Its pretty wierd - but i really dont know how it is that people can get so smashed learning forwards. The main thing is to hold onto the rig and DONT LET GO, even if your feet get ripped out of the straps. If you hold on, you know where the mast/sail/ boom is and you cant get smashed into it!!!! you might get a bit of a back slap, but you shouldnt break any gear.
Also - if you want to save having to invest in multiple booms - DONT try them hooked in :)
Good luck :)
Tax it ............. He (tonyo) talked it up ,hyped it up ,and then talked it up again.
1st night 2nd night ,3rd night .....he ant no,,,, one beer man but ...........counted 18 i think one night, but he holds it ,,,,but must have forgotton what he said he was doing the next day ????
And when the moment came we sss(a possie started talken up forwards in the retunda at da Coros beach park park. HES HYPED out he goes SO WE ALL STOP AND WATCH HIS SESSION, here we go ,here we go ,,,,,set set ,,,,,its on ,,this one surely.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK.
To top it off we whittnessed the complete oppisite..........a back loop take off, that crashed through the lip ,started to spin completly flat and crashing so hard on his back .................what the fk was that ...................twice as much pain than actually attempting da forward in the first place .......ha ha ha ha ha.
Ok you got some nice wave ,,,so slip slop slap.......but leave the forwards to da ballzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzyyyyyyyyyyyy crew.
We need an eletric cattle coller .......so you can zap them with from the beach.
This might start the rotation 
for the old bull
Well F*&^ me. There is hope for the "forwardly challenged" ones out there after all.
I just got sent some windsurfing pic's which is of a bloke I know from Geraldton but havent seen for a couple of years. He didnt send me the pics himself probably cause he know's that I would pull the piss out of him for taking so F^$*ing long to even attempt a forward loop (about 8 years when I was sailing there)
1 Steel Ball for keeping your hands in the normal place and the almost vertical rotation
1 Plastic Ball for not quite getting enough height to clear the water with ya mast
-8 steel balls for taking that long to attempt one you big p**f.
Total = Negative 7 steel ball's, 1 plastic ball remains until i see some better ones.
Ha ha, not bad though I guess for another towball head.
I recorded this yesterday, one of four attempts. I wasnt tempted to follow John lead when I got on the water.
Al
Laying in the bath the other night, playing with my balls, as ya do. I noticed one of them was hard!
Does this mean I`m growing steel ball`s, I`m over the moon after reading your posts.
So I`m gonna work on the other one!
wow, this thread has become too hardcore for me
can't even understand the language
I learnt the forward loop with my odd mistral one design olympics board.
The pussy horisontal way though 
Yeah Jussy, a loop with a block of cement strapped to your feet beats a double no matter how you do it
The board was unfortunately not as strong as a block of cement
By the way, you can appreciate a view of the south of Marseille in background 
lol
my first live view of a forward was steve allen crossing the finish line in a longboard course race.
i was lucky enough to be starting my second lap when steve was finishing his.
to celebrate his win he did a forward endo across the finish line on his longboard.
split the thing in 2 on landing......
not sure if he was on an 8.5 or 7.5 as it was pretty windy.
Inspiring! ... awesome...
... but my triples are better. I have to do them on my speed board with a weight jacket in mast high side off to get the height and speed required. Then I spear into the wave behind at about 50 knots from a 35 degree elevation.
The impact rips my legs off but not my precious cluster. I'm on my tenth set of prosthetic pins and my lover left me because I cant tango any more, or so she says. I think its because she's embarrassed to be seen with me. My scrotum is so distended by the weight of my ginormous steel cajones that I have to throw it over my shoulder. I'm like a pirate with 2 wooden legs and a scrotum where my parrot should be.
Some call me Peglegs. Some call my scrotum Polly. But mostly I go by the name of Ducks because my legs keep getting shorter. hmmmm.... Duck's Nuts has a certain ring to it ...
Hoo Agh!
lmao..... guess what your new name is....?????
see ya on he water.
Dont let your fears stand in the way of your dreams; so they say; wot a load of blks i had plenty of rotation dreams that did not scare me not to mention my day dreaming fkn out of this world moves of the future.but to be honest once the berry gatherer finds his mamouth yette bals of pure fkn gold he moves way above the steel ball catogry(no disrespect to the steel ball crew)trying to attack a force like goin over the falls is never goin to be easy.remerdy berry gatherer goes one on one with someone like moamid ali, Bruice lee, campello, naish or the axit and finds his mamouth yette balls of steel in a day
Well I award myself half a plastic berry for trying one for the first time on Saturday.
Made about a quarter of the rotation, landed bum-first and made a big splash...
Guess what? It's only water
That half a plastic berry was sore from said impact for the next day.
