Gybing with Jack – K998 Tecnique Series

K 998 Technique Series

A little introduction

In this series of articles I am going to go through what I think are some of the most important skills to be successful within your windsurfing career. It doesn’t matter whether you are wanting to race or just blast at your local spot, hopefully I can help you with your progression!

About me:

I am 17 years old and am from Mersea Island on the east coast of Essex. I got into windsurfing about 7 years ago and have never looked back. Right from the start I have been doing bits of competition, from throwing tantrums at my local Team 15 racing to travelling around the country competing within the BSA slalom Series. I started racing on Techno’s at Team 15 and the eastern Zone Squad, which is a great way to get into windsurfing and develop your skills. However I soon became too old and too big for this so went into Slalom! Two Years ago I started the slalom circuit and I have worked my way up through the fleets, and am moving into the pro’s this season.

Gybing with Jack!!

Gybing is possibly the biggest and most important skills in our sport. Whether you race longboards on lakes or are wave riding at Jaws you are always going to have to gybe!

When I learnt to windsurf being able to gybe well always seemed out of reach. I’d look out and see people doing all sorts of gybes; carve gybes, duck gybes, flare gybes, slam gybes, laydown gybes, so many gybes I didn’t know which to learn. If you are in this situation then read on, and if you’re not then read on as you might be able to pick up some helpful tips!

In this article I am going to go through the basics of the carve gybe, nothing fancy just my key points of the manoeuvre.

Point 1: Be comfortable and go fast

• When approaching a gybe or learning to gybe how comfortable you are is key. If you are thinking hard about the gybe, you really don’t want to be worried about being out of control on the entry. If you are struggling to feel comfortable when going fast then it might be worth moving your mast track forward a bit, lowering your boom or trying a smaller fin. When I race being comfortable it even more important as it means I can push the board faster into the gybes meaning that I come out faster.

Point 2: Bear off and Get low

• As you approach the gybe bear away and drop your body low. This will accelerate the board making the rig feel lighter and increasing control. This also puts you in a much better position to move your back hand down the boom and unhook. When approaching the mark in a race everything happens very fast so the being in a strong position is important.

Point 3: Bend your knees

• It is very rare that you will sail on perfectly flat water so bending your knees is a must! You wouldn’t cycle down a mountain without suspension because the bumps you make you fall off. The same applies to the gybe, in which your knees are your suspension! This also lowers your centre of gravity increasing your balance.

Point 4: Lean into the turn and open the sail

• After stepping across the board with your back foot and bending your knees you have to start the arc of the turn. You do this by leaning into the centre of the turn, much like how you would lean into the turn on a bike. I remember a lot of my first gybes resulted in me falling off the back due to me leaning back and the board leaving me behind! Also don’t try to do any fancy laydown gybes; these are often done by the pros just for show, recreationally they are no faster! So as you are going round your gybe open the sail to keep the power and speed going. In a race it is better to get round the mark fast and as comfortably as possible, IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!

Point 5: Keep your head up

• Keeping your head up is vital so that you can see. Being able to see what is coming allows your body to adjust to whatever is coming. Also if you look down then your weight is transferred down and you are likely to stop.  Therefore looking out the gybe to where you are going is key. When going around the gybe mark in a race you have to constantly on the lookout to see where the other competitors are and to find the best line to take.

Point 6: Don’t hold on too long!

• When you are just coming past downwind and entering the new broard reach slide your front hand close to the mast and let go of the back hand to flip the rig. Often with bigger sails if you hold on too long your backhand can become too powered up and it will pull you round the front. In a race it’s often best to stay on the board!!

Racing is not for everyone but it is a great way to learn and really improve your skills fast. I compete on the BSA Slalom series which is made up of three fleets; Masterblaster which is perfect for getting into racing. This involves a race from the beach out to one mark and back again. Amateur, which is a downwind slalom course and a brilliant stepping stone to Pro. Pro is, again, on a downwind slalom course and full on racing with the best guys in the country. All this may sound serious but it is a hugely relaxed atmosphere and everyone is very inviting and easy to talk to. If you haven’t yet it is well worth a go!

So to sum everything up just remember:

• Comfort
• Get low
• Bent Knees
• Lean in
• Head up
• Let go!

Hopefully with these key points your gybing should be a success!!

Jack Trollope – K 998

(North/Fanatic/Spartan)

Rachel Horton reviews Roadford

Roadford

As part of winter training I have go with the south/south west zone squad to Roadford Lake in Devon. At our training weekend it was really windy and because of being a lake meant it was really gusty as well. As it was so windy we were only allowed in three groups which had about 6 or 7 people in each.

We were practicing carve gybes and with the amount of wind and the gust it was hard to do so at times. Both days most people dropped down sail size.

