Hey everyone,
This has really been bugging me lately. I can't reach 50 kmh on my slalom gear even when fully powered up. This is in moderately choppy conditions since I'm riding in Viganj. I am not really asking for advice cause I can't post videos yet since I'm new here. Most importantly I am 68kg and am curious how fast i can go with my weight when riding slalom and if I am even able to ride so fast with my weight in chop. Also if you have any guess to what's wrong even though you don't have much information I'd appreciate it .
You will find this thread interesting:
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Gps/How-to-get-that--flying-on-the-edge--feeling-
I'm your weight, and the only way I can go fast in chop, is to find which way the chop runs, in relation to the wind.
It doesn't always run directly down wind. So find where the chop is at the most angle to the wind, and run parallel to the chop in the most down wind direction. Then bear away gradually until the chop starts slowing you down. I can get close to 60km/hr doing this.
Your weight is not the sole factor holding you back from going quicker than 50kph. Weight is definitely an advantage when you're trying to go fast consistently through chop. But being in the same weight range as you, i can tell you that you can definitely go faster.
without more info, any more answers than that are based on pure speculation and wild stabs in the dark.
Assuming you have tuned your sail and board perfectly, then what Decrepit said. Unless your a PWA slalom sailor, going fast is either about finding high wind and flat water or if the is no flat water, then finding a spot where the angle to the wind and the angle of the waves is offset so you can run parallel to the waves at an angle of greater than 110 degrees.
I'm roughly around , maybe a bit under your weight and I'm stoked to get anything over 26kts in chop.
28. 03kts is my best going over the backs of 60cms plus rollers. That was scary..
I'm on freerace gear.
HI norfix,I was also stuck on a speed I could not get past ,I then brought a smaller 92 litre Patrik slalom board and learnt how to run down wind ,first run on that little board I smashed my PB by 3 knots ,
I then knew I was invincible ,
I had a look on gps-speedsurfing.com to see where the fastest speeds were, the 500m track is displayed on the map, but that seems only on recent sessions after 2013. The fast speeds were 2013 and earlier, and they havent posted since. So thats no help. Do you know any of the faster sailors? There is one recent, but he went straight out www.gps-speedsurfing.com/default.aspx?mnu=user&val=381951&uid=24437&spotid=1567
As mentioned above, finding somewhere where the chop is at an angle to the wind so you can sail at a deeper angle is key. But I guess your spot has no sandbars or shallow areas near the shore where this might happen.
I was talking about speeds recently with a local, who had been given some tips from sailors at Weymouth, UK, one of our speed spots. When you are going across the wind and not deep, using too large a sail, for power, is actually slower than using a smaller one because of the extra drag. I've also been told this by fast speed sailors. So its not always a case of to go faster you need a larger sail. Do you have a small slalom board? For your weight, 80litre?
Speeds are average of 5 10 second runs.
ps. no light sailors under 77kg, mostly heavyweights going fast.
First off thank you for all the advice I've been reading bunch of different threads you guys sent me and I've found that I should definitely try getting more lift since I don't really feel like flying away even when the strongest of gusts hit. Also I think I understand what you are saying with riding through the chop faster, cause I've experienced this on my own and it does seem impossible to ride right across it fast.
Thank you for answering my question though, cause now i know my weight isn't the problem and I am more motivated than ever to go to the beach and try trimming my gear better. I don't have any experience on seabreeze so I don't really know whether to continue this thread in some time when i find other issues or whether to create a new one. Either way I can conclude that after just a year of windsurfing actively there is still so much to learn about gear trim and the trim affects the speed so much that it might be the difference between 20kts and 30kts.
I'm no slalom sailor, but I can't go fast on big gear, there's just too much weight and drag.
Also it's weedy and shallow here, big pointer fins are a real pain, and that's what you need to make big gear work.
So my advice is probably irrelevant for your conditions.
If you only windsurfed for a year, you are doing really well. If you buy fins, try and get carbon fins, they are much better generally.
I think 26 kts over decent chop is about max . Those slalom guys that do over 30 in big chop are super human and only do it for a short time . Flat water is key .
Self preservation kicks in at about 50kph over chop, a few times I've thrown caution to the wind and regretted it shortly afterward
Little guys can go fast so don't be too discouraged you just have to get everything working right for you - which I can't help with. But typically your settings, wind ranges and gear combinations will be different to heavy riders - and different to manufacturer guides because most of them I believe are based around bigger sailers especially for slalom/race type gear.
Fast in chop is too subjective as to what the chop is, we sail in chop here, short sharp ugly chop usually but not open ocean swell+chop, most sailers taking note of gps numbers can do high 20's to low 30's in knots, some faster - mid 30s semi-regularly
To learn to go faster, find flatter water. Sometimes, that can be even a different tide level and wind direction at the same spot, but often, you'll need to travel a bit.
Flat water makes it easy to go faster. Once you've gone faster on flat water, you'll probably find that you can also go faster in chop.