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Re: 14th September 2004 Diary Entry by Harry.
justal - 15-9-2004 at 16:31

On 14th September 2004, Harry wrote:

quote:
Windsurfing: Hayling Island
Wind Direction: SW-W
Wind Stength: 20-25 knots?
Surf / Sea State: Choppy/small waves on sandbar
Air Temperature: 17¬?C
Sea Temperature: 18¬?C
Weather: Mostly sunny

Gybing was hard work and not very successful in the confused water state. But had a very healthy helping of jumps, a couple with an extremely decent side portion of float. The waves became much more jumpable towards the end as the sandbar got exposed. Couldn't leave the session without trying for another forward, so on my penultimate run out, a small wave jacked up in front of me nicely, and I went for it - with about as much success than my last two attempts. Come on - TUCK UP LEGS - SHEET IN! How hard can it be damnit?!? Still, as before, it felt very good trying. Had a few efforts at riding some of the waves, but with limited joy since they were very messy and temperamental.

(PS reading this again the day after the night before - think my unsuccessful loop attempts may be partly due to not being used to jumping out of the harness. So will just try some normal un-hooked jumps next session, and practise tucking my legs up. Once I'm confident with them, I'll go for the sheeting in bit. Simple.
Possibly more wind this weekend - hope so cos I'm really psyched up to go for these loops now. Oh yeah bring 'em on).


Harry, I'm no expert, but don't worry about tucking your legs up too much, the main thing to concentrate on is looking over your back shoulder...Where you head goes your body follows.. Just try it now, if you look over you back shoulder with your arms in 'standard winsurf position' you can't help but sheet in really hard. As far a your legs go, if you make sure your feet stay in the straps by curling your toes downwards into the board then you also automativally push the board around behind you... Don't curl your toes up to hook them into the straps.

Al.

Harry - 15-9-2004 at 18:22

Cheers Al for the advice. I think it's a bit hard to describe what has happened in each of my last 3 attempts. All I know is I'm not staying tidy and compact like a good looper is - I'm all over the place. As soon as I jump and think about sheeting in, the board does a complete 180 degree turn (a mid-air gybe) with my back leg straight - quite a contorted twisted postition and then I bail out. I end up landing (detached from my kit) sort of on my side, between my board and sail, downwind of my board, with it facing in the opposite direction to where I was going when I jumped. If that makes any sense...???

I bet the root cause of my problems though is probably the usual thing - not sheeting in enough.



[Edited on 15-9-2004 by Harry]

Dave - 16-9-2004 at 16:25