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GoPro Video of me in here. Looking for advice
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ghost1



Joined: 11 Mar 2013
Posts: 56
Location: Burlington Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Fri May 29, 2015 5:01 pm    Post subject: GoPro Video of me in here. Looking for advice Reply with quote

I had some fun with my new gopro making a video. Just tried a bunch of different things with some new video editing software.

The sailing starts @ 1:30 or so. Was looking for advice on my technique. I've been watching Guy Cribb's gybing video a lot and religiously watched Jem Hall's Beginner to Winner. So I'm focussing on mastfoot pressure, getting low, etc. But I still make a lot of mistakes.

I've sailed for 3 years now. This year I'm really focussing on making it out of jibes planing. I can make it around more than half the time, but I usually end up slowing down a lot and pointing the nose too far upwind. This video was in challenging conditions for me. I had 5.8 Ezzy Tiger, 125L X-Cite Ride, 28" lines, and my boom at just over should height.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsV58BolNZI

Thanks in advance!
Jonathan
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Fri May 29, 2015 6:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't learn much from watching others ... I gotta learn by doing ... so I'm not very astute at correcting others' technique. HOWEVER, I do see a few things in your video that held back my jibing progress.

One, I, like you, was waiting FAR too long/late to jibe the sail. I do MUCH better if, presuming I'm powered up, when I* jibe the sail MUCH sooner ... before I reach straight downwind. The pull in my sail is minimal then, so it's easy to flip the sail and it is ready to provide power on the new broad reach a soon as my board passes through straight downwind. Result: continuous planing. Cure: THROW the back hand away, THROW the mast across your face, GRAB the new side of the boom as it floats untouched right where you want it, and GO … sheet in and fly away into the new broad reach. Done right, you will lose no speed anywhere in your jibe, and may even accelerate all the way through just as you did when you first bore off the wind. Such jibes are all downhill in that sense, so there’s no reason to slow down because you’re sailing in a broad reach with the power ON the whole time except for the small fraction of a second it takes to spin the sail.

*, and two, *I*, not the wind, flip my sail. If I wait too long, I slow down so much the wind catches up with me, I lose the plane, I’m fighting for balance in the bumps, and I’ve still got to manhandle the sail around like a barn door on a windy day as I grind to a halt. Cure: I THROW my sail into a spin about its center, not about the mast, just before the board points downwind. That alone was my Eureka moment in jibing.

Three, my steering was rather rigid and unimaginative. I was tracing straight lines across the terrain, feeling less like a driver and more like a passenger as I plowed over every bump and ignored endless opportunities to slash pointless but FUN right and left slashes. The resulting unfamiliarity with making and correcting arcs at speed left me unprepared to drive the board and rig through 180 degree turns with bumps, balance, apparent wind shifts, and hand’n’feet switches going on. My cure was learning to follow and use the terrain -- playing on it rather than cruising over it -- with predictability and comfort. This helped my jibing immensely, as I became much more adept at adjusting to and accommodating bumps and deviations in my path caused by terrain or operator error. Bonus: USING the terrain as a playground rather than TOLERATING it as an obstacle opens up whole new vistas in the sport.

And fourth, I applied snow skiing 101 to initiating the turn: Hips. I put my body into the century-old skier’s C (I’m guessing that you’ve been on skis, considering your location) … feet and shoulders led through the turn by my hips. I consciously replaced mashing the inside rail with my back foot with subconsciously driving my hips into the turn. It kept my feet, hips, torso, and shoulders where they needed to be AND shifted my weight onto the lee rail all with only one motion … driving my hips into the turn.

It was like magic. Greater speed, less wasted time and movement, tighter and fuller carves, far fewer falls to the inside because my shoulders remained over the board, no more thinking about rail pressure … just pure carving as long as I kept driving those hips as they led into and through the turn.

The problem that created was turning so much faster and farther than my old methods allowed that I was jibing the sail way too late. That takes us full circle back to my first, opening, point above.

Git ‘er done, as even a big slalom board is losing speed every moment it’s not under power.