From the shore it didn’t seem as windy as it was, when we launched it seemed as light as five knots and when we got out there it got to 39 knots! When we were practicing our carve gybes we had to bouys that we gybed around each end. It was really good fun, even though some sails ended up with holes in them.

As we had three groups there were two on land doing theory which we went through rules, steps of a carve gybe and loads more.

At the end of the weekend the wind had dropped off a bit to let out everyone at once where we did as slalom race together. But where the wind had dropped of we could have all been on our normal sails as we would have gone a lot faster.

Wetsuits Testing By Spartan

Warmer wetsuits

NPL has performed tests for UK wetsuit manufacturer, Spartan, to help further their knowledge of how wetsuits keep people warm.

The Journey

In order to provide Spartan with the thermal performance data they needed, NPL decided to perform some initial laboratory-based tests on wetsuit samples, followed by some field-testing of wetsuits during proper use.

The laboratory tests involved measuring the thermal resistance of 4 samples of neoprene cut from a Spartan wetsuit. The four samples were different thicknesses, and their surface finish was either single or doubled lined. NPL’s specialised equipment, a piece of kit called a single-sided 305mm guarded hot plate, was used to measure the samples’ thermal resistance. This equipment holds the sample of neoprene horizontally inside a chamber, which is then heated from underneath. A detector at the top of the chamber, above the sample, measures how much heat has passed through the sample – this is the sample’s thermal resistance value. The results showed that the wetsuits’ surface finish had no bearing on how good an insulator it was.

Following the laboratory tests, the team performed some field tests in Clacton, on the Essex coast, far from the controlled laboratory environment of NPL’s Teddington site. Instead of using the lab-based guarded hot plate facility, the team used portable wireless sensors and a thermal camera.

Spartan’s Mark Minter and John Morgan, and pro-windsurfer Chris Murray donned their wetsuits and joined NPL’s Dr Richard Dudley and Dr Rob Simpson on a chilly day in March 2010 to test the wetsuits in their natural habitat – in the sea and on the beach.

Richard and Rob monitored Mark, John and Chris’ body temperatures throughout the trial using wireless temperature sensors taped under their right armpits.

The thermal camera was used to measure each man’s temperature, in his dry wetsuit, before entering the sea. The three men then spent up to two minutes in the sea, to simulate the short spells of time windsurfers typically spend in the sea, before being measured by the thermal camera again. The men then spent ~10 minutes exercising in the sea, to simulate the longer periods of time surfers and swimmers endure in the water. The fourth and final measurement of the day was taken of the men after they had been standing in their (wet) wetsuits in the cold breeze for ~10 minutes.

What was interesting about the difference between the laboratory and field tests was that, in the lab the wetsuits’ surface finish made no difference to how well it insulated against heat loss. But, in the field tests the surface finish had a measurable effect on how well the wetsuit kept its user warm. This difference is caused by wind wicking moisture (and therefore heat) away from the surface of the wetsuit via convection – or ‘wind chill’. The effect of wind chill has been recognised for some time, but measuring it in this way increases our understanding of it, and can help wetsuit manufacturers mitigate its effects.

The Impact

The potential impact of this collaborative research is wide-reaching.

In the short term, Spartan will be able to make better wetsuits, more efficiently. Which in turn will hopefully lead to improved customer-satisfaction.

In the longer term, if this work is extended to other wetsuit manufacturers and neoprene suppliers, it could have a huge social impact. Millions of people in the UK spend their leisure time enjoying activities that require wetsuits to brave the often chilly UK waters (such as surfers, scuba-divers, swimmers, tri-athletes, wind-surfers, sailors, kite-surfers etc). Improved wetsuit materials and construction could have a positive impact on these people, allowing them to spend more time in the water, and giving them the freedom to do their sport of choice in much colder conditions than they are currently comfortable doing.

Find out more about NPL’s thermal (link: http://www.npl.co.uk/engineering-measurements/thermal/) or materials (link: http://www.npl.co.uk/advanced-materials/) research

A fact from Spartan – Single lined suits are warmer

At Spartan we understand that we all want to make the most of the good days on the water. A warm suit will keep you out there longer as it is not just about feeling the cold it is also about the energy used in keeping warm rather than enjoying your sport.

We have tested all materials with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and have reached some informed conclusions which we hope will be of interest and lay the very solid foundation behind our wetsuit development.

We have proven that double lined suits are much colder than Single lined or Mesh suits. A mesh suit will always allow the water to run off and prevent evaporation and wind chill. Whilst a double lined suit no matter how it is prepared will always suffer from the cooling effect. However, for the surfer on a glassy day with no wind then the double lined suit is as good as the mesh suit. Surfing tends to be much better when there is no wind, but as soon as you get up to just force 2 there is a huge difference in the performance of a single lined suit compared to the relative poor performance of the double lined suit.

