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.

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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.