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Right, I'm feeling up for a challenge and want to learn some freestyle moves. I've only just learnt to gybe half decent, and getting more confident at jumping, so was feeling brave and want to try either a Flaka or a Forward Loop. It looks like the Flaka would / could be a nice prelude to the Forward? Is working on the Flaka a wise move for leading into others like the Forward Loop? Any info appreciated.
I've saved these clips and tried to absorb as much info from them before hitting the water- hopefully in a few days
PS- Plan to try them on my 101 RRD FSW. Will fit a smaller fin as well. Will take Gopro.
Phil.. why not try learning Duck gybe ?. It's the next step after the carve gybe and will improve your normal gybes (ie: if you are not doing carve gybes properly, you won't be able to flip the sail duck gybing).
Well, it improved mine !
I'm keen to see what the experts say here but I think a forward is easier. It's the fear to conquer about going round the front which is harder to master. We spend our whole learning process with pulling back and avoiding the catapult that when it comes to forwards it's against what we think is right. It's really all about commitment and going for it. My hat's off to all those that can do it and those that want to learn. Maybe one day I'll grow some balls......
Cheers
Marty
like BARN said (I first checked with my son...) try the air gybe/vulcan and then spock.
he told me with the flaka you had 90% chances of damaging your board 
(he is throwing his forwards but not nailing them yet)
Go for the duck gybe it looks awesome from the beach !!
Barn, when are you coming over to New Cal ? my son needs a coach !!!
grubbys might be the pick of the moves to learn if you want to also learn to do forwards. many of them end up a bit forward-esque when you jump too high or go too far down wind
flaka took me the longest to learn to do so far and i'm only consistent in the one direction. I didn't have any risk of board damage, but i've put a lot of holes and marks at the lower part of the sail becuase of landing hook first on the sail and skidding across it
and as barn said, shaka is also tricky. Even after 5 weeks worth of constantly trying them literally every day, i'm stuck at "half shakas" with just the occasional hint of getting right around
and had some really bizarre contorted stacks
i too agree with duck gybes as the good next move to learn, then loops, vulcans, spocks, grubbys, flaka etc.
i want to be 21 again 
actually the key point (at least for me) in the flaka tutorial video above is almost inaudible in that clip - which is slicing / throwing the rig forward/across into the wind. In fact, if you do this aggressively, the rest of the move is almost autopilot, especially if you can already do an "in the straps" upwind 360. getting the courage to throw the rig with confidence, and timing with the "pop" of the board was the trick
Cheers guys for the good info. It seems I picked one of the harder moves with the Flaka....hmmm. Probably over-reaching again, but I Googled the Vulcan and will have a crack in a day or so. I can see a flogging comin' up...
i reckon there's no harm in trying any move at any level, especially if you are still nimble
my 2cents on vulcans - you don't need to jump the tail of the board high (even with a 30cm fin), and don't just jump around the rig like many of these boom-to-boom vulcan videos demonstrate above - instead try to throw the rig/mast across in front of your body as you go around it (by yanking the boom or the mast across your chest). it allows you to do them pointing well up into the wind like a tack, helps you rotate, and allows you to slide backward a lot longer before having to sheet in and recover
at about this point start pulling the rig across your chest from right to left, using either the right hand on the boom as in the pic, or left hand on the mast
Cheers Haircut, will add that to my "How to do a Vulcan" sheet I'll drag down to the lake on Weds. Gunna be interesting. I can see I may be in for a black slapping...lol
PS- I could imagine this move being a pretty fancy way of changing tack when lining up a wave to catch. I normally gybe around the wave / swell I want and go from there. This looks like it would be loads of fun. Though changing the stance could be interesting...
for the endings, practice hanging off your rig in switch stance while on the beach, even without the board
Learning vulcans before Flakas is very common advice. However, not everyone agrees. Some of our local freestylers suggest to try Flakas and/or Grubbies before Vulcans. A young freestyler I know learned the Flaka rather quickly, going on to one-handed Flakas, Konos, and other stuff in less than a year. He still has not tried Vulcans. My lovely wife also picked the Flaka as her first new school move, and here tries are starting to look good. Learning the Vulcan first may even make learning the Flaka harder - quite a few freestylers who started with the Vulcan had a much harder time with the Flaka.
