Thomas Traversa, known for his super high stalled forward loops! Image credit PWA/JC.

When I did my first forward loop I was 11 years old and windsurfing in Brandon Bay, Ireland. It was pretty light with waist to shoulder high waves coming through the bay providing some nice head on ramps. I was pumping onto the plane and just chucking myself into them when all of a sudden one just clicked, it felt so easy, all my kit went really light and just came round so smoothly and gently. It was the best feeling I have ever had and I have not been able to stop doing them since, the forward got me hooked on windsurfing all over again.

Aleksy Gayda – BWA Amateur Champion 2011

I started forwards with a lot of determination, perhaps too much as I went through some serious back slaps and lung abuse. After a few pointers from Jem (Hall) I started trying wymaroos, getting the rig across my body and my backhand all the way down the boom, which soon had me landing my first flat water spin loops, even on my weak tack. Through watching movies I then picked up how far off the wind I needed to go for big clean forwards, which is especially difficult in onshore conditions. I also found there was a balance between trying to be on the right kit (where you don’t feel too overpowered) and just having a ‘go for it’ attitude.

The best craic is going for forwards with a bunch of mates, where you can all push each other, keep an eye out and have a lot of fun. I still remember landing my first clean loop and sailing away; it was a sweet feeling and left me smiling for days.

Will Barrett - BWA amateur competitor

I started trying loops in Margarita off about waist high waves, I landed on my back a lot and it was so bruised, but I was super hyped! The next day I tried again with a life jacket, but then I popped my eardrum as I forgot to look back…oops! I decided a little self preservation was in order, so I stopped trying for a while. After trying again in the UK, it was in Brazil that I finally landed one; I was so happy! For a relatively simple move it took me a while, but I think it was because I kept closing my eyes so I couldn’t spot my landing and open out the sail so I always got stuck in the same place. I then went to Pozo to learn on the other tack, trying them on a 3.4 in really onshore conditions improved my spin loop technique, and I began landing them on port too.

Sarah Bibby – BWA 2011 Ladies Champion

With forward loops there was no real breakthrough point that I can remember as every attempt is different and you can hardly expect to come out fully planing on your first go (keep wishing)! So here are just a few key points that almost certainly helped me get to a point where I actually enjoy them; weird I know! NEVER (ever!) let go; if you hold on you are way less likely to land in a heap on your kit. Only let go if you really, really have to.

Do practice in light winds; practice catapulting yourself over the front (without your feet in the straps – obviously) over and over again until you are landing on your back or in the waterstart position before you try in strong winds.

Learn with someone; if you’re competing for that all-important win, then your brain doesn’t mind doing stupid things! Good luck and if you can get someone to video your attempts it will provide you with endless amounts of entertainment!

George Shillito – BWA competitor and man in the know at the Polkerris Beach Co.

My first forward loop was during my first season at Club Vass, I landed my 3rd one! I remember I was on an old Neil Pryde Soul 5.8, sailing towards the beach on port tack and I bore right off the wind and jumped off the back of a piece of chop, nose dived and looked behind me over my back shoulder, waterstarted up and hey presto!

Andy Bubble Chambers - Freestyle and wave competitor and windsurfing coach

My very first forward attempt was pretty pathetic. My best mate from school and I sailed into the middle of Brogborough Lake, did a tiny chop hop and flopped onto our sails. I don’t think it really counts to be honest! My first proper rotation however I still remember clearly. I had been trying a few more forward attempts in lighter winds but without much luck, never getting enough rotation and generally crashing face first into the water. The next properly windy day on the lake, I was flying around full power on a 4.0. When I tried my first forward this day, everything happened so much quicker. Instead of crashing into the water like normal, I did the full rotation and slapped down on my back. I can’t even remember if I sailed away or not, but I can still picture the exact spot on the lake and still have the image in my head of the rotation. It was so fast, but at the same time I can remember it all in super slow motion, with the sky, water and land, all flying by. It was such an amazing feeling.

John Skye – PWA competitor and British windsurfing legend

The full issue of the Spring Summer 2012 Boards Annual is still available for purchase here. 

Have you mastered the carve gybe yet?

My first carve gybe was around the rescue platform in Dahab, in the winter of 2006 while my brother captured the whole thing on video! I think I had been having problems with the step and the rig flip, doing them together instead of one after the other, therefore dropping off the plane and being totally unstable when trying to flip the sail. Counting out loud between the step and flip really helped with this, and made me hold onto the rig for longer before I flipped it. When I sailed out of the first gybe I was overcome with amazement, plus a little relief!

