after hiring an underfinned (to me) board recently, and reading a mag article
I'm wondering should i not be driving off the back foot / pushing hard on the fin?
i guess i always ride slightly overfinned, high boom, and this makes it easy to get and stay planing & get upwind and obviously less spinout, mostly riding choppy bump & jump.
what is the advantage of not doing this / having a smaller fin?
is this what people do then on a waveboard / freestyle?
is it the same as riding off the front/back foot?
Agreed - much nice way to sail.
Takes a while to get used to ZERO pressure against the fin when you have been used to big stuff
I use a 16cm fin on my freestyle board.
I dig the rail in slightly and put pressure on my front foot. My back foot is almost lifting up.
You get used to the different way of sailing coz if you try to put pressure on the fin you just spinout.
It's almost not just getting used to a different way of sailing, just getting better at not overloading the fin..
Everybody should take out a 16cm fin and lean how to get upwind on it. You'll quickly learn how to become more efficient, and then going back to a normal size fin will seem a luxury because you've lost all your bad habits..
I've never seen this done, tried it a few times by giving my gear to other people but it usually gets dismissed as impossible after one walk back upwind..
It took me a while to convert. It was after a holiday in El Medano in 2006 where I felt too heavy and couldn't get planing like everyone else. We were staying upwind of the waves so we needed to sail downwind, wave sail and then go back upwind - I just couldn't do it and had a few days of walking back.
In 2007, I went on a guy cribb course in Morocco and he taught us a different stance... Try it at the extreme and then see how you go pulling it back to your normal stance.
First.. crumple your knees forward and sail on the outside of your front foot and the inside of your back foot - basically like a drunk girl who has fallen over sideways and is holding onto her sober boyfriend's arm...
Have the boom HIGH and the harness lines long... It's usually for a waist harness - but if you were in a seat harness, you would be "wedgying" yourself with it....
The "wedgy" is stronger if the rig is totally upright so aim to get the boom front end IN FRONT of the mast track... This makes the rig produce more lift..
Then, don't use your feet at all - if anything you should be lifting with them. You can plane very slowly in the footstraps with this technique so aim to point high.
Sometimes a small fin will need extra resistance so push down gently on the windward rail.
thanks all, I will try it with my smallest fin ASAP.
(next year now as I'm in U.K.)
For jumping: I've always found a big fin easier as its lets me plane upwind easier,
sometimes so much that no last minute turn into the wave is necessary.
one last subquestion:
With this small fin setup, can you ever get the last bit of speed and power
from the sail? I presume its only for a manouveur orientated situation (freestyle & wave) and not the way for example a slalom board is ever ridden, or a speed board?
See my profile pic..
