Hi
I made a long and nerdy video about slalom boards, hope you like it. Have a nice weekend

"flat, flat, flat"

Stop making these video please, I don't need to pick up another windsurfing discipline

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thedoor said..
"flat, flat, flat"

Stop making these video please, I don't need to pick up another windsurfing discipline

But you do! It is the easiest discipline especially in flat water! Even I can be half good at it!

Yeah, fast freeride and slalom is the easiest and quickest satisfaction in windsurfing.
As for how long you can enjoy it....it depends how fast you are and how well you can jibe.
Lots of pros switched away to winging due to their search for sponsorship and endorsements.
We on the other hand, fund our own way.

Just one thing, Kasper. The vid is called "amateur slalom tips" so a casual viewer like me can't know whether these are the tips from a weekend warrior who is at the back of the pack in local events, or a guy who can finish well at the world championships. That makes a huge difference, when we're considering whether these are interesting items picked up by just another dude, or true insights from a pro.

Many of the things that a weekend warrior thinks are important are things that a champion knows are basically irrelevant to 95% of sailors. Without knowing what level you are sailing at (and I may have missed that bit although you do gybe well in the vids) we don't know which category your tips fall into,.

great, took some technique tips....

and the song is?

been sailing for 13 years and one thing that turns me away from slalom is getting the back foot in back strap. Till this day I haven't mastered that small step.

Nice. I've used that Mouldcraft 2 part foaming epoxy and its good stuff. The 1st time I used it I think it was cold, 13c, so didnt work so well. I had a Fanatic Falcon which went soft on the deck between the straps and track, and that repair was good for 1 year.
2nd time on another board it was 20c and it foamed up much quicker and vigorously. It was away from the stance area and has lasted 4 years so far.

Its a good tip about different sails requiring a different mast foot position, as some sails are more lifty than others. Some brands have their tracks closer to the tail so putting the mastfoot at the back/at the front depends upon brand.

Out of interest, how long is the rocker flat section on those boards. How far from the back to where you can first see daylight or get a piece of paper under the ruler?

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Loreni said..
been sailing for 13 years and one thing that turns me away from slalom is getting the back foot in back strap. Till this day I haven't mastered that small step.

Replace your back two footstraps with two wave straps.

Wave straps are very wide and they are designed to get your foot in and out of them easily.

I put two wave straps on each of my two slalom boards and problem 95 percent solved.

Just do not try them as front straps as your will find it difficult keeping your front foot in them when planing.

Nice video Kasper, keep them coming. Personally, I love watching any videos on slalom or speed related, especially when they are done by regular sailors

I really want a video that compares and contrasts formula versus slalom

Do you have specifics in mind or a general overview?
Formula was 100 cm wide with blocky, thick rails.
Widest slalom was 91 cm width with thin rails, pulled in tails, and straighter nose rockers.

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Loreni said..
been sailing for 13 years and one thing that turns me away from slalom is getting the back foot in back strap. Till this day I haven't mastered that small step.

My humble suggestions. (1) In general you do not put pressure on your feet. Sail light: you do not lift with the front foot, you do not push down with the back one. Ideally it is your body weight position that trims the asset. Overpowered you bend your knees to "set on the toilet", less powered you come up toward the 7 position. If you are pushing and pulling with your feet something is wrong.

This also holds when you have only the front foot in the strap, but (2) when you move your back foot to reach for the back strap it is very easy to unbalance your asset. Typically one straightens the back leg to "go around the strap", moves the weight to the front foot, the sail follows ... and everything pulls forward when you are trying to move your foot back ... The trick is keep your asset as is. The movement is horizontal, no articulation at the knee, no up and down with your foot.

Find a bar or hold to a table with your hands, assume a windsurfing position and practice moving the "back" foot without moving the position of your body. You have four contact points (two feet and two hands) so it is not hard to move one without changing your position at all.

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Chris 249 said..
Just one thing, Kasper. The vid is called "amateur slalom tips" so a casual viewer like me can't know whether these are the tips from a weekend warrior who is at the back of the pack in local events, or a guy who can finish well at the world championships. That makes a huge difference, when we're considering whether these are interesting items picked up by just another dude, or true insights from a pro.