Amy Chambers – Windsurfing instructor, personal trainer and former top Diva for Club Vass.

The carve gybe had always been the ‘elusive’ move I had wanted to learn from about the age of 11. I remember spending years engaging the inside rail, getting the board to carve a little bit and then flailing the rig, limbs and board in an effort to come out dry, thinking this was a carve gybe. This changed when I got a few helpful hints down in Coverack, Cornwall. The big thing that made the move ‘click’ for me was vision. It’s really easy to say “yes I’m looking through the turn”, but it was only when I fully exaggerated the vision, looking right past the end of the boom that my foot-change and rig flip became so much smoother. It felt amazing, and still one of the biggest buzzes I have ever got from windsurfing.

Jo Wright – Slalom, freestyle and wave competitor, sponsored by Tushingham, Starboard and Sam Ross Windsurfing.

My first carve gybe happened when I was sailing at ‘Speedy’ in Dahab a week ago. I was on my 4.7 Ice and my 99 litre Chilli. It was the first windy day since I arrived in Dahab the week before and even though it was a bit off and on, it felt good to be powered up when I hit the gusts. I hadn’t been trying carve gybes that long and it was something I wanted to crack quickly too open the door to more carving manoeuvres. My main issue when learning was keeping my weight forward allowing the board to stay flat through the turn, instead of almost sinking halfway round due to my weight being to far back. Unfortunately my first one wasn’t caught on camera, but I was sailing with friends who witnessed the historic moment. Like many manoeuvres in windsurfing, it can take a lot more work to get them completely consistent, and I’m still working on getting my carve gybes to this standard. But that first feeling you get from bearing away into a carving turn, and the feeling when you finally get your first carve gybe drives me forward to continue learning.

Edd Seater – Recent windsurf addict, working and improving in Dahab, Egypt.

I had happily entered myself into the first youth ‘freewave’ camp at Christchurch with the rest of Team AirBorn when it suddenly dawned on me one of the prerequisites for the camp was to be able to carve gybe! “CR*P!” there I was studying a Jem Hall article on how to Vulcan and it hadn’t even occurred to me that I had to be able to carve gybe! The next few days quickly turned into a case of do or die as the last thing I wanted was to be booted out of the camp (in front of the lads) for not being any good! It was a super warm summers day down at Daymer bay (on the Doom bar side) and the outgoing tide meant the bay was waist deep and flat producing ideal carve gybing conditions. My dad was stood in the water taking pictures of my brother and I windsurfing, whilst at the same time doubling up as a very handy gybe mark. Convenient as it sounds it soon became annoying as with every failed attempt I went round him he would shout, “faster, get low and lean further forward!” For about an hour I thought my dad was a bossy, know it all, loser, who simply didn’t understand! Unexpectedly though it all suddenly clicked when, to prove a point, I threw myself as far forward as I could whilst going as fast as possible and in doing so, fully expected to crash and give my dad the ‘idiot’ look that kids do so well. However in attempting to over exaggerate, I adopted the correct stance and burned through a perfect carve gybe to come out planing! I had made it, my dad was a total LEGEND and what’s more I wouldn’t be kicked off the camp; AMAZING!

George Shillito – BWA competitor and man in the know at the Polkerris Beach Co.

I’ve got to be honest and say I don’t remember my first gybe, but I do remember my first planing one. I used to watch Peter Hart’s “Towards the Limit” video all the time and there is a section in that which breaks down two of Bjorn’s slalom gybes. One where he is overpowered, needs to dump the power and therefore lays it down, and one where he keeps the rig forward and uses all the power to drive the board through the turn. This second one was the key for me and when I tried to emulate it, suddenly I held my speed all the way through the turn and came out fully planing. It probably looked nothing like Bjorn’s version, but in my head it was exactly the same!

John Skye – PWA competitor and British windsurfing legend.

The full issue of the Spring Summer 2012 Boards Annual is still available for purchase here. 

SB jumps

To complete his Make Your Move series Simon Bornhoft looks at some inspiring training methods to start, improve and master your jumping skills. Photos: Karen Bornhoft / WindWise

Getting ‘air’ is far more achievable than gybing – what’s more, it feels great. So what are you waiting for? If you can blast comfortably on a sub-115L board you’re at a level to ‘pop’ that board off reservoir chop or a cresting wave. It’s been 18 months since we last covered the aspects of jumping in our Body Mechanics series, so I thought that with the spring breezes approaching we could work together to make this move a reality for you in 2011.

