Hanging on for dear life

NOVAAN · Joined: 28 Sep 1994 Posts: 1555

Even at almost 200lbs an 8.0 is getting pretty big in wind gusting over 20mph. A full on race sail with an experienced rider and the proper board will make it look easy. I'm 175lbs and when its gusting that high I rig my 5.5. Its always hard to rig the right sail when the wind is all over the place.
Everyone has a different style and opinion. I like to rig for the gusts. But that's just me. You will gain tons of control in the foot straps. You can sail with just the front foot in the straps at first. Let the board run off the wind a bit and get up to speed. Start working your way back on the board. Get your back foot right in front of the back strap and over the center line of the board. Front foot near the front strap. If you can put some weight on your back foot, its time to go for the front strap. Because that strap in on the wind ward rail, the board will want to round up wind. You can almost lift that front foot up a little to get the board to keep up to speed and not turn to the windward. The board will gain speed. As this happens see if you can put more weight on the front foot. Just a little. This will make the back foot feel lite. That's when you go for the back strap. Do it quickly. The board will want to head up wind when you go for the back strap. As soon as your in, turn the board back down wind just enough to keep it up and running. If you go to far, you can get pulled over the front of the board. let the board get up to full speed then start going back up wind a bit. If you start to lose speed bear off wind a bit. It might look like all the guys are going in a straight line but the whole time they are making small course corrections. Once you can water start and get into the straps, the whole world of windsurfing opens up....

coachg · Joined: 10 Sep 2000 Posts: 3564

Sounds like the classic symptom of not sheeting in when at speed. Many newbies go through that stage and it takes video footage of me following them before they believe it. "Wow, I could have sworn I was sheeted in" is the typical response after watching the film.

Coachg

LUCARO · Joined: 07 Dec 1997 Posts: 663

Near by any of these camps?

http://abkboardsports.com/camps/schedule

Darbonne · Posted: Mon May 19, 2014 5:29 pm Post subject:

I will try sheeting in more next time Coach. On one of my breaks I moved my harness lines back a little. Things felt pretty balanced when I was cruising along in a steady breeze. It was the gusts that kicked my ass. I thought about switching to a 7.0, but I thought the only way to learn is to push my personal limits. I am glad I did. Is it possible that the harness line position that worked in 16 MPH was not working in 25 MPH? I do plan on getting some instruction. There is a group in Dallas that I can hit up.

NOVAAN · Joined: 28 Sep 1994 Posts: 1555

You can go to World Winds at Bird island. Take lessons there or do a ABK camp. April is the best time to go

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20946

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20946

rangerider · Joined: 19 Jul 2009 Posts: 206

First off I can tell you that I have had many experiences of hanging on for dear life including recently on my windSup. Some things you might try are increasing your downhaul, lowering your boom slightly, moving your mast track forward for controlling the power and speed while planing. Are your harness lines long enough? Yes, I think you need to adjust your line attachment position on the boom slightly in higher winds (overpowered and gusty).

The first few times I got planing on my JP xcite ride I thought the board was just out of control it seemed so wild and explosive at the time. One of the problems with a big board (I think, correct me if I'm wrong) is that they are so heavy and thus generally accelerate slowly - the difference between a big longboard and a carbon slalom style board in this regard is huge. In a faster and lighter board the gust accelerates the board/rider/rig more easily which saves you from having to try to hold all that power in the sail on a big board that is more stuck to the water.

As a physician I will agree that back foot forward is safer and I do this when overpowered. In steady and marginal conditions I do front foot forward beacause I think it is more efficient. My first board didn't have footstraps and I was planing in the harness without for a season. The catapults were epic.

Sailboarder · Joined: 10 Apr 2011 Posts: 656

Darbonne,

I'm an intermediate now, working on my planing jibes. I learned by myself on the Kona and I still use it a lot. There are a few things specific to the Kona I will try to share.

It's a good idea to learn planing with a sail smaller than the 9.0. I guess your other sail is also more stable than the 9.0, so it's easier to forget about the sail. I used a lot a 7.5 for this, and I'm 210#.

Initially, I was trying to get the Kona on the plane while trying to keep it flattish fore-and-aft. It was not a good idea. While doing that, the planing area under the feet aims slightly downward instead of upwards. I could get on a slow plane like that, with my feet quite forward of the straps. The problem is that it's slow and it requires a lot of hard pulling too. I am not sure if you heard that before, but if you hear a suction sound, you can be sure this is the problem.

You need to aim to have the nose higher up, maybe 30-60 cm up. Look carefully at your board from the side. You will see that if the area under your feet is to point upward slightly, you need to have the nose up.

To properly get planing, you can start with your feet closer to the strap area. After the initial harder pull to get going, you will feel the pull diminish while speed increases. You won't need to walk back, but just take a step back while putting the front foot in the strap and then the back one too. The back foot kind of pushes the board forward so the front foot can get in the strap... But don't settle there, try to get the back foot in quickly before you gain too much speed.

Another thing I've experienced with the board is getting overfinned in gusty weather. In winds from maybe 15 to peaks of 25 kts, even if I could hang to my 7.5 sail, the standard 46 cm fin would get way too big. The board then becomes a wild bronco trying to kick you out. In the lulls, the water gets quite flat. You then accelerate a lot in the gust because the water doesn't slow you anymore and you get that super wild ride since the fin then tries hard to roll the board on it's side. A 40 fin is then much more appropriate.

Hope this helps!

PeconicPuffin · Joined: 07 Jun 2004 Posts: 1830