A Better Way To Jibe

[spennie]

I jibe with both feet out of the straps. Always have, always will. I have several good reasons to jibe with both feet out, and have never, in 19 years of windsurfing, heard a good valid reason to keep one foot in. My theory is that it’s left over from the olden days, when boards were so big you needed a strap to tilt those old monsters, and force them through a turn.
I’m not opposed to foot straps, that would be crazy, foot straps are essential to high-speed windsurfing, windsurfing in hell-chop (like Kanaha), and jumping of any kind, including Freestyle. This does not apply to Formula boards either, since they are also big monsters and need help when turning. I’m talking about normal jibes, the kind we all try to do all the time, on shortboards under 10’ long.
When I was first learning to windsurf, the friend who was teaching me told me about an acquaintance of his who torqued his knee apart while falling during a jibe. I vowed that that would never happen to me, and later, since I was teaching myself, there was no one to question my innovative technique. It’s worked well for me all this time, and I have about a 95% success rate on my jibes, here’s a few reasons why:
In a traditional jibe, your feet are almost side-by-side, and too far back to keep the board in trim, so you have to compensate by applying mast base pressure. To do that, you have to lean forward, towards the front of the board, at the same time the sail is trying to pull you forward, which is why so many boards have the nose snapped off by the boom. That is one wobbly tripod! I don't have to apply mast base pressure, I'm using my front foot up near the mast, which also gives me much better leverage over the sail’s pull. As a matter of fact I have a maneuver I invented called the “Dip & Toss”, which is a lay-down jibe followed by a no-hands sail flip. Traditional jibers will never do this, because as soon as you stop applying mast base pressure, your board stalls, because your feet are too far back. This also explains why it’s so hard to learn to jibe, why it’s so hard for most sailors to do a planing jibe, and why probably 80%-90% of sailors will come to a near or total stop when finishing a jibe.
Surfers and skateboarders ride with their feet over the centerline, which gives them a good solid stance to control their board’s tilt, and in the case of surfers allows them to shift their weight front or back quickly & easily to control board trim. Wave sailors know this, and will open up their straps to get their feet further over the centerline, because you have greater balance, control & power when your feet are where they belong. Wave boards also have their straps closer together, usually touching at the center, to get your feet on the centerline. Of course, having your feet too deep in the straps also exposes them to possible foot breakage and/or knee destruction if their foot gets stuck during a fall, but if you’re going to jump, you must be strapped in, c’est la vie.
On a traditional jibe in rough water, the heel of your front foot is bobbing around in the air with only your toes touching while you try to control it from the knee & hip (Try driving your car with your toes curled over the top of the accellerator and your heel not touching the floor. Stop & think about that.) If your knees are properly bent and absorbing the bounce and your front foot is firmly planted on the board, you can go through 3 foot chop at speed and actually increase your control. You can even wave sail pretty well like this, but again, if you jump your board’s going to fly off your feet and blow away.
I've been asked about 100 times "Without a strap to hold it in place, doesn't your front foot fly off the board?". I always reply with "Does your back foot fly off?" Centrifugal force is pressing you onto the deck, not off it, not much chance of slipping off. That same centrifugal force is smoothing out the board’s ride, while your wider stance, over the centerline, gives you much greater control.
Try it for one full day, as you'll need a few tries to get the feel of it. Keep your knees fully bent (good for any jibe), place your back foot heel on the centerline, then your front foot comes out just as you go up & over. Put it between the front straps & mast, right behind the mast step (universal) and directly on the centerline. An alternative is to move your front foot first (gasp!), which seems to work better in rough conditions, because the pressure of your front foot will keep the board from jumping around. You'll appreciate the extra nose pressure, especially if you’re a big guy like me. That same pressure keeps you glued to the board, and will help you plane through your jibe. Switch your feet in your usual way, and blast away planing!

[isobars]

THAT'S THE DUMBEST F-ING THING I'VE EVER SEEN ON ANY WINDSURFING FORUM. YOU KNOW GD WELL THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO JIBE, AND INNOVATION IS NOT ALLOWED IN THIS SPORT. YOUR STOOPID TECHNIQUE WILL NEVER WORK, SO STOP TELLING US IT DOES. SPEAKING FOR EVERY WINDSURFER ON THE PLANET, I GUARANTEE YOU THAT NO ONE WILL EVEN CONSIDER TRYING YOUR ASININE, CLUMSY, IMPOSSIBLE, NOVICE EXCUSE FOR A JIBE. STFU, YOU IGNORANT, FRESHWATER, KNOW-NOTHING, LYING FREAK, AND GET OFF OUR FORUM.