If you’re a fearless former motocross rider then simply sail flat out, lean back, and push on the back foot for take-off. If you have some sense of self-preservation, muscles rather than elastic bands, or limited time on the water, it’s imperative to build an understanding of what’s actually involved and look at ways to get the body to do what you want it to do. So, as ever, this is how you actually learn it, rather than just ‘how to do it’. A head full of tips is not as powerful as muscle memory achieved through easy skills training exercises, which enable you to apply the right skill at the right time.

WindWise Principles

To enable the board to ‘jump’ we momentarily reverse all the core windsurfing principles we usually rave about!

Vision: Look down at the trough of whatever size ramp is in front of you.

Trim: For take-off destroy this key principle by weighting the tail and un-weighting the mastbase.

Opposition: We heavily flex that front arm and pull the rig back TOWARDS the body!

Power: For take-off the rig is, momentarily, sheeted out to reduce mastbase pressure.

Stance: How often do you hear “stand upright and push down on the back foot”?

Click here to read WindWise 271 in full…

SB gets mega manoeuvrable

With deep winter on its way Simon Bornhoft looks at a fun, dynamic, body warming windsurfing exercise with great added value. Photos: Karen Bornhoft / WindWise

Considering the time of year I’ve decided to give you a fun, easy, rigorous winter warming exercise that will instantly improve your manoeuvrability, help your gybes and most definitely assist in riding swell or waves. Even if you’re at a non-planing improver / intermediate level you can still do this exercise – the only difference is that you can’t lean the body so acutely into the turns as you have less inertia and support from the rig. As ever, we’re going to break the move down into component parts and focus on proven methods that develop the muscle memory to MAKE YOUR MOVE. Accentuate and repeat each session, rather than just blast up and down all day. Finally, close observers will notice that the first three sessions link into previous Make Your Move features, such is the value and importance of these WindWise skills.

Session 1: Hook Out & Hold On

Session 2: Switch-Stance

Session 3: Clew-First Beachstart

Session 4: Extreme Flat Water Waveriding

Session 5: Strap-to-Strap Gybing

Click here to read WindWise 270 in full…

Simon Bornhoft makes a swift exit

As winter tightens its grip we all want to spend what time we can blasting over the cooler water rather than submersed in it. Simon Bornhoft offers some crucial skills and drills to ensure speedier waterstarts. Photos: Karen Bornhoft / WindWise

SCENARIO 1: Falling In Mid-Gybe

A common dismount is when body and rig fall into the turn mid-gybe (usually due to not leaning the rig out of the turn enough to counterbalance). A good sailor will do all they can to hold on to the boom and then pop back up onto the board and sail away clew-first. If you want to achieve this, get brilliant at clew-first beachstarts!

SCENARIO 2: Facing the Wrong Way?

How many times is the kit set up just right, but you want to go back in the opposite direction? Being able to spin board and rig round without dropping the sail saves time, exhausting swimming and the possible impact of oncoming waves. Being able to do a waterstart gybe is one of the most time-saving (and energy-economic) skills you can learn.

Click here to read WindWise 269 in full…

Duck-gybe with SB

Can’t gybe? Don’t worry, you stand a very decent chance of duck-gybing! Simon Bornhoft breaks down this seemingly elusive ‘trick’ to make it achievable – regardless of your level. Photos: Karen Bornhoft / WindWise

If you had two cloned intermediates and one focused just on gybing and the other just on duck-gybing, the odds are that the duck-gyber would learn their move the quickest and be most likely to plane out too. Despite limiting beliefs, my tests have proved that duck-gybing can actually be easier to learn than gybing. In fact, when someone comes on a course and dedicates decent time to light wind skills and drills and then makes 40-50 duck-gybe attempts in planing winds, the success rate is very high. I’m not talking about advanced sailors, either. If you can blast in the straps you can duck-gybe! Here’s how…

Skills & Drills

Session 1: Sail 180s.

Session 2: Switch-stance.

Session 3: Non-planing duck-gybe – involving our ‘upwind-downwinder’, ‘sail 180s’ & ‘switch-stance’ skills and drills.

Session 4: MAKE YOUR MOVE – the fully planing duck-gybe!

Key Principles

Exaggerate and commit to our WindWise Principles, adding finer detail to speed up MAKING YOUR MOVE!

