quicker, turn, or otherwise change the status quo.