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hi guys, it happens too often in side down the line or side off conditions with gusty wind, during the bottom turn to be overpowered even with the right size of sail, the sail often opens against my will, I don't understand what mistake I can make commit, it only happens to me with gusty winds, in on shore side shore conditions I have no problem in the turn, I tried to give a lot of tension to the downhaul and the situation improves a little but the sail becomes dull, even for jumps.
Try over sheeting in the turn, but then be careful coming off the top, that's when the sail can really power up, and blow you off the back
What's your level?
Side off, gotta size down. Side should be fine depending....
What weight, wind, sail size, model, and waves?
Slide your back hand down the boom to over sheet .Don't fight it by leaning back and weighting up the back of the board.
If it's properly side off and you're planing on the way out then you'll be too overpowered to do proper turns on the wave coming back in. Consider dropping down in sail size to combat this but also don't be afraid to lay that sail down and oversheet to kill some power off the bottom.
Think of it as surfing and the sail is just a tool to get you out there while on the wave you surf it and can concentrate on reading the waves and doing tighter turns. ??
probably you need more commitment: get that low forward lean, laying down the sail whilst burying the rail.
Top-turn is usually the limiting factor when overpowered, to a certain extend you can mitigate with one handed surf style top turns..if that doesn't work anymore you need to change down/go home :)
Like SamDillon said to chose a smaller sail. In side off, the wave gathers and funnels the wind so you will have more wind on the wave than when sailing out. Another thing is that in a bottom turn, the wind enters from the clew and loose leach works counter productive. The more loose leach, the more power plus the power moves higher up plus the power higher up points in the opposite direction (away from the wave) than where you want to go. This is even more so the case in on shore conditions. With a smaller sail you can rig with less loose leach.
thank you all for the advice, I will try to put it into practice, one last question, while we are climbing the waves going out to sea perhaps with little wind and we are slow and a wave is about to break and close on top of us, it is always better face it or in some cases is it better to push away and abandon windsurfing before the impact? Sometimes I happen to be undecided even when there is enough wind to have to give up everything, it depends on the size and strength of the wave, sometimes I decide to jump or at least face it but sometimes the fear that it might overwhelm me stops me , I don't know what would happen if it took me backwards like a centrifuge.
?
^^ pick your acid, the info you seek will only come with experience after trashing kit and having a few long swims. At some breaks you will do everything to not sacrifice yourself or your kit to the shoreline, other spots you can ditch your gear, go for a swim and all's good. After many beatings and some trashing of your favourite stuff, you kinda get a feel for 'death or not death' wavesailing moments.
Sail brand and model can also play a big role on pulling on your hands...if you can, give a try at 3 battens sail and use the smaller size that can make your way out the back of the waves, maybe a tad bigger board and larger, so small sail and floaty board, that could help a lot! all of these works if the wind is cross off, so going downwind helps to get out and you don't need a big sail to pass the waves
Great question, I find the same problem using simmer blacktips, use to use Margaret River Delta design soft sails with only 3 full battons worked much better on the waves as you can face plant the wave on a bottom turn making the turn much tighter and so better for re entry surfing style manoeuvres as a soft sail de powers through the leach, used one at gnaraloo recently and was surprised how much better it went on the waves, the downside was the upwind tacking ability was no where near as good as modern sails and tend to flap when overpowered, noticed the best lay down bottom turns coming from guys using severe blade sails although nowhere near as good as a soft sail, also the delta are not made any more, a thing of the past, would love to see a manufacturer making a modern rdm power head soft sail and for the moment am thinking of trying the simmer with the third batton shortened to 200 mm on the leach side removing the rest of it to the mast, when a big wave is about to break on you bail out and get use to long swims as I have broken too much gear holding on to it and trying to drag it through the waves.
Yes, the superfreaks are heavy...
I really like the Blade Pro, it has helped me a lot to get into a better lay-down style in the turn. There is something about the high and forward pull that kicks in, once one enters the turn and sheets in the sail.
Ezzy Takas have a short batten so can be seen as a soft sail? and de power well. I use them as my high wind sails and they work really well in gusty conditions in my opinion. (similar to the wind effects in cross off?)
