Hi Dogged, I do sympathise with you. As I said earlier, I am the same age and weight, and until a couple of years back I was happy if I completed one carve gybe in a session. I was almost ready to give up, but that is not my style, so in desperation I took some lessons. I still have some days when I struggle to complete a gybe, but I also have days now where I’ll get 38 out of 40. I feel I can offer advice because I have made every mistake in the book, but I am now coming out the other side planing. Sometimes.

Tip number one – get some lessons – if not from a recognized instructor, from someone who gybes well. My biggest mistake was trying to teach myself in the beginning. I didn’t have any one to teach me, and I felt that by the time I was fit enough to warrant paying for a lesson it was almost the end of the season. I made every mistake in the book and some of them became heavily entrenched. I cannot say enough about Guy Cribb as an instructor. If you can get to one of his courses you will not regret it. I have done his course twice and learned new things each time.

Secondly, all gybes are not the same, and this is why they are tricky. A light wind gybe requires a much later rig flip than a carving gybe in 25 knots of wind. Even in a carving gybe you don't always flip the sail when you are pointing directly downwind. The faster you are going, the earlier you must flip. Gybing in chop requires more knee bend than gybing on flat water. Having said that, light wind gybes can help you with doing the moves such as the foot change and boomshaka at a pace you can handle. Flat water gybing can help you learn by taking the bumpiness out of the equation.

Practice at every opportunity. Every time you jump off without attempting a gybe is a practice opportunity lost. The exception would be in overpowered conditions when attempting a gybe is going to endanger you and your board. Practice in shallow water if possible so you don’t use up heaps of energy waterstarting. Ideally find a spot which is shallow at each end of the run, with about 500 – 1000m in between. That way you can gybe and gybe and gybe, with enough distance in between to catch your breath and get upwind. I find if I do an hour non stop I can get about 40 gybes in. I tend to get better and better as I go. After every gybe think about what you need to improve on next time. If you fall in, think about why. What went wrong?

Practice in winds you can handle. You need enough speed to keep you planing around the turn without stalling, but not so much that you are overpowered. You will find that with practice you will be able to gybe in more wind, but you have to work up to it.

Enter the gybe with speed. You need enough speed that you are still planing when you flip the rig. If you are stalling as you flip, and especially if you are stalling as you reach downwind, everything will be very unstable and you will probably fall in.

Practice as much as you can on dry land. The boomshaka, hand work for the rig flip (without grabbing the mast) and the footwork can be practiced with a small sail and board (minus fin) on land on a light wind day. It may take 100 repetitions, it may take 500, but you need to be able to do these things with out thinking. You can practice a lot more transitions on land than you will ever do in a session on the water.

Gear choice – use a non cammed sail that will keep you powered up without making you afraid to bear away. An 85L board should not be too much of a challenge to gybe in planing winds. Your 77 L board is probably a bit too challenging. For light wind days you will need something bigger - I have a 111L board which is stable without being too easy. 120L I found was just so stable it was no challenge. A fairly upright fin will help you stay upwind so you can do more gybes. A raked fin is a bit more forgiving.

Very important points – move your back hand way back on the boom and stay sheeted right in through the approach and carve. If you are too overpowered to stay sheeted in, change to a smaller sail or try a lay down gybe.

Tip the mast forward before taking your foot out of the back strap. This unweights the back foot and gets your weight forward.

Push that front arm out straight, but stay sheeted in. This is very hard to do!

Pull up with the front foot in the strap as you are depressing the rail with your back foot, and keep your weight forward! Make sure to boomshaka.

As you are reaching for the new side of the boom do not look at your hands but look toward your exit – 45 degrees off the wind. If you look at your hands your weight will move back, the board will stall and point upwind and you will fall in backwards. Sound familiar?

Keep watching videos on gybing. If you can, watch one before you go sailing. Get people to watch you gybing and critique you.

