Hi Guys,

looking for for some help with my wave riding. I sail mainly in the UK with cross on conditions. Struggling making front side top turns. Think I'm doing all the obvious things like, back hand back in the bottom turn then opening up the sail clew first. As I put my hands together for the top turn quite often the rig powers up so much it rips out of my hands.
I'm wondering if you really need to open the sail in the top turn to dump the power?

Just back from Guincho (Portugal) where I took several washings on the inside really need to sort it out!

Any tips would be gratefully received.

Before going frontside build up as much speed as possible then carve hard and open up the sail until it's nearly parallel to the board clew first. At the top turn both hands get close to each other sail wide open. Maintaining speed through the turn is critical to minimize sail load. It's crazy how hard we can press down on a board to carve. Try to turn as tight as possible to stay with the peak.

Check the TWS video with whippy Dixon and Brawzinio - some great tips and video - search you tube or try n find at www.tws-windsurf.com/

Cheers guys I'll give it a go

Go for the steepest part of the wave hit it late and vertical then there's minimal effort requred to redirect.

I find it helps to understand how hand movements translate into weighting the board via your feet.

You crank the bottom turn in a tight arc by loading the back hand on the boom - shifting it back along the boom if you can - and that rig load is taken down your back leg to carve the board hard.
If you pump the sail a bit first as you go into the turn you can bear away downwind with better speed and that means the sail can be sheeted in for longer. A good wave (clean, steep and fast) can also add to the apparent wind, and that again means you can stay sheeted in for longer before needing to open up the sail to go clew first.
If you get this bit right then you can sometimes get to the lip for the top turn without sheeting out into clew-first.
A good wave lip can then be used to redirect the board back upwind.

In opening up the clew you also release load on the back hand and that can stop the hard carve downwind.
If you are ready for the top turn, wave lip or not, then you load the front hand to get rig load onto your front foot to carve the board back upwind. You can exaggerate that upwind carve by letting go with your back hand completely or else by shifting both hands further forwards on the boom.

The better sailors seem to do all this easily and with fluidity, but their skill is in getting all these movements just right, so that they maintain optimal speed through each turn. Once you can keep good speed on the wave face then you should be able to reach the wave lip.

On the other hand, don't beat yourself up about this because every situation is different. There's onshore and then there's very onshore, and sometimes the wave is big enough to blank the true wind as you drop into it, and then as you come up for the top turn you come up into the true wind very suddenly needing to open up the clew in the full power of the wind from behind the wave.

What else can we add here?
In cross-on conditions the waves are often in sections and so you need to pick the right bit of the wave to start the bottom turn in order to then reach the right section for the lip, so that means reading the wave well, anticipating how it will open and shape up. Reading the waves is quite a skill in itself - and it's far easier to get used to your home break than to get this right at a place you're visiting.

If it's super onshore I go into a top turn clew first, which means my back hand has become my front hand.... if i let go with the hand closest to the clew the sail will flip too quickly and I loose all power. I don't really change that hand position at all. Different in DTL.

Hi Guys,

I did a whole video on this - (and HEAVILY laboured a joke about french bakeries)

The key with cross on is to look for oncoming sections after your bottom turn

- so if its the devils tack (Starboard tack sailing out) - then look for left handers coming at you

and if its port tack sailing out - then look for right handers coming at you.

The key to this is that at the point of connection of your bottom turn to the on coming section the wind direction is perfectly cross shore!

(i explain this at around 1.55 below)

That video is very good at explaining why some onshore days can be just as good if not better than cross-off wave riding days.
On my beach in the UK we get a lot of onshore wind and where the wave period is short the jumping is rubbish.
We have a big tidal range however, and at lower tide the waves get smaller and spread out into better jumping ramps.


The complication when wave-riding in cross-onshore winds is that people will experience very different conditions at different beaches.
Good riding is usually about maintaining board speed when heading down the line and this is a function of several things with your ability being top of the list, followed by having enough float under your feet.
But the longshore currents and the amount of white water also make a difference, and they too have an effect in creating the apparent wind that you feel in your sail.

If you have a steep and peaking fast wave then you can often pump into the bottom turn and then keep sheeted in longer on apparent wind before you need to open up the rig to go clew first. In the bowl of the wave, the wind direction is coming at you created by your board speed, whereas at the top of the wave the true wind is coming over the back of the wave to backwind you if you don't open up the clew soon enough.
But if you look at onshore riding at places like Pozo on Gran Canaria, or Medano on Tenerife, then the smaller mushier/white water days mean going clew first much earlier.

The point being that the varying conditions make it very difficult to instruct people on how best to wave ride, with each break being very different.

Thanks guys for all the tips! Can't wait for the next session to get some practice in :)

Thanks guys for all the tips! Can't wait for the next session to get some practice in :)

Found this clip pretty useful

Great tips guys. I'm just learning wave riding and I'm struggling with the balance when entering the clew first part. I guess it's all about training but right now I get to much power and can't hold the sail. Maybe I should train flat water jibes without flipping the rig to get the feel and balance. Also I'm riding aGoya One L from 2007 and when comparing it to my smaller pure wave board it doesn't turn as well...kind of needs persuation and tgen suddenly it'l lika slipping on a banana peel while my small board just turns quickly and smoothly where I point without never having to push it.

Select to expand quote

Before going frontside build up as much speed as possible then carve hard and open up the sail until it's nearly parallel to the board clew first. At the top turn both hands get close to each other sail wide open. Maintaining speed through the turn is critical to minimize sail load.

It's crazy how hard we can press down on a board to carve. Try to turn as tight as possible to stay with the peak.

Open your sail until the clew is directly over the nose of the board.