I forgot to add, frequently unhooking if the wind picks up or acceleration becomes scary is OKAY! Get out EARLY!! Go upwind! Why stay hooked in if there's even a chance of slamming?? Just get OUT of the bastard! I'm trying to be out of the harness more and more of the time... gee it's a beautiful thing .. I'm so sorry to my board for all the damage I did before...

Wet Willy,

If you are constantly scanning ahead looking for gusts you will be able to see them coming due to the disturbance they make on the surface of the water. Even in fairly wild conditions you can still see this, and even be able to tell the strength of the gust.

As you are about to enter the gust, you can then throw your weight back in anticipation. This is when you get to experience the rush of acceleration that CJW was talking about. If the gust is too strong, you can depower the sail without unhooking the harness to take the punch out of it.

In fact, I do the exact opposite of you - I will sail through the lulls without my harness which lets me lean the rig forward to stop from rounding up, and when I see the gust approaching, I hook in the moment before the gust hits - lets me take maximum power from the gust.

Anyway, it is all a matter of anticipation, which equals experience and time on the water.

The last couple of weeks, I have been trying to depower less and less, and instead take on the huge acceleration. It's been a bit hairy with my relatively large volume board. In fact, I ordered a smaller board this week so that I can take on more speed in bumpy conditions.

Regards,
Harrow.

I think the best thing you could do is to stay hooked in as much as possible, and think about your technique. If you're catapulting, you're doing something wrong (maybe going too far off the wind?). Learning not to catapult by coming out of the harness all the time is actually not really progress - I'm not trying to be horrible, here, but just realistic. Look around at the good people - they're in their harnesses all the time. When your technique improves, you'll stop catapulting, it's as simple as that.

Unhooking for gusts means that you're missing out on a free ride on to the plane, too.

Don't feel bad about catapulting - EVERYONE does lots of it when they're learning, and it means that you're really going for it and will improve soon.

hi harrow,

the method WW described about hooking in once planing is how the pros do it, not bad for someone who has only been doing it a year.... they don't just stand on the board waiting for a gust to come to get them planing.
they pump the board onto the plane and then stick their feet in the straps and then hook in. that is why they are so fast off the start line and around a course. in light winds they will pump the whole way around the course. they also use chop, swell and whatever else they can to get themselves going. because once the apparent wind kicks in there off.

the reasons it is good practice are as follows.

1. it reduces fin pressure preventing spinout.
2. allows you to lower your planing threshold
3. if your boom height and harness lines are set right it should be almost impossible to hook in unless you are planing and in the straps
4. it prevents being catapulted.
5. lowers minimum wind speed requirement.

the reasons it is bad practice to hook in first.

1. more likely catapult is an outcome.
2. raises your planing threshold
3. encourages poor harness line setup.

basically, you shouldn't hook in untill you are in the straps. and you can't get in the straps untill you are planing.

if you pump before a gust hits you will be moving faster and when the gust hits the board speed versus wind speed difference will be lower so the gust is less likely to cause you problems. lets remember that guts usually are only 5-10 knots stronger. and less likely to throw you over the nose because by this stage you will be hooked in and planing. when the gust hits it will be instant acceleration.
hope this helps....

p.s gestalt is the name of a recording studio i produce at in my spare time. i liked the name due to a new zealand band i admire on the flying nun record label called gestalt. my partner at the studio is a psychiatrist and identified with the name because of his field of work.

gestalt means :-
A physical, biological, psychological, or symbolic configuration or pattern of elements so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be derived from a simple summation of its parts. Also called gestalt phenomenon.

kind of suits windsurfinbg i thought as well. and everything else in life.

Hi Wet Willy,

What an interesting set of responses! I've only been windsurfing for about 7 months, however my catapults decreased dramatically when I realised that I was standing too far forwards. Specifically, moving the back foot back as far as you can really reduces catapults.

I think my last catapult was about 4 or 5 sessions ago, and I get into the harness as soon as I'm standing up, so I'm in the harness about 95% of the time. I've gone from say 20 catapults per session to about 0.2, all through moving my back foot back and having a wide stance.

When a gust hits, I'll sheet out slightly, get my weight back, and then sheet back in to take advantage of the gust. Perhaps this is the wrong technique, I'm certainly not the first person onto the plane, but it does stop catapults. Getting the back foot as far back as you can REALLY HELPS!! Also keeping the harness line attachment points close to each other (like 2 cm) means that the harness lines don't rub on the harness hook, meaning less friction, meaning you can sheet in and out quicker.

Now as for pumping, I haven't figured out how to pump to make myself go quicker, what normally happens is that I pump away and as soon as I stop pumping I grind literally to a halt... then it takes a bit of time for the wind to get me going again. From what I can gather it depends on the type of board and sail you have as to what type of pump to use (small twitches of the back hand or massive violent unhooked reefs of the sail).

I guess you have to find out what works for you. Right now I'm staying in the harness all the time unless I feel like I'm about to start planing and then I'll try unhooking and pumping to get onto the plane, but it never quite works the way I think it should

Errr.. who was it who was complaining of catapults when hooked in?

The only time I'm out of the footstraps is when I'm not planing, in this case you go quicker with a reasonably flat board rather than one in which the tail is 30 cm underwater. "Only" being a relative term, I'm often out in sub-planing conditions, having loads of fun trying different moves.

I guess I thought you were catapulting for the same reasons I was when starting out, ie. standing with feet too close together and too far forwards (and obviously out of the straps). If you're in the straps then there's no excuse for catapulting apart from terrible reflexes. Getting the back foot back stops the pre-planing (and therefore pre-straps) catapult.

Wait, I get it... um, I do tend to stay hooked in when the wind is so light that planing is impossible, just to help support my enormously heavy rig. (My long mast is 25% carbon, 75% lead.) On longboard days, you know...