lots of good stuff here
the one that surprises me is => going into footstraps in light wind ??
90 kg on a 100 liter = WOW
hmm - at 105 kg i guess I can try that on my JP SPW92 ?
or better on a narrower board like Fantic SHark 145 of 75 cm width ??
inboard strap settings of course
Select to expand quoteDratsas said..Mark _australia said..
If it turns upwind when doing for the front strap, and you do have your weight in the harness you are probably not going fast enough, so you are sinking the upwind rail when going for the strap.
Put your feet in the straps because you have to, not just because you think its a good thing to do.
What I mean is, get the board going fast and planing then move back slowly. Get in the straps because you have to (for control as you are going fast).
Good morning Mark.
Yes this is what is happening.
I understand what you mean. I try to avoid use the harness before at least put my front foot in the foot-strap.
Anyway, even when I engage the harness at first I start to slow down comparing to use only my hands.
I have the filling that when I engage the harness I pull the ring some backward that's why I slow down since it is not vertical.
I do not want to say about the speed wind since if I can planning without harness and foot-straps I suppose that I could do it also at the same wind condition maybe harder but it would be possible. Thus, wind condition could help me only for the transition to planning condition.
Once I made a test by increasing the length of the harness lines so to keep the ring more vertical when engage the harness. It looked like it worked however when I was starting planning the lines where quite long and I was actually keeping the rig by my hand.
I had also tried to transfer the foot-straps near to the center line of the board so not to push to much the upwind rail when I pose my front leg in the foot-strap. This worked too I suppose, but I had another problem later; When I was trying to make Tack I was stepping on the foot-straps and it was really annoyance.
I remembered something else. Everyone says that you must be in balance when you are engage in the harness and by leaving your hand the ring must stay steady. I agree but when you can check this; when you are in which position? Before you put your foots in the foot-straps? When you have put only your front foot in the foot-strap? Or only when you are in a regular planning position? I am asking that because I was trying to do this kind of test when I was just engaged and the ring was not steady.
Try putting the mast foot just a little further forward, this will flatten the board and give it a more stuck to the water feel.
I once went on a massive broard reach and took out my front foot and put it next to my back foot, so had two back feet, totally lost control and had the biggest catapult ever, needless to say that the force of the boom hitting the front of the board smashed it to pieces, was really fun about a milli second before the crash.
Hello to you all !!
Vacations finished. Now I am back to Japan.
However, I had really good windsurfing time back to Greece using all the tips you had suggested me and finally get the results I wanted.
I succeed to start planning using first the foot straps and secondly engage in the harness since I feel more safe.
The only problem that I faced was that when I was planning I couldn't keep planning somehow in an upwind direction, and this makes me to loose my starting position and being offshore.
Some guys told me that I should use a bigger sail in order to avoid that situation (side drifting).
I will continue practice since many skills remain to be improved. Now I want to focus on carve jibe.
About Paros, it should be more crowded since it is a famous windsurf spot but I think I went out of season!
"The only problem that I faced was that when I was planning I couldn't keep planning somehow in an upwind direction, and this makes me to loose my starting position and being offshore."
The desire to maintain an upwind course is only defined by what the wind strength will allow you to do.
When the wind backs off, you have to change course to more of a down wind direction to maintain the same planning speed, once the wind picks back up, you can then return to your desired upwind direction. Only in a steady wind, can you maintain a steady course.
So in essence, you weren't doing anything wrong, other than not understanding what was going on, it was more the wind's fault, so you must alter your course, depending on wind strength.
Forgive me if I am wrong but is the problem that when you start to plane, you are having trouble keeping it planing and you are turning upwind? If this is the case, you are probably tipping the board over a bit on it's edge and so carving upwind as soon as the board starts to plane. You have to keep the board on an even keel by weighting the back foot which is positioned in the centre of the board. As you gain confidence, because all the weight is on the back foot, you can move the front foot into the strap because it will not upset the trim of the board. The back foot can be moved outboard toward the back strap only when you can put all your weight in the harness and so transfer that weight to the mastfoot.
Select to expand quoteRumChaser said..
Forgive me if I am wrong but is the problem that when you start to plane, you are having trouble keeping it planing and you are turning upwind? If this is the case, you are probably tipping the board over a bit on it's edge and so carving upwind as soon as the board starts to plane. You have to keep the board on an even keel by weighting the back foot which is positioned in the centre of the board. As you gain confidence, because all the weight is on the back foot, you can move the front foot into the strap because it will not upset the trim of the board. The back foot can be moved outboard toward the back strap only when you can put all your weight in the harness and so transfer that weight to the mastfoot.
Thanks Rumchaser , I think my problem has to do more with what Mastbender has mentioned.
Select to expand quoteMastbender said..
"The only problem that I faced was that when I was planning I couldn't keep planning somehow in an upwind direction, and this makes me to loose my starting position and being offshore."
The desire to maintain an upwind course is only defined by what the wind strength will allow you to do.
When the wind backs off, you have to change course to more of a down wind direction to maintain the same planning speed, once the wind picks back up, you can then return to your desired upwind direction. Only in a steady wind, can you maintain a steady course.
So in essence, you weren't doing anything wrong, other than not understanding what was going on, it was more the wind's fault, so you must alter your course, depending on wind strength.
Now that you mentioned there is true that in the windsurfing spot where this was happened it is known that the wind does not have a steady direction.
It takes some practice staying upwind on the first runs. It's normal.
The more speed you have the more drive from the fin and therefore the more upwind you can point.
When just planing, we all tend to drift downwind.
Use gusts to point upwind, and lulls to relax steer downwind maybe a bit.
Also, most times we head downwind out and upwind back, it happens naturally as we have better visual cues on the return.
Select to expand quoteDratsas said..
Hi there, I am a beginner- intermediate level windsurfer and i noticed that many times I have a difficulty on early planning like my board is always stuck on the sea.
Other times I start planning so fast and with a big speed that I hardly can control my board and remain at that speed.
My board is a carve starboard 145liters (for many already known), my sail size is 7.0 and I weight around 80kilos.
I try first to get my front foot on the footstrap and after to engage on the harness line in order to stay on the safe area.
I have seen many times other guys to keep going steady with harness and only front foot on the footstrap and I am wondering what I am doing wrong and cannot have the full control even if I want to go low or in a high speed.
I recommend a 120L freeride board notwithstanding the 145L and buckle down at training.
Or on the other hand if no cash, at any rate get a blade around 4-6cm shorter and move the ties detachable more.
