greetings windsurfers!

I'm an advanced beginner freerider, trying to progress further and seeking some advice on my stance.
riding a bigger board (133l) it's been just pure fun and easy, I could push hard on my feets and blast along without any issues.
Problems starts going on smaller boards. and as recently bought Fanatic FW STB 95l - it reveals that I need to improve my stance.
If I ride as my big board I quickly spinout, meaning I put too much pressure on the back foot. So I was reading that I should be more upright and put less pressure on my back foot.

so my target first is to tame this "modern stance", so that I could blast around comfortably without the feeling of catapulting any second.
when I'm in the "classical stance" if feels more secure as I'm leaning back as much as I can, so I have full leverage of the pull from the sail, of course this means I'm pushing with my feet the board and pressuring the fin to the max. small fin will not hold long and it spinouts.
if I just try to sand more up right, I feel that I'm not closing the sail enough..

I hear people saying to change to longer harness lines, but that is somehow counter intuitive - as longer lines would mean that I would need to lean more back to make use of them.. but then maybe I should move the boom higher.. but then it makes more difficult to waterstart..

so maybe somebody could describe this "modern" (a.k.a "upright") stance a bit more. I tried to search on this forum, but could not find it well described, so I thought to ask and I believe would be useful for others also.

thanks!

It is not 'modern'
Its just a fact of smaller fins ....... you have all the right ideas and you will get there. Apart from the 'leaning back ' thing. Raking rig over is irrelevant. I bet on my wave board I lean back just as much as you, but I am just not loading the back leg laterally as much.

Also, don't be too disheartened, a drop from 133L freeride to a 95 stubby FSW is massive.

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mantas99 said..
I hear people saying to change to longer harness lines, but that is somehow counter intuitive - as longer lines would mean that I would need to lean more back to make use of them.. but then maybe I should move the boom higher.. but then it makes more difficult to waterstart..

Longer harness lines do indeed increase the distance between you and the sail. That means either you can lean out further, or you can have the rig be more upright. Leaning out further can be the goal if you are speedsailing or slalom sailing in chop. But in your case, getting the rig more upright is the goal. That makes it easier to keep more pressure on the front foot, and thus less pressure on the back foot.

For many windsurfers at your level, the more important thing is to use the harness more, and the arms less. That transfers pressure all the way from the back foot to the mast foot. It is very natural to use the arms to hold the sail, especially when a gust hits, you go over chop, and so on. Without even knowing it, we temporarily take some weight of the harness, which puts more weight on your feet, which leads to spinout. With a GoPro mounted to the end of the boom, you can often see the harness lines bend a bit. If harness lines are short, that tends to happen a more.

When you are sailing in the harness, the grip should always be very light - you should be able to "play the piano" at any time. One thing that can help is to have the thumb on the same side as your fingers - it it's on the opposite side, we tend to grab harder. It can also help to sail one-handed for long stretches, since that can force you to use the harness a lot.

thanks for the comment Mark.
the drop is not that dramatic actually. I do have Blast 115l also :) the 133 is the lightwind early planing.
However with Blast 115l I'm not getting that much of spinouts even when I'm pushing it hard. I do get, but not that much. But with 95 FSW - very different experience, but also did not have much time with it so far, so rather new experience :)

maybe I need to work more on making my back foot lighter and it would lead to finding another balance point in some different stance which would be closer to what it should be for this board.

Same stance only you get back only when you're FULLY planing.

Is your spin out at the beginning ?

on bigger boards you have bigger fins and you can head up wind early and get away with small mistakes ,

shorter boards and smaller fin s ,you have to run them down wind a bit more before motoring up wind.
and yes, less foot pressure at the start ,might solve your problem .,,,

small boards are so much fun ,and so close to surfing , loose ,free feeling .less restrictions ,
and more responsive .every small adjustment will effect your board .more so than large boards

thats why we learn on big boards then go smaller and smaller .

enjoy your new challenge ,it will come together .

small boards rock .

Just move your rear harness line point in 20-30mm increments until you are comfortable and the fin does its job for you

^^^ Thats a good point too, your harness lines will be further back on smaller finned boards.

If i take out my waveboard and then same size FSW on the same day / sail etc, I move the lines quite a bit to account for back foot pressure.

As Mark mentioned the fins are smaller. Try a bigger fin. I.E. at 95l board, a 32-34 cm fin should hold a bit better

thanks guys!
appreciate you tips, will definitely try them out and practice.
it's kind of reassuring also that I'm not missing some "big secret" of the smaller boards :) to will just continue trying and enjoy the time on water.

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Mark _australia said..
It is not 'modern'
Its just a fact of smaller fins ....... you have all the right ideas and you will get there. Apart from the 'leaning back ' thing. Raking rig over is irrelevant. I bet on my wave board I lean back just as much as you, but I am just not loading the back leg laterally as much.

Also, don't be too disheartened, a drop from 133L freeride to a 95 stubby FSW is massive.

What Mark written above, its a matter of time on the water(board)