You won’t learn to gybe overnight, but you will gradually get better and better. DON’T GIVE UP.

Lots of great advise here but there is perhaps one tip that helped me and nobody mentioned above.

I also struggled with my muscle memory and froze during the jibes so thought I have to practice prior hitting the water otherwise it felt like wasting of the valuable time on the water.

I set up my windsurfing board with 1/2 mast and boom supported by a rope at the end in the launch room in front of TV. It just fitted under the ceiling. Then I practiced about 3 times a day for 10-15 minutes; the foot change with boom swing, boomshaka, bending knees, hip swing etc. After 2-3 weeks I've found out that it became quite natural on the water and I could focus on another things.

I think there is just not enough time on the water to get all the jibe movements to become automatic. Even if you do 50 jibes a day, it's not enough. Just practice at home or at you backyard few times a day and you will notice that after a week or so you can watch TV and flip your sail, bed you knees etc much quicker without even thinking about it. You can also correct your moves and repeat them over and over again. That way you are at least 70% ready for the real thing on the water.

++
Jibing in the basement part 1, 2 and 3
Part 1

Thank you all again for your replies, all good stuff :)

I borrowed my husbands 94 litre board today. The wind conditions were light 15knots -17knots so I used a 5.7m sail, which I am not used to using as I don't normally go out in light winds. However that is the only time the water is flat, where I sail.

I tried to analyse what I do wrong....

I barely move my feet so at the end of the gybe I unbalance the board and fall in, I have to get nearer the centre of the board. i don't know how I am going to chance my foot work as that is when I tend to freeze ! The rig change could be faster, I tend to hold on to the rig until the board stops.

I forced myself not to look down, and look into the turn, which took some time to get used to.

My sails are set up correctly as i share sails with my husband and he is very particular about rigging sails correctly.

Anyhow, I will continue to practice and will try and get gybe instruction again. I have been on a couple of windsurfing courses but i didn't get much tutition as the wind was either too light or manically windy !

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Dogged said..
Thank you all again for your replies, all good stuff :)

I borrowed my husbands 94 litre board today. The wind conditions were light 15knots -17knots so I used a 5.7m sail, which I am not used to using as I don't normally go out in light winds. However that is the only time the water is flat, where I sail.

I tried to analyse what I do wrong....

I barely move my feet so at the end of the gybe I unbalance the board and fall in, I have to get nearer the centre of the board. i don't know how I am going to chance my foot work as that is when I tend to freeze ! The rig change could be faster, I tend to hold on to the rig until the board stops.

I forced myself not to look down, and look into the turn, which took some time to get used to.

My sails are set up correctly as i share sails with my husband and he is very particular about rigging sails correctly.

Anyhow, I will continue to practice and will try and get gybe instruction again. I have been on a couple of windsurfing courses but i didn't get much tutition as the wind was either too light or manically windy !

For you to be able to hold onto the sail without flipping it through the whole gybe would suggest the wind was too light for that sail. It is a light wind technique to come out of the gybe clew first.

Doing things slowly tends to make the gybe more difficult. There is a correct pace for things and the timing fits in with (preferably) a fast carve.
If you have to learn in chop it does make things more difficult. You have to bend your knees to absorb the chop and its important how you place the gybe amongst the waves.

It will come if you are patient and methodical - you'll get there.

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petermac33 said..
Going boom to boom is a very advanced technique!

Not really, let Matt show you~

Don't try to do everything at the same time, in the jibe sequece if you approach sheeted in the next problem is the foot change. So concentrate on that only next time. Practice on land the right position and when you go out hang on to the boom with elbows down while you are switching feet.

Yes powersloshin - I think I will only concentrate on one thing each time I go out as I want to try and take a different approach as I have been practicing the same bad habits for years !

So today's session was not looking down at my feet when i flick the rig. I actually looked up and forward to where I was going the entire time. Which wasn't easy for me as I realised I like to look down at my feet ! I didn't manage to stay on - but I was doing something different than my normal way of attempting a gybe, which was actually quite fun.

Next time i think i will concentrate on keeping my weight low and angled forward.

Anyhow i will keep trying through the summer and if I see some kind of improvement, I might not need to give up windsurfing...

I used to freeze when it came to moving my feet too. After a lot of dry land practice the foot work is so automatic I don't even have to think about it. The more things you don't have to think about, gives you more chance to concentrate on everything else.

If you are changing things one at a time (and if you are trying to change things you can expect to do worse initially, so be patient) may I suggest that you start at the beginning of the sequence - the approach. - After you get everything happening smoothly (the idea is to be able to sheet in, bear away and unhook and move your back foot smoothly without unsettling yourself or the board) then you are ready to move on to the next part. A lot of gybes are lost in the approach, so it's best to start with that.

it might be the board that's an issue. My Tabou Rocket is immensely easier to gybe than my slalom board. Perhaps consider buying something to learn your gybing.

Best of luck and whatever you do DONT GIVE UP!!!

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kato said..

Dogged said...
Thanks for your replies :)

Nuder and Freddog- I will keep in mind about flipping the rig sooner and more aggressively.

decrepit- Thanks for the words of motivation and to answer your questions…..

The board I used on holiday was the same board I have at the moment which is 86 litres. The water was flat on the inside, but choppy on the outside.

I sail on the sea and it's never flat when I go out , it's very choppy! My problem is probably a combination of the rig flip and not moving my feet quicker enough.

When I go into a gybe I don't normally get blown downwind. What happens is…..The rig comes around, I grab the mast ( the board has turned around through the wind). The board then stops moving and becomes unbalanced, and I fall in ready to do a water-start straight away, it's a kind of wet gybe. It's so near yet so far !

I think I will hire a 95 litre board, and go out when it's not so windy as then the water state is flatter, and see how I get on. :)

DON'T grab the mast . When you do the flip and step, take your back hand over the top of your front hand and grab the front of the boom on the new side. By grabbing the mast you put your hands in the wrong position on the new side

I speak from my own experience, but I think if you flip later then you will naturally go from boom to boom because the sail has a lot of wind in it clew-first and therefore when you let go the flip is fast and the sail comes right around without any input from your hands. It's when letting go of the sail too early that it kind of swings there awkwardly in the middle (square to the board) and that's where the temptation to grab the mast or uphaul comes from... and I've noticed (for me) that's when I will fall off the plane and flounder awkwardly between the two tacks. This results in me grabbing for the mast or more often the uphaul rope and I'll generally fall backwards into the water bring the mast in on top of me.

As noted in an earlier post, it's hard to give advice without seeing what's going on, but if you're falling in, in the waterstart position (after the flip) then maybe this is what's happening.

Someone also mentioned earlier that you should flip the rig earlier, but I completely disagree.. sailing out clew first (as per my first paragraph) makes light work of the rig flip.

N

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N1GEL said..

My other advise is that it might be the board that's an issue. My Tabou Rocket is immensely easier to gybe than my slalom board. Perhaps consider buying something to learn your gybing.

Good point. The board can make a big difference.
My gybing improved immediately when I changed from a 111 Futura to an iSonic of the same size. Now the Futura is supposed to be less technical to gybe, but the sharp rails of the iSonic made it easier for me...
My alphas went from regular 16s to regular 17s (doesn't sound like much but 17 was a goal I had not been able to reach) when I changed from my 85L Sonic to a 91L Mistral board.

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Dogged said..
Thank you all again for your replies, all good stuff :)

I borrowed my husbands 94 litre board today. The wind conditions were light 15knots -17knots so I used a 5.7m sail, which I am not used to using as I don't normally go out in light winds. However that is the only time the water is flat, where I sail.

I tried to analyse what I do wrong....

I barely move my feet so at the end of the gybe I unbalance the board and fall in, I have to get nearer the centre of the board. i don't know how I am going to chance my foot work as that is when I tend to freeze ! The rig change could be faster, I tend to hold on to the rig until the board stops.

I forced myself not to look down, and look into the turn, which took some time to get used to.

My sails are set up correctly as i share sails with my husband and he is very particular about rigging sails correctly.

Anyhow, I will continue to practice and will try and get gybe instruction again. I have been on a couple of windsurfing courses but i didn't get much tutition as the wind was either too light or manically windy !

What kind of step is he using with the front foot stepping first and only 2 steps used. When is that most useful?

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Windxtasy said..
I used to freeze when it came to moving my feet too. After a lot of dry land practice the foot work is so automatic I don't even have to think about it. The more things you don't have to think about, gives you more chance to concentrate on everything else.

If you are changing things one at a time (and if you are trying to change things you can expect to do worse initially, so be patient) may I suggest that you start at the beginning of the sequence - the approach. - After you get everything happening smoothly (the idea is to be able to sheet in, bear away and unhook and move your back foot smoothly without unsettling yourself or the board) then you are ready to move on to the next part. A lot of gybes are lost in the approach, so it's best to start with that.

How did you practice your foot work on dry land, did you set up a rig on dry land ?

Yep i will start practicing from the beginning :)

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N1GEL said..
it might be the board that's an issue. My Tabou Rocket is immensely easier to gybe than my slalom board. Perhaps consider buying something to learn your gybing
Best of luck and whatever you do DONT GIVE UP!!!

I borrowed my husbands fanatic 95 litre tri fin board yesterday and it seems to turn better when I approached the gybe, better than my fanatic 86 litre board. So YES I agree my board could be not helping me learn..

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baywavebill said..

What kind of step is he using with the front foot stepping first and only 2 steps used. When is that most useful?

Sorry, but I don't understand what you are trying to say ? I don't know what I do with my feet !

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jirvin4505 said..
++
Jibing in the basement part 1, 2 and 3
Part 1

Sorry Dogged my question was meant for the post (video) put up by jirvin4505.
in this clip he uses a step technique where the front foot steps across first in a 2 step procedure.I have always begun with my back foot first in a 3 step procedure (as per Guy Crip twist)
Can someone explain this 2 step technique? When is it best used? What is it called? Will I try it????

Step 1 (for me anyway) Back foot comes out first and placed near the leeward rail so you can more effectively press the leeward rail down. Front foot stays strapped in so you can pull up on the windward rail. Also provides more security with at least one foot still strapped in.

Step 2 Take front foot out of strap just after sail flip.

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baywavebill said..
>>>
in this clip he uses a step technique where the front foot steps across first in a 2 step procedure.I have always begun with my back foot first in a 3 step procedure (as per Guy Crip twist)
Can someone explain this 2 step technique? When is it best used? What is it called? Will I try it????

I really don't want to make this anymore complicated for Dogged than it needs to be, but it looks like he's doing a strap to strap gybe, new front foot just slides straight into front strap, and old front foot then goes into back strap. So there's no stepping forward of the straps before you flip the rig. It's suited to well powered up conditions on flat water. But I seem to do this on port tack regardless, if under powered, instead of sliding front foot straight into strap, I move it forward of the strap, but not before the rig flip.
For me this is faster than the step gybe, I think it's more of a wave sailing thing. Carving onto a wave, it's less important to get weight forward as you can surf down the wave, in fact you may risk nose diving if weight is too far forward.
The step gybe is suited to more types of conditions. so it's the one normally taught in training vids. I've started using it on starboard
tack, where it's normally more choppy, but my starboard gybes are slower than my port ones.

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Dogged said..

Windxtasy said..
I used to freeze when it came to moving my feet too. After a lot of dry land practice the foot work is so automatic I don't even have to think about it. The more things you don't have to think about, gives you more chance to concentrate on everything else.

If you are changing things one at a time (and if you are trying to change things you can expect to do worse initially, so be patient) may I suggest that you start at the beginning of the sequence - the approach. - After you get everything happening smoothly (the idea is to be able to sheet in, bear away and unhook and move your back foot smoothly without unsettling yourself or the board) then you are ready to move on to the next part. A lot of gybes are lost in the approach, so it's best to start with that.

How did you practice your foot work on dry land, did you set up a rig on dry land ?

Yep i will start practicing from the beginning :)

Yes, I set board up without fin on my front lawn, with a small sail. The front lawn was the only place where I had enough room to swing the rig around.
You can do this by the beach of course, but it is easiest to do it when the wind is light.

I would watch Sam Ross video carefully. Even though I am a pretty competent racer, Sam did a clinic this Autumn, and it really helped to improve my gybes. Top tips were:

1. before you enter the gybe move both front and back hand towards the end of the boom, this keeps power in the sail longer and helps with the rig flip
2. Bend the Knees, bend them some more, really really bend the knees
3. DO NOT LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING - watch Sam's video, he looks towards the end of the boom, this puts your body in the right position, with the right twist to change the feet (This is not advisable if you are racing unless you are the first to the mark!)
4. Switch your feet early, while still holding the rig - as you switch your feet, you will end up in a "running position" with the sail completely square to the board - the sail is still generating power and is still keeping the board planing.
5. Boom to Boom is not advanced, it will feel natural if you have done the above and switched your feet nice and early
6. As the rig flips, you back hand goes under the front hand, grab the boom close to the harness line on the other side, you will now naturally sheet in and keep the power and stay planing

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Dogged said..
Thanks for your replies :)

Nuder and Freddog- I will keep in mind about flipping the rig sooner and more aggressively.

decrepit- Thanks for the words of motivation and to answer your questions…..

The board I used on holiday was the same board I have at the moment which is 86 litres. The water was flat on the inside, but choppy on the outside.

I sail on the sea and it's never flat when I go out , it's very choppy! My problem is probably a combination of the rig flip and not moving my feet quicker enough.

When I go into a gybe I don't normally get blown downwind. What happens is…..The rig comes around, I grab the mast ( the board has turned around through the wind). The board then stops moving and becomes unbalanced, and I fall in ready to do a water-start straight away, it's a kind of wet gybe. It's so near yet so far !

I think I will hire a 95 litre board, and go out when it's not so windy as then the water state is flatter, and see how I get on. :)

Makes it harder when it's choppy. I'm a 54 year old female 64kgs.
I used to be able to do planing gybes back in the 80-90's but had a break for 10 years and when I came back retaught myself to gybe - getting rid of old bad habits. I found my 95ltre Rocket with about a 5 or 4m sail in c 20-23kts wind was when I got most of my gybes..I was sailing on a lake and the good ones were on the flatter inside turn. Intially I relied on going in fast and doing the foot change after the flip but that works best powered in flatter water with smaller boards and sails.It would probably work well gybing on swells too. Since then I've changed to the stepgybe where you change feet first. I find this works well in gusty winds where you may not be powered up on the exit.
Anyway I found flatwater really helped me get the gybes going. When you get back in chop it's really important to bend your knees,pull down into the boom ( mastfoot pressure, oversheet on the entry and always look at the exit! Actually one of the best tips I got from the Guy Cribb course was to prepare for the gybe c 100m before- get sailing well weight in harness and board under control then use minimal movement to unhook ( pull boom down). I used to stand up to unhook and this loses mastfoot pressure and then you go bouncing into the turn out of control..
Still not great getting planing gybes in chop but make most of them.Mm reading this maybe I should start taking some of my own tips again..
Another thing - I find as an old girl TOW is essential to keep sailing fit and cope.In doldrum months I'll go out in 8-12kts with big gear subplaning just to keep fit or practise gybes..
Ps - Don't grab the mast! Boom to boom and best to reach underhand to the other side as that allow you to reach further back +- keeps you lower to the water as you do.