Many of the things that a weekend warrior thinks are important are things that a champion knows are basically irrelevant to 95% of sailors. Without knowing what level you are sailing at (and I may have missed that bit although you do gybe well in the vids) we don't know which category your tips fall into,.

Hi
I am sailing on a national level in the middle of the fleet, last time I did DEFI I was ranked about 120 out of 1300 sailors. Hope to crack top 100 next time. I have been windsurfing for 26 years, I am 41. Mostly waves but the last six years I have been doing slalom and it has kind of taken over. I have really been struggling with finding speed and control. So I have searched the net for the little secrets, and I have found that if you apply them and experiment with your settings you find the sweet spot, and then everything gets fast and easy and just more fun. And when you find the spot write everything down on your phone, so you can hit the spot again and again.

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Kasper79 said..
Hi
I made a long and nerdy video about slalom boards, hope you like it. Have a nice weekend

Keep it up, interesting things to consider. Not sure about your mast foot, had lots of them fail in the 90s.... it's an old BIC design.

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kato said..

Kasper79 said..
Hi
I made a long and nerdy video about slalom boards, hope you like it. Have a nice weekend

Keep it up, interesting things to consider. Not sure about your mast foot, had lots of them fail in the 90s.... it's an old BIC design.

Oh yeah, I had one of those. It kept letting go of the mast.

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duzzi said..

Loreni said..
been sailing for 13 years and one thing that turns me away from slalom is getting the back foot in back strap. Till this day I haven't mastered that small step.

My humble suggestions. (1) In general you do not put pressure on your feet. Sail light: you do not lift with the front foot, you do not push down with the back one. Ideally it is your body weight position that trims the asset. Overpowered you bend your knees to "set on the toilet", less powered you come up toward the 7 position. If you are pushing and pulling with your feet something is wrong.

This also holds when you have only the front foot in the strap, but (2) when you move your back foot to reach for the back strap it is very easy to unbalance your asset. Typically one straightens the back leg to "go around the strap", moves the weight to the front foot, the sail follows ... and everything pulls forward when you are trying to move your foot back ... The trick is keep your asset as is. The movement is horizontal, no articulation at the knee, no up and down with your foot.

Find a bar or hold to a table with your hands, assume a windsurfing position and practice moving the "back" foot without moving the position of your body. You have four contact points (two feet and two hands) so it is not hard to move one without changing your position at all.

appretiate that!

It was always angry because I could master my 78L wave board while at slalom somehow missed the back strap and injured my fingers. Anyway when I return to windsurfing I'll go slow with 3 strap board (FS, big wave, magic ride etc don't know which one yet) as I figured it doesn't go that much slower than slalom.

And the lightest sails and then I'll see if I figured out slalom....thanks!

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kato said..

Kasper79 said..
Hi
I made a long and nerdy video about slalom boards, hope you like it. Have a nice weekend

Keep it up, interesting things to consider. Not sure about your mast foot, had lots of them fail in the 90s.... it's an old BIC design.

I have had two fail on me, always in some pretty nasty crashes in cold weather, over a period of five years and I sail sail quite a bit. The plastic breaks around one of the screws. I am thinking about switching to duo tone ibase, it is also easier to adjust.

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PhilUK said..
Nice. I've used that Mouldcraft 2 part foaming epoxy and its good stuff. The 1st time I used it I think it was cold, 13c, so didnt work so well. I had a Fanatic Falcon which went soft on the deck between the straps and track, and that repair was good for 1 year.
2nd time on another board it was 20c and it foamed up much quicker and vigorously. It was away from the stance area and has lasted 4 years so far.

Its a good tip about different sails requiring a different mast foot position, as some sails are more lifty than others. Some brands have their tracks closer to the tail so putting the mastfoot at the back/at the front depends upon brand.

Out of interest, how long is the rocker flat section on those boards. How far from the back to where you can first see daylight or get a piece of paper under the ruler?

My ruler isn't long enough but there is a pretty precise description on the av boards website.

Select to expand quote

Kasper79 said..

