I am hoping to speed up my waterstarts when the mast falls on the side you want but clew is facing into wind. I am swimming my mast around 180 degrees, lifting it out of the water, continue to swim to about 270 degrees where the rig flips over the right way and then waterstarting.Usually takes a couple of minutes if all goes well. Is there a quicker way without getting into clew first starts?.
sharks and big hollow waves help 
try moving the board, not the mast.... it is a lot quicker. Hold the nose of the board and sidestroke it around so the mast is across the wind and clew downwind (whichever direction that may be).
Fly the rig - eevn if wrong direction. then the mast hasn't had time to fill up with water. So far we are up to about 15sec?
Then flip rig if necessary whilst in the air
Yeah. A few times when the foot hits something solid I have reverted back to uphauling real quick. Less time in the water with the Altona Noah, the better. I will try moving the board, makes sense.
You can also lift the clew and watch the whole rig flip over the right way if you're quick. It's a bit of a gamble though, the mast can sink a bit.
oh yeah and also
if the mast is across the wind, and the clew pointing directly into the wind, you can just lift the clew and let the wind flip it.
The down side is the mast tip will sink a bit but for small sails and good wind it is of little consequence as you can fly the rig pretty quickly even with the mast tip 1ft under
lift clew. - Sail will flip over, move mast to rear of board. Alot easier than moving board, especially in surf.
1. Dont let go of the rig when you fall in!! If you hang on and keep the rig above you, you should be up again in seconds.
2. And why not learn clew first water starts?? They are really easy!
3. Fall off more often!! That way you get more practise and will get faster
As kiwibones said...What's wrong with clew-first starts? They're easy & once you get moving, the rig flips & you're away. Taught myself in about an hour a couple of years ago. Honestly though, if you have the clew floated (to do a clew-first start), the rig should flip whilst in the water anyway.
thing that sped up my waterstarts the most was wearing an impact vest.
the extra bouyancy stops you from sinking and makes it "A lot" easier to manipulate the rig while in the water.
Depending which side the sail is on when it's in the water, I find it pretty easy to grab the mast with one hand and the back footstraps of the board with the other hand, and swim it around that way.
And as someone else said, if you can get the sail up in the air ASAP and then flip it, you'll be saving some time.
On a slightly different waterstarting problem:
I was having trouble waterstarting my big cammed sail the other day.
I just couldn't get the mast far enough out of the water.
I'm tiny and don't have much buoyancy even with a buoyancy vest.
I found that by getting the mast over the tail of the board and pushing down on the tail with one hand and pushing up on the mast with the other the mast lifted really easily.
Windxstasy:
The bigger the sail, the more this technique helps:
Pull yourself to the tip of the mast and then SLIDE (not lift) the sail out of the water.
Once the wind is under it, keep it flying and head down the mast until you get to the boom.
Even the smallest person can fly the largest rig using this technique. I use it all the time. No effort required.
Isnt anyone going to ask what happens if you have a wide sleeved race sail that has 20kgs of water in it?????
Oh, I just did
)
Sharks help but the quickest water start I have ever done was at shark bay when I fell while gybing on top of a sea snake (was busy looking at him and muffed it). One toe on the bottom and back onto the board !
But seriously the technique of getting the sail up and flying (even if its the wrong way round) and then flipping it in the air is the one I use the most.
My biggest cammed sail had a broken roller and wasnt rotating properly so I was falling in and deliberately "popping" it as I fell so it would be ready to water start. Then I pulled it apart and fixed the roller, a much better idea.
