JEM HALL
MOVE ON UP – WINDSURFING TECHNIQUE
FOCUSING ON THE FORWARD
I trust you are now educated, inspired and enthused as to how to add some gusto to your gybes and duck gybes and perhaps now it is time for you to take this ‘forward’ and unleash the ultimate trigger move, the forward (speed/ front) loop. Be reassured that a lot of the focus and precision you have invested and enacted in your gybes will really help you nail the forward. Namely these are preparing early, focusing on the key stages and setting a higher standard.
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I will cut to the chase here, you must want to forward, it needs to consume you and be of the utmost importance. Courage, persistence, technique and embracing fear as your friend are the keys to this move, which, once nailed will open up so many other moves as you will feel ‘bullet proof’ after claiming a few. Believing you will achieve starts here. I strongly suggest you follow the pathway I recommend in my ‘Winner to Wavesailor (WTW)’ DVD, this being, be great at popping the board, then progress to tail grab jumps and in light to medium winds embrace the wymaroo as the ultimate loop steering drill. This is the painless way to amass the skills required to forward and believe me as I have taken many many people through this on my coaching holidays. The wymaroo and the other moves will be covered in a future piece as here we will concern ourselves with the main tips on flat water / small chop forwards.
// Hands down the boom and get over the board with the sail open’
Flat water? I hear some of you balk at this, well if you can do it on smaller chop / waves then you can do it anywhere and you will also then be able to learn delayed forward loops in the future as you will have a fast clean rotation and heaps of aerial steering skills but more on this later. The other thing about the lower rotations is it is less scarey and you have to go downwind to actually get round!
My mantra in WTW is pop, throw, look and pull and I would now like to extend this to; Believe, Prepare, Pop, Throw, Look and Pull. I will now impart the tips to get you moving forward from the above sections. Please be aware that I knew barely nothing about the forward when learning it back in ’96, I just went at it and all my crash test dummy work and my last 12 years of coaching have revealed the keys to unlocking your looping potential.
Believe!
You should get to know what it is that motivates you to do this move and then take this momentum forward. We are all different and all have different triggers to get us where we want to be. Competition, peer group pressure, setting a new standard or it could even be boredom with your current level. For me, I set a date to do it by or I would walk away from teaching windsurfing and guess what? I achieved it on that date after about 10 sessions.
I suggest that if you equip yourself with the above skills in the pathway and add to these super early planing, awesome tacks and a fast stance in all winds then you will have all the tools to unlock the move and actually get plenty of attempts in. Furthermore, visualise the move, and actually see yourself doing it. I believe in you and now you must BELIEVE IN YOU! I will present the relevant tips for each of the areas of the move and then you should choose the ones that ‘ring your bell’ and only focus on a few tips at a time.
// Check out how much the rig goes across and the work the toes and legs are doing to steer the board’
// Tuck up and keep pushing and pulling.
Prepare
By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail, just as great gybes make great wave rides then similarly this focus on precision and passion in the forward is paramount to
learning this liberating move. On to the top tips.
• Early preparation is the key. About 20 metres before you bear off get those hands back
• When I say back I mean way back, next to the boom adjusters is your target. The wymaroos (and gybes, light wind gybes) will already make you embrace and realize this.
• The front hand must also move back too. This assists the rig moving forwards and across, be warned you will need long lines to sail with your front hand back.
• Get over the board before take off. All your popping will make this a bit more intuitive. Being over the board helps you to get a great pop and send the nose high and it means the rig can already be across you in readiness to steer in the air.
The kit I suggest is fast wave boards, freestyle boards and fun freestyle waves as these all keep you upwind and planing fast with less sail power and go for a smaller fin (under 30cms for sure). The sail should be under 6.0 for learning but as you progress the limits you set are the limits you attain.
Banging out medium powered loops on a 6.0 and a 110 will add dynamism and pop to your forwards so get on and round it in all winds please. Lastly, wedge your feet into big straps so your feet can wrap and connect to the deck pads, tight straps will see you losing the board in the air.
Pop
Many of the above tips will come to the fore here, being over the board and having your hands back etc. Lets give you some more insights:
• Push down hard on the tail like you are aiming to ‘snap the tail off the board’. This sends the ‘nose to the sky’. So there are 2 great pop mantras for you.
• Get the nose high and then you will have the height to then drop the nose and steer aggressively in the air.