PhilUK said..
Nice. I've used that Mouldcraft 2 part foaming epoxy and its good stuff. The 1st time I used it I think it was cold, 13c, so didnt work so well. I had a Fanatic Falcon which went soft on the deck between the straps and track, and that repair was good for 1 year.
2nd time on another board it was 20c and it foamed up much quicker and vigorously. It was away from the stance area and has lasted 4 years so far.

Its a good tip about different sails requiring a different mast foot position, as some sails are more lifty than others. Some brands have their tracks closer to the tail so putting the mastfoot at the back/at the front depends upon brand.

Out of interest, how long is the rocker flat section on those boards. How far from the back to where you can first see daylight or get a piece of paper under the ruler?

My ruler isn't long enough but there is a pretty precise description on the av boards website.

Thanks.

Select to expand quote

Loreni said..

duzzi said..

Loreni said..
been sailing for 13 years and one thing that turns me away from slalom is getting the back foot in back strap. Till this day I haven't mastered that small step.

My humble suggestions. (1) In general you do not put pressure on your feet. Sail light: you do not lift with the front foot, you do not push down with the back one. Ideally it is your body weight position that trims the asset. Overpowered you bend your knees to "set on the toilet", less powered you come up toward the 7 position. If you are pushing and pulling with your feet something is wrong.

This also holds when you have only the front foot in the strap, but (2) when you move your back foot to reach for the back strap it is very easy to unbalance your asset. Typically one straightens the back leg to "go around the strap", moves the weight to the front foot, the sail follows ... and everything pulls forward when you are trying to move your foot back ... The trick is keep your asset as is. The movement is horizontal, no articulation at the knee, no up and down with your foot.

Find a bar or hold to a table with your hands, assume a windsurfing position and practice moving the "back" foot without moving the position of your body. You have four contact points (two feet and two hands) so it is not hard to move one without changing your position at all.

appretiate that!

.... as I figured it doesn't go that much slower than slalom.

Yep, in open water you hit a barrier around 34-36 knots anyway. On slalom boards I am regularly in the 29-32 knots 2" max range. But I have seen 27-28 knots even on my freewave boards in flattish water ... it is not that far. For recreational sailing sail size is what makes the biggest difference.

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Kasper79 said..

Chris 249 said..
Just one thing, Kasper. The vid is called "amateur slalom tips" so a casual viewer like me can't know whether these are the tips from a weekend warrior who is at the back of the pack in local events, or a guy who can finish well at the world championships. That makes a huge difference, when we're considering whether these are interesting items picked up by just another dude, or true insights from a pro.

Many of the things that a weekend warrior thinks are important are things that a champion knows are basically irrelevant to 95% of sailors. Without knowing what level you are sailing at (and I may have missed that bit although you do gybe well in the vids) we don't know which category your tips fall into,.

Hi
I am sailing on a national level in the middle of the fleet, last time I did DEFI I was ranked about 120 out of 1300 sailors. Hope to crack top 100 next time. I have been windsurfing for 26 years, I am 41. Mostly waves but the last six years I have been doing slalom and it has kind of taken over. I have really been struggling with finding speed and control. So I have searched the net for the little secrets, and I have found that if you apply them and experiment with your settings you find the sweet spot, and then everything gets fast and easy and just more fun. And when you find the spot write everything down on your phone, so you can hit the spot again and again.

Cool, thanks,. and from that Defi result it's apparent you know what you're doing.

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LeeD said..
Do you have specifics in mind or a general overview?
Formula was 100 cm wide with blocky, thick rails.
Widest slalom was 91 cm width with thin rails, pulled in tails, and straighter nose rockers.

More general stuff. The history of formula and how it came about. I know slalom has been going on for decades, but would be interested to know how slalom has changed. Also sail differences

I think formula is upwind downwind and slalom is reaching but a diagram of the courses would help too.

Hi Kasper....I don.t think that descriptoion of the 98 rocker can be correc t, no way it is flat to 150cm off the tail, would expect it to be around 17 to 20mm of rocker at that point. Would be interesting to stick a straight edge on and see.

