just wondering if you could give me some tips on how to do a
water start I am have a bit of trouble doing them.

Best way to learn is to get really good at beach starts so your getting pulled up onto the board with the sail and not stepping up. Then take them into deeper water.You should be able to plane to learn the waterstart (in terms of power)

Key points to the waterstart

Back foot only on the board between the straps - front foot must stay vertically down in the water

In one motion Pull the board into your butt, throw your head down towards the mast base, throw the rig upright and forwards over the mast base whilst sheeting in.

Once you are being pulled out of the water keep that back leg bent to stand up over the centreline of the board - it should feel like your going to head butt the bottom of the boom.

Front foot goes on the board as its being pulled out of the water - dont force it.

Keep low and bear the board off the wind to accelerate

Best advice is to wear a pfd and spend a few sessions just going out to practise. Start with the beach starts and then sail along and slow down and step into the water whilst keeping the rig flying - Saves the difficult and tiring/drowning part of flying the rig.

Loads of good vids out there on this one...

Hi ITSON,

Good advice from Ben there. I would add that when the wind is light, your front leg will be vertical in the water and a kicking motion (like swimming) can provide the extra lift to get you on the board.

Regards, Richard

Hi Itsen
I have to give credit to Craig Wood for this tip. Years ago at Sellicks, having trouble getting waterstarted, he told me to aim my board down the beach, parallel to the beach, in other words downwind more. I never forgot it and I havent had trouble since. But once you get up remember to reposition the board correctly.

Select to expand quote

Susie said...

Hi Itsen
I have to give credit to Craig Wood for this tip. Years ago at Sellicks, having trouble getting waterstarted, he told me to aim my board down the beach, parallel to the beach, in other words downwind more. I never forgot it and I havent had trouble since. But once you get up remember to reposition the board correctly.

thats good if your underpowered, but the more power you have the closer to the wind the board should point.

- keep ze knee bent when you lift with power of the sail and the back foot onto the board and over the centre line and when you lift out of the water its like pulling a sheet over your head and try and Kiss the mast base - keeping your weight low - understanding what I have just written will be harder than actually water starting

My typical error in waterstarting was standing on the board too early.

I'd feel the pull of the sail and prematurely weight the rear foot to try and "stand up". This weights the rear of the board; with the fulcrum at the mast foot, rotates the nose into the wind. Without a strong wind yanking me out, this was fatal to the waterstart.

So now I make sure I've commited my weight to the sail thru the shoulders, and use that to pull me up before puting any weight on my rear foot.

I visualise it as trying to submerge the board by pushing down hard on the mast foot via the boom (more front hand than rear). With all the pressure in the mastfoot, and then pulling the board in under my butt with the rear leg, it scissors the board even more downwind and gives the sail more power. Now starting to get some forward motion I find myself getting pulled up and over the centreline of the board. Once the front foot can step up onto the board you're safe and underway, and in a low strong position to start planing or handle sudden gusts.

As Dr Duck mentions, you can waterstart in some quite light winds by aggressively kicking your front foot to raise your body out of the water. This will reduce drag and provide some momentum.

As Muzza said its also getting the rig out of the water and flying first, I have never had any trouble water starting until I got a new shorter widestyle board and full cam race sails, I could always drag the boom up onto the tail of my old 9'2" board to help fly the sail, on my new stoke the boom sits a good 4 to 5" past the tail and the pryde race sails fill up and weigh a ton. Don't forget the uphaul. I actually have resorted to again rigging an uphaul rope and have used it quite often as if the rig falls in the right position it is far easy to uphaul and away..

What Muzza said is how i learnt and is right on the money. By slowly progressing deeper and deeper. Once you are in deep water follow the steps that Ben CS laid out, they are great too.

Now a tip that i was told when learning to get the rig out of the water is to always start lifting your mast out of the water from the very tip. Even if you have the rig with the clew facing the wind you can put your free hand under the sail and force the leach up to catch the wind. Once it has caught the wind it will flip and then you have your rig back ready to go. then walk you hands down the mast to the boom and whalla, Your on!!!

Another tip is if you clew is getting caught in the water all the time and powering up your sail before you are ready for it. You can get a half a pool noodle that is hollow, cut it down the middle, slot it onto the clew end of your boom and tie it or duct tape it. Looks goofy but for a start while learning makes it so much easier and keeps the sail out of the water.

If you do this though, once you have started getting the hang of a few deep starts take the floats back off as you will tend to rely on them wich will end up giving you bad habbits.