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Mission 3: why did that go wrong?
It’s very likely that you’re going to attempt harnessing,
footstraps, tacking and gybing, all of which will go wrong, yes
you’re gonna get wet! So, a vital part of your progress is
‘knowing’ why it went wrong and how to solve it. Counter
intuitively, your dismounts are an incredible source of
information, ‘if’ you ask yourself these key questions…
Q1 Vision – where were you looking?
A. Ask yourself just after your annoying dismount, where were
you looking? Was it your hands, feet or the kit? We
commonly fall in due to gear gazing during challenging
moments. So when you try anything new your primary
‘focus’ is to keep your head up and look where you want to
go! This ‘skill’ is far more important than trying to learn
specifics moves. Those who keep their head up learn far
quicker than those who don’t. “Be good looking.”
Q2 Opposition – how did you fall in?
A. Virtually every dismount, be it beginner-pro, is due to lack of
counter balance by failing to ‘oppose’ the power, position or
movement of the rig with our body. So after a dismount also
recall which way you and the rig went into the water.
E.g. If you’re constantly falling downwind with the rig, next time
move the body to windward more. If you’re constantly falling in
backwards, forwards, sideways with the rig, accentuate
pushing the rig away more next time. As simple as this sounds
you’ll actually start to build up of how ‘opposition’ forms the
counterbalance framework for virtually everything we do, so
focus on maintaining and solving counter balance rather than
specific moves. “If you move your body one way the rig/mast
must move the other way and visa versa.”
Q3 Luffing – why do I head into wind?
A. When trying to master the harness, footstraps, early
planing or controlled blasting one of THE most common
issues is luffing into wind, especially during or after
hooking in or moving the feet into the straps. Keeping a
strong ‘7’ stance and full weight in the harness is a vital
part of making life easier, but it’s worth learning
developing your anti ‘luffing’ strategy as it happens a lot.
Q1 Vision
Q2 Opposition
Boards only luff into wind for TWO main reasons, both of
which cause so many people to struggle throughout the early
to middle stages of the sport.
Luffing reason 1: destroying opposition
If the rig is pulled towards the body or tail too much, which is
so often due to a Darwinesque panicked over flexed mast
(front) arm, the board will immediately luff upwind. The
reason is so often a heavy back leg and NOT opposing any
rear foot pressure with front foot pressure or keeping the rig
forward enough.
Luffing reason 2: tail pressure
Too much weight on the tail due to leaning back too far or
over extending and excessively weighting the rear foot.
Anti-luffing
Get low, look forward and extend that mast arm, sink low (in
or out of the harness) and get that rig forward. Pushing
through the front leg and flexing the rear leg also helps your
ant- luffing mission.
Q2 Opposition
Anti Luffing
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WIND
SURFING