Something for those learning to gybe.

thought this video shows things well so worth sharing. You can see the different technique from beginning of vid to the one at the end where he nails it.

Notice at the beginning he is consistently not moving his back foot far enough forward and out onto the rail. Sometimes his foot is nearly on the centreline. Add to that, he is pulling the rig towards his body. This means his rails not engaging and he's loosing speed and choking the sail..

around the 6.20 mark he nails it.
his back foot is further forward and out on the rail. pressure through newly placed back foot helps engage rail and orientate body position forward. He's pushing the rig into the turn by leaning into the arc. He also keeps the rig away from his body. Great outcome for him

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He is nailing the vid editing that's for sure. That is funny as. I can relate.
I have many unedited 'learning to gybe vids'.
It was going to be called 'learn to gybe in 7 days'.

Yeah, that was the start of the season. It might change to 'learn in 7 years'.
Or maybe 'the holy grail'. 'the phantom turn'. 'The unobtainable mystery turn'.

I love how he puts the snippets of his teachers. I'm the same, going over and over all those teaching vids and more. Dasha 12 step program, Cookie, Gem Hall Intuition core skills dvd..

I'm lucky to have gotten lots of water time with good conditions and pretty much got them in one season on short boards after 3 seasons learning on longboard , got a few 19kt ers.
Thought that was that, i was there, BUT then couldn't get close to that again as i progressed in other aspects.

Some sessions were almost 100 turns.

I relaxed on the pursuit of the fast gybe and just enjoyed sailing thinking it just takes time and is highly dependent on it all coming together, being out there on the right day, conditions, gear, fitness and state of mind on the day.
The holy grail, keeps ya coming back...
Holy grail version 2 is fast tacks now...

Start of the season i pulled my little back out trying with 8.5. 8.5 better for tacks for me methinks.

Hats off to people making vids, when there is footage of a thousand turns and more, it is a mega effort to pull it all back up and edit into something.

Brilliant! Great video
He certainly goes for it.
I'm too chicken powered in chop. I have a way to gybe that means I flip and then just fall in the water and don't get hurt. I'm too chicken to really go for it maxed out in chop.
If I had his attitude I'd probably have it down by now.. mind you, he's a bit younger..

Thats worth watching just to hear his happiness, around end 6th min.

Ha, gold.....now lets see him take on the windfoil gybe challenge.

Great video, love the enthusiasm, but 5 years to do his first successful non planning gybe! No wonder he can water start!

Hopefully his first successful planning gybe, which I thought was the definition of a power gybe, will not take another 5 years!

^^^ I remember "power gybe" used to refer to a long board rig steered gybe, not at all flashy but true to its name.

Yes
10ft of board out of the water leaning back against sail power and nowhere near planing

That's a flare gybe isn't it

or as I like to call it.. an Lt. forward loop

Yeah

At the Safety Bay slalom 2 years ago i pulled out due to spinning out.

I watched two races from the beach and i was very surprised to find only two sailors out of twenty or so who were coming out planing.

Aus 111 who finished 2nd was coming out the gybes three quarters planing with a semi stall and Jake the winner was planing fully out of every gybe and as a result was making around 40 -50 metres on each gybe over Aus 111.

The water was very choppy and the wind was 18-25 knots.

Coming out planing in chop is extremely difficult and is only doable for the a select few.

The Fox 105 is easily the best board ive tried to gybe. The Rocket 105 is really good as well. Does not require as much pressure on the leeward rail as a slalom board.

Boards from 62 to 66 cms wide seem to be the easiest to gybe.

At 70 cms wide the carve starts to get wider.

Less than 62cms wide the lack of volume starts to count against you unless you throw the sail over very early. Small boards do not tolerate many mistakes.

Racing is a lot different to recreational gybing though Pete. I know for certain that most of the top guys can do 80% planing gybes at safety bay when just sailing around recreationally. Its when you're racing that your gybing lines get compromised by either people in front of you that you are having to avoid or by covering lines of the people behind who are trying to gybe inside your line. Add to that choppy water that you have to gybe in as you have a set mark to gybe around and it makes it a lot more difficult to execute every time.

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John340 said..
Great video, love the enthusiasm, but 5 years to do his first successful non planning gybe! No wonder he can water start!

Hopefully his first successful planning gybe, which I thought was the definition of a power gybe, will not take another 5 years!

