DIETER VAN DER EYKEN
In general I think speed is very important. In freestyle using the rail is also key, it is a bit like wakeboarding where you really carve the rail in. At the same time you need to load your sail with counter pressure. These two opposing pressures give you a lot of ‘pop’! My training for ‘pop’ is doing squats! You need to train your legs! Explosive squats are ideal. Because when you jump up with the board, basically you are doing a squat. For chop hopping it is really important to bring the sail up as you jump. A lot of people pull their boom down rather than pushing it up as they go in the air. Once in the air you pull yourself up towards the sail, that is how you are going to do the best chop hop. With freestyle we do a lot of moves where we duck the sail. If you are on the other side of the sail, it gives you something to build pressure with. As you carve at the same time you are loading up your sail with the two forces going against each other. This is pushing a lot of pressure on the water. When you take off that pressure that you’ve built up, it helps you get into the air, like wakeboarding.
“Using the rail is also key.”