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gregob said..
Doing it over and over again, on a bigger board that you can't fall off, burned the muscle memory into my brain and has translated into improved rates of gybing on a smaller board.

I got myself a super light wind board which is 165 litres and 92cm wide. A one legged blindman would find it difficult to fall off no matter how badly he stuffed the gybe.

When the wind picks up and I go onto my smaller boards I have been pleasantly surprised how much better I gybe just because the number of times I have successfully gone around on the wider board. Mind you. gybing in the ocean with decent swell quickly reduces the success rate :)

Bit like my freemove board and find the lightwind sessions on it help me when the wind kicks in ( get good rig flip technique etc)

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boardsurfr said..
Best bet: qualified instruction, ideally a multi-day clinic with someone who does this for a living, like Guy Cribb. Learning and improving the jibe is a big part of most clinics. I do a couple of clinics a year, and I usually can jibe, but I still often get corrections because some bad habit has crept in (or come back), without me realizing it.

If that's not an option (or in addition), get video footage of your jibes, and post them online for feedback. Does not have to be a GoPro - a $50-80 ripoff (SJ4000 etc.) should get good enough footage. A mount at the clew gives a great perspective. If someone can film you from land or standing in the water, that's just as good.

it is very hard to know what you are doing wrong if you don't have video footage. Typically, the big mistakes are made much earlier than you'd think. Good instructors will be able to spot the first thing you need to change.

Watching instruction videos can be somewhat helpful. My favorite is Dasher's 12-step jibe. Guy Cribb has a bunch of really good points, too, though, especially the "core skills" and 3-step approach (practice on land, then in light wind, then in high wind). After I concentrated on Guy Cribb's "Boom Shaka" (moving the hand towards the front of the boom before the flip), my dry rate in difficult conditions improved dramatically.

Definitely use the bigger (95 l+) board to work on jibes. Jibing does get a lot harder in big chop and high wind. When you practice, focus on just one thing each session, starting at the preparation / entry phase.

I used to do a postmortem after each gybe..why?? Ah! I was looking at my hands rather than the exit..etc etc

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grich62 said..
can i offer some advice, ive been sailing since the mid eighties was a competent sailer once i restarted sailing in my 50tys i was like a beginner make sure your sail is set absolutely correct other wise this will up set your balance into and out of the gybe ,sheet in when you enter the gybe and start carving the board keep your knees bent and don't carve to tight as you go throught the down wind positioned look to were you are going , allow the sail to flip and flat en out the gybe get power back in your sail and start geting back into your straps only then start to go up wind and on to your new course. this will take practice and confidences so don't loose sight of the fact that you can do something the majority of people in the world can not do, it ant meant to be easy but awesome when done , stick at it

I always wonder why all these guys can get back into the sport after 20 years off and sail like they never had a day off..After 10 years off and restarting in my 50's I found it has taken me years to start to get back to my old standard.. Maybe it's age? All the others are only in their early 40's..
Good tips Windxtasy- few new ones I'll try! I can identify with your journey..

Went out today in about 15kts with a 7.1m sail which is big for me, found gybes in chop even harder than usual, there is much less margin for error with a big heavy sail!
In flatter water where I could keep the speed up and aggressively throw the rig around it wasn't a problem.

I went out today in 21kts of wind with a 5.2 sail and my 86 litre board, this is the first time I have been on my 86 litre board as I have been borrowing my husbands 94 litre board.

I didn't expect to do any gybes as it was choppy, but I headed for some swell/wave further out to sea as ( as decrepit suggested). I just told myself, 'Well I am going to fall in on every gybe anyhow so why not just try bending the knees more and angle into the turn more and commit more into the turn' ... I did three gybes in a row!

After that though I didn't stay on, interesting enough I fell in differently this time, I shot forward. My husband who was watching me said I was turning the board better. I suppose that was because the swell/wave was helping to turn the board.