Now that THAT standard response to new ideas is out of the way, can we discuss, or at least try this one on our own, like adults?

Mike \m/

[spennie]

Wow, are you a Republican? Or just watching a lot of Fox News? ;-)

Here's a photo of my stoopid asinine technique in action. Thanks for the reply, pretty f-ing funny!

[d0uglass]

Heck- I'll try it!

PS- That's a cool looking bic in the picture.

[isobars]

That looks great on ultra-flat water. How well does it work in big crappy terrain? (It looks like it will be April before I get to try it.)

Mike \m/

[spennie]

I use it with an 8.2 in big crappy terrain, do the "front foot first" thing from the last paragraph. That photo is from Isabella, 4 years ago, it's the best jibe shot I have so far, and yes, it's smooth there.
Here's a quote from the middle: If your knees are properly bent and absorbing the bounce and your front foot is firmly planted on the board, you can go through 3 foot chop at speed and actually increase your control. I've jibed in the Gorge, in the Delta, at Kanaha, trust me, it works great everywhere.

[MalibuGuru]

I keep my front foot in until I'm almost all the way around. My back foot is out on the downwind rail.

[rsanrafael]

Spennie, I give you 50 points for out-of-the-straps thinking, and an additional 50 bonus points for coaxing isobars into revealing what just might be (or maybe not) a nascent sense of humor. Cheers!

Oh hell, the Bic, the sail, the hat--another 100 points. (Are you sure that was only 4 years ago?)

[isobars]

Your logic appeals to me and my initial questions dissipate more each time I read, visualize, and step through your description.

For example, my first question was, "How do I get my front foot out of and in front of its strap instantly when the mood strikes me to jibe without any forethought or preparation?" Answer: Taking an extra fraction of a second to do that, whether before or after putting my back foot on the rail, ensures that my front doesn't get stuck in the strap if I wait too long in the turn before removing it from the strap. This protects me from injury and helps insure a smoother exit line than one in which my old front foot is stuck. That's two points for your technique already.

You already answered the next question, about big chopswell, and it makes sense; if I bounce out in a rough turn, it's because my knees weren't bent deeply enough, not because I had a foot out of its strap. That's three points.

Then there's the boom downforce bit. I don't push down on my booms because I try to jibe so tight and fast that the board doesn't have time to porpoise. But sometimes my weight is too far aft and/or I hit more terrain than I expected, and I porpoise. It sounds like your two-step-forward bit takes care of that. 4 points.

Then there are the jibes in marginal winds at marginal speeds, or the sloppy jibes, or the jibes which carry us into a wind hole, any of which require that we get our weight forward instantly. Not after we unweigh, withdraw from its strap, and move forward, but ... NOW. A simple weight shift and we're there. 5 points.

I unweigh and switch both feet simultaneously any time they’re not busy doing something else. It works great most of the time. When it doesn’t, it’s because my front foot wasn’t as loose as I thought it was. Your way clears that hurdle before I even reach it. 6 points.

When my big, very flat, extended front foot comes slapping down hard and fast on a wet deck with power in my sail, it sometimes hydroplanes into or past the mast base. #%@+*!! Deliberately placing it up there preemptively should reduce or even solve that problem. 7 points.

Simple geometry dictates that we can transfer more weight onto a front leg -- virtually 100% of it if necessary for balance or resistive power -- than we can onto extended arms. 8 points.

When I wait too long in my turn before extracting that front foot from its strap, and the sail is fully powered in the new reach, and I step forward to oppose the sail pull, my old front foot is now locked in. No mas! 10 points.

My simultaneous foot switch usually involves both feet gliding unweighted from old to new positions. That front foot will hit its strap in the process. I’ll have to work to adapt that process. Minus one, back to 9 points.

But then there’s Jim, who broke several bones and joints in the top of his strapped-in front foot when he hit a gill net mid-jibe. Cost him a season and it still hurts years later. 10 points.

“Conventional wisdom” says we have to use the front foot to lever a short board through a jibe. Bunkums; a simple swish of the hips -- de rigueur in the Bay area -- carves that board so hard your fin is damned near dry. As you discovered, we don’t need no steenkin’ front strap in a short board jibe. 11 points.

The look on Beric’s face when he notices that I’m pulling both feet to jibe: priceless!

I gotta work on this one next spring. Thanks for what may turn out to be the best jibe tip I've heard since Monte's -- may he R.I.P. -- ~ 23 years ago.

Mike \m/

[isobars]