Looping before the big 4.0 - crap only 6 days

[manuel]

As you know, the front hand controls how much power is offered to the wind. The forward is a leap of faith, a leap into that power! Well being more cautious and overthinking, it's taking me some time to get comfortable with offering so much power. It's like I'd like to first control the power before committing into it. The forward is a commit and believe first, control later, very opposite of what I believe as a person!

Being more neutral and not resist the rotation I believe should go a lot faster now that I understood to bring my sail across. This also lets me reach farther back.

It feels like my jumps are getting more slidey and less poppey. On the last few tries I started to get a little afraid once spinning but that's where being comfortably powered over smaller size wave help with not bailing!

Will post most recent footage as soon as I get back, my last few tries were a lot better or so they felt!

[manuel]

Some good progress! Tens of tentatives with more than 25 during my last session, yes I'm pretty beat, nearly broke my elbow, neck, foot (x2), I can hardly walk, but it's all good ! Seeing the faces of people, encouragements on the water from just about everyone reminded my why we do what we do!

Got lots of footage and great pictures from getting thrown about, I also added a "Donate" button on my website so anyone willing to contribute to my work now can! It's free to test the new feature (you can simply click the photo to access my site)

Lots more to come!

[manuel]

Here are photos a little more representative of my current level, the body is there, need to get the board over with me, keep rear arm bent and front arm extended so I can have a chance to waterstart.

Sometimes, I don't throw my sail towards the wind enough to my liking and feel like I'm jumping over my gear, not such a great feeling, the case in the second photo, I find it somewhat artistic though!

[manuel]

Alright, here we are, the latest attempts, enjoy!!!

I recommend Day 3 obviously, 1:25, 1:35, 1:48, 2:18 (ouch!) and 2:22.

While Day 1 was a little difficult, Day 3 looks promising with some nice momentum on a few tries. I remember being shy on sheeting in on those good tries and didn't stay well tucked throughout. Key points for the next times.

[philodog]

Hi Manuel, freeze frame on all of your attempts right after takeoff and you will see your front arm bent. Keep it straight pointing in the direction of the loop. This will get your center of gravity farther forward. Also do you see the thing I mentioned earlier about kicking the board out in front of you? This is putting your center of gravity too far back stopping the rotation. Try jumping straight up off the water, don`t lean back at all like in a normal jump. Keep the updates coming and good on you for trying both sides!

[manuel]

Yes and today, it looks like my front arm was nearly straight on a few attempts! I was only able to do 4 (lack of wind) but focused on quality of ramps.

First, good ramp but lacked wind.



Second, great front arm, a bit too much leaning back at the pop.



Third, I think the windiest attempt, and I tried to move a bit more over my gear once in the air (still too far back though), the board gets closer to me upon landing, with a bit more wind I think something could have happened.



Fourth, body much more straight!!! Only lacked a bit of wind (and technique) to wrap it up.
Honestly, I was a bit surprised to see the photos because it looks like I'm a lot closer than I thought on the water, tomorrow I will LOOP !

[manuel]

If we compare my last attempt to this one, I find them pretty darn close! Yes I'm too far back upon take-off, take too long to lean forward and my front arm doesn't stay extended but with 1/4 more rotation I could have maybe waterstart away... can't wait for today!

[manuel]

Yesterday, the wind was quite good and strong 16 to 28 knots, however the water state wasn't as friendly with more disorganized onshore still decent-sized waves. In these conditions, I started to get shy on extending my front arm and backing up my rear hand. I also bailed a few times because I wasn't feeling it on got too much pop, it wasn't pretty (or maybe it was!).

In these conditions I tried to focus on keeping the board under my feet to try and get to waterstart away out of, well at least one, and I almost did!

The session had 3 acts.

Act 1, got some good attempts all losing the board. I believe I lose the board for two reasons, one because I'm too much over the mast foot, I need to get ahead of it and lean forward more upon take-off. And two, because I don't feel comfortable landing with the board under me when my mast gets too parallel to the water, so I untuck and loosen up my feet.



Act 2, then got a few bails and got frustrated.



Act 3, cleared mind, tried again and got better ones. Funny how all these emotions can come in just one session. Even on this one when I tried to keep the board with me, I still lost it before being in the water, need to work on that !



For this next step, I'm going to focus on only one thing which is to lean forward upon take-off, just leap forward with arms up as if I wanted to "hang" my boom overhead. So close, so close!!!

More PHOTOS here -> https://www.facebook.com/Manus-Windsurfing-Blog-204083476593704/photos/?tab=album&album_id=492947241040658

[manuel]

haha ! I got a new one (Session 5, great cam!) And today, I coped with 2h+ of flick/flacking around in 12-22 knots winds to pull off 6 or 7 attempts. One went quite well but lacked wind for sure! That said I kept my front arm straight much longer with a boom nice and high. Tomorrow they are calling for 18 knots, should be pur-fect, I can-not wait! (one more sleepless night !)



Also, I was always wondering what would happen if the fin didn't clear, well nothing really, because of the sail lift, there's no pressure on the rear fin and therefore the board can slide and rotate freely. In the photo below the fin never cleared and yet I spun around 180 degrees, pretty cool! So no worries about the fin not clearing so long as the sail throw happens.



And finally, it seems that my eyes want to lock up around in front of my rear hand and not all the way around, I feel like it's more natural since we want to lock the sail right there, correct?

[boardsurfr]

Interesting. In many of your attempts, your nose touches first, but you then get pulled out of your straps. In the pics below, you have nice rotation, I think you could have completed that one. But after the nose of the board touches, your legs extends, especially your back leg. That's may just be muscle memory from jumping. If you can keep the back leg bent, you should be able to stay in the straps and get around.

An often heard mantra for the loop is "big, small, big". You're doing that:nice and tall for the take off, tucked in and above the boom for the initial rotation - but then you get tall again too early. So change the mantra to "big, small, stay small" for now! Once you water start out, you can worry about the final "big".