Thanks for posting this thread
Hey Northy I got those same pics of that guy from Gero pulling that exact same move Do you think he would show me that in person on a 30knt day at Corro's. I know his secret he bought one of those kiddies pools and rigs up on the 1st floor with a kids rig attached to a boogie board
he then launches off the balcony into a fwd or back loop similar to a foam pit as used by MX riders, i hear he has landed a triple off the balcony clean as in the pool even kept his hair dry (wot hair)
Conventional wisdom seems to be that the forward is both easy and safe. All you need are the balls to pull the trigger.
My recent experience suggests otherwise.
Like a lot of you, I've dreamed of trying the loop for years. I mostly kitesurf these days because the East coast winds are more suited to kiting, but I've been making regular pilgramages to WA to get my windsurfing fix. (Mainly to Corro.)
For many years the loop was just a pipedream. I just didn't feel ready for it. But last summer I headed West with the loop firmly fixed as my objective. But the weather didn't cooperate and out of 3 weeks, I only had 3 good sailing days. Not enough continuity to build the confidence... So it was shelved for another season.
But the desire built and I was even more psyched to go for it this season. And the wind was more consistent and I was sailing well. Was camping at Corro - could there be a better spot for learning it? No excuses left.
SO I WENT FOR IT!!!
I didn't make it, but I got close enough to be excited about it. It's certainly quite a rush to finally try something you've been dreaming of for years. And to see that it does actually seem as easy as popular myth. I was stoked.
Tried a few more. Kept landing on my back. Close, but not close enough.
Was starting to feel more comfortable with the whole concept. The fear was going and the adrenaline was pumping. But I still hadn't made it around.
So I tried a bigger ramp. And I did make it around, landing feet first....
.... with an incredible burning sensation in my back ankle.
I couldn't hold the landing and fell in. Took one look at my foot and was nearly sick when I saw it pointed 90 degrees the wrong way.
That was about a month ago and I've spent most of the time since lying on my back with my foot in the air. I've now got 10 screws in my ankle and 2 in my knee. Even after a month, the pain is pretty bad. And I'm still another month away from putting any weight on it.
Buggering my leg really didn't cross my mind as a likely outcome. Loops are supposed to be pretty safe, aren't they?
Out of curiosity, I just did a Google search to try to find out (belatedly) how risky the loop is (which is how I stumbled on this thread). Found an interesting article at: http://www.boardseekermag.com/technique/advanced/forward_loop/forward_loop_2.htm
The general conclusion is that it doesn't sound like something that's likely to hospitalise you and leave you with months of pain and rehab.
Maybe my experience was an unfortunate anomaly. I hope so.
I think my problem was that I wasn't tucking my legs up enough and was looping too straight legged. I think that's why I wasn't making it around off the small ramps. And I was a little too keen to land one on day one. So I tried a bigger ramp. Trying to overcome poor technique with extra height. Not a smart thing to do, but the adrenaline was pumping and I was thinking with my balls, not my brain.
I enjoy pushing my limits and whilst I don't enjoy the price I occasionally have to pay, I wouldn't swap it for a safe life as a couch potato. And I'm not suggesting anyone else do, either.
I have no idea how many others screw their legs doing forwards. But I know I did. And it hadn't crossed my mind as a risk.
So, maybe if you're looking to try one, you should bear it in mind that it's not necessarily as safe as it is reputed to be.
**** does happen.
Ask Greenroom how many days he had to take off work last week after looping practice....
whoever says you can't get hurt looping is obviously on some pretty strong pain killers!
I feel your pain Zak!
I have the same 10 screw and plate biz in my leg from spirall facturing the ankle and breaking both bones in the shin. But I did mine on a back loop. Haven't had the guts to try real ones again.
The good news is you will be sailing again in about 6 months. And you may even do small forwards again as I do, but I won't do the big ones.( couldn't go big before, so no change really)
The downside to having plates and screws still in the leg is the jarring on bouncy days and after all the strong wind days last week I am now getting a severve attack of arthritis.
The main thing stopping you later though will just be mental attitude. Most of the pro sailors have broken feet or ankles and still go very big on their jumping and heaps of guys do mega loops year after year with no problems.
So when you get back on the horse just start off small and learn a good technique rather than throwing it all the the wind. Confidence is the biggest benefit to looping - no hesitation - just doing it. The best session I ever had I didn't even land a loop but as a pro sailor was giving me a lesson and sailing behind me and encouraging me, I went for my biggest ever attempts off the biggest waves, with a confidence level rarely experienced before or since. Still remember the day ten years later.
Good luck with the recovery, and make sure you do the physio properly.
Hey Zak, sounds like you were definitely trying the Hunter method if you needed more height to get around. F*&^ing well done I say and two steel balls for the effort champ, 1 extra steel ball to compensate the injury if that helps.
I think the getting hurt bit is surely expected at some point, it's just a matter of how bad. Can anyone say they have never been injured windsurfing (i doubt it). Zak sounds like he copped a beating but look on the bright side, now he has extra metal and screws in his knee's and ankles for added strenght in his next attempt.