We also looked at flush and disproved the ‘Old Wives Tail’ that a layer of water is required to make the suit work.  The NPL looked at this in detail and our conclusion was that each water flush burnt valuable energy so the less water that enters the suit the better. So here at Spartan we spend a lot of time designing suits that do not flush.

So the final part of the plan is to make the suits so comfortable that you can spend the whole day in the suit without rubbing, itching or restriction. We are all keen enthusiasts and spend a lot of time in our suits making sure that they are comfortable, we are often the instructors choice of wetsuit. An example of this planning would include the room we allow at the top of the bicep and along the forearm which is why we have worked so hard on our cuff system see http://www.spartanwetsuits.com/products/winter-range/reflex/

We design panels that offer protection and durability whilst allowing a very free movement. Our suits are known to last a very long time. It is very common to still see a 10 year old OTT. Today we use much softer materials and the suits will not last that long, we expect 5 years of regular use to be about right. I am wearing a 3 year old Reflex to see how long it lasts and it is still perfect. If you ever nick a mesh suit the repair is very simple and you can always call us on 01206 381 747 for advice.

Spartan ‘Warm to the Core’

Reflex Silver line - overhead barrier, fire wall, mesh 5/4/3 triple glued, WRS

Why Windsurf at Hailing by Matt Cox

Why Choose Hayling for your weekend sailing destination?

In my opinion Hayling Island is one of the best places to sail on the south coast,

There are such diverse conditions that no matter what your level or what style you choose to follow in windsurfing you will always be catered for.

There are two main locations for windsurfers on Hayling each with its own appeal and near-perfect conditions.

The first location, when you arrive on Hayling is a little beach just past the Esso garage and aptly named Esso beach. This small bay is the best location for aspiring freestylers, speed freaks or people just looking for some of the flattest water in the south coast. The best conditions for sailing Esso beach contain winds with a westerly aspect in them. This is due to the west facing nature of the bay and any offshore wind here is gusty and much lighter than other beaches on the island. Also the bay is only sailable from mid-tide upwards as the bay becomes too shallow for even the shortest of short freestyle fins at other times.

The second of the two beaches to pay a visit to is the seafront around The Inn on the Beach. The conditions here cater for wave sailors and slalom specialists equally well, although high tide plus or minus 1-2 hours is best avoided in strong S to W winds as these stir up Hayling’s infamous shore dump. Whilst this can be tackled at the western end of the beach if you are very confident, the best idea would be to simply wait until the shore dump dies down.

The wave heads will have to wait until the sand bar is exposed with a dropping tide but its more that worth it. The waves available here just a few tens of meters off the beach are some of the best I have ever sailed.  I would go so far as to compare them with some of the waves available on Tiree.

If you’re a slalom sailor then this is the place to be. The conditions here help in many ways in improving your control and speed across broken waters as well as adding difficulty to those high speed laydown gybes. Also the BSA wouldn’t choose to hold the opening event of the year at this beach if they didn’t think it was a perfect location.

With its wide range of conditions even if slalom/waves aren’t your thing then the seafront can cater for you. When the tide drops but there isn’t a ground swell or if it is a spring tide the whole area in front of The Inn on the Beach out half a mile to sea becomes as flat as a sheet of paper perfect for learning to carve gybe or clock up some serious speeds on your GPS.

Happy sailing

Matt

Matt Cox relexes after his exams by Windsyrfing at Hayling Island

Matt Cox reports on a good windsurfing day at Hayling Island  after a long period of 48 days off the water due to exams at just the wrong time for the wind.

Lent before Lent

Finally got out windsurfing after the longest combined wind drought and Exam time period EVER!

When we rolled up to the seafront at Hayling at about 11ish the tide was just dropping to reveal the sandbar so my hopes where up on getting some small south-coast waves unfortunately this wasn’t to be and instead the sea turned flatter and flatter.  The wind was there though and getting stronger by the minute. Not exactly what I had set my hopes on but not bad for a cold February morning.

At the start of the session there were a few ramps for attempting tabletops and forwards but after about an hour on the water the wind was pushing 35knots and it was full on survival sailing on my 4.7.

Overall a decent foray into the water after such a long time away from the action, looking forward to more days like this or hopefully with proper waves (fingers crossed)

Latest report from Rachel Horton

Roadford Racing - Rachel Horton

Rachel Horton reports on the racing at Roadford

Roadford

As part of winter training I have go with the south/south west zone squad to Roadford Lake in Devon. At our training weekend it was really windy and because of being a lake meant it was really gusty as well. As it was so windy we were only allowed in three groups which had about 6 or 7 people in each.

