Windsurfing Magazine

kristin
2008-04-02 12:33:44 | 183 views | 0 Comments

Once you get down the most basic of windsurfing skills - those learned on the first day like balancing on the board, getting into sailing position, turning around, etc. - you'll soon realize that counterbalance and leverage are the building blocks of the sport.

Whether you realize it or not, most everything you do on a windsurfer involves adjusting your body weight against the forces of the wind and water upon the board and sail. A major illustration of this concept is the counterbalance you must provide against the pull of a wind-filled sail. Even Popeye couldn't hold a sail in the sheet-in position using only his arms. There's no leverage.

Think of it like a tug-of-war. You wouldn't stand up vertically and then bend forward at the waist when you felt the pull from the other side. You'd lean away from your opponent with your feet closest to him followed by your hips and then your shoulders even farther back. Windsurfing is much the same; without the leverage of your body weight countering the pull of the sail, you're going to lose the battle.

But because most beginners fear falling backward into the water, when they feel that pull from the sail, their natural reaction is to bend forward at the waist and try to muscle the sail with just their arms. While this may work a few times on your first day when you're learning with a tiny sail in a very light breeze, you'll soon realize that in anything more than just a puff of wind, you're going to end up wet:

The correct response when you feel the pull of the sail is to drive the hips forward toward the direction of the pull and lean your shoulders back against the pull. Let your arms hang long and loose, and grip the boom firmly but not like a vice. In addition, turn your front foot at a 45-degree angle so that it faces the mast base to help resist the pull of the sail: