I follow windsurf magazine on facebook and recently they posted this neat vid on duck gybing. It seems pretty good but my 2 bobs worth is the guy could maybe swap his feet a bit sooner. I figure that would get him in the straps and harness earlier and have him planning out of the gybe a bit faster. I used to be able to nail these when I was young but these days it results in a massive faceplant. Maybe throwing the rig forward will help.

That's a good video.

I think the foot change is down to personal preference.

I teach people to change their feet after the rig flick for both duck gybes and carve gybes.

- it's one less thing to think about whilst learning. Do the gybe, then sort your feet out (rather than foot change and rig flick all happening at the same time)

- you've got your foot attached to the board, giving more control and hence you don't unsettle the board through the gybe by moving your feet around

- If you get your entry and exit angle right it allows you to apply pressure through the front foot, keep the turn radius continuous, the back of the board up/nose down and keep more speed through the turn

This works for me. It worked for some people I've taught, but not all. I can definitely gybe better and faster using this technique, but I'll bet half this forum reckons they're faster using the other technique. Horses for courses in my opinion.

For regular (carve) jibes, the topic of when to switch the feet can be a religious battle. I'm mostly exposed to a group that believes switching the feet when the sail moves (the step jibe) is better, with maybe an exception when really powered on small sails, so that's what I usually do. But I know at least guy who does beautiful sail-first jibes even with large race sails. Both ways work, and there are good arguments for each one.

But in all the lessons I have heard and seen about duck jibes, the foot switch is always late. Switching the feet too early in duck jibes is a common mistake, and will kill speed. I have proven that to myself many times. My wife has much more solid duck jibes - there's a good example at 1:50 in this video:
When I copy her style, which includes a very late foot switch, my planing-out rate is a lot higher.

We windsurfers are a funny bunch, always developing theories. We see someone do something a lot better than we can, but can't help thinking we know better than they do, even if they have been teaching windsurfing for decades, and made many popular instruction movies. I have developed tons of theories about new-school freestyle moves which most guys who can actually do the moves regards as crazy. I'm still wondering if gaining some weight would help me to jibe like Dave White in "My Way"

hey Cluffy
how come your videos have gone PRIVATE??
how do i get on your private list ??
i really enjoyed your videos, comments, etc !!!

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Cluffy said..
..... It seems pretty good but my 2 bobs worth is the guy could maybe swap his feet a bit sooner. I figure that would get him in the straps and harness earlier and have him planning out of the gybe a bit faster. ....Maybe throwing the rig forward will help.

So lets get this straight... you are suggesting that Peter Hart could improve his technique... that is a pretty big call !

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mathew said..

Cluffy said..
..... It seems pretty good but my 2 bobs worth is the guy could maybe swap his feet a bit sooner. I figure that would get him in the straps and harness earlier and have him planning out of the gybe a bit faster. ....Maybe throwing the rig forward will help.

So lets get this straight... you are suggesting that Peter Hart could improve his technique... that is a pretty big call !

It's possible to switch your feet while you duck the sail, so when you grab the sail again your feet are already swapped, ready to put the power down.. Whitey on the other hand has a pretty basic duckgybe technique. There's no duck going on there, just a rig flip gybe..

I'm a little rusty and tentative in this video thanks to a knee reco but the foot change is earlier..

Joe the video's are gone I'm not sure why you can still see them. I follow a few pwa sailors and some of my favourite manufacturers on facebook which provides a good supply of viewing material.