I have been trying a few rail rides in the light late summer conditions and though not really proficient I hoped to find a video that showed some other moves based on the rail ride. I turns out that my rail rides are at the real beginner end of the scale despite the bruised shins and risky crashes. Now I need to learn the reverse rail ride into an everoll which is going to take .....forever!

The best tip's I could give would probably be: Use the forward momentum of the board ( the more the better ), and the right puff of wind, and at that time;rake your sail aft to make the board round up into the wind hard at the same time as doing your footwork and pulling down on the boom (like chin-up's). Assuming your centreboard is all the way down, the board will naturally rail. After you work this out once, you'll repeat it until it become's second nature. Once you've achieved that comfortably, reverse railride's are just a matter of quicker timing. Start by learning the nose sink (sailing backwards, or stern first and sinking the nose). You'll soon learn that to steer the board, you tilt it the opposite way than carving or steering a short board and it requires very fast corrections. You'll also have to exaggerate the rig movement's sometime's to keep the control.
Once you get good at controlling direction, all you have to do is let the board naturally round up and the rest will happen easier than the forward railride. Hope this helps. Really good to see. Keep it up. Keep us posted.

Forgot to mention; Learning those first steps will completely eliminate the need to stand on the centreboard and you'll eventually spend no time on your shin's. I'm not saying it's not going to hurt a couple of time's getting there.
Cheers.

video looks like Pierre from Montreal @ AAO
think i have only seen him there once

Looks like you are 2/3 the way to an everoll in those photos.

I'll lend you this copy of the book by the man himself (Gary Eversole, after whom the everoll was named I believe).

He does refer in the book to everolls and the like being potential "mast breakers". I reckon a 400mm extension rather than the orignal OD base would do the trick on that front.

Everolls are on my "to learn" list too.

Clarence

That's the exact same book that I had, and maybe still do somewhere.
That's definitely the one to have. Gold!!!
Clarence, you're showing your age.
Al Planet, keep the Wally alive!

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Dag said..
That's the exact same book that I had, and maybe still do somewhere.
That's definitely the one to have. Gold!!!
Clarence, you're showing your age.
Al Planet, keep the Wally alive!

Thanks for the advice, its been pretty light winds so my skills have improved slowly though as the water chills down I will become more reluctant as a lot of falling in happens. I have managed to get both feet up on the rail occasionally but this seems to put a lot of extra pressure through the rig and I can feel the old blue wally mast bending. I am not sure if I am more worried about the mast breaking and ripping through the original sail or tearing out the mast track. Both would be a little disappointing though the sail is pretty blown out and is a handful on the 15 knot days. I might rig up with my RDM wave mast as that should take the abuse.

Hey Clarence that book looks like a collectors item. Does the price really say $112.95!!!! Surely that would have bought a pretty nice beach shack in Tasmania back in 1980.

There were more light conditions on Sunday and I got a few longer runs but the lack wind and my lack of skill resulted in lots of swims. Both feet on the rail is very difficult, I might need to try a higher boom.

Ask Dave M. He was the king of one design rail rides and one design freestyle. Dont forget too about the pirouette once up on the rail Good luck mate.

Hey Mr. Planet, if that's your real name..
Check your in-box, or pm me.

G'day again Al, below is the move you're after.
I took a selfie, as soon as I figure out how to post it, will send it to you

"Both feet on the rail is very difficult"...

This is a topic in itself...

However, you might want to consider pulling the other rail, the leeward rail.
The advantage with this one is: no need to use the dagger, no hurting on the shins anymore if you screw up, or even any footwear.
More importantly, no pressure on the old U-joint as you're in full balance on the rail.
As you know, those old bits are sometimes fragile and breaking one is annoying.

The leeward rail is equally or more spectacular than the 'normal' rail.. not a lot more difficult.
Doable in 6 to 20 knots, like the other one.
Me 2 cents.

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pierrec45 said..
G'day again Al, below is the move you're after.
I took a selfie, as soon as I figure out how to post it, will send it to you

Yup that's the move, it still looks unlikely if not almost impossible.....(Bonus points for the Selfie!!!)

I was going to say regarding the shin damage that you should put a mast protector on your shin. But you probably noticed Pierre doing that.

If you look at Pierre's pictures, there are two things that jump out right away:
1. Use shin guards. I use soccer shin guards and a long suit when working on rail rides.
2. Get over the board - this is not speedsurfing, no reason to have your behind hanging out like that!
Some tips I got just a few days ago when working on rail rides during an ABK camp that helped:
- Sail on a beam reach or slightly upwind; go higher only in stronger winds.
- Open the sail up a bit, you want about 50-70% power.
- Hang down on both arms; elbows should be pointing straight down. Use mostly mast base pressure to have the board come up, the pull with back foot is only to get it to start railing.
- Control the board angle with pressure in the sail. Don't let the sail touch the board, you can't sheet in any more if that happens.
- Don't hesitate to get both feet on the rail. It's possible to sail with the front foot on the daggerboard, but that won't work on SUPs, does not let you bounce the board, and so on.
You may want to move your boom a bit higher for now. Pierre's boom is very low, but he's an animal on the rail - I have never seen anyone else who comes close (and that includes guys who'll have the Everroll down to an art form).

Thanks that sounds like good advice. Many of the Videos posted by Pierre are in what looks like 10 To 18 knots. I have yet to try freestyle in this much wind but it looks like this adds a whole extra dimension to the moves. Mistakes are going to happen more quickly too I guess. Most of my sessions have been in lighter conditions.

Hey Al, good to see you getting in to a few freestyle moves. No selfie shot, but I don't think they'd been invented back then!

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AUS02 said..
Hey Al, good to see you getting in to a few freestyle moves. No selfie shot, but I don't think they'd been invented back then!

Great posts guys !

Hey Mr. Aus02, niceshot, this looks like sunny Hobart...

The rail you're posting here is the back-to-back,board forwards. Well done: fully standing 2 feet on this rail is wayyyyy more difficult than the one I posted with the board backwards. I can sort my friggin' tax receipts on the board-backwards version. However the trick you posted requires my wits about, and hands on the boom. Fun to do though, for once you're up you can tack it and all.

Mr. Al, the backwards version looks difficult but it's not - trust me. I'm about 10-in-10 in teaching this move. If you master sailing back to the sail, then it's no biggie. It requires about 50-100 falls to find the sweet spot at which to flip the plank, that's all. It's also a move good toup to 20 knots, so doubly rewarding. Let us know when you're ready, water's gonna warm up soon...

Mr. Boardsurf, good points being made in there. I took up a shinguard when a former missus at Balmoral told me the left tibia looked like &!"/?!%. Good advice there and the other points too. As you state, the angle at which to pull the rail matters. For me it depends on the strength of the wind as well. A bit upwind in lighter winds, beam reach in stronger winds. I've been railing dagger-less SUPs lately and for some reason, in stronger winds I find they pull better with a slight downwind - go figure. (And how's the Event going at Cape Cod this weekend?)

Boom height: low in lighter winds, higher in stronger winds. Talked about that to P.Solstiak once - as said Mr. cool guy: "matter of taste, cool".

I had not realised that there was such a difference between a back to sail rail ride going backwards and the same but going forwards. Intuition goes out the window I guess!