anyone got any suggestions for this :

I had a good sail on saturday but I really suffered from luffing up on the way out through the waves, the wind was cross on shore and the waves were up to 8ft faces, and everytime I lost board speed the board just spun round and luffed me up.

anyone got any tips ? ?

Well Paul, if it was someone less experienced than yourself I'd say the answer was more mastfoot pressure, but I'm sure as a sailor coping with 8ft faces then you know all about that!.. You're probably better than me anyway, so this answer may well be a case of 'the blind leading the blind', but who knows, it might help!?

When I'm sailing in waves in cross-onshore winds (often more on than cross), I always end up bearing away loads to make sure I stay on the plane and nicely powered up, then just before going over a wave, I head upwind so that I hit the wave face-on and then as soon as the nose of the board pops up over the whitewater I bear away pretty violently by pulling my back foot towards me, pushing away with my front foot and increasing mastfopot pressure so that I'm bearing away as I go down the back of the wave and can get straight back on the plane (or not even some off the plane if possible).

OK, I end up quite a way downwind with all this sailing off the wind, but as soon as I'm out beyond the waves I just head upwind to gain ground.

I think the scissor action with my legs just as I hit the waves stops me from luffing up as I loose board speed.

Of course the other option is just to wait for more wind so that you can sail properly powered up.

Al.

cheers for the tips, I think part of the problem is the fact the new board seems to need a slightly different style from my old kit, guess what I really need is more time on the water

no doubt it'll be a while before we get a good swell and cross shore winds again !