Why do windsurfers jump?

gobigkahuna · Joined: 11 Mar 2004 Posts: 144 Location: Eastern NC

Yup, Techno900 is following what I'm talking about. Almost all the landings I see in the videos seem pretty hard (on gear and rider). Don't you go through gear pretty quickly? Or is the newer gear able to handle that kind of abuse? I've done simple "hops" while windsurfing but never tried anything bigger than that.

nw30 · Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 3:18 pm Post subject:

A couple of things:
You say that you've been kiting for years, so I have to assume that you've been getting air, fairly often, and also with little effort, so yes, you have been tainted by kiting. You use the kite to lift you off the water, it's not really jumping, more like being lifted by choice, when you want, you barely need a ramp.
In windsurfing you actually have to try to jump, taking advantage of the condition (a good ramp, in the right place, with speed) as it presents itself, then using your jumping skill to launch. So yes, it is more difficult, as are the landings.

Damaging the equipment, only one piece of the equipment is at risk during jumps, that is the board. And there is really only one way to damage the board, that is to flat land it repeatedly, the board hates that and will eventually give up the ghost by breaking in half.
But that is easy to avoid by landing either nose or tail first. When you see a tail first landing, that's when you see the momentum being lost, but you can still get going. With a nose first landing, the board will scoop back up right after hitting the water, and to a planing position enabling you to keep your forward momentum.

I have many friends that have switched from windsurfing to kiting, and we talk all the time. They say that getting air is so much easier with a kite because it's almost natural, but they also say that getting big air windsurfing is more rewarding not because it's easy, but because it's harder.

dllee · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 5329 Location: East Bay

And remember, none of us are doing "Dale Cook" jumps and attempting to land them.
While a vid is nice to see the potential in the sport performed by the young and reckless...and more skilled, reality says that our real jumps are closer to half the height of the pros, in which case, they can be landed quite regularly.

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

The reasons we jump include in decreasing order:
Fun.
Fun.
More fun.
Finding a smooth ride when vastly overpowered on very rough terrain.
Clearing logs, fishing nets, fallen sailors, etc.

cgoudie1 · Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 7:26 pm Post subject:

And I thought that was my secret, well dang, I guess the cat was always out of the bag!

-Craig

gobigkahuna · Joined: 11 Mar 2004 Posts: 144 Location: Eastern NC

Thanks for all the replies. I'll keep looking for videos that illustrate what you guys are talking about. If you happen to know of one, a link would be great. Smile

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

Aren't you surrounded by WSers at home? Don't many of them land their jumps with speed and finesse?

gobigkahuna · Joined: 11 Mar 2004 Posts: 144 Location: Eastern NC

coachg · Joined: 10 Sep 2000 Posts: 3550

gobigkahuna;

It sounds like you are only looking at wave videos. In waves, even the pros are generally going for big air which forces them to turn more into the wind to generate the greater lift. However, the greater lift also slows down forward motion so even if they do land the jump nose first they do not plane away very impressively.

Try looking at more slalom type jumps where they go for distance instead of height by jumping more across the wind and pointing down wind. These jumps are generally called chop hops. They produce less height, greater distance & more speed out of the landings.

I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for but there is an example here at the 1:22 mark of this video.

https://vimeo.com/75856181

Coachg