If you'd decide to learn the Flaka, you should learn the upwind 360 first. It's pretty easy to learn in light wind with a big board and small sail. The next step is to then do it in the straps, and planing, on a small board.
The forward loop is technically simpler than the Vulcan or the Flaka. Unless you're sailing in big waves, you'll probably start with a more horizontal version, often called the spin loop or speed loop. The hard thing about the loop is to try it. If you do, make sure to start with the wymaroo-type sail steering exercises, e.g. Remko De Weerds' "Loop in 4 steps" instructions.
Have fun and let us know how it goes!
I learned to loop in an afternoon.
I've been trying to Flaka since 2009, with no luck yet.
That's not to say you shouldn't start trying them - by all means start getting stuck in, because the sooner you start, the sooner you'll land one.
I'd recommend learning to do an upwind 360 in the straps and a sail-body 360 before even thinking about the Flaka.... (remember this advice is coming from someone who can't Flaka).
Good luck!
Agree that the forward is by far the easiest to crack initially as it's simply a factor of over coming the fear/muscle memory of stopping a catapult. This can of course be difficult but once you crack it you've got it.
The vulcan is the easiest to commit to as it's a very safe trick to learn and the fear factor in throwing them is low. As Haircut says learn them with the sliding technique, keeping the board as low as possible, rather than the pure 'jump' technique as once you can get them you will very easily be able to move onto spocks and spock 540's. If you learn them by just jumping the board around you will find it much more difficult to progress that to a spock. If I can add anything it's that the head and hand movement is key, get that fast and using the correct technique, pulling across your body as Haircut suggests, you're 90% of the way there. The head movement/hand movement is everything with that trick as it drives the rotation, the pop/jump is 5% of it imo. Flat water also helps a LOT with this trick, the flatter the better.
The other thing with freestyle is you have to commit hard. For 6 or so years i'd throw a vulcan here or there and in all that time pretty much got nowhere. One season I just decided stuff it i'm getting this and just threw vulcan after vulcan session after session. It only took about a month (I can' remember how many sailing days) to go from falling on my back at 90 degrees every time (which I'd been doing for all that time) to landing them here and there. It took another few years (not throwing them all the time) to get them consistent in all conditions like chop/super windy etc but once you've got a few the muscle memory kicks and and it gets easier.
I'm currently on the Flaka/shaka train and it's a doosey. I've only really kicked in hard trying to learn the flaka recently but it's a trick that takes a lot of commitment and most of it is very counter intuitive. I just can't get the pop/throw timing right, which from my extensive crash research is everything.
It's also pretty hard to keep motivated when you're throwing yourself into the sail time and time again and getting nowhere. If you have a mate of a similar level that's learning too it will make a huge difference both in motivation and being able to see what each other is doing wrong; this is very hard to do from a 1st person perspective.
What's wrong with just going in and out . You young fellows have got to much energy
Most people have a preferred tack for each move, and its very common for your best side for the vulcan/ spock/ grubby to be with most powerful leg (e.g. right leg for 9/10 people) at the back, and for the flaka with that leg forward. So actually you can learn both at the same time... one on each tack. Lots of crashing.
Likewise with the forward its best to learn with your most powerful hand at the back... to sheet in. But if you sail somewhere with waves to jump off you probably don't have a choice.
Al
This is from a year or so ago, returning from injury the duckgybe was pretty much my only source of entertainment.. More fun than perfecting the carve gybe!
The nice thing about duckgybes is the power is back in the sail early, so you can hang your weight back on the rig earlier and go strap to strap. Normal carve gybes you step forward as you flip the rig to control mast base pressure...
Can't remember, this is either a 5.5 Gator or a 6.0 and a Kode 94 with the inside straps, I quickly changed to the outboard straps..
