Sunday, August 19, 2012
Saturdays Session II
Carbon copy of 2 weeks ago. Except this time it was thoroughly splendid fun. What a difference a good mood makes. Rode my shiny new 5.6 Echo all day. Twas perfect.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Saturdays Session
After some 6.0/5.3 action at Bird I was kinda cranky and disappointed with my day. A couple of margaritas later I reflected on the day and maybe it wasn't all that bad after all:
First run, I plane off the beach, fired up to be sailing for the first time in a month. BAM, perfect spock. Quick pump back onto the plane into a fast tack. Heading back in nicely powered, carving 360 in the straps. OOH feels good. Heading out again, perfect spock 540 BOO YAH!, planing duck gybe, upwind 360... classic Bird. Didn't make any grubbies though.
So yeah, not bad, I guess.
First run, I plane off the beach, fired up to be sailing for the first time in a month. BAM, perfect spock. Quick pump back onto the plane into a fast tack. Heading back in nicely powered, carving 360 in the straps. OOH feels good. Heading out again, perfect spock 540 BOO YAH!, planing duck gybe, upwind 360... classic Bird. Didn't make any grubbies though.
So yeah, not bad, I guess.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Forward Loop Technique
Actually this isn't a technique article or anything, there are loads of those out there. Instead it is Bill and Bens (true) stories about their journey to become loopers.
Bills Story
Bill was a young and driven windsurfer with solid jumping. One day he read an article on how to loop that said you could loop before you could gybe. As he was already making a lot of his gybes he was clearly behind the curve. The desire to loop became an obsession. Every time he sailed, no matter the conditions, he threw himself over the front. The crashes were spectacular. Whilst he had 'made' a few back slapping loops, as time progressed he mastered the art of crashing without hurting himself.
He would throw his body between the gap between the mast and nose of the board and hang on for dear the life. After a couple of years of trying, he gave up. Quite a few years later when he started trying them again he realized he had to undo everything that he had learned. Slowly, he dissected the move and rebuilt it focussing on one or two key skills. After a couple more years of trying them in decent conditions he started to make then on a fairly regular basis but always at risk of returning to his deeply engrained tendency to crash horribly.
Bens Story
Ben was a good sailor too but he wasn't comfortable jumping. Instead of throwing himself at the loop he waited a few more years. He developed his skills to a much higher level, sailing waves, freestyle and a variety of different spots and conditions. When he finally tried a loop he was feeling good in close to perfect conditions. Small waves with a nice little lip, slightly side-off so hitting the wave head on he was jumping off the wind, well powered on 4.7. First attempt he water started out of it. By the end of the session he had made one clean. He then started developing his skills in different conditions such as smaller choppy conditions and bigger waves. His progress was quick, easy and mostly incident free.
As I said at the start. These are true stories. However, I did change the names. The truth is that Bill and Ben are my alter egos. Bill is starboard tack Mike, Ben is port tack Mike.
Bills Story
Bill was a young and driven windsurfer with solid jumping. One day he read an article on how to loop that said you could loop before you could gybe. As he was already making a lot of his gybes he was clearly behind the curve. The desire to loop became an obsession. Every time he sailed, no matter the conditions, he threw himself over the front. The crashes were spectacular. Whilst he had 'made' a few back slapping loops, as time progressed he mastered the art of crashing without hurting himself.
He would throw his body between the gap between the mast and nose of the board and hang on for dear the life. After a couple of years of trying, he gave up. Quite a few years later when he started trying them again he realized he had to undo everything that he had learned. Slowly, he dissected the move and rebuilt it focussing on one or two key skills. After a couple more years of trying them in decent conditions he started to make then on a fairly regular basis but always at risk of returning to his deeply engrained tendency to crash horribly.
Bens Story
Ben was a good sailor too but he wasn't comfortable jumping. Instead of throwing himself at the loop he waited a few more years. He developed his skills to a much higher level, sailing waves, freestyle and a variety of different spots and conditions. When he finally tried a loop he was feeling good in close to perfect conditions. Small waves with a nice little lip, slightly side-off so hitting the wave head on he was jumping off the wind, well powered on 4.7. First attempt he water started out of it. By the end of the session he had made one clean. He then started developing his skills in different conditions such as smaller choppy conditions and bigger waves. His progress was quick, easy and mostly incident free.
As I said at the start. These are true stories. However, I did change the names. The truth is that Bill and Ben are my alter egos. Bill is starboard tack Mike, Ben is port tack Mike.
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