Hi!
Any pointers as to what Im doing wrong pls?
Im starting to waterstart and I can position the board and rig ok.
I then position the mast level with the wind (so the sail acts as a wing) and keeps itself a foot above the water. (board facing into wind)
I put my rear foot on the board in preparation to push the sail up and forward, and lift myself- and then this keeps happening:
The board starts heading upwind, and the sail gets blown down wind - which rotates my board so the wind ends up on the wrong side of the sail and me still stuck in the juice!!
any advice would be great !!!
Putting rear foot on first will kick the tail downwind causing the nose to point upwind.
You say that you can get it set up ready for the waterstart and it sounds like you are doing ok there. When in the ;position ready to go, I push down on the rig and swim with my legs which pushes the nose slightly down wind then throw the sail up and kick like mad with your feet and put front foot on first which will keep the board heading downwind.
I actually do put my rear foot on first now but i learnt doing the above way.
Keep trying - once you learn how it all works it becomes second nature.
Good Luck!
Make sure you board is pointing well downwind from the start.
Do you start with one or two feet on board? Try with both, using your feet to push the front away and pull your heel in and out to keep board in good position.
The higher the wind the more you may want to point board upwind. In strong wind start with your rear foot in the strap with the front foot up on the board.
As far as the sail goes, try a lower boom position to start off with. Make sure you get right under the boom whilst still in the water flying the sail, this way when you come out you are under the boom and not getting dragged over by it. Make sure your knees are bent and hang off the boom heaps to avoid a catapult.
If you "feather" your rear hand in and out a bit before rising up you can adjust to catch enough wind in the sail to pull you out without catapulting you straight over the other side.
I stuffed around for ages trying to water start with only my rear foot up on board, then it was suggested to try both - got straight up. It just takes practice.
MAKE SURE YOU ARENT TRYING TO LEARN TO WATERSTART WITH A LARGE SAIL.
Good luck
You could write 100's of words on what to do here, and then you'd be thinking all this stuff while you're water starting, bend here, push there, angle this yada yada...
so, and I'm not trying to be rude, here's what/all you need to concentrate on:
Balance.
Repeat this mantra.
It's simple once you get the hang of it.
To get the "Ah-HA!" moment for the first time: try as hard as you can to catapult yourself out of the water.
Good luck!
The biggest mistake, and what you may be doing is trying to get up on your feet too early, and hence pushing the back of the board away and the nose of your board upwind.
What you need to do is to put your back foot on the board, and bend your knees to bring the back of the board towards you. Keep your body in the water, and really extend your arms up and get the sail almost vertical before lifting yourself out the of the water and applying any force through your feet. This way instead of the wind having to lift your weight up out of the water, you are instead using the bouyancy of the board to lift your weight out of the water, you can easily water start in much less winds then you need to get planing this way. Also putting force through the boom and to the mastfoot (instead of your feet) helps to keep the board pointed where you want it too.
just my 2cents.
p.s. i always put my back foot on first, and use my front foot to give a quick kick and help boost my body out of the water.
p.p.s if its really windy, then you can rely on the wind to pick you up out of the water using the sail, but most of the time, its better to utilise the boards bouyancy. using the boards bouyancy is also more stable, as you are more in control when you get up on your board, instead of getting blown up out of the water and straight into a catapult if you rely entirely on the wind.
Squid - try learning the waterstart backwards.
No, seriously..
Get sailing comfortably, shuffle forward on the board (back foot on the centreline between the front straps, or just a tad behind) and then let yourself down into the water. Drop your front leg off the board, and then pop back up onto the board again.
This means that your gear is already in the right orientation, you can be confident that it will work, and you have the choice of how far you let yourself into the water. You can get a feel for the waterstart steering dynamics in a gradual way.
Otherwise, concentrate on staying low - push your (straight) arms up above you in line with your spine, then come forward and in - like you were trying to stick your head through the bottom panel of your sail, right in close to the mast. This will tip your rig foward (to help steer the nose off the wind), will get the most power available from the wind (if it's a bit light), and gives you the best leverage to control everything.
Don't even THINK about anything to do with 'up' until you're in and well over the board!
Ello offers sound advice about feathering/sheeting out a bit as you come over the board - it's really frustrating to go to all the hassle of waterstarting only to end up flung off the other side, and now with all the gear facing the wrong way again! If you stay low, this isn't so likely either..
If you play with the two footed option, be aware that you will go sideways and downwind quite quickly, so you need to not muck about once you put your other foot on the board. The foot that you leave in the water normally acts a bit like a sea anchor, and slows your drift as well as making you a bit more stable.
Maybe you're also putting your back foot on too far back at this stage? Somewhere between, or just behind the front straps works well to start out.
wicked advice chaps!!
I generally sail in lightish winds (under 18 knots) and from the advice it sounds like I should point the board slightly more downwind before I get my foot/ feet on the board and hoik the sail up.
I deffo like the sound of trying the waterstart backwards, as it sounds like this could lead to some cool body dragging as well as perfecting the water start!
thanks for all the top quality advice!!
Hopefully I can crack it this weekend now 
Beach starting in ever increasing depths of water also helps to get the feel of what's required once you start getting hauled out of the water. If you can beach start and bear away straight away then you are pretty close. Lot's of good advice though. I'm a self taught sailor of 14 years and I still pick up hints and tips on the basics of guys off here that are obviously more experienced than me.
When you are in the water you can steer the board the same as when you are sailing. To steer the board down wind you need to apply more mast foot pressure as you are coming over the board.
It sounds like you are not coming up over your back leg enough so you most likely havn't got the sail forward with weight through the front arm. From what I've seen it usually happens because people get a little too excited close to that moment where they will pop up onto the board - instead they are trying to pull themselves up.
I'll explain my process and you can think about it with the other ideas :p
1. I would start with nose pointing into the wind, sail across the wind. From this position you should be able to clear the righ easily.
2. Shuffling your hands down the mast apply a big of pressure through the mast to turn the nose downwind and you should then be able to get your hands onto the boom.
3. Apply pressure through front hand so the nose turns downwind a little more and keep place back leg between front and back straps.
4. Bend back leg and you will sort of pull the tail towards you, keep pressure through front hand and sheet in a little. You should feel yourself start to get lifted.
5. Now you need to let the sail lift you up, as you get lifted concentrate on coming up straight over the back leg (stay low) and reach up as high as you can with your arms (pressure through the front arm).
Just be patient at the point you're about to pop up, let the wind and sail do that work, try not to think about it as pulling yourself up.
Hope that helps.
Hi SquidLips,
I'm only a newb myself, and spent heaps of time watching the Jem Hall vids, and got this the other day
I had the same issue as you, until I realised I was placing my hands to far forward.
Front hand is now just infront of the front harness line, front foot still in the water.
On nearly windy enough days (ie not enough to lift 110kgs) I can hold this position and even steer with front foot still in the water just hanging from the rig.
My best advice is get yourselve into position, get your backfoot up onto the board, pull in with back hand, and push away with front hand and then try to head butt the mast foot. Good luck, and do`nt give up.
