Windsurfing Magazine

luke
2010-02-16 09:56:21 | 10172 views | 6 Comments

The wind is howling and the water is flat. You’re coming in hot and there’s only one thing to do: Jibe like a hero. In this windsurfing how to, learn the perfect jibe technique in five simple steps.

1. Slide your hands back on the boom and then unhook and get low, transferring your weight from the harness into your front hand in order to maintain constant mast-base pressure. Place your back foot on the downwind rail about shoulder-width from your front foot and pointing in the same direction. Initiate the jibe by rolling your hips into the turn, getting your weight forward and committing to the carve.

2. Let your front arm extend as much as possible, allowing the mast to really fall over. The more you twist your hips into the turn, the easier this is. Keep looking in the direction of the turn and maintain as much weight in your front foot and front arm as possible. This is crucial to maintaining a consistent drive through the turn, which not only maximizes your speed, but also eliminates any sort of bouncing out.

3. Almost as quickly as you twist in with your hips and throw the sail down, you need to twist out of the turn with your hips to get the sail back up. As the sail is coming back up and transitioning to the other rail, bring your front foot out of the strap and place it behind your back foot on the centerline. Get ready for a big step forward with your old back foot, with an open stance.

4. Most crucial step: DO NOT LOOK AT THE SAIL! Keep your head looking in the direction of the turn. If you are still carrying a lot of speed, keep your weight on the heel of your new back foot in order to keep the board carving. Only if you enter a lull or start to lose speed do you then roll your weight onto your front foot to assist in maintaining a plane.

5. While continuing to look through the turn, release the sail with your back hand while simultaneously loosening your grip on your front hand, sliding it toward the mast to allow an easier flip. Grab the new side of the sail with an underhand grip and get low to counter the power as you sheet in. Hook in, get in the foot straps and blast away!

Hero Help

Look through your turn Where the head looks, the body and rig will follow. If you look at your sail when flipping it, you aren’t looking through the turn, and the board will stop carving through. This will also make it harder for the sail to finish rotating, so even if you do pull it off, a lot of speed will be lost. Instead, keep your head looking through the turn, maintaining the carve, and your body will naturally bring the sail back into your line of sight.

Can’t lay it down? In order for the sail to lie down fully, the mast must be able to fall into the turn. With your hands placed in the normal sailing position, your front arm won’t allow the mast to fall all the way in. So be sure to move both hands back on the boom, not just your back hand. The best way to experiment with this is to try the one-handed laydown. Put your back hand right behind the harness line and let go with your front hand. Without your front hand on the boom, the mast can fall into the turn. It may seem scary, but it’s actually easier, and you’ll definitely impress your friends on the beach at the same time!

Swivel to sheet in More than just sheeting in with your back hand, your whole body must commit to the turn for a true hero jibe. Rolling your hips into the turn makes the mast drop in and the sail sheet in, by using your whole body to counter the sail rather than just your back arm. This also prevents bouncing out through the turn, a common error caused by lack of mast base pressure. If the weight is all in your feet in the back, any chop will send the board bouncing, resulting in loss of speed and sometimes crashing. Instead, exerting force through the mast by twisting your body up and over the rig provides constant pressure through the mast to keep the board flat and drive it through the turn, letting you jibe like a hero — even in chop.