AoetearoaSailor forum posts in last 60 days

Thanks guys for the replies. I think I will need to take this on board and at 48 years young moderate my approach for the future. Crashing hard in waist/chest deep water is definitely not such a great idea to repeat too often. I had assumed semi-laydown gybes were the one solution to fix all gybing problems particularly in technical conditions, but it seems not. Reviewing my gps track, it looks as though I suddenly got launched 90 degrees to the right, mid-gybe at around 40 kph, which would explain the impact and foot injury. It appears that my foot might not be broken, just very sprained and sore, which is a bonus!

I've had second big 'off' in a month while gybing - both at the same large lake sailing location in waist deep water, with (occasionally very evil) steeply stacked close-period freshwater chop/lake swell, up to ~50-80cm in size.

The first crash temporarily dislocated my jaw when the nose of the board submarined into some steep chop at high speed during a very committed very powered up gybe resulting in a catapult that gave me concussion for two weeks, and I fear yesterday evening's crash, when the board went total yard-sale as it launched off chop mid-gybe very powered up at high speed, may now have resulted in a broken foot (waiting on x-ray!).

Clearly I must be doing something wrong - relative to the conditions.

I've done 1000s of successful gybes at this particular location, but in the last few months I've been working on a semi-laydown style gybe - straight front arm, sheet in, 'see' the nose of the board, carve, foot change, rig flip, exit. This kind of gybe is brilliant at maintaining mast foot pressure and driving the board through this nasty chop and maintaining speed BUT I suspect the power factor combined with the conditions, means that when it does go wrong, it goes massively wrong with a big bang. I actually thought the problem with the first crash was that I wasn't committing to the gybe enough, but I think I've nixed that idea now.

Previously I used a more 'open sail' gybe technique here, keeping the rig in front of me and bouncing over the evil chop, but was told sheeting in and laying it down was better It certainly looks cooler, haha...

Any tips or advice, or should I just lay off the committed semi-laydowns at this particular location. Boards are Tabou Rocket Plus 113 with GA Cosmic 8.3 in ~16-18 kts wind (foot damage) and Tabou 3s 107 with GA Hybrid 6.4 in ~22-25 kts wind (concussion).

I took my V3 Severne Fox 105 out on the water for the first time this week. Absolutely loved the board, but wow - getting in that rear strap was an absolute menace. Once in both straps everything feels brilliant, it's just getting to that point is frustratingly difficult.

For context, I have all Fox 105 straps in their outboard settings. I'm also spoilt enough to have a V3 Fox 115 with outboard straps set up - and getting in the rear strap on this board is generally no problem. I have US/UK size 12/11 feet, which may be making things more difficult than they need to be - it feels like I'm actually having to briefly drag my rear heel in the water to poke the rest of my foot into the rear strap. I also have a range of other freerace boards, all with outer strap positions - and don't struggle too much with them either. I am doing the trick of resting my foot immediately beside the rear strap before making the switch to get the foot in

My straps are all set up Guy Cribb method for freerace setups - i.e. tight enough so only the toes are poking out.

I read on an old Severne Fox 105 Seabreeze thread - a brief comment someone also made about the rear foot strap being difficult to get into. Their suggestion was to bring the footstraps inboard, which to me seems potentially a bit limiting on a freerace board. Another possibility, would be to bring the rear strap inboard, but leave the front ones outboard. However, Guy Cribb suggests this is an absolute no-no - as it kills proper stance.

Advice please!