MATTEO IACHINO
“In the picture I’m really enjoying this session in Maui, blasting at top speed and riding one of my favourite combos – 107 iSonic and 7.8 AC-1. To go fast on our slalom gear we need to focus on every single detail. I have the mast track just back of centre for this rig combination. For tuning, most of the times I go by feeling – I put the boom more or less where I think it could be good and same for harness lines and after that I adjust everything perfectly on my first couple of reaches on the water. I use adjustable harness lines, 26-32’’ for my 9.2, 8.6, 7.8 and 28-34” for 7.1-6.2 and 5.6. You can feel if you are comfortable or not. What I can suggest to you is: ‘BE COMFORTABLE!’ – that’s the main key to going fast. Same for the fin. Here I’m riding a 37 cm carbon fin. The fin has not to be too big or too small. If it’s too big you will fight all the time with it, unable to reach top speed. If too small, you’ll always be on the edge of spin-out or you won’t have enough lift to fly over the water as we do when we are fast.
There are no exact rules about what I just talked about. You have to test by yourself what makes you comfortable and fast. The feeling you get when you are at top speed is at the edge of your control and limits. It is as if you are about to fly away and lose control of your board but you actually sit safe in your harness, comfortable and without any big effort from your upper body.
In the picture my front leg is fully extended while my back leg is a little bit flexed to keep the right pressure on the fin. The centre of my body where the harness is positioned is the part that is pushing out, holding the sail. Try to feel the sail in your harness and not in your arms and try to feel the pressure of the wind and the gusts through it. The upper part and the shoulders are a bit flexed forward towards the sail. My arms are not super flexed, I’m just keeping the sail in balance. I’m pulling a little bit with my back hand to keep the sail closed but that’s not a big effort as my harness lines do 90% of the work, leaving just a little movement to the sail. I can adjust the extra acceleration by pulling the sail just 10-15 cm. I am looking forward to anticipate the chop and waves in order to have a better speed flying over them or avoiding a full-frontal collision with whitecaps. The width between my hands on the boom is more or less the width of my shoulders. The front hand right in front of the harness lines and the back one in the exact point where I feel I can close the sail easily generating that extra speed when I need it. I’m pushing with my back foot while I’m kind of pulling with my front one. I try to feel the movements of the board and to keep it on the rail to cut the water and keep the comfort and speed. I like to have the front hand ‘palms up’ / underhand grip for straight line blasting and while I turn to jibe. Only in really hard conditions and strong winds do I put both hands facing down (overhand grip) to hold the board down. The harness lines are halfway, that means they are about 29” long.
Try to focus on trimming your gear to get the maximum comfort possible for generating max speed. It’s just a matter of balance between speed and comfort and you can get both if you work enough. The key is to have the right pressure on the fin to free the board from the water and the right fin, neither to fly away, nor to stay too sticky. At the same time you can work on the mastbase position. Putting the mastbase backward you will make the board more free, while putting it forward you will push the board down. Same as the boom height, as if you put it higher you will free the board and lower the opposite. And, again, same for the harness lines! Shorter harness lines it’s going to make your board feel more free, longer it’s going to increase your control but at the same time will push your board down. Play with all of these factors to trim your board in the right way to get to your top performance. It’s just a matter of time and sensibility. And the more you test, the more sensible you will be!”