Vision: Look forward and through the turn to where you want to go.

Trim: Adopt a wide foot spread to steer and lever the board.

Opposition: Rig moves one way, you move in the opposite direction (and vice versa).

Power: Wide arm spread, pulling down on the boom before and after ‘ducking’.

Stance: Going and out of the turn, adopt a super-7 ‘drop-&-push’ stance with flexed back leg and extended front leg.

Build your skills, confidence and neuromuscular propriaception (muscle memory) by trying the following sessions on land first then using a large enough board to uphaul with a sub 6.0m rig on the water.

Click here to read WindWise 268 in full…

Simon Bornhoft – gybing, part 2

Simon Bornhoft strongly suggests working on these skill and move enhancing drills, which will help you MAKE YOUR MOVE while having a great time on the water! Photos: Karen Bornhoft / WindWise

Hopefully you’ve had time to digest and try some of the skills and drills from last month’s feature. As we’re now heading into winter I thought we’d offer some higher wind action that not only guarantees gybe improvement, but also boosts your overall technique.

Unhook & Hold On simulates setting up for moves, jumps, gybes and duck-gybes.

Flat Water Waveriding develops blasting confidence, steering, all gybes, and waveriding.

Finally, the Rig Rotator is for all gybes, helicopter tacks and any other time you rotate a rig. So break that plateau with these fun run-by-run suggestions – all made, as ever, one accentuated point at a time!

Skills & Drills

Session 1 – Unhook & Hold On

Session 2 – Flat Water Waveriding

Session 3 – Rig Rotator

Session 4 – MAKE YOUR MOVE!

Click here to read WindWise 267 in full…

SB Gybes...

Simon Bornhoft breaks key transitions down into component parts to dramatically speed up the understanding, training time and probability of actually MAKING YOUR MOVES! Photos: Karen Bornhoft / WindWise

In windsurfing we talk in terms of weeks, months or years trying to learn something, but in fact it’s so often only seconds spent on the important part of our objectives.

As you might know, my coaching ethos is to break windsurfing down into achievable, transferable multi-level skills that link together to increase the prospects of actually learning something. Out of the many thousands I’ve coached, those who mix their precious sailing time with skills training always make the quickest progress. So this is how you actually learn something! Rather than just gybing and practicing common mistakes, genuinely try these WindWise skills and drills and I can guarantee you’ll make your moves!

Who’s it for?

First time or frustrated veteran gybers in non-planing and planing situations on any volume board. So get out there and go through the run-by–run suggestions, one accentuated point at a time!

Skills & Drills

Session 1 – Upwind-Downwinders

Session 2 – Shift-&-Switching

Session 3 – Clew-First Beachstart

Session 4 – MAKE YOUR MOVE!

Click here to read WindWise 266 in full…

Simon makes his move...

In this new series Simon Bornhoft gives us the best possible method to achieve the ‘stock moves’. A self-coaching, run-by-run methodology and specific skills training for land and water will get you well on your way to making your moves! Photos: WindWise / Karen Bornhoft

It’s always tricky to transfer the performance enhancing effect of coaching onto a written page. But my mission has always been to illustrate the actual skills which ensure that the key principles and minor details of windsurfing become embedded in your sailing psyche. It’s impossible to sail with more than one or two ideas in your head, so we’ve kept this very much action based and broken each run down into component parts to allow you to take it one stage at a time. As ever these skills are just as applicable to beginner-improvers as they are to intermediate-advanced windsurfers. So, no messing about – get active, accentuate and enjoy.

Click here to read WindWise 265 in full…

A counterintuitive backwinded moment

Simon Bornhoft identifies a counterintuitive eureka moment that enables beginners and intermediates to master helicopter tacks, and links the same theme into the granddaddy of counterintuitive moments, the forward loop. Photos: WindWise / Karen Bornhoft

In 1968 a relatively unknown athlete strode with pace and leapt skywards, but rather than projecting his lithe body forward, Richard Douglas Fosbury twisted and arched uniquely over the Olympic high jump bar. Fosbury literally flew backwards into the record books and a gold medal position! In that defining, counterintuitive moment, the ‘Fosbury flop’ changed the way people perceived, approached and went for the high jump. There have been a number of breakthroughs in windsurfing where new actions, skills and tricks are discovered. These evolve from gradual progress, but often they are also linked to an individual acting counterintuitively.

