I usually sail in choppy conditions and have been sailing in flatter ones lately.I think maybe I've picked up a bad habit as when I do venture into choppier water and go into the gybe I have been catching the rail as I enter & then go over the front. I never used to do that..
Do I just need to be more subtle..? Powered up verging on overpowered..I don't do it that often it's just that it's something new.
Another problem-
I often plane in & plane out but when I go to grab the sail its too far forward..
Which of these is likely to be the culprit
- need to tip the rig into the turn more?
-grab it further down the boom on the other side & aggressively jerk it to windward to catch it?
-remember to slip my hand down to the mast as I go to flip ( although if I stuff that up usually the rig is too far downwind nearer the tail..
-Am I flipping too late?
( I also don't get forward enough at times..)
All of the above..
Maybe you're going into the gybe too fast on a board with a lot of nose rocker. If the nose catches it wants to do a tight turn, a turn that you're going too fast for.
For me a board with less nose rocker - say a slalom board is easier to punch through on its rail. I have trouble gybing a wavy sort of board with any speed in chop, though I've seen it done.
Its a freeride.I've only just had it start doing it so I suspect it's something I've changed but that is interesting.
Bend your knees through the gybe.... worked for me, now lay down gybes are quite easy
bend your elbow , sheet in and look over your trailing shoulder while holding the boom 2ft from your body
then look over your lead shoulder
sheet in
sheet out
look into the turn
look away from the turn
make sure you are not hooked in just as you flip the rig
push down on front foot about 2/3 pressure of back foot
grab mast
grab boom
sail away
I'm a devotee of looking over your shoulder too. I find it a very similar scenario when riding my motorbike and looking where I want to be at the end of the corner or turn rather than right in front of me. The body will compensate with correct pressure etc. Give it a try and I think you'll be surprised as I used to suffer a very similar thing to what you're talking about.
get yourself a gopro and a flymount record then look at your gybes in slow mo, after watching a few of my gybes I have picked up a few points that I have to work at.
the first gybe in this series got me a 23 knot alpha which I was pretty happy with but most of the rest are rubbish.
I should have slid my back hand back as I initiated the turn and let my front hand slide up to the mast as I started the rig flip as I did a pretty big reach when doing the swap, any othe criticism welcome
i'm not sure where you bury the nose but i sometimes dig the nose initiating gybes in choppy/overpowered conditions when powering upwind and then trying to instantly stomp the inside rail. this is like a 'skip' of the rail followed by a 'splat' of the rider.
so i work on setting up properly: time the gybe to occur in the flattest section i can find and let the board go downwind first and then load the rail with increasingly pressure. that way the edge engages lightly at first to gets a hold, then i can load it. deep knees and keeping the weight on the nose will slice through almost anything.
having the sail forward after the flip is a good position for it to be powered and pull you out of the turn. reckon you're on the right track - on the flip pull it back to windward...and you!
Kp said a cool thing once - slow down before you gybe - if you are on chop back it off to 2/3 throttle then find a groove to turn in.
Go in flat chat and you are coming off (unless the water is butter flat)
drop in a quick body drag to bleed off speed
Then
sheet in
sheet out
bend leg straighten arm
pull leg up bend arm
squat
straighten up
turn head left and right
and then left again
Turn left right now
exit!
Especially why straighten up and look LRL etc? If you straighten up you'll lose it in chop..?
ok then
try :
look right
look left
squat
squat agan
squat some more
bend arm straighten leg
bend arm bend waist
grab boom
grab mast (or skip mast and grab boom grab boom)
look down look up bend arms again but left more than right
but seriously - all you need to know is
slow down
look into turn-body follows the head
keep pressure on rail steady
Some boards have very sharp rails and that can make them a bit twitchy when gybing. Thin rails bury more and bite more, so are more likely to trip, especially if there is little rocker. Rails with more volume or rounded can be more likely to bounce out of the water or lose grip.
The fin can also influence the gybe. A more upright fin needs to be steered round the gybe more, and a swept back fin will tend to flow round the gybe better. In chop, the swept back fin makes it easier to adjust your path through the chop or waves.
Key thing is to concentrate on absorbing any bumps with bent legs and steer the board round in the correct tightness of turn. If there are small waves in the chop, you try to come out of the gybe travelling along and down the face of the wave, so you need to adjust the turn to try to achieve that.
in the 90s i used to drive well
but these days when i am driving i just drive across verges and straight through roundabouts
i dont have the time to be picky about where i drive
(are we sure this isnt just posting for the sake of posting ?)
One other thing I find important in big chop is to be able to see through the window of the sail. You have to be able to read the path to pick and if the window is all salted up, you cant do that well.
grabbing rail as you enter a gybe?
...i think you may have just invented a new freestyle move!! skillz!!!!
I was bored..
