Im finding that im spinning out on my port tack only? Im natural footed and suspect that this is due to the goofy stance. What sort of things should I look out for that cause spinout?
Not knowing what is happening at the time makes it a bit tricky.
A fair amount of spinout is from harness line position, to much back hand transmits load down your back leg, if this is the case the move your harness line back a little.
If it's happening when trying to "force" your board up wind, try swinging your hips towards the front of the board, don't lean out so far and bend your front knee (almost a reverse stance.
Or just try to take a bit of load of your back foot.
This is assuming it is a technique issue, it could be just your fin selection but as it's only happening one way it seams unlikely.
A bit more detail about whats happening at the time goes along way to ideniftying problems.
Its happening mostly when trying to head upwind. I'll check to see whether my harness lines are exactly the same. Perhaps i'm putting too much pressure on the back foot.
elmo explained it excellent. I also found that if the fin is not completely in the box or to deep can cause spinning out as wel as scratches on the fin. I filled the us box of one of my boards with silikone. sounds dodgy and it is a bit of work to change or remove the fin but helped a lot.
Katapult, I could be wrong, but if you're on Port tack you have your left leg at the front of the board, which is natural/regular stance not goofy.
I used to spin out all the time from the following reasons:
Fin too big/small Harness lines too far forward in gusts Stamping/pushing too hard on the back foot to go up wind Not pulling in back foot when going over chop Not enough downhaul/outhaul (draft moves back on sail)
Now I don't do this and only spin out after bad jumps and wave riding...
Crash, I was waiting for someone to note that. I'm pretty sure you're correct. It sounds like Katapult is really on starboard tack, where the wind blows onto the righthand side (starboard side) of the board, thus he's sailing goofy (right foot forward).
David, I think I can relate to your problem. I don't have the same kind of fin control when I'm on starboard tack (right hand closest to the mast, left foot in back strap). When you're driving upwind, fin control is really important, otherwise you stall the fin, and spin out. Too small a fin will make matters worse. Rather than pushing out sideways with your back foot, ie as if you are trying to push the back of the board downwind and the nose into the wind, try to put downward pressure on the back foot, ie down through the sole of your foot, as if you're trying to sink the tail of the board. Also , if you can, try to adjust the attitude of the board so that the leeward rail is lower than the windward, and kind of digs into the water a bit. You can do this by pressing down with the toes of your back foot and with a little less pressure on your heel, but keep in mind that you are trying to apply downward pressure, not sideways pressure, so don't try to push the fin downwind away from you. Particularly with a slalom board, angling the board in this way uses the leeward rail to help "grip" the water so the fin isn't doing all the work. I find I really have to concentrate to control the board well with my non-dominant foot in the back strap, because the temptation is to straighten that back leg, rather than control the board through the back foot. This happens a lot when jumping, so instead of jumping and pulling the back foot underneath my body, I often jump and straighten the back leg so the back of the board moves downwind during the jump, and can lead to spinout on landing. One other thing- if you're not sailing really fast or if you're on relatively flat water, you can take your back foot out of the strap and put it in front of the back footstrap. That tends to move your body more towards the front of the board, as other people have suggested, and puts less sideways pressure on the fin.
Have had the same problem. Left leg is a little longer and a little stronger than the right (I'm a freak). Blasting with a big fin and sail, this means a little better speed, angle and stance on Starboard tack. On a wave type fin this means too much fin pressure and spinout, specially when I'm getting tired after a long session.
I'm no expert, but there might be more freaks like me out there...
if you are spinning out mainly when you go up wind that is a classic sign that the fin is to small for the given sail size , if you are spinning out in one direction it can also be caused by saling angle verse wave angle (in alot of sailing spots the waves do not always run at right angles to wind direction) when going up wind try to lean the upper body forward this will take pressure of back foot
Thank you for all of your suggestions. I did mean the starboard tack. I went out yesterday and tried all the suggestions one by one. Bigger fin, weighting, harness lines.
I did notice that I do feel a lot more comfortable when sailing with my right foot in the rear strap rather than the left. I firstly started with the bigger fin. Went from a 30cm to a 34cm fin. Im using a 6.5m sail in 15-20kts. Then I tried adjusting my body positioning, harness lines and bending the front knee and taking more weight off the fin when tacking upwind. These all helped considerably and I didnt spin out all day.
To confirm these adjustments I then went back in and changed the fin back to the 30cm fin. Straight away I spun out again on the starboard tack.
30cm is reasonably small for a 6.5m sail. ie: I use 37 on 7m, dropping to 34 only when the wind, tide and chop are working for me rather than against.
Another point not mentioned is board size - this can affect your stance in subtle ways (eg: too big a sail for the board, to small a sail for the board), which ultimately affects fin pressure.
The board is a 2003 Bic Techno E at 98ltrs. The 30cm fin is standard and the sail range is recommended from 4.5 to 7m. The 34cm fin worked great with the 6.5m.
I had a similar problem to this when I sailed on formula boards. One tack was fine but the other tack would spin out all the time. I worked out that the problem was my fin had a twist in it, this caused the spin out on one tack only. Have a look at the tip of your fin its unlikely but it can happen
). Blasting with a big fin and sail, this means a little better speed, angle and stance on Starboard tack. On a wave type fin this means too much fin pressure and spinout, specially when I'm getting tired after a long session.