Mike \m/
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westender



Joined: 02 Aug 2007
Posts: 1288
Location: Portland / Gorge

PostPosted: Fri May 29, 2015 7:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

To me,, your style is, resisting the pull of the sail with your upper body. Not harnessing the power with your harness. Looks like you really got a hold of that boom. Shorten your lines. ???
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gvogelsang



Joined: 09 Nov 1988
Posts: 435

PostPosted: Fri May 29, 2015 7:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi. Great video!

I sail down in Buffalo. come on down sometime to Gallagher beach on the outer harbor; the water is warmer, the water is flatter (behind the break wall), and there are some good sailors. It works great in a southwest, which is the prevailing wind at our end of the lake. Doug Curtis (Curtis Sport Connection) might be able to give you some pointers.

Or go down to Hamburg Beach if you want to sail out in the lake, in decent waves.

How to get better? Keep on sailing!

I would seriously consider a trip to Hatteras, and taking some lessons down there. Reading, or studying someone's else's videos can be helpful, but from my experience there is nothing better than an on-water lesson from a good instructor. I had a great lesson from Andy Brandt once at the Gorge. It was tremendously helpful.

Whatever you do, keep on doing it!

Meet me at Gallagher and you can try my new Firemove 112 if I can have a ride on your X-Cite Ride Plus 125!
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gvogelsang



Joined: 09 Nov 1988
Posts: 435

PostPosted: Fri May 29, 2015 7:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Whoops, forgot to mention that when I was younger, there were a lot of good windsurfers at Sherkston, on your side of the border.

As a matter of fact, I learned just down the beach from Sherkston. I have had many of my best days in that bay.

The water is warmer!

Can't beat a southwest 15 to 25 in August at Sherkston with your equipment. Unless you are very advanced with a waveboard and it is blowing 30 - 40 there in the fall.
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kevinkan



Joined: 07 Jun 2001
Posts: 1661
Location: San Francisco

PostPosted: Sat May 30, 2015 1:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

enjoyed your video... i felt like I was there, and I could see having a really good time in your spot Very Happy

ahhh... jibing. It's like the slogan to that game, Othello: a minute to learn, a lifetime to master... except it takes much more than a minute to learn, and I don't really know if it can be mastered, but it certainly need not take a lifetime to get really good at it.

there are a lot of different opinions on jibing, and some have more applicability in high wind vs light wind. Personally, I think of jibing as an adaptive/reactive skill. I consider myself a fairly competent jiber, and I choose my technique and arc depending on the terrain. Basically, jibing isn't about learning one skill, it's about learning a lot of related skills.

Lots of information here... hopefully each poster can give you a nugget of knowledge that will help you in your quest.

A lot of people focus in on mast foot pressure (MFP). I prefer to focus on board trim... i.e. how your board is carving through the water and how it's gliding (or not gliding). MFP is one of the components to achieve optimal trim, but it's not the end all be all. I figure you have your body weight distribution and MFP that will influence the trim of your board through a carve. One of the most important things for planing out of a jibe is good board trim through your carve. It's something that's more easily concentrated on when the maneuver is less technically complex... like in a carve 360 or duck jibe. Nonetheless, if you want to plane through a jibe it's important that your board not wobble back and forth and side to side. This is mostly controlled by your feet as you're not going to have a lot of MFP when you're jibing the sail. For some people, this is easier before you switch your feet (carve jibe). For some people, this is easier after you flip your feet (step jibe). For me, it just depends on the conditions. I'm more likely to carve jibe when it's really windy or if there is good sized swell, and and more likely to step jibe when it's not as windy or if the water is really flat. I'm predominantly a step jiber though.

A windsurf board is like a bicycle... it's more stable the faster it's moving. If you can maintain speed through your jibe through proper setup and good board trim, the board will be much more stable when you switch your feet and/or jibe the sail.

Also, if you've skied, surfed, snowboarded, skateboarded, and ever pumped a turn, this is essentially what happens in a good flat water jibe.

This is just a tiny bit of the jibing equation. I'm not that great at explaining jibes top to bottom. One video that I really learned a lot from was Jibing w/ Alan Cadiz. Andy Brandt from ABK also is a great instructor if he is available to you.

Good luck!

