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kristinIdeally, I'd be spending all my days with side to side off shore winds with clean a perfectly peeling 4-6 ft point break
The reality however, is that most of the competition and a lot of free sailing I encounter on my travels (and that most people sail in) is waist to head high cross to cross onshore beach break conditions.
Which in fact what my local beach is like. (Scarborough beach in Perth) Wind waves breaking close to the shore with a strong current running down the beach, with little or no banks producing stunning close outs. The thing is, I still really enjoy these types of conditions, because when your technique and equipment is set up for this, it really is a lot of fun.
Equipment
Boards- With your equipment, take the right horse to the right track. Sure a sleek looking gun looks beautiful, feels great under your arm and works well in the conditions of the first sentence, but you wouldn't take a board shaped for Pipeline and then go ride it at Huntington beach.
First of all you want to make life easy. You want a board to be stable (For transitions and in foamy white water), you want it to get going easily, and you want to be able to get out over white water and deal with a current. This is where a wider board will help and also keep you moving through flat parts of the wave. (Generally more user friendly all round).
You also want a board to produce drive at slower speeds. My favourite combination for this is a parallel mid section when you're leaning forward for drive, and then a hip between the feet to be able turn off. Also taken from surfboards designed for small waves, made popular by Al Merrick.
When you put it on rail you don't want it to bog down, so you don't want thin little wafer pinched rails meant for containing high speed turns, (a la Hookipa.) A thicker boxier rail will help your turn maintain speed all the way through a turn.
Recently I'd been going a lot shorter in my boards as well, which helps to be able to fit into the pocket of smaller waves, and reducing the radius of my arcs.
Sails- Generally spoken you rely a little more on the power of the sail to provide speed into turns from the sail, than from the wave as they are generally not so powerful, and you are not going down the line to generate speed. That's why most onshore sails have been designed with a bit more back handy type grunt. This being that the feature to a good onshore bottom turn is keeping the clew open and driving off the clew into a section. (More later)
So a too sensitive, “on and off” type feel in the sail, wouldn't be the most desirable I would say.
The On-Shore Bottom Turn.
Is something that's provided me with the most enjoyment in mushy beach breaks because it provides you with the opportunity to hit a front side section with speed for either an air or a good solid smack.
Everything is about setting up. For example, you'll be riding a swell and positioning yourself upwind of the section that you're bottom turning into and wanting to hit. The thing is, you can't just go straight down and do a normal bottom turn in the pocket, where the rig is laid down like in all the Hookipa shots, as by the time you've got to the top you will have lost all your speed.
What you need to do is wait until the wave starts to bowl, and then power up trying to go as fast as possible down the face, but going out in front of the wave as you power up your bottom turn rail.
You also want to keep the mast quite vertical and keep your back hand extended keeping the clew open, twisting with your torso, and keeping your front leg sort of straight, driving, then following through with the back foot say about halfway through the bottom turn. This is all about powering up the clew and driving off the rail, trying to produce speed up the face.
This is whe the transition from un-weighting the bottom turn and moving into position to attack the lip. Which is where you want to be more crouched with your weight neutral half way up the wave, before initiating the top turn rail before you make contact and re-direct off the lip.
Hitting the Lip (Or Cutting Back) and Getting Airs.
The most fun I get out of dealing with little waves is getting rotational.
Either at lip level punching it and having the tail come around, or hitting it and getting air and going through the same motion. They're very similar motions, just done either under the lip and forceful, or above the lip and floated around.
This scenario is; you're leading in with your front, guiding foot. Then just before you hit the lip depending on how fast you're going and how you are weighted, you can go two different ways.
Hitting the Lip
Here you would crouch and lean into your front foot, leaning into your cutback rail just before contact with the lip. As you make contact, your weight is coming down onto the front leg, as your back foot is following through with the tail.
You've just got to be thinking release. Sure it feels great to go up and be re- directed by a lip, but it feels fantastic to go up feel the punch of the wave as your tail simultaneously releases, whipping around and then reconnecting as you come back down.
Getting On-Shore Air
In getting air it's a similar set up with the main difference being that you don't want to be so committed to your bottom turn. (Leaning out over your rails). It's generally easier to be more weighted over your board before coming up the face to launch into the air.
You've still weighted up the inside rail and clew, you still have the transition between bottom turn and approach to the lip, but instead of leaning your front shoulder down, you sort of wait as you're going up the face for the kick from the lip, which is when you'll initiate the same motion of leading with your front foot, and following through with the back.
You must remember to keep the clew open (Back hand extended) as well, for when it's shut, you just fall out of the sky and won't project.
Landing's tend to be nose first with the best ones being when you get the tail coming all the way around so you're back foot's all extended and you're almost going backwards, but these tend to happen by mistake almost and for me is when I sort of magically by mistake get it all right. For I'm still learning about how to do them the best, which is the beautiful thing about wave sailing, as it's almost a never ending quest for improvement.
Backside Attack.
Basically there are two different ways of going about going backside.
1- First there's the ones that look like a shovit. You still do bottom turns in onshore, it's just its all arse about. You dig in with your heels to get the reverse arc happening, trying to get the board going up the face as vertically as possible. In the transition, or period where the rail is un-weighted.
You keep your back hand sheeted in and push the front hand forward as your weight comes over the boom, the sail backwinds and the board goes out behind you to make contact with the lip.
The best ones being when the tip of the rig almost hits the water as your ass goes up and you extend the back leg. (Which with practice can also project into airs.)
That's always been a bit of a windsurfer move to me though, and prefer a more rails on approach.
2- The second one feels more like surfing. Which is where you keep the rig more upright not sheeting in so much with the back hand, as you dig your heels in to bottom turn up the face.
Then as you transition from your Bottom turn, you're sail will de power a little, but not backwind, and you guide with your front leg again as to where you want to go. Then it's either sheet in and do a
pivotal turn as you sheet in, throwing almost a slam jibe or something up the face, or in the bowl of the wave, or make contact with the lip with the same motion and try get a bit of release with your fin as well. (This feels really good)
Summary
So Basically, High Performance wave sailing is possible in any kind of conditions, especially with some of the innovations the young guys are bringing into wave sailing from the freestyle movement, which being of the older generation, am just starting to get my head around.
These guys are taking it to the next level with these type of airs flowing into rotational movements on landing. (Taka's) as well as 360's. Then there Bjorn's Backside three sixties and all this other stuff I still have to learn, all of which are possible in the crappiest of little waves. You just have to open your mind to the possibilities and get creative, maintaining the three fundamentals of good waveriding, being - Speed, Flow and Power.
Go as fast as you can, do it with style and hit it hard, oh, and have fun.
hen it's either sheet in and do a pivotal turn as you sheet in, throwing almost a slam jibe or something up the face, or in the bowl of the wave, or make contact with the lip with the same motion and try get a bit of release with your fin as well. (This feels really good)
Summary
So Basically, High Performance wave sailing is possible in any kind of conditions, especially with some of the innovations the young guys are bringing into wave sailing from the freestyle movement, which being of the older generation, am just starting to get my head around.
These guys are taking it to the next level with these type of airs flowing into rotational movements on landing. (Taka's) as well as 360's. Then there Bjorn's Backside three sixties and all this other stuff I still have to learn, all of which are possible in the crappiest of little waves. You just have to open your mind to the possibilities and get creative, maintaining the three fundamentals of good waveriding, being - Speed, Flow and Power.
Go as fast as you can, do it with style and hit it hard, oh, and have fun.
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