WA
280 posts
Open up your rear footstrap so that your rear foot will be more over the centreline of the board, you could also unscrew the strap and screw it back on off set.
Pick out a sailor who is getting heaps of waves then stay upwind of him a bit when coming in just so you can see and get a feel of where he is on the wave before he starts his bottom turn.
In our onshorish Perth conditions wave riding is a bit like a gybe infront of the wave without flipping the sail.
OK here's my go at explaining it......
Once you have worked out when you should be starting the turn (as above), lean the mast towards the nose of the board, pump the sail at the start to generate a bit of power, lean into the centre of the turn as in gybing, at the bottom of the wave( you'll be a bit in front of it) as you start heading back up into the wave face you need to gradually start sheeting out(or you'll get backwinded)this will also allow your sail to power up a bit, reach the top of the wave start to sheet in and lean on your heels, come back down the face, repeat again and again laugh your head off an say this is fun. Hope this is of some help.
WA
12885 posts
I agree with juice about the back strap, I've got short feet, my back strap when waveriding is off set and loose, That way I can get my toes within centimeters of the inside rail. I also don't like wavesailing overpowered, I get dragged too far out in front of the wave, makes it hard to get back to the lip.
modern sails have such good top ends, if you're used to take out a fairly big sail for blasting around at top speed, this will be too big for learning wave riding, what you need is control, not power, try a sail that's just big enough to get you planing without too much pumping, (you want enough speed for good jumps, and enough upwind ability to get back to the take off,) pick a sail that's just big enough to do that set in it's mid range. (A big sail set flat, is still a big sail when you're wave riding, clew tends to get mixed up in the white water as well.
The other thing you can do as you start the bottom turn is depower the sail, oversheet, and lean the sail forward into the turn, but as you come round sheet out and lift the rig back up, otherwise you'll either be backwinded, or collect the lip in the rig.
As you progress bigger sails will be less of a problem, I think this is how top sailors can get such big air of the lip, all I've managed so far, is a foot or so.
WA
170 posts
Try to think more like a surfboard instead of a powered up sailor for a few waves. After a surfer learns to catch a wave straight outrun it and fall off, the next step is a gentle diagonal line across the face. Then when that is easy go for slow and small weaving down the line. Before long you will be blasting 4G bottom turns then smacking the lip like a maniac possessed. This has worked for me over the last 12 months. I still sail like s#@t, but i have definately improved.
NSW
762 posts
Getting big air of the lip is more about timing the bottom turn to hit the lip right when it is pitching. I would advise not to try these until you can do nice reos. The last thing you want to start doing is running down the line without a proper bottom turn and doing a chop hop air like most people seem to do.
My advice for bottom turn is to put your back hand back about 100mm as you lay the rail down. Then when you go for the cutty or reo move your back hand close to your front hand.
although by the time i get excited, the wave is normally over here in Perth ha ha, time for another trip up north or down to M.R.- 
