I'm new to jumping over chop and am finding that I have a tendency to land nose first. Sometimes this leads to a nice soft landing, but most often I'm heading for the sea bed like a crash diving u-boat. Needless to say this is rapidly followed by unpleasant pitchpoling over the front.

I have no idea why this is happening. What do I have to do to get control of my landing angle?

Should I just change my username to Captain Nemo or Gunther Prien instead?

i was like u not long ago .. i can still only chop hop and lang the odd high jump but i found ...sheeting in as i hit to chop to get that littl extra power and useing my feet like on a stakje board to ..once in the air i pull my feet right up to my arse ..the board will be pointing down wind a tiny bit .. i then use the sail to controle every thing else .. if im twisting into the wind i steet in if i twisting downwind i sheet out ..combined with ..gestalt...coments about sheeting in and out for nose up or down ...as i go to land i push my legs back down to make sure i land tail first ... but never full straighten them .. allways have been knees for landing

Board attitude has a lot to do with it, if windward rail goes down, the wind gets on top of the board and pushes it down, if you keep windward rail up, wind gets under the nose lifting it.
It's a balancing act of board and sail, trying to get lift from both.

If the sail is raked back and vertical and you sheet in, that will also throw the nose down.
If you rotate the mast a bit more forward and lean it towards you can sheet in more so that you get lift and a longer glide.
The lift from the sail needs to be directly over you, if it's behind you it will cause a forward rotation, if it's in front of you a backward rotation.
As others have said, lifting the board up to your bum, while keeping the windward rail up with your front foot, should give you more air time and a tail first landing.

have to agree all good advice

decrepit said its a balancing act

that sums it up nicely, no jump or chop hop will be the same. it is said a picture can represent a thousand words, here is 3 all different all trying to get max lift and flight time all in the same session, hope they help you visualise

Wow! Thanks for all these responses. I have a range of techniques to try now.

It seems that you actually have to put a bit of thought into windsurfing before you can improve. Who knew?

Hopefully I can try some of these out on the weekend if those seabrezes come in.