Carve Gybing

Guy Cribb has a DVD on the subject of Gybing

Like learning anything, you just have to give it a go. If you can go and spend some time where there is flat water like Inverloch. If you can water start You can learn to gybe.
Everyone will tell you what they think are the main points to gybing are, so here are mine.
1. Don't rake the mast towards the back of the board.
2. Bend ze Knees.
3. Don't make the turn 180 degrees.
4. Commit to the turn.
Point 1. If you rake the sail back you will tend to load the tail of the board and loose speed. Lean forwards.
Point 2. This will help keep your centre of gravity lower and in the right place to keep the mast more upright and carve the board.
Point 3. When starting The gybe, bear off slightly and then start the turn, then on the exit aim about 20 degrees off the direction you are wanting to go to pick up that bit of speed that washed off during the gybe and the gradually turn the board more upwind once you are back up to speed.
Point 4. Once you start the turn keep the rail engaged. If you don't the speed will wash of and things just start getting harder.
There are other things that come in to play such as where you should place your feet, where to look before and during the turn, how much to angle the mast. These are things happen almost naturally and then once you are gybing more often then you can start tweaking the gybe.
One other thing to try once you start making some gybes is to attempt duck gybes. They aren't as hard as they look and they naturally make you do the 4 points I have mentioned, but walk before you run.
Have a look at the Getwindsurfing videos on Youtube

The begginner to winner video has step-by-step instructions on ever aspect. Good video to watch if you're learning. I find with gybing, bare off a bit, take the back foot out and place it on the leeward rail just behind the front strap. Keep your arms extended to keep your weight forward and body quite upright. Lean in to the turn lookinh where you want to end up. At the middle point you'll feel the sail go weightless. This is when you'll naturally want to swap to the other side of thr boom. As you do this, cross your old back hand over the front hand and grab the other side of the boom. You'll shift your strapped foot at this stage. It'll all feel pretty natural once you get to that sweet spot in the middle of the turn. Just commit to the carve... the rest WILL come naturally. Keep at it... they feel rad when you nail them.

From a conditions/equipment perspective:

The small slalom board is going to make learning much more difficult. If you can find a freeride/FSW that suits you, then try to do that (I spent the first 4 years working out what equipment suited me).

I brought the Beginner to Winner DVD when I was a beginner (5 years ago now). My opinion, the gybing segment is excellent to use if you're at Jem's clinic in Maui where the conditions are perfect. There's only one place in SA I can think of where the conditions are right to use his video, and this only occurs a few times a year (once a year if you work a 5 day a week job and can't get out of work).

In the normal stuff we sail in (ocean or lake), the there will be swell or chop. The angle will vary, but when you make a gybe, you are either going up hill, or down hill. So, part of gybing in most conditions is picking a swell/chop and gybing on it so the swell is surfing you around.. going up the back of chop/swell will make you stop (I can give you more tips on this if you like).

Also, when you are intermediate, you're on big/biggish gear and sailing on apparent wind. You can't use Gems tips because as soon as you bear away, the sail power switches off. So, under these conditions, you have to make a very sharp turn in order to keep the sail powered up.

There's different techniques to gybing. Some people have a surfy technique where they glide around standing on the board with very little power in the sail. Others have a slalomy powered up gybe where there weight is through the boom and use the feet to push the board around when the sail powers up klew first. I do the later as I have evolved this style due to my stuffed knees and also learning on slalom boards like you. If you progress using slalom boards, you'll probably adopt the latter technique as slalom boards don't like to gybe (ie: you need to push the board around)... however the 1st technique is better. It looks better and the users plane exit more often.

I recommend breaking the problem down. Start by gybing sheeted out so the sail isn't powering you around and try to concentrate on his carving around. Just keep on doing that. Your first attempts might cause you to plane into them for a 1-2 board lengths before stopping dead. Look at timing this when chop and swell etc. This is the key to gybing in real world conditions that most of us are dished up at our locals.

The next stage after that should be automatic. If you can work out how too get the board around far enough (and this might take you a few weeks or 20 years to do), the sail will want to flip. So let it (this is where you can use some of Gems tips about holding the boom). If you have flipped the sail, switch you feet, and you would have probably done what Peter Harts calls a "Flarve". I can give you a good technique for boom switching when using big sails when you haven't almost got it far enough (it's a Pete Hart tip).

There's heaps more to it than the above, but this is a start.

Again, I can give you more tips with swell timing. This is an art in itself... but once you have your head around it, carve gybing is easy, even if you're technique isn't that good (and mine isn't).