The tips & encouragement that you all have given me have been great. Feeling happier now I don't think i will give up windsurfing.

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terminal said..

For you to be able to hold onto the sail without flipping it through the whole gybe would suggest the wind was too light for that sail. It is a light wind technique to come out of the gybe clew first.

It is perfectly valid to sail out of a jibe clew first. A very experienced group of instructors that taught me (and many others) how to plane out of jibes teaches sailing out of clew-first as the default way when you learn to jibe. More exactly: if you loose so much speed that you stop planing, sail out clew first, stabilize and perhaps even re-accelerate, and then flip. If you manage to keep a lot of speed, flip earlier. Since most learners do loose speed, sailing out clew-first is often correct. There are other times, too, where sailing out clew first can be a good idea. Just don't go to far upwind on the new course - if you do, sailing clew first becomes harder, and flipping the sail gets really difficult. That's also true when you are overpowered.

That is good. Now don't be disheartened by those that you blew after the first 3 successful ones. It is only natural after you get tired. Keep doing what you did, and be more confident in using your body weight into the turns. You will get may be 5 next time. When you begin to get into the habit of getting it right, you don't even think about what your feet, arms, etc are doing, as your body has mapped out all the procedures.

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jirvin4505 said..
++
Jibing in the basement part 1, 2 and 3
Part 1

advanced gybing part 4...

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mattspoonersurf said..
I would watch Sam Ross video carefully. Even though I am a pretty competent racer, Sam did a clinic this Autumn, and it really helped to improve my gybes. Top tips were:

1. before you enter the gybe move both front and back hand towards the end of the boom, this keeps power in the sail longer and helps with the rig flip
2. Bend the Knees, bend them some more, really really bend the knees
3. DO NOT LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING - watch Sam's video, he looks towards the end of the boom, this puts your body in the right position, with the right twist to change the feet (This is not advisable if you are racing unless you are the first to the mark!)
4. Switch your feet early, while still holding the rig - as you switch your feet, you will end up in a "running position" with the sail completely square to the board - the sail is still generating power and is still keeping the board planing.
5. Boom to Boom is not advanced, it will feel natural if you have done the above and switched your feet nice and early
6. As the rig flips, you back hand goes under the front hand, grab the boom close to the harness line on the other side, you will now naturally sheet in and keep the power and stay planing

All good tips. A couple of comments, though.

1. Speed is your friend. Start doing gybes when you are going fast. As fast as you can/dare. To me, this is the most common error entering a gybe - people tend to slow down going into their gybes and then lose speed and stability in the carve. Speed = stability. Just as on a bike or skis or whatever.
2. Power is your friend. Go into the gybe with good power in your sail, carving downwind will take out more power than you think. This is of course related to speed, but also about SPREADING your hands and really feel that you have, and control, power with your back hand going into the carve.
3. If Sam is looking towards the end of the boom entering a gybe, in my book he IS looking where he is going... right?

This is key to all moves - look where you are going and your body will follow.

And the "bend your knees" comment above is spot on. This also allows you to PUT PRESSURE FORWARD through the mast foot. Power in the back hand, front had puts pressure DOWN. I also fully support the "bigger board, flatter water, do many" advice that has been given in this thread.

I finally learnt to gybe this year. There were a few major factors.
1. I bought a 118 Lt Magic Ride, I weigh about 78kg. I actually bought it season before last. 2. I did the Guy Cribb course at Safety Bay it was easily the best $600 I have spent since starting the sport. 3. After doing the course and emailing Guy about my progress and what I was hoping to achieve next sail, he wrote back saying I need to be doing my Gybe whilst going flat out off the wind. Finally the penny dropped for me, and I think sailing down wind before gybing was a defining moment for me. Its scary at first but really works. Don't worry about loosing ground you will make it back up. I also learnt to tack at the course which is good for making up ground again. Just my experience, hope it may help.