So what's the right thing to do?

I've been trying to push thru my front foot, keeping the back leg soft, and pulling the fin under me whenever the board gets a little airborne, and trying to hike out, but I seem to be hiking backward and not really sheeting in.

On a broad reach you shouldn't really be feeling overpowered as the weight of the sail will reduce as you go deep -> rather if you are overpowered, you should be feeling it on your upwind runs.

Note that I found longer harness lines really help to get away from the rig, thus more leverage. ie: I run about 28-30 (adjustable). A higher-than-normal boom also helped rake the sail back.

Trying going deeper, ie: more off the wind than you would think - and as Elmo said, grit them teeth...

In rough water or in smooth water?

If it’s rough water, which is most of time of course, I would have to differ with Elmo on the straight arms.

I’m with you on driving through the front foot and unloading the fin, but it’s also critical to drive the power through the mast base, and I don’t see that you can do that effectively with straight arms.

Personally I prefer to grip the boom with both hands palm down on a broad reach as this feels more natural in order to pull down – hard – on the front of the boom. By driving down the front of the boom, both legs are free to trim the board and try to keep it somewhere near to horizontal, regardless of the state of the water. This is critical when the board is constantly leaving the water and landing again.

So in the rough water speed stance, both arms would be very bent, elbows low, ass out and low, knees very bent and upper body leaning in towards the rig. Your eyes are almost looking straight down the boom at where you are going. In this position the rider is very much over the board, and it’s from over the board, rather than hanging off it, that you have the most control. Your chin would be only around 25 – 30cm from your back hand on the boom. Front hand is pushing the boom down toward the mast base and back hand is trimming the sail while virtually all of your weight is on the harness. The sail should feel very light in your hands.

A simple way to describe this stance is “****ting in a bucket”.

I will also go with Matthew – if you are struggling with control, go for a higher boom and longer harness lines. This gives your whole body a greater range of travel to absorb shocks. You could also try a waist harness if you are using a seat.

In flat water, of course, control is far less of an issue and you can work into a position where speed can be maximised by very fine tuning of board and fin trim, but for rough water, control = speed.