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Bought a new freestyle board
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brettn



Joined: 22 Nov 2000
Posts: 114

PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 2:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Awesome post!

There are two of us learning freestyle north of the Gorge. Wow. That's about 100% more people than I expected.

Yeah, there's no question that Squamish is more predictable, blowing more often, and blowing at least one sail size harder.

Here is the link for our Chuckanut northerlies:

http://www.nwwind.net/regionfcst.php
If you see a forecast of NNW of 15 or better, it's likely a go. Also if TJ's is looking good, that's a good indicator as well. Here's the link for that:
http://home.comcast.net/~wxtofly/loopallbasic.html?param=tenmwind&region=PNW&grid=w2
Also if you go here and see Padilla blowing NNW 12 or better that usually means it's on down on Chuckanut Drive.
http://www.bellinghamkiteboarding.com/wind.php
Also you can subscribe to our google group and tune into the chatter:
bellingham-board-sports@googlegroups.com
Also in the summer we get a fog bank over Fairhaven and sunshine up by you, so it'll blow from dawn til 10am, from the south. This is unforecasted. You just have to look at the locust sensor and if there's wind then it's a go. These winds are strongest at dawn and usually gone by 11. Not sure they're worth driving for. Killer warm flat water though. Knee deep for miles. Perfect for picking yourself up after botched freestyle moves.

Yes, after 20 years of leaning back on stock airs it's been a struggle to take off leaning forward. Seems like leaning down wind may help too. Have you noticed that?

Congratulations, you are pretty far along! You are where I hope to be by September. I'm jealous. Hopefully we get 60 good freestyle days here, over the next 6 months.

But I must confess that this place has a skunk factor that has kept it off the map.
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brettn



Joined: 22 Nov 2000
Posts: 114

PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 7:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I got 180 degrees around on a Vulcan. For several nano seconds I was sliding backwards. I'm elated. I crashed immediately. I don't even think my back foot was still in the strap. Nonetheless that brief moment was really something.
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bericw



Joined: 07 Mar 2006
Posts: 90

PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 9:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Awesome on the slide!

See you at http://abkboardsports.com/camps/details/277 ?
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loonie2



Joined: 18 Jun 2004
Posts: 145

PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 10:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Congrats on the progress!!!

Mike
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brettn



Joined: 22 Nov 2000
Posts: 114

PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 8:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I got a couple more of them to slide backwards! What fun. Falling into the water straight upwind. This is presumably due to not leaning far enough over the stringer. 20 years of stock airs is not unlearned in a day I guess. Still seems like I spend a lot of time in mid air trying to get the nose back to the water. Be nice if the nose could dive down and grab water while the rest of it is still rising. Don't I want to pole vault around/over as I'm rising? Evil invisible forces stop the nose from coming back down ahead of the stern.

Freestyle camp sounds like fun.
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kevinkan



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

PostPosted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

one thought on learning vulcans... a lot of people try to learn them in really flat water and going downwind. I found it much easier to learn them in a little chop and by jumping more across the wind or a little bit into the wind. Popping off flat water downwind is good for rotating into a spock and it can give you a long slide, but it poses it's own set of challenges. Changing the angle to a beam reach or just upwind of that off a little piece of chop gives you a little more power in the sail and a more familiar jumping motion (although it's not the same as a chop hop). If you can imagine finding a small piece of chop and unweighting your feet as you fly off it, that's what I aim for. The rest of the mechanics are pretty much the same, but I find the takeoff and rotation a little easier this way. It's very important to get the nose pointed down as you rotate so you land on the nose with all your weight on the ball of your front foot and your head over the mast base area. As you get better with them, you might find that you can throw a vulcan in some serious chop/swell and get a lot of air and land on the nose with a nice cushiony landing with very little slide. This is how they were first done by Sean Ordonez off a wave in Maui. The trick has definitely evolved since then, but there are a lot of ways it can be done.
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Sunset Sailboards, San Francisco CA
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brettn



Joined: 22 Nov 2000
Posts: 114

PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 1:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So to recap what I've learned from helpful folks and way too much utube, the things I should be thinking about are:
1) beam reach, small piece of chop
2) lean down wind and over the nose
3) push down with the front foot then the back; lift up with the front foot.
4) as the stern leaves the water let go with the back hand and lift up with the mast hand
5) immediately push down with the mast hand, and jam the nose into the water asap
6) come hard across my body to windward with the mast hand; grab the new side of the boom, get slightly backwinded, sheet in and sail awkwardly away switch.

Should anything else be going through my head?
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brettn



Joined: 22 Nov 2000
Posts: 114

PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2013 7:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had another day of practice. The pineapple express came through Bellingham and we got 4.5 wind and 55 degrees. I was able to try maybe 30 of them. Knee-deep water was nice, given that the bay is maybe 38 degrees right now.

I think now about 75% of them are getting into a comfortable slide. Less air seemed to work better. On one I even got both hands on the new side of the boom.

I'm still crashing down onto the back foot with about 4 g's of body weight, mashing the stern into the mud. I'm supposed to have all my weight on the front foot when landing. In actuality I am pulling up on the front strap, instead of pulling up on the back strap. Also my mast in the slide is way down wind of me and I'm in a bow and arrow.

Kevin attempted to diagnose my symptoms over the phone, which I thought was nice of him. He will stop taking my calls soon I'm sure, ha ha.

The prescription was to get further forward on takeoff and keep the boom close and push it to weather as the spin is coming around...

It is remarkable how little air is enough. I speculate the move is safer with minimal air and not crashing down from 4 feet up.
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bobgatpdx1



Joined: 13 Oct 2002
Posts: 385

PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 12:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fanatic Skate is a great board. I have the 100L - love it.
I'm jealous of your vulcan progress. I have tried on and off for several years but haven't been able to even get the first steps going. Don't know where to begin I guess ...
Bob
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brettn



Joined: 22 Nov 2000
Posts: 114

PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 1:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What happens when you try them? If you tell us a little more the experts can jump in and diagnose.

I tried maybe 100 of them per summer the last 4 summers, and never got more than 90 degrees around. Then the whole board would smash onto the water all at once and I would get ejected. I finally quit, figuring I wasn't getting anywhere and would eventually injure myself.

I think my mental breakthrough came when I finally convinced myself to leave the water leaning forward instead of back. I resisted this for years, thinking if I leaned forward I would break every bone in my body. When I finally got forward the nose landed first, albeit only slightly ahead of the stern. The 'nose dip' slowed the nose down, allowing the stern to come around a bit before it hit the water. This only got me around another 10 degrees, but proved to me that things get better not worse when I lean forward.

From there I've been concentrating on getting less air, but pushing down the mast hard, and trying to olly the board, not jump it. Again, let the experts chime in, but I think of the olly as pushing down with the front foot, THEN the back foot, then lifting with the front foot, while leaving the back foot and the stern on the water. Then I lift hard with the back foot and push down hard with the front foot, (lift up with the mast hand, then push down hard with the mast hand, at the same time). This porpoises the board. It's not about big air, it's about getting the nose down ahead of the stern.
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