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isobars
Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935
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 Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:58 pm Post subject: |
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| gwandsh wrote: | | Avoid sucker ramps. In the Gorge at least, I am frequently tempted to turn too high into the wind for a steeper ramp. Unless you can maintain lots of speed to then turn off the wind, you will go vertical, sometimes stall, and almost never land with speed. |
That ... or just nail 'em with all ya got for the fun of it, and don't worry about the aftermath. I'm a port jumper, but those sucker ramps seem to appear more often on starboard, where I have less control. So I just hit 'em, fly straight up with board first and me and the sail in close pursuit, and let gravity take care of the rest.
Thank DaKine for rib armor and Rawlings for my helmet, both of which make jumps like that pure fun even when I land absolutely flat on my back from well over mast high with zero forward speed. The important part is that I jumped, and the icing on the cake is when I execute them correctly, including projecting the board upwards, raising the windward rail, and turning in the air to land off the wind at speed. I'm getting to the point that my starboards exhibit better form than my ports, even though they feel awkward.
A bud who was a much better sailor than I would often avoid a jump when powered marginally because it might cost him Da Plane. Despite his superior skills, he'd just mow the lawn when hurting for wind, ramps or no ramps, while I was more than eager to sacrifice another ho-hum row of grass for a jump, even if it meant crashing Da Plane. Another bud sails underpowered deliberately, then uses his rare planing time for spectacular aerial displays.
Moral of this story: bolt on some armor, quit pussyfooting across the bay, suck it up, THROW it up, and Just Do It. Few of us learn by thinking or reading about it; we learn by DOING, or at least trying, it, and we don't have to be overpowered to do it.
Mike \m/ |
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swmckay
Joined: 16 Jun 2008
Posts: 131
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| Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 8:35 am Post subject: |
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| gwandsh wrote: | Avoid sucker ramps. In the Gorge at least, I am frequently tempted to turn too high into the wind for a steeper ramp. [...]
As for hooked in/out, my jumps feel similar to fast sailing. I am no pro, but my jumps are much nicer when hooked in. If I hit a particularly juicy ramp I sometimes unhook at liftoff - simply because I think I could be nailed by a big gust while in the air. |
When I turn upwind to hit a ramp, I try to make sure I'm doing the turn off my front foot, instead of off my back foot like I would when I start a tack. This keeps the board speed up. (This is also how your keep your speed up when to upwind to do a Shove-It.)
I also almost always start a jump hooked in, but as I "pop" the jump off the water, I naturally come unhooked unless I make an effort to stay hooked in (e.g., for a one-handed jump). |
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