ok i need a few tips with tacking, i can tack around 30%of the time on the 06 goya 95ltr freewave board, and the starboard carve 111 around 55% of the time, so i have a fairly good idea about what i need to do in the tack as in getting around the sail and the entry with feet position, but when i get on my main boards 76ltres and smaller i seem to sink the nose and i cant get around the other side of the board quick enough what leads into a big fail because i fall off, so i need some tips on feet posie during the turn not just leading into the tack and any tips on making it a little bit easier to get there on the smaller boards, i have around a 3%success rate on my 76ltr wave board and for some reason i have better succes with heli tacks.
thanks 
hi jordo,
these days i am completing 90% of my starboard side tacks on a 95lt fish. (i'm 96kg so a definate sinker for me) but i a not planing through them
a couple of things i do.
firstly. cheat!!!! 
when learning them i did them in shallow water. when the nose sinks it hits the bottom and this gives you some extra time.
i find taking a big step around the mast helps. when placing your foot on the other side make sure it is just behind the mast. so you are not weighting the front of the board. (this is really important)
another thing is to jump around real quick. faster the better.
i still sink the nose all the time and end up down to my front knee in water. this is mainly becasue i didn;t place my foot far enough behind the mast when i took the first step.
if this happens all is not lost. when you are on the new tack and the nose has submerged. push down hard with your back foot and take the weight off your front foot. the nose will re-surface really quickly.
sometimes you need to tilt the rig towards the nose of the board to get things turning downwind. by moving your hands further back along the boom. (mainly if you don't turn far enough into the wind when initiating the move.
I tack ok on my 80lt board (I am over 85kgs)
Right or wrong here is how I do them...
I try to keep plaining as long as possible into the tack. I carve hard into the wind and half way there move my front hand onto the mast. As I get very close to dead into the wind I put my front foot in front of the mast, but keep my weight on my back foot. As I hit dead into the wind I change my back foot to where my front was etc on the opposite side of the board. By now I have also swapped hands onto the other side with my new front hand on the mast. Sheet in and I use a little preassure on the front foot to turn the board down wind, once across the wind get going again.
I find with my front foot in front of the mast I can use my weight distribution to turn the board down wind quickly. Also it helps to get used to sailing with water up to your knees, I get a lot of practice with only 1 board in QLD.
I was trying them today, 85 kilos of me and 80 litres of board, haven't managed one yet 
Was getting around to the new side of the sail but couldn't get the board to turn past the eye of the wind. What do you do? Angle the mast forwards/to the inside of the turn?
Tilt the mast forward, sheet in hard and move a little weight toward the front of the board.
It helps to carve hard into the wind so you are as close to being through the wind as possible when you swap sides.
Things that help me most are firstly <b>Look</b> where you want to go ... I think this is the single biggest thing, especially helpful when you are worrying where to place your feet.
Secondly, when I started tacks I was going boom to boom. Now I go mast to boom ... I find it makes it easier to skip around the sail.
Thirdly, instead of placing my foot in front of the mast as I spin around i try and get it around the other side a bit... the only downside to this I always seem to catch a bit of the mast base with my ankle ... I have a permanent chuck taken out of my ankle!
These helped me skip around so hope they help you!
Ahh jordo my weak point as well
I'm 95kg's and can do em on my 85L about 50 percent of the time
When i fail it's because i do the transition too slow and can only do them when the water is relatively flat... so all i can say about this is do it fast.....they don't call it a fast tack for nuthin.
and ballet lessons may help
I am trying to re-learn tacking on my new 105 lt board - I thought it was just me that couldn't!
My symptom is sinking the REAR of the board. My conclusion is that I need to get around faster, not tilt the mast far back during the 'dead time', and retain a sense of the balance of the mast with my own weight even on the hop.
Oh, and get around faster. Watching 'beginner to winner', the smallboard tack is a lightning fast move.
Now to get out and practise some more.
i have troubles too, i kinda do the same thing wrong on all my boards, but getting more consistant now, i just watched a mate do them, he gets them almost every time, even on real small boards, what he does and now me is to jump around the mast early, just before you are going straight into the wind jump to the other side, keep the rig racked back is important, to keep the weight back on the board, if your planning it's easier, as you can put more weight on the nose without it sinking to much, you end up sailing backwinded for a metre or so, as you pass through dead upwind, weight your front foot, sink the nose, and sheet in hard so it spins to a reach then of you go. this way feels cool and looks better too, even fun on the old sup..
i think helitacks are definately easier on smaller boards especially if you practice doing them in the straps and coming out switch stance. upwind 360s are a helpful move before working on helitacks in the straps.
I stand with both feet facing forward towards the pin board. Using my thumb, I push the tack in in one motion. Seems to be a great fool proof method.
wow thanks for that guy didint think this would happen in 24 hours. haha so im not the only one who suffers. well that makes me feel a little better
I used to be able to make 80% of my fast tacks, and I achieved this success rate almost overnight.
I got a good book, Mike Waltze's "High Performance Boardsailing" or whatever it's called, and read the fast tack section over and over and over. And I memorized the photo sequence, really getting it stuck in my head. I visualized, I practiced with a boom and half a mast in my bedroom, and always reminded myself to get the whole thing done without pausing to think about it.
Out on the water, it all came together.
But now it's gone...GONE!!! GONE!!!
my tips for tacking
when you carve into the wind and are almost head to wind, don't pause just give the board that last push you need so when you jump around the nose it is slightly off the wind.
Power the rig up straight away and push the nose around with your front foot.
the amount of tacks that have gone wrong but because the rig is power up i can always sail away
hope this helps
I'm really happy to announce that today I got my first 'shortboard' tack ever! And the second, and the third, and you get the idea
Top tips:
1) A bigger board really helps here. I was on a 120 litre or so board, well floaty.
2) Get that new back foot RIGHT DOWN the board. If both your feet are next to the mast base, you'll fall in
3) Change feet while you're still moving.
4) Don't sheet in while carving into the wind. The sail should be neutral.
WOOOHOOO!!! That was the best session I've had in months
well im happy to report i got my 3rd ever short board tack yesterday, on a 76ltre wave board, and im not talking a messy one either it was smooth, but after that i didnt get another,
but now i got my new windsurfing bible "ticktionary" in the post today i think that it will get better
i find raking the sail right back..heps the carve and allows more room to jump across the other side ..and i mean jump nice and quick....works most of the time for me except in really lumpy conditions where the nose somtimes dives into the chop
i know this goes against some of the other suggestions, but personally i find that not letting the sail fall towards the back of the board at all (keep it almost dead upright) and jumping around the mast as quick as possible, followed by pulling the sail back across your body ASAP is the way to go for tacks. If it is across your body you can back-wind it to regain balance by pushing against it with the new back hand. this also saves you from having to point as far into the wind before you do the tack, in fact you hardly have to point high into the wind at all before tacking providing you learn how to back-wind the sail. + speed is your friend, as it is with almost all other windsurfing maneuvers
yehaircut...i probably didnt explain rake it back int the carve and i think you get/keep more speed ..i am usually still planing as i am jumping across..and as you jump to the other side your pulling the mast frward...and yeh it helps when you get the back wind effect as you can quickly stabilise yourself and push the nose of the board completely around onto the new tack...and voila...
thats just my perspective anyway..probably no help but
sorry phoenix, i wasn't poking holes in your advice 
i've seen alot of people dropping the sail to the tail of the board when they jump around, but they rarely pull one off as a result
Got one today on my sinker!!!!! Practice on a big board pays off!
Yay yay yay one happy little nebs 
