12 COACHING WINDWISE TECHNIQUE
STAGE 2: HOW TO
STAYING PLANING!
Poor pumping
Pumping doesn’t have to be an excessively physical action or
burn the calories of a Tour de France cyclist. It’s common to
see bodies and legs ‘thrusting’ away using loads of effort but
with little reward.
Counter intuitive moment 2
RIG BACK BODY FORWARD (photos above)
In a decent breeze, you have time to sail for a bit, sink down
in the harness, bear away and gain speed. But if you’re only
just planing, you need to act quickly and counter intuitively
head slightly back upwind, yes upwind! So, as soon as the
front foot is in the strap, rake that rig back and bring the
hands forward, with a narrow superlight grip, rear hand
touching that harness line to sheet in and throw the body
forward. You do this to get the airflow working over the sail.
If you bear away too much at this point you risk standing up
and sheeting out, which acts like a massive brake!
Purposely leaning forward makes it easier to sheet in and
back with the rig. It also puts more of your weight onto the
mast base (which helps trim) and makes un-weighting the
back foot, to slip into the rear strap, easier = win, win! Note
how my lean forward helps to push the nose down to
encourage acceleration.
Q. What do i do if that doesn’t work?
A1 Firstly, check you’re on the right board volume, sail and
fin size compared to others of similar stature who are
planing. If not, pump up the volume, sail size and
fin size.
A2 Learn to pump…efficiently.
We’re not passengers and the wind required to get going
if we just sit in the harness requires about 4-5 knots
MORE wind than if you give the rig a few pumps. Being
too static, sheeted out and heavy on the back foot is the
non-planing virus of the world. Sometimes YOU HAVE TO
WORK IT!
uk
WIND
SURFING
Low calorie pumping
All it should take if 6-7-8-9-10 finger-light micro pumps to
get a board planing. This can be done in the harness- ‘lock
the torso’ in that exaggerated Straight 7, using ‘three fingers’
on the clew hand to do 5-6-7-8-9-10 light micro pumps to
create the drive. “The secret to energy efficient pumping is to
keep that torso as locked and straight as possible and just
pump on the back hand.” If you pull on the mast arm or
hunch too much that instantly sheets the sail out and loses
the value of the pump.