RECOVERY
The above steps should assist you in going for it but in onshore conditions the wave will take the power out of your sail and won’t give much in the way of a push, so you need to have a responsive recovery. For myself, recovery is all about pushing through and extending my legs in the top turn but having the ability to quickly bend my knees and to power up my sail again. Bending your knees, you’re able to pull the board back underneath you, get your body weight over the board and your sail upright (this is where fins are also really important and what I love about thrusters). As soon as I’ve moved my back hand forward for the top turn, with the majority of turns I will then slide my hand back to the power source as quickly as possible. I won’t slide my hand to the end of the clew like my bottom turn but just to the point where I feel the power / wind re-enter my sail.
LINKING
The text above describes the set-up and completion of one hit, however the focus of every wave sailor should be to try and link multiples of these together. To do this I recommend attempting to follow the principles of the steps above. The difficult part is maintaining or generating more speed as you come out of the turn but you can use the wave, your sail by moving your hands and your board and body by compressing and extending your body. There will be moments where you may have to straighten out or take a high line to clear a section but getting back to that vertical approach and learning how to quickly move your hands on the boom is the best way to improve your wave sailing.