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Kevin Kan
Sunset Sailboards, San Francisco CA
http://www.sunsetsailboards.com
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coachg



Joined: 10 Sep 2000
Posts: 3549

PostPosted: Sat May 30, 2015 9:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I’ll piggyback on Kevin’s excellent bike analogy. The best way to carry speed though a jibe is by having good speed entering the jibe. Your setup is the only phase of your jibe that you have total control over so it is the one you should really focus on in the learning stages. Watching the video your setup is rushed, unique & leads you to do more of a planing pivot jibe instead of a planing carve jibe.

What I see as an instructor in your setup. You don’t reach back on the boom with your back hand, you stand up & stomp on the tail with your back foot pointing more towards the back of the board than the front and you unhook after you have stepped. This causes you to lean all of your weight onto your back foot as you hold on for dear life like trying to reign in a runaway horse. You can see your bent back leg but extended front leg as you are trying to pivot the board around.

What I would suggest you do is look back to make sure it is clear to jibe then:
1. Reach back with your back hand, way back .
2. Sheet in hard & then unhook by raising your hips
3. Hang very low after unhooking
4. Gently slide your back foot out of the footstrap & over to the leeward side pointing forward almost parallel to your front foot.

That is your setup. I would practice those four things until the casual observer cant notice when you get out of your harness. Others will talk about the entry, transition or exit phase but I prefer to focus on your setup.

Coachg
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adywind



Joined: 08 Jan 2012
Posts: 665

PostPosted: Sat May 30, 2015 4:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You lack confidence and experience but those will come with TOW. Have you considered adding a ~100L FSW /or a fast wave /board for the 5.5-6.5 range ? It will be much better suited for the conditions like those in the video. 3 footstraps and a bit more rocker will let you play with those waves instead of just sailing between them , a lot better air control in jumps too. It will be very beneficial for your progress and you can set up the Xciteride with the footstraps on the outside and use it for blasting in lighter/flatter conditions with >6.5 sails.
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PeconicPuffin



Joined: 07 Jun 2004
Posts: 1830

PostPosted: Sun May 31, 2015 8:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Coach's comments on the set up are crucial. Don't underestimate the importance of the set up...while it looks undramatic compared to the carve and sail/footwork, it determines how much speed you carry in. The more speed you keep, the easier the other parts are. The more speed you lose, the harder.

I'd also add that when you initiate your carve you look like you're swinging your weight into the turn but not forward. If you want to carry speed and plane through you need your weight more forward and over the board. In the following blog post I just put a clip that includes a jibe about 10 seconds in. Per Coach, note that when I unhook it's subtle...you just see the harness lines fall away, as opposed to a big arm pull which disrupts the sail, mast base pressure, board trim etc. Also (the camera is on my head) see how my head and torso are over the board until I'm 2/3 through the jibe, at which point I'm getting back out over the water to sheet in on the new tack.


http://www.peconicpuffin.com/the_peconic_puffin/2015/05/the-unexpected-47-day-with-video.html

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Michael
http://www.peconicpuffin.com


Last edited by PeconicPuffin on Sun May 31, 2015 2:26 pm; edited 1 time in total
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swchandler



Joined: 08 Nov 1993
Posts: 10588

PostPosted: Sun May 31, 2015 2:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In watching the video, rather than focusing on the jibes, I was checking out the conditions, particularly the very onshore setup that allows you move between the waves in a down the line fashion. adywind picked up on the same things as I did in the video. Having so much board volume makes things a bit more challenging, especially if you're really powered up. Also, sailing on a big board with the straps on the internal settings only goes so far to settle things down and give you the control you need. Having a smaller volume board really makes a difference in these conditions. Having a more flexible multi-board quiver would allow you to keep your JP setup in the outboard strap positions to take advantage of lighter winds.

As far as jibing advice, you've got lots of great input coming from others here. The one thing that I might highlight is the fact that you have the Go Pro setup to record what you're doing or not doing well. To improve your results, you might experiment a bit with camera positioning to best catch you in the turns. Also, using a slow motion capability, if you have that, will allow you concentrate on the details.

It is apropos that Kevin Kan offered his sage advice. Recently, he has been styling in a number of great videos posted here lately at various SF Bay venues. He's a powerful and accomplished sailor with a wide repertoire of freestyle moves that he does so well.
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