Is it just me or does every windsurfing magazine have a special feature on how to carve gybe ? ? ? ?

Am I the only one to be getting bored of how to gybe articles ?

rant rant !

Nope, its not just you...I've been thinking this for a while. Before I could gybe there weren't that many, but now that I can do it, every single month theres an article on the 'elusive' carve gybe... This months Boards magazine even has an article on how not to do it as far as I could work out..Not that I've read it yet.

Why can't they do an article on how to do table tops??...Or some other impressive looking trick that I could try next without hurting myself too much!...Its either carve gybes or clew-first willy skippers that I couldn't even contemplate having a go at!

Al.

Table tops are my favourite move by a long way, although these days the only ones I land are more like donkey kicks than anything else.

Still Robby Naish is the king of table tops for me.

As for these new fangled moves I can't get my head round one footed, one handed back loops, and what is a clew first switch stance spock 540 ? ?

mind you if I have a board that was 5kg who knows.........

I'd agree with that about duck gybing, when it works it feels so much more natural than normal gybing, you just need to be carrying lots of speed on the way in, guess you'll find it a lot easier on sails smaller than 6.7 too

I haven't quite got the hang of duck gybing yet. I've made one really nice on once, but usually end up dropping the sail downwind and it lands pretty heavily clew first on the water which doesn't do it much good.....So, as I have new sails at the moment I've pretty much stopped trying as I don't want to ruin them....Maybe next time we have decent 5.4m weather I should get my old Tushingham Scrambler out and have a day of trying nothing but duck gybes until I get it sorted.

Al.

Sounds like you are releasing the rig way too early, or too late. The Peter Hart article is quite good as it tells you when to release. Basically you have a small window 30 degrees either side of dead downwind to work in otherwise the wind will slam it. I started off by just practising it on land with a small sail, and then on a floaty board with a small sail in light wind. Then I put the crash helmet on & just went for it with a 6.7 rig (and a bit underpowered). I tried it again yesterday with a 7.5 Rig - almost sailed away a couple of times, but it's too big for me yet - I was able to get the rig around - but not keep the board carving as well - can't wait to try it on a 5.00 or 6.00m rig.
BTW - I haven't done strap to strap gybes before either - so its a double learning process

2 Key things that helped me learn them

1. back hand way back, easier to oversheet then its not so crucial how early you let go

2. really snap you're head round over your shoulder to look toward the new direction, brings your shoulders round and keeps the board carving.....DONT look at your kit, the rig will fall into place on its own.

Jay

Cheers mate...good to know someone's still interested in the old wrinkly sailors!