Had to get myself wet today, after my 'left the mast at home' fiasco on Sunday. Only 12 knots, so decided it was time to learn to gybe. Strung up my 5.2 and managed 4 successful gybes. (All in the last 20 minutes of my hour on the water).

Anyway, I hope they count as real gybes, as they were very slow, and the tail of the board was on the way under with each turn. Learnt to move forward to stop the board sinking, and started to get the timing right for the sail flip.

Will I be able to translate any of this skill to a windy day? I hope so!!!

Just wondering if I've got the footwork right. This is what I did:

1. Bring rear foot forward and place on other side of board to initiate turn.
2. As board goes through downwind, bring front foot back to be the back of the board, and then place the old back foot in the new front foot position. (Not sure if I'm doing these in the right order).

Regards,
Harrow.

I have been learning to gybe myself and have been getting some pretty good tips from Peter Hart's DVDs.

Apparently the trick is to move your back foot to the inside rail just in front of the back strap. Bend your ankles and knees to lean forward into the turn. A common mistake it appears is to have both feet forward during the turn (this loses you stability).

Through the turn, you slip your front foot out of its strap and in front of your back foot on the inside rail, and in the same movement swing your back foot in front of your front strap to become your new front foot.

Keeping your back foot to the back gives your front foot room to move as well as giving you better balance. If your tail sinks you are not powered up enough into the gybe. With a 5.4 in 12knots you were probably a bit light on for power.

Anyway, I followed his advise and am steadilly getting better and better at it. Good luck.

i agree with you decrepit.

but we need to clarify whether we are talikng step gybes or strap to strap gybes?

YEP,

thats what i do......

quote:

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Will I be able to translate any of this skill to a windy day? I hope so!!!

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That's what I thought until I went out yesterday... all my gybes had been in 10 knots or less, suddenly when it's 15-20 things happen a LOT faster Even though I could get most of my gybes (including rig flip) in low wind, yesterday I didn't finish any of them

Ah well back to looking like a kook I guess.