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Mastbender said..
Okay, I'll try to be more serious.
Pick a bump down wind from you, not out in front of the direction you're going. Sail down to it, which will gain you more speed, then crank onto it at the last second (returning to you're original direction), pulling in the booms hard, that alone will give you more lift. It's like spring loading yourself, cranking onto the bump.
Like others have said, as soon as you leave the lip, put on the squeeze, booms down to your chest, knees up to the booms (as far as you can lift them anyway), that will grab more wind under the sail, turning it into a wing, sort of. The longer you can hold the squeeze, the farther you will travel in the air, which we call "travel air".
Extend you body for a soft landing, and keep the nose of the board pointing off the wind a bit, so that you don't land pointing up wind, you can't really sail away from a landing if you're pointing upwind. As you get better at that, try to land nose first, it's the smoothest way to land, and the easiest way to sail away from the jump w/o scrubbing off much speed. Tail first landings kills your forward speed, but feels safer, even though you will most likely have to water start after the jump.
Side note ~ I stay hooked in when entering a jump, more power that way, and when you put on the squeeze, you'll automatically unhook by itself for a safe landing.
Now we're talkin!! Very nice description of all of it. Funny thing is, I always jump hooked in to the harness too and then naturally come unhooked through the jump, helps keep the load off my arms. "The Squeeze", I like it!
Thx mastbender