J

After many years of unsuccessfully trying to teach myself to gybe (despite books, DVD's etc) I can say that unless you are naturally athletic, GET A LESSON right at the start (even if the lesson is only from mates on the beach) and regularly thereafter to get you on the right track early on. It is so easy to think you are doing the right things when you are trying to teach yourself.
The few times I have had help I have really made progress. I just needed to do it more often.
I am nearly there now, and have booked some lessons next weekend to get the fully planing gybe nailed!

Tip 2 - practice practice practice gybe, after gybe, after gybe.
I found it best to practice on one tack only at each session so you don't get confused, and then you can tack on the other leg to get back upwind.
You must practice on the other tack next time, of course!

Forget about it. It's impossible.

Maybe something else to remember is that you are not gybing 90 - 270 degrees
Its more like 160 - 210.
Starting the rig flip at 170 and carving through to 210 then putting the power back into the rig while you're still heading downwind not across it.

It's not about how long you've been sailing, it's about having a dig. If you wait a couple of years you won't be able to do one for a couple of years ;) Whats the worst thats going to happen. You can do it!

There are different ways people learn.
The two main groups for physical skills are Verbal and Visual learners.

A pure visual learner watches someone else doing something. They try to imagine how it feels. They try to put themselves in that persons body. They visualize it as a whole and visualize themselves doing it. Then they just go and try to do it as they have it in their minds eye.

By thinking about doing something and imagining yourself doing it you stimulate the actual nervous pathways from the brain to the muscles. Your body actually practices it as you visualize it. Then you just go an try to do it as you have it pictured in your mind.

Sure there are adjustments, coaching points that need to be emphasized, errors that need to be corrected, but good visual learners self diagnose well and often pick up new skills very quickly and very well.

The pure verbal learner likes to have every minute movement and step explained to them in great detail. Foot there, hand just there, arm in such and such position, lean this way, etc, etc. I am not a verbal learner and I am very challenged when I am trying to teach such a learner (one of my best windsurfing mates is the most extreme verbal learner I have ever met!). I struggle to see how VL's keep all that info in their heads and tick each move off as they do it, but somehow many of them do manage.

Since I am most definitely in the former category, my advice about learning to Gybe (and everything else for that matter) is to watch the best you have access to. Try to imaging yourself doing what they do, try to imagine how that would feel. Then go out and try to do it without over analyzing it to death. Be aware that this approach take great commitment! You must trust you body to do it. You must not be intimidated or fearful of a crash or failure. You just GO FOR IT!

You will fail! That is part of learning. But the more committed you are the faster you will learn. As far as Gybing goes, about the worst that can happen is that you get wet!

Imagine leaning forward and into the turn.
Imagine getting as much speed as possible to carry you through the turn. Speed is your friend.
Watch how the good carve gyber bears away for a few meters to accelerate before they start carving the board.
Imagine yourself doing all the things Glitch lists above:
"1. Don't rake the mast towards the back of the board.
2. Bend ze Knees.
3. Don't make the turn 180 degrees.
4. Commit to the turn.

and push the rig away from you leaning you rig into the turn.

Now watch as many videos of someone doing a sweet carve gybe as you can find. Put yourself in their body and mentally practice.

Next time you get the right conditions (planing), go for it! Water start and try again, and again, etc


Here is a good video to start you off:

sailquik said..

There are different ways people learn.
The two main groups for physical skills are Verbal and Visual learners.

The pure verbal learner likes to have every minute movement and step explained to them in great detail. Foot there, hand just there, arm in such and such position, lean this way, etc, etc. I struggle to see how VL's keep all that info in their heads and tick each move off as they do it, but somehow many of them do manage.

Sadly I am one of those verbal learners when it comes to gross motor skills, and I can tell you it is difficult to keep all that info in your head and execute a complex manoever like gybing which has to be done at speed. It takes heaps and heaps of repetitions because you just can't think fast enough to do everything step by step, and can only remember and execute a few steps at a time. I wish I could just watch and do, but I can't.
The funny thing is, fine motor tasks are no problem at all. In fact, fine precision work is my specialty. But gybing? I am still getting there. I am waiting for someone to explain in great detail the last bit for me so I can exit planing.

Sailing at Swan Bay you should learn to gybe in no time. Just give it a go and get some one to keep an eye on what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. There is a lot of good tips here even though some advice conflicts with other advice, pick the minimum amount of info and go with that. What ever works for you. Even spend a session of doing almost nothing but gybing. Good luck. (By the way, don't get into the bad habit I picked up of grabbing the mast when flipping the sail. Go boom to boom).

I can really recommend Guy Cribb's video - it definitely worked for me.

It's step-by-step, and the light wind gybe technique he starts you on gets you working out what to do with the rig early.