Jibing in chop....

[hobie2772]

Ive pretty much got the flat water jibe down pat. Trouble is when Im out in any kind of wind chop & go for the fully powered jibe I do one of two & sometimes both:

1.) Enter jibe ripping fast, board gets air off the back of some chop as I head downwind carving, fin comes out of the water mid-carve & down I go!

2.) Enter jibe ripping fast, lean down on the boom as I carve, knees bent & bounce, bounce, bounce, I get shaken like a James Bond martini & off I go!

I think Im on the right track with #2 keeping mast foot pressure to keep the board down. Any other tips from the experts?????

Thanks in advance!

Chris

[gemoore]

Are you turning hard, tight radius jibes? Theres a lot you could be doing wrong, but my gestalt from your query is that youre making a long arc like you can on flat water. In chop, it takes a lot more finesse to pull off a wide radius jibe. I suggest trying this:

Set up, and get to the crest of a wave. Carve REALLY hard, LOTS of back foot toe pressure.
The board will turn on a dime, and youll end up in one of two main exits - down the wave clew first, or youll rotate the sail before you know what happened. Your objective in this drill should be to do it all between peak, trough, peak. Theres no bouncing, since you dont go over any waves, and because of youre carving so hard the board is slicing through the water.

Bon chance

GEM

[1aloop]

Both these make me wonder if your boom is to low, and maybe your mast base is to far back, and maybe your fin is to big or is to pointy. Stay real low by bending your knees to the point that it seems like you are reaching up for your booms, lean forward and turn your knees and hips into the turn keeping more weight on the inside rail. Oh yea and do it often.

[isobars]

1. Bend your knees WAY more than you think you should. If you arent looking forward from BENEATH your booms, you arent bending your knees enough.
2. Shove your hips into the turn as though closing a car door with your arms ful of groceries. Youll carve that turn on a dime, long before you have time to spin the sail. Then learn to spin the sail fast enough to keep up, and youre in business.
3. Use a wavy fin. They track much better in choppy turns than a blade.

Thats my short answer. Give us your e-mail address and Ill send you my long one.

Mike \m/

[behrreich]

I think that GEM hit the nail on the head. Timing the jibe within the chop is extremely important to helping you make the turn. When youre in chop or in waves, you must think about picking the right moment to turn so that you are helped rather than hindered by the swell/chop. You dont need to worry about this in flat water.

Also, like GEM said, you should control the radius of your turn (if you can) so that you can complete your jibe within a wavelength. If youre moving across another wave crest in the middle of your turn, its going to be harder to maintain the carve. Of course, if youre in very tight chop, you really have no choice but to dig the rail in and hope for the best.

Bill

[Windlover]

Definitely, BEND the knees more than you think. Along with bearing off more to create a shorter turn, bleed off some the speed. Where lots of speed is okay on flat water, in chop it creates problems. Slow down a bit, set up, BEND the knees, BEND the knees, and rip your jibe. Everything Ive read from the pros is, BEND the knees. It works for me. Good luck.

Windlover

[isobars]

It depends on the board, too. I totally ignore chop when jibing, preferring by far to just lock my eyes on a horizon landmark (who drives their car around a curve watching the pavement?), bend my knees to at LEAST 90 degrees if the chop is thigh-high, and crank em out at full broad reach speed all the way through. In big chop on big swell, I look at the terrain just enough to initiate the jibe on the downwind face of the swell, not the upwindside -- if thats convenient. But then my workhorse board is designed to maximize control in heavy air and rough terrain, which helps immensely whether jibing, reaching, or slashing in terrain I cant see over.

Mike \m/

[DonORiordan]

Hmm. wonder if the original message in this thread was worried about chop or swell, there is a difference. And of course, you can have choppy swell to, (as opposed to sweet smooth swell)

For swell, the jibe within a wavelength tip applies. This usually means a tight radius jibe is required. You can afford to stall the jibe completely if you time it right, since you will be exiting coming down a wave/swell anyway, which keeps you moving/planing at good speed. (if you tried this in flat water, you would stall dead and end up pointing straight upwind probably)

For disorganized chop, the wavelength argument doesnt really apply, since there are no waves . Here its best to just go for a tight radius jibe, so that you get it over with before the board starts bouncing too much. Which means the same techique as for swell above. So you might as well learn it.

You can also carve longer radius jibes in chop, but you really have to get your weight forward and low (see all the knee bend hints!) and carve the board thru the turn burying the entire inside rail. If you can bury the rail, the board will slice thru the chop instead of bouncing over it. Burying the rail involves mast foot pressure, sail forward and sheeted in hard, and front foot carrying most of your body weight, driving the rail down into the water. back foot controls attitude of the board (banking) only, not much weight on it at all.

Heres one to watch out for...I used to bend my knees to the extreme, and it was still bounce, bounce, bounce. Still happens occasionally. The problem was I was squatting over the tail with very bent knees, instead of LEANING FORWARD (which I thought I was doing, but actually I wasnt. A few photos corrected that). Leaning forward gets your weight onto the front foot, and allows you to bury the rail and thus slice thru the chop like it wasnt even there. Make sure you extend your front hand (nearest the mast) out STRAIGHT as you initiate the jibe. If you bend it and pull the sail back towards you, you are guaranteed to squat over the tail like I did for so long, and bounce, bounce, bounce. Straightening the front arm forces the sail forward, pulls you forward with it, transfers sail force into the mast foot, etc... its all good really.

and here is another tip.
Make sure you use the right size sail..if its too big, and you cannot oversheet it properly, you will be forced to lean back to counter, and bounce, bounce, bounce. If its a little small, that will probably force you to carve tighter, as you wont have the power/acceleration to got for a long drawn out carve. Which could be good in chop, for reasons given above.

enjoy the ride.

D