Had a brilliant wave sail with James at Marrawah. BOL was going off, but we did'nt really know that area well. So played it safe at Greens. 3/4 mast high waves in a few sets with a nice 22knots when it was on. We were getting some really nice down the line runs and was just getting dialed in, then the wind died. I tried heading back out with the Gopro but just too gusty and too light. Anyway had a awsome time and cant wait for a better go.

One question i have for you wave guys or girls... Is that i was spinning out abit on the bottom turn. I knew it would when i did the top turns as i was ripping it back quite hard. So is this just technique or where i have my body weight position or fin position??

Below is when we were packing up.

Good on you guys for a bash at the Marrawah.
all i know is you can not load the fin ( not like slalom!) , this is more important when going for the bottom turn. weight up the the front, rig forward and use the rail, this will help the spin out.
Going to aggressive on a single fin without correct technique, especially with any chop on the face will also cause spin out..
This is where the multi fin boards really come into play.
I would sugest when the budget is good pick up a good s/hand multi fin wave board, it will improve your wavesailing without even trying!!!
thats all i know, dont know if its BS

Thanks, i will see how it all goes next time. I would love to get a quad and probably will, but the amount of times i get out in the waves. I will probably leave it for the mean time.

Great to see you guys getting out there..... even a bad day there is the better than a great day down here. We gotta get up there more often

Whenever you're thinking of going over post it up on this site, I know Felix in Launceston is keen to get over there, he's another young gun, especially in the waves

Hi Izaak. Awesome you guys got to Mararwah
When waveriding make sure your front strap is opened right up so you can jam your foot in as far as you can. Same goes for the back aswell, but the front one is more critical as you need to get your foot as far into the centre of the board as possible to be able to drive the inside rail. If you want a 2010 JP 82litre Quad, let me know, you can have it at a good price.

BOL is the best when it's over 4M swell, I ususally get smahed but the Buzzy and the boyz crank it.....that's me under that wave on the reef...love it

great to see you got up to the Marrawah... so many great waves there being left to wash up unridden... like a hot girl at a feeder convention...

i was tossing up whether to head up last weekend too... post up your plans for sure...


on the bottom turn... i have a good deal of experiencing spinning out on the bottom turn...

get your hand back. to do this, put your front hand between the harness lines and then put your back hand somewhere comfortable. this will help you to get your weight forward. throw your sail forward as you begin the turn... feels like you are going to go over the handle bars at first... (i find when i am turning best, the leach will hit my thigh) then again i am not exactly levi...

... move your back hand right up to touching your front hand for the top turn... this will stop you from spinning out on the top turn...

repeat as much as possible... :)

Izaak, I find the loose front & back footstraps on the riding side of the board so you can get the feet way over like Kaleb said my method. And bend zee knees.

Probably the best advise for good bottom turns is to go out and do a couple of hundred then see if you still have the same issues. Like a hypochondriac by the time you have sorted out one issue you may well have developed a bunch of new issues that are also apparently just as complex. This is why I think the best wavesailors are the ones that don't think to much about things they just go out there and try to smash the waves and sometimes smash themselves a bit in the process.

I remember watching a young Josh Angulo sailing Margerets main break and absolutely launching himself into the biggest sections and destroying at least two sets of gear but somehow walking away without injuring himself. There were lessons there to be learned but not by me, I stayed wide and on the shoulder unlike my fellow Tassi sailors who both went deep and scored some great waves but also had big swims across the reef.

I think a valuable lesson for any GPS racer is that the surf zone is no place for navigation by GPS. The photo below is of an unnamed sailor who had checked his GPS and convinced he was out in the channel decided that it was time to gybe!!!.





Such GPS based navigational errors are apparently quite common with sailors leaving one beach and returning to an entirely different beach entirely by accident. (This sometimes happens to my mum when she goes to the shops but as she doesn't carry a GPS I think it's entirely understandable.)

Gear choice can also be a great source of angst for any aspiring wavesailor it's a commonly help superstition that you should never ever wavesail on a green board and that you should only use 20'' harness lines or 28'' but never ever use 24''s.

My own recipe for happy wavesailing is only ever to sail small waves and only ever sail in cross onshore conditions and always sail a red board no matter how many fins it has. The front hand on the boom should always face upwards (except when it is facing downwards) and the back hand should always extend towards the back of the boom at the start of the bottom turn.

Al, that was me (no GPS) at BOL with Johnny Pott and Buzzy in 35knots. I was totally overpowered, dropped the sail into a bottom turn, got the tip of the mast stuck in the wave, shat myself, leant back and got hammered right on the reef.

I suppose the only hint an old fart like me can give is to lean foward and commit. Every time I get nervous I hold back, that puts the weight on the back foot then I'm pretty well buggered.

Ant, AL knew it was you!, dont you get it, you have become one

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houston said...

Al, that was me (no GPS) at BOL with Johnny Pott and Buzzy in 35knots.

Ant I think it was more like 50kts!

Where the head goes the body will follow you have to leeeeeeaaaan into the turn. loosen the straps and break an ankle , throw the rig forward and dislocate your shoulder, and lay the rig down so the wave smacks it and knocks out all your front teeth!.

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houston said...

Al, that was me (no GPS) at BOL with Johnny Pott and Buzzy in 35knots. I was totally overpowered, dropped the sail into a bottom turn, got the tip of the mast stuck in the wave, shat myself, leant back and got hammered right on the reef.

I suppose the only hint an old fart like me can give is to lean foward and commit. Every time I get nervous I hold back, that puts the weight on the back foot then I'm pretty well buggered.

Yes I admit that I knew it was you, its a famous (infamous) photo and I am a little jealous, not of the pounding you got but of that level of commitment.While I realise that you were not wearing a GPS I do like the concept that you might have been and that a slightly American female voice said "turn left in 20 metres".

The photos dont do justice to how fast things can happen in the surf. One minute you can be heading off dtl and the next second you have a few tons of water on your head, its all part of the fun as long as you can walk away without injury (or swim away if you dont happen to be the Messiah).

If I remember rightly I think Ant shredded that sail that day, or was that another time..........one of the many

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Kazza said...

If I remember rightly I think Ant shredded that sail that day, or was that another time..........one of the many

To continue the story, you're right Kazza it was gusting up to 40kts, but if I said that Buzzy would acuse me of exagerating.

I got slammed underneath the sail, then creamed up by the next few sets.
Buzzy came to my aid and grabbed the gear, by this time we were drifting dangerously close to the big rocks being smahed by the surf on the other side of the bay, I had an idea I could be in trouble when I saw a few of the guys and you Kaz running along the shore to do something....don't know what for except watch me get smashed on the rocks

I lived to tell the tale and we all had a bit of a laugh.

My only regret was i didn't rig my 4.2 and get back out there cos the swell was lifting and Pottsy and buzzy put on a fantastic show....obviously trying to out do each other....and they say they're not competitive