When coaching I’m often illustrating that what you might imagine to be true isn’t always the way it’s learnt or done, so I’d like to share with you a counterintuitive moment linked to helicopter tacks (heli-tacks) and other aspects of the sport. Please don’t turn the page if you’ve never fancied doing a heli-tack – it’s such an achievable light wind move that does wonders for rig handling and gybe exit skills! I’ve taught beginners to heli-tack in light winds, and many more experienced sailors to master them in stronger winds.

Click here to read WindWise 264 in full…

SB's counterintuitive moments...

In the penultimate feature of the series Simon Bornhoft looks at a very counterintuitive action that influences waterstarting, non-planing and planing gybes, duck gybes and waveriding. Photos: WindWise / Karen Bornhoft

Until we discovered the opposite to be true, we humans assumed that the sun moved around the Earth through the course of the day. We now know – somewhat counterintuitively – that it’s the ground beneath our feet which does all the moving and spinning. This proposition means we sleep in the knowledge that night will indeed become day. This month’s WindWise counterintuitive nuggets might not change the orientation of your world, but they will assist in directing the board where you want it to go rather than being transported into a galactic spin.

Assumptions vs Counterintuitive Moments

I’ve always eulogised about the key skill of maintaining power by bringing that boom in, back and down to lock the rig in place to sheet the sail in. This is obviously an integral part of windsurfing that assists our blasting speed, control, gybing and many other aspects of the sport. But as this series has highlighted, and one reason why windsurfing can be so challenging, sometimes there are moments when we need to virtually reverse what we normally do. This feature thus has a very simple objective: to highlight some key moments at which it is beneficial to ‘sheet out’ rather than sheet in.

Click here to read WindWise 263 in full…

Simon Bornhoft flips the rig...

Simon Bornhoft looks at a very common counterintuitive moment that affects us every time we rotate our rigs at the end of a transition.

In the early days of space travel it was assumed that elongated streamlined shapes would offer the best possible chance of re-entering Earth’s atmosphere safely. Counterintuitively, however, the opposite would appear to be true. NASA’s testing, thankfully, discovered that ‘wider blunt shaped capsules’ provided more effective heat shields when returning back to Earth. NASA’s counterintuitive discovery definitely saved lives, whereas these WindWise suggestions will simply help you avoid doing completely the wrong actions on the water.

Us humans aren’t great at dealing with counterintuitive sporting moments. When learning to ski students don’t initially take to the idea of leaning forward when speeding down a steep slope – they ‘instinctively’ lean (incorrectly) back. It’s a sore backside that encourages them to overcome this counterintuitive action. With windsurfing, much of what we do on a board is fairly clear to see, but there are definitely irregular counterintuitive moments that can be so frustrating and challenging. It’s often during these moments that ‘bad habits’, plateaus, or our dismounts occur.

As your humble coach I’m going to highlight one regular counterintuitive moment that relates to all levels of gybes, helicopter tacks, and any time a rig is rotated. It also involves two of our key windsurfing principles: vision and opposition.

Click here to read WindWise 262 in full…

SB's WindWise counterintuitive moments II

If you’ve been overwhelmed when waterstarting, confused when cornering or dunked when duck-gybing, there’s a high chance that you might have been fooled by a counterintuitive moment! Simon Bornhoft explores those instances when our natural instincts hinder progress.

SB WindWise counterintuitive moments

Simon Bornhoft explores the counterintuitive moments in windsurfing… Photos: WindWise / Karen Bornhoft

A frustrated gyber once proclaimed that windsurfing was like getting in a stunning sports car, throttling down the road, only to find the steering worked in completely the opposite direction to what you’d expect.

Many will agree that the sport is punctuated with moments that can contradict, confuse or just don’t feel natural. Often, what you assume to be ‘right’ isn’t actually the way it works at all. For instance, if someone asked you which way you throw your body for a forward loop, you’d naturally think forwards, but, as many learned loopers will tell you, the body actually moves backwards towards the clew – only the rig goes forwards! Back in the real world, there are many scenarios where we need to resist our natural instinct or reasoning. So, over the next few pieces I hope you’ll find empathy with these situations, as they link into many key moments within the sport. First off, let’s look at a very common windsurfing tendency to pull, when in fact we should be pushing.

Click here to read WindWise 260 in full…

SB BodyWise action plan

To finish off his expose on how the windsurfing body works, Simon Bornhoft summarises the key performance enhancing actions for you to try the next time you hit the water. Photos: WindWise / Karen Bornhoft