Make sure when you jump into the Vulcan you look behind you (helps if someone sails behind you and you look at them) - this will get the board rotating & sliding properly and will give you plently of time to change hands. The other thing to think about is keeping the mast close in to your body (by pulling the sail to windward a bit) as you rotate around the mast - a lot of people have trouble switching hands because they let the sail fall to leeward too far - the clew will drag in the water and you'll never be able to grab the other side...
Most people leave the hand-change way too late when they're learning.
They jump, look behind, land sliding, and then think about the hand-change.
You should be going for the hand-change a split second before the fin is even completely out of the water (seriously, that early)...
By going for the hand-change that early, you'll be forced to bring the mast back across your body really fast and really early so you can get your hands on the far side of the boom, which will help the rotation.
I learnt this on a Turfdog to sort out the hand-change. Once I'd got it dialed I was landing them on the water in a couple of weeks.
Remember as you pop to really extend your front hand away from you - then you've got the maximum distance possible to "whip" your hand back across your body.
As you go in for it, think about the hand-change, not the pop. The Vulcan (and Spock) are far more about the hand-change than anything else in my opinion. If you go in for it concentrating completely on getting your hands on the far side of the boom, you'll stand a better chance of doing it.
It's a hell of a move. Good luck! If you can get some time on a TurfDog or similar, or even just spend some time on dry land with a rig getting some muscle memory going it will help.
hmmm, thx for the advice flicky. I've made my goal this summer to try and get vulcans sorted. will remember to mutter "hands, hands, hands" to myself , i look retarded when i go for them anyway, so i don't mind
I agree with the hand change being an important point although something that greatly helped me was to make sure my front foot pointing across the board ready for the reverse slide and before you pop your weight is over the board so as to get a nice smooth reverse slide when you land.Goodluck.
