I've been sailing for too long with little improvement and at least need to start planing out of almost every gybe. So it's time to fire-up with some decent information and practice.

Do you have any good links for the best 'how to gybe guides'?

Both videos and text is good. Both waveboard gybes and slalom gybes is good.

Here is one for you.

Suss out the Guy Cribb training sessions

My best tip....that I never follow for fear of falling off.....rotate the sail super,super early.

It does make balance much more difficult----but if you can stay upright (not fall off) it will help you no end to come out planing.

These tips really helped me consistently plane out of gybes:

boards.co.uk/technique/3-carve-gybe-tips-for-planing-exits-every-time.html

Guy Cribb - keep referring to it as you progress. Good dry land practise and breaks it up into millions of pieces!


boardseekermag.com/lifestyle/DVD-review-intuition_026/

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mineral1 said..
Here is one for you.

Damn, it looks so easy....why is it so hard!!

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wind012 said..
I've been sailing for too long with little improvement and at least need to start planing out of almost every gybe. So it's time to fire-up with some decent information and practice.

Do you have any good links for the best 'how to gybe guides'?

Both videos and text is good. Both waveboard gybes and slalom gybes is good.

There seams to me that there are lots of variations of the gybe and how to do it. He's my take....

Full power, carve positively

Take back foot out and place on inside rail, oversheet sail, straight front arm ,bent back hand (This will take some power out of the sail) and look backwards (Along boom)

Flip (Slide hand) and step at the same time. Step just forward of the front strap (Light wind) Step into the strap (Strong wind and a great Alpha )

Keep turning, grab boom

Here's a good simple one with some tips for planing out of the gybe by Nick Dempsey

boards.co.uk/news/videos/3-carve-gybe-tips-for-planing-exits-every-time.html

Yep, Sam Ross is my go to man for youtube tuition.

I love his laydown gybe video. Watched this a 100 times (I still can't gybe though)

Here's my problem. Flip early, I get pulled in over the front. Flip late, I end up turning upwind and dropping off the plane. Can't seem to find the middle ground. Any tips??

Go in fast and flip early, but just let the rig swing free and rotate in front of you. There is no power in it. If it is pulling you, you are going in too slow.

Here is my main gybe which is NOT the step gybe shown in the above videos, but can and usually does include a brief lay down of the sail.

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Harrow said..
Here's my problem. Flip early, I get pulled in over the front. Flip late, I end up turning upwind and dropping off the plane. Can't seem to find the middle ground. Any tips??

Same issue for me. (and I still stuff most gybes ) However, Cribb session soon showed a couple of points.
Main one was, I was too upright, so soon as I flipped the sail, I would get hauled over front. Tip was to bend the knees, so as the force came on boom, I was crouched down, and could absorb the pulling force.
Easy way to show its impact. Get rigged, then stand gear up, and have mate on other side of boom. Pull some weight on your side of boom as per normal on water, then get mate to haul on other side away from you. Easy to pull you over and off balance.
Next crouch down a bit (bend knees) put weight into boom again,and get him to try it again. Much harder to unseat you.

Turning up wind. I still bloody do it I know what to do, and its in the sail/mast movement. Come into gybe, (turning to Starboard) Mast moves across board, extend mast arm, pull back arm in. As sail flip starts, haul in hard on mast arm, sail will rotate, reach under arm for other side boom with back hand, grab and haul across. Simples
That top Sam Ross clip shows it far far better than I can describe it

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Harrow said..
Here's my problem. Flip early, I get pulled in over the front. Flip late, I end up turning upwind and dropping off the plane. Can't seem to find the middle ground. Any tips??

When you do a beach start in heavy conditions...you know that stance you get in, nice and low to anticipate and control the power? That's exactly what I use in an early flip. Now I'm 66% through the carve, pointing downwind on the new tack, and have sail full of power. Assuming I came in fast - I'm now in an excellent position to plane out. I judge the amount of pull I'm getting in the sail and either (a) flatten the board out to keep it downwind if the wind isn't strong enough, or (b) keep the carve going a little longer to spill some wind if I got more than I need.

I can't recall where I heard (Peter Hart's Turning Point?) the gybe starts with you low (hunched over the inside rail to pin it down, weathering bumps), has you more upright as you flip the sail and change your feet, then get low again to control the power.

Controlling the exit comes down to your footwork and flip, making sure you get your feet and hands and hips into the right position to confidently catch the power and transfer it to the board. A clean transition is crucial to set up for the exit. Get that right and planing exits are no harder than a beach start.

There's some great advice in this thread! I'm like Harrow with the power issues on rig flip. I will take some of the advice above and try harness the power after rig flip. Would like to try Kato's strap to strap in higher wind.

PS- Nigel, with a near 23 knot alpha, I think your gybes are going ok

Could the problem with exits actually start with the entry? If you aren't going flat out, crouched down and really pulling on the sail, you won't have enough speed through the gybe and the sail will have too much force on it for a comfortable exit. Pure guesswork but if you go in at 20 knots, lose 10 knots through the turn, you are only going at 10 at your slowest. Not planing in other words.