Hanging on for dear life

Darbonne · Posted: Mon May 19, 2014 8:49 am Post subject: Hanging on for dear life

A little background. I am in my 3rd season. Self taught. Have been sailing the Kona for the last two years. Sail mostly on a lake in NE Louisiana. 197 lbs. Well I am finally getting powered up and on plane. Seemed like it would never happen. This last Saturday was a great day, the wind was all over the place but mostly in the 16-19 MPH range with some crazy gusts well over 20 MPH. I decided to rig the 8.0 Gaastra Matrix instead of the Kona 9.0 as I am still getting used to higher winds. I was able to get on plane and cruise, but never really got in the straps. Here is the part where I need a little help. During the really big gusts I was able to move back, drop my weight and really fly. However control was a big problem. I couldn't get the board to settle down and track straight. A couple of times I felt like I was hanging on for dear life. I understand that at higher speeds every force on the board is magnified. Probably just need more practice. A lesson probably would help too.

PeconicPuffin · Joined: 07 Jun 2004 Posts: 1830

Congratulations on what sounds like a fine day! Yes a lesson(s) would be a fine idea...you can self teach yourself into some bad habits. More practice will certainly help. The Kona guys will weigh in (Jingebritsen...listen to him though I may have misspelled his name) on how to trim that board at speed.

cgoudie1 · Posted: Mon May 19, 2014 10:35 am Post subject: Re: Hanging on for dear life

It's not easy to get a board to run straight while planing without being
in the straps. Also, your foot pressure really changes the boards attitude while planing, so if you weight your heals, the board rounds up quickly,
and if you weight your toes, down wind you go. if you're not thinking
about what your feet are doing, it'll be quite a rodeo ride. Another thing
that causes that unsettled feeling, is a lack of harness weight, you'll notice
this because your arms will be bent, rather than extended. You need to
be hanging out and DOWN heavily through the harness, to get some of the weight off your
feet. Bending at the waist to do this is NOT prefered. A cheap fix for
the unsettled feeling is to raise your boom.

Good luck. A year from now, you'll wonder why it was so difficult to
control your board in a stiff breeze.

-Craig

windydoug · Joined: 22 Jun 2005 Posts: 67 Location: Western NY

Did you have the centerboard up or down?
The centerboard being down is a lifesaver for a newer rider in lighter wind, but when sailing with it down in high wind, it can make the board unruly (if you are not used to balancing against it on a plane with your feet). High wind sailing with a centerboard down is mostly reserved for getting to windward I believe, and is a unique balancing act all its own when down correctly with feet out on the rail and the leeward rail in the water.

I have no experience on a Kona One, but have heard great things. I'll ride an early 90's Mistral One Design in lighter summer winds for kicks, so I have based my response on that. Still brings a smile to my face to go wherever I want on the lake, as well as get her up and planning. When planning she's like riding a big cigarette boat in chop. Smoothing out the smaller stuff like it isn't even there.
I hope that helps.
Doug
rochesterwindsports.com

Darbonne · Posted: Mon May 19, 2014 12:46 pm Post subject:

CB was all the way up.

d0uglass · Posted: Mon May 19, 2014 1:43 pm Post subject:

When you're planing, your board and fin are very responsive to changes in how your weight and force are distributed.

If your weight and pressure are distributed wrong, or they're shifting around a lot, then you'll bobble out of control or screech to a halt.

So you have to be very conscious about keeping an even distribution of weight and pressure. For example, you have to keep the side-to-side tilt of the board level, and you have to keep the nose-to-tail trim of the board on just a gentle upslope. For both of those things, it's essential to keep weight in the center of the board using mast base pressure, or as I call it, your third leg...

http://jimbodouglass.blogspot.com/2009/05/windsurfers-have-third-leg.html

xander.arch · Joined: 23 Apr 2009 Posts: 217

Yes, I'll second the third leg comment. Try engaging that leg by pushing down slightly with you front hand.

lucashurt · Joined: 06 Oct 2010 Posts: 21

Hanging on for dear life is part of the adrenaline rush that hooks people to windsurfing. As your technique gets better, everything will settle down and you can go the same speed (or faster) but still be relaxed. Follow the great advice given here, but be sure to enjoy this stage of your learning curve. It's very exciting.

Darbonne · Posted: Mon May 19, 2014 3:12 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the advice. I felt like I had good MBP but maybe not. I was unable to really hang from the boom and find the balance. It all happens so quickly. I could see the wind coming and was trying to prepare for it. There was so much power when it hit. Going to keep working on it. Had a blast, and was very sore the next day.

beaglebuddy · Joined: 10 Feb 2012 Posts: 1120

It's the same old story, committing more to the harness and less to hanging on with your arms. There are some things to think about when out sailing;
Get down James Brown, when you need control get low, bend the knees some and get your butt down.
Play the piano with your fingers, you should try to get enough of your weight into the harness that you don't have a death grip on the boom and you can simulate playing the piano and make sure your arms aren't too wide apart, try to keep them closer to the harness lines you may be surprised to find your arms too far apart especially the front arm as it creeps forward for security.
To help commit more point your elbows down and hunch your shoulders forward, when cruising along at a good speed the arms are just to help balance the rig, you shouldn't be pulling with the arms to counter the wind, use your body weight thru the harness, this puts all the pressure on the mast foot which settles everything down. Then try sailing with the back hand free, the front hand should be able to balance the rig for a while if you are committed enough to the harness.
Once you sort this out everything else will fall into line, getting into the footstraps will be easy and with your feet locked in you will feel much more in control, going fast out of the straps is not a very secure feeling. Once in the straps you can start playing around with toe pressure and unweighting your feet.