We were practicing carve gybes and with the amount of wind and the gust it was hard to do so at times. Both days most people dropped down sail size.

From the shore it didn’t seem as windy as it was, when we launched it seemed as light as five knots and when we got out there it got to 39 knots! When we were practicing our carve gybes we had to bouys that we gybed around each end. It was really good fun, even though some sails ended up with holes in them.

As we had three groups there were two on land doing theory which we went through rules, steps of a carve gybe and loads more.

At the end of the weekend the wind had dropped off a bit to let out everyone at once where we did as slalom race together. But where the wind had dropped of we could have all been on our normal sails as we would have gone a lot faster.

Thanks Rachel that is very interesting and hopefully will inspire others to join in

A busy life teaching at Rutland and testing for Windsurf

Daniel Newman works hard for Windsurfing. Teaching & Managing at Rutland, whilst making time to escape it all and test equipment for Windsurf.

And here some words from Dan

The new year has kicked off with full power up at Rutland, although a little chilly, (which isn’t an issue with a Spartan anyway!) we had some epic days over xmas and new year, with over fifty sailors out enjoying the conditions on the lake.
So things are already looking good for 2012!
2011 was an indifferent year for me, it kicked off with promise after a super windy  test trip to Dahab and a decent spring back in the UK. My summer however, was a bit of a write off after sustaining an injury to my leg which resulted in a week in hospital, followed by eight weeks recovering.
Fortunately I made a full recovery and just in the nick of time for the wave test in Tenerife.
Things got a lot better and on the last few days of this trip, we scored some of the very best conditions that El Medano can offer and the year was then wrapped up on a high with another top test trip to Dahab.

I’m currently busy making plans for my next trip out to Dahab in a few weeks time as well as organising instructor courses for the spring and am really positive for a great year ahead, both on and off the water.

Pic 2 – Wave board testing in Tenerife
Pic 3 – Freestyle testing in Dahab
Pic 4 – Testing with team mate Sam Ross
Pic 5 – The test taxi
Pic 6 – Wave kit testing at the wall in El Medano

Not a bad life really. Dan will post some of his course dates soon

Matt Cox reports on some hair raising conditions

K-bay, Forwards and 50knots

Despite Christmas being cancelled for me due to looming exams in January I still managed 4 sessions on the water, not too bad….

Christmas session 29^th Dec

Brackelsham 4.7m, 85l

Started the Wednesday morning with a short (90mile) drive to the south coast to meet up with Lee From LAR Watersports for a looping lesson, good chance for some revision in the van while Dad drove.

Arrived Brackelsham to find wind and small waves, with a warm wetsuit in the back.  Perfect combo to learn forwards.

Loop off with dad…first one to forward gets the boasting rights

I got round one but didn’t manage to waterstart away from it.  Dad only managed half way, and knocked his head on the boom. So first points to me.

Tide came in, wind dropped off, so that was the end of looping for the day.

Christmas Session 30^th Dec

Kimmeridge Bay, 4.2m, 85l

First time visiting K-bay

K-Bay has to be one of the nicest looking windsurf areas I have ever been in with the huge cliffs and the long narrow roads leading there its almost like it doesn’t want to be found but when you (finally) arrive at the beach its simply spectacular.

Decent waves south coast style, nicely spaced in the bay and monsters on the bench. Gusting 50knots, 4.2 heaven here we come….

Met up with some of the RAF windsurfers in the car park, about 5 brave souls with Craig Hamilton giving the briefing of how to sail the bay.

Lots of crash from me as I figured out how to cope with the conditions, but did manage a few tabletops and a layback jump.  Craig was throwing down some nice back loops.

By the time we came in there must have been more than 20 vans, so guess everyone had the same idea. Great way finish the year.

Hey Matt do you have any pictures of the event?

Thanks from all of us a great read

Phil Dobner Windsurfing at Shoreham Beach

60 knots out the back according to the latest weather data!!
It was either the 5.0 and 80l Witchcraft or Mistral Superlight for a
bit of Level 1 gybe practice (centerboard up of course).

Stacks of power in the inside with perfect dtl or neally anyway, just
a tad too offshore, I was reaching parallel to the beach out the
back..
Couldn’t really turn so survival tacks and both feet in straps hooked
in waterstarts but in the lulls it was perfect.

The board is just amazing in those conditions, I didn’t need to worry
about its ability to perform, the sail worked well, a bit more
downhaul and a few m2 less would have been nice and also loving the
Reflex with the 3mm on shoulders and arms just so comfortable and warm
bearing in mind the wind chill affect was fairly active..

I know if you had been there the superlight 360′s would have been the
trick of the day..

Cheers
Phil

Thanks Phil we love the look of the shorebreak – keep sailing hard