I hate upwind/downwind sailing. But it's almost all I do windfoiling.
Anyway, like '97, Swein R walks into our shop dragging a Sonic W-75. What a pig!
At the time, 60 cm Mike Z-s were the dominant.
Swein borrows my NorthPrisma 6.5 and 7.5, masts and booms to sail Berkeley. Comes back after closing with a big smile. His 75 cm board killed all the slabs, up to 66 wide.
Next day, the crew is scrambling to order and find wider boards, saying they were dominated by that Starboard.
I stuck my head into the sand and concentrated on snowboarding.

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LeeD said..
I hate upwind/downwind sailing. But it's almost all I do windfoiling.
Anyway, like '97, Swein R walks into our shop dragging a Sonic W-75. What a pig!
At the time, 60 cm Mike Z-s were the dominant.
Swein borrows my NorthPrisma 6.5 and 7.5, masts and booms to sail Berkeley. Comes back after closing with a big smile. His 75 cm board killed all the slabs, up to 66 wide.
Next day, the crew is scrambling to order and find wider boards, saying they were dominated by that Starboard.
I stuck my head into the sand and concentrated on snowboarding.

haha. So back then (pre formula) were people doing upwind/downwind races on slalom gear?

Slalom sized boards with longer flat, much harder rails, higher nose rocker, less V, mostly in the 11-12. 5 lbs. range , tail width around 42 cm, much thicker rails, super high aspect 40-46 cm fins.

I enjoyed your video. Picked up a few things. Make more please.

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Kasper79 said..

kato said..

Kasper79 said..
Hi
I made a long and nerdy video about slalom boards, hope you like it. Have a nice weekend

Keep it up, interesting things to consider. Not sure about your mast foot, had lots of them fail in the 90s.... it's an old BIC design.

I have had two fail on me, always in some pretty nasty crashes in cold weather, over a period of five years and I sail sail quite a bit. The plastic breaks around one of the screws. I am thinking about switching to duo tone ibase, it is also easier to adjust.

I have a Duotone iBase with a tendon as reserve that I keep with me when I'm sailing and I must admit that with this base I'm feeling much more confident knowing that if I breake my tendon when I'm 600m or more far from the beach I could substitute it with the other one in an easy way. My suggestion anyway is not keep the iBase on the board and just remove the tendon cause in I think that in this way the plastic fork that close the tendon could break quickly

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RobITA said..

Kasper79 said..

kato said..

Kasper79 said..
Hi
I made a long and nerdy video about slalom boards, hope you like it. Have a nice weekend

Keep it up, interesting things to consider. Not sure about your mast foot, had lots of them fail in the 90s.... it's an old BIC design.

I have had two fail on me, always in some pretty nasty crashes in cold weather, over a period of five years and I sail sail quite a bit. The plastic breaks around one of the screws. I am thinking about switching to duo tone ibase, it is also easier to adjust.

I have a Duotone iBase with a tendon as reserve that I keep with me when I'm sailing and I must admit that with this base I'm feeling much more confident knowing that if I breake my tendon when I'm 600m or more far from the beach I could substitute it with the other one in an easy way. My suggestion anyway is not keep the iBase on the board and just remove the tendon cause in I think that in this way the plastic fork that close the tendon could break quickly

I am always looking for improving safety but I am not sure I understand how is this different from the chinook 2 bolts base? Other than having 1 bolt instead of two? And the Chinook having a safety rope?

The idea to bring an extra iBase is good although the problem if the joint brakes in high seas is that it is VERY hard to put back together the mast and a spare joint unless somebody helps you. But this makes me think: maybe I will start to carry a chinook mechanical tendon with me, maybe an overkill but that should make it much easier to reconnect on the water.

Actually, it's kinda easy to install a base out in planing wind conditions, but 4+' ocean waves would be difficult.
Sit on board pointing downwind, lay rig on one side, base near your mast base.
Twist uni to line up....this you already know.
Bend uni, it's only rubber. Tendons are harder, mech easy.
Insert and jump into the water to waterstart away.
Seen girls do it in 22-30 knot conditions. Not in breaking surf.