• Start the pop with the tail pushing down and continue it with the front leg and front arm lifting the nose.
• Amazing hold trinity skills (early planing, fast stance in all winds and staying upwind) will give you more attempts. These also mean you can get the pop and rotation in proximity to the beach so you have less time to think and **** yourself.
• Pop off the wind and this will often be over the back of a bit of a decent sized chop. This helps take off some of the distance you have to rotate through and also means you have to commit to the move.
• Pop off your toes like you are springing into a jump on dry land as this hugely aids aerial steering and draws the wind under the board.
• I rarely say don’t, however I will make an exception here, do not take off into the wind in to supposedly seek more easy height, this will end badly!
Throw
We are now fully committed and looking to take our amazing downwind pop around and steer the board through the rest of the move.
• Your nose is skyward and you are pulling the kit up further with the legs so now it is time to ‘draw the rig forwards and across you’ in readiness for the aerial steering. Moving the rig forward helps turn you downwind like in a light wind gybe.
• With your hands back you have a huge amount of leverage and can really get the rig forwards.
• Imagine pulling up on the front hand and then reaching forwards and across you with it, towards the nose of the board.
• The legs should be working hard here, as they are now lifting the tail up and bearing the board away through extending the front leg and bending the back leg.
• Herein lies one of the cruxes of the forward,‘you take off over the board and then in the air you steer it by moving your body back and out’ and ‘your rig forwards and across’. Lots of pops and wymaroos makes this part much more intuitive.
Look
Why do we focus so much on looking behind us in this move? Well it is firstly to keep your wetsuit clear of debris and stop you looking forward at doomsville. It also helps our body to rotate and roll through the move and lastly, it protects our ear drums – hoorah !
• You might choose to replace look with see, so aim to see the back of the boom, or the clew, or the water behind you.
• In the wymaroo I tell people to fall outboards and pull in and see just how much of a splash they can make with the clew being pulled in so aggressively.
• The looking behind you will assist you in pulling in hard with that back arm, and because your back arm is way back you can really sheet in, lets not get ahead of ourselves here though.
// Keep the rig flying on extended arms upon landing to pop up for an efficient waterstart ending’
Pull and Push
Okay so I have cheated here and added another word / tip and that is Push, or pushing in addition to the pulling. There can often be a heavy focus on the Neanderthal style, ‘just jump up and sheet in dude’, however there is way more going on than this so please begin to imagine the front half of you actually pushing the kit round and back half pulling you and the kit around and through the move. Lets examine this further:
• The pulling phase is the back arm ‘pulling the boom UP AND IN.’This really turns the board fast and gets the nose round.
• With your hands back you have huge leverage and your tail up jumps make you instinctively pull the back leg in hard and this keeps the nose rotating those extra precious few degrees more.
• Now for the pushing. It is an often understated part of the forward, so really focus on pushing away hard on your front leg. Your more outboards position gives you the leverage for this.
• I often suggest people to feel the deck pad with their toes and this can often only be achieved by straightening your front leg and having bigger straps. This scissoring action is akin to bearing away out of a tack.
• The pushing does not stop there as not only is your front leg working but so too is your straight front arm. So really push down hard on your front arm to fly the nose round and get you further around for an easier and cleaner landing.
// Believe, prepare, pop, throw, look and pull!
Throughout all these sections I have given you some food for thought in all the stages and some key mantras and tips to focus on. So I now implore you to find the keys for you to understand this move and more importantly to pull the trigger and get it done. Of course, if you need some help with this and many other moves then you can have your attempts recorded and the toppest of tips given to you on one of my overseas coaching holidays.
I will leave you with a few landing tips. If you rotate with a straight front arm and land near / on the gear then thrusting the rig across and up will assist you in catching some wind to pull you up and keep the rig out of the water. If upon landing you are in the likely position of being ¾ round and in the straps yet cannot waterstart then merely paddle round the last part by dropping your front foot out of the front strap, whilst keeping the rig flying, and steer round to an easier exit from the water.
Believe, Prepare, Pop, Throw, Look, Pull AND Push. You shall, you will and you can.
RRD boards, wetsuits, softwear, Ezzy sails and Pro Sport Sunblock sponsor Jem Hall. Get him live and direct on one of his highly acclaimed coaching holidays. You can also follow him on twitter / Facebook.