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…