The conditions in the Baltic were a bit extreme for learning gybes. 3.5 - 4m sails full power..

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Maddlad said..
Racing is a lot different to recreational gybing though Pete. I know for certain that most of the top guys can do 80% planing gybes at safety bay when just sailing around recreationally. Its when you're racing that your gybing lines get compromised by either people in front of you that you are having to avoid or by covering lines of the people behind who are trying to gybe inside your line. Add to that choppy water that you have to gybe in as you have a set mark to gybe around and it makes it a lot more difficult to execute every time.

To add to that, it pays to be out in front where you can pick your line around a mark, and when to do your rig flip. When you're buried in the mob, it a hell of a lot harder to come out planing.


its a great vid, well edited. always love seeing people hit milestones like making their first gybe. I believe this guy gets around with Nico prien? Is he Nicos' videographer?

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sboardcrazy said.. The conditions in the Baltic were a bit extreme for learning gybes. 3.5 - 4m sails full power..

Best way to do it. The power keeps the front down, it is slowing down and weighting back foot for 'safety' that makes it bounce and then possibly kills the whole thing.
Powered up, sheet in, and lean forward for learning gybes.
Short boom means easy to do the sheet in, and once you are travelling downwind it makes the flip easier too.

People really make it hard for themselves trying to learn a full carve on 140L and a 8m.

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Mark _australia said..

sboardcrazy said.. The conditions in the Baltic were a bit extreme for learning gybes. 3.5 - 4m sails full power..

People really make it hard for themselves trying to learn a full carve on 140L and a 8m.

No doubt...
This season was really sparse with windy days and I just ended up windfoiling, where I've made some clean foiling jibes. I still want to nail the fin jibe while planing, and got so close last year, but it's going to take some good conditions to make it happen again. I spent a lot of time on my 8m and 145 trying to get it to happen.

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Subsonic said..


its a great vid, well edited. always love seeing people hit milestones like making their first gybe. I believe this guy gets around with Nico prien? Is he Nicos' videographer?

Last two questions: No and No.

I have more success on my ultrasonic and 9.4 than any of my smaller kit.

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Ben1973 said..
I have more success on my ultrasonic and 9.4 than any of my smaller kit.

Does that have something to do with the amount of chop using that gear compared to when windsurfing gets to be fun?

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Mr Milk said..

Ben1973 said..
I have more success on my ultrasonic and 9.4 than any of my smaller kit.

Does that have something to do with the amount of chop using that gear compared to when windsurfing gets to be fun?

Plenty of chop around here when it's blowing 16knots. I put it down to the huge wide tail that doesn't sink and the fact I just spend far more time on that kit as even when it's blowing and I could take out the smaller stuff I prefer sailing the big kit.

Gybing a 9.4 for mere mortals / 95 plus percent of windsurfers is going to result in a slow super wide carve.

Granted a lightweight no cam version and a board large enough to support the sail will make it easier but it should still be way harder than with a much smaller sail and board.

Using a slightly bigger board than you need and choosing a smaller sail than you need gives you the best chance of one - not falling off and two, - maintaining some momentum so as not to do a complete stall.

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Pcdefender said..
Gybing a 9.4 for mere mortals / 95 plus percent of windsurfers is going to result in a slow super wide carve.

Granted a lightweight no cam version and a board large enough to support the sail will make it easier but it should still be way harder than with a much smaller sail and board.

Using a slightly bigger board than you need and choosing a smaller sail than you need gives you the best chance of one - not falling off and two, - maintaining some momentum so as not to do a complete stall.

I think it took a long time for me to appreciate this as I have spent lots of time planing with a 9.5 and my blast 145, but I think it lacks some width for keeping the speed when the winds are light enough for a 9.5. I just didn't get it that a lot more wind really helps everything.

When I'm wound up on an 8.0, well above the minimum, I have almost pulled off a planing jibe but not quite. I've fallen off a plane just at the rig flip and had to get going again.
It is about 10x easier if not more to keep things going on a foil with our light winds, and unless I spend a lot of time in a higher wind area I doubt I'm going to master a good planing fin jibe when foiling comes so much easier. Maybe I'll pull it off on the rare day when I'm on a smaller wave thruster board and I'm using a wave to stay on plane, but given the last season (where I mostly foiled due to less wind) I'll probably do much more foiling except for the very windy days ( for us) where I can use a sub 6.0 sail on fin.