🔑 The KEY to BETTER CARVE JIBES | 3 Common Mistakes

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🎥 Edited and filmed
- Lumix S5II & S1H
- GoPro 10 & Max
by Lars Wichmann

#MakeWindsurfingGreatAgain

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0:00 A never ending topic!
1:25 Mistake 1: Your balance is off
4:04 Mistake 2: Generating drive
5:32 Mistake 3: Entering the jibe with too little speed
7:28 Conclusion

[krma]

Reducing the radius is crucial indeed, it rang a bell 🙂. I'm sure most of us don't get enough downwind speed in the first place and stop at the jibe's exit with this unpleasant feeling of despair. Thank you for this reminder.

[Lindhofguitar]

The key for me was to go really low in my legs. This way I add pressure to the mast base, which keeps the board flat, I then intuitively add more pressure to the leeward rail, which gives a steady turning radius. And, as I hang a bit in the boom, I become light on my feet making foot change easier and I absorb chop - the rest goes on auto pilot - on the good days.

Number one advise to NOT succeede a planing jibe is to stand upright and stiff paralyzed by fear of your own speed and the chop ahead waiting to eat you 🙂. Relax, go fast and go down in your legs...

[kyledrake]

One thing I found useful with the back foot is to bring it out on the broad reach, get stable, then sheet in and carve in. That way I don't lose speed into the start of the jibe. Sometimes I even bring it out before I unhook so that I can focus on keeping force down on the boom and power in the sail.

[guillaume]

I'm sure that for 90% of people the only problem is the body balance too backwards.

[k-martijerrard]

Number 2… slow foot change and slow rig flip… when it’s sweet it’s sooo sweet 👍

[hartmuthaffner]

As always: excellent summary of the important things to plane through.

An important nuance for me is that when well-powered in choppy conditions it is often better to stay on a beam reach instead of racing over the chop downwind. This makes it much easier for me to stay in control with the sail well-powered up, thus keeping the board flat on the water, and allowing me initiate a clean carve.

[slickvisualpoetry]

Good tips. My jibes on the fin have really deteriorated after I got a foil. I was really close to getting around planing and now I'm happy if I manage to stay on the board. Over the summer, I will be at a flat water spot and hopefully I can use this here. I'll put it on a playlist for future reference.

[linuso]

Finally a new video! Just watching to catch some surfing atmosphere! Thanks for your uploads!🤙🏼

[robineaupotts]

Please come to el medano beach i am at a clinic and would love to meet you

[jaridekeijzer]

Honestly, i have been windsurfing for over a decade, but i'm still struggling a bit with the power jibe. I've heard all the advice from your earlier videos from locals, but not this point of actively bringing your sail forwards after switching. Most tips focus on the jibe before switching the sail (speed, balance, opening sail gradually, when to switch etc), however this sounds so logical. My board indeed tends to turn towards the wind after switching, gonna try this on my next session!

[henq]

Hi Nico, love your vids! Q: Could you make a special about what I think most surfers that cannot make a perfect carve jibe have a problem with: the *CLEW FIRST* moment. It feels like a very uncontrollable, instable moment. How to improve that?, how to adjust the clew first stance as the force becomes too much to handle? (talk parts of second here).
A special on this maybe half-a-second uncomfortable part of the jibe would be very welcome !

[tigertrap]

#2 all the way for me. I end up over turning and end up killing my speed, and either falling forward or backward.

[madziarII]

Great advice. More tips please. Thank you 🤙

[gatesurfer]

I think the most common mistake, and one that almost all tutorials miss these days, is that as soon as people unhook, they sheet out just a little bit as the full force of the sail is transferred to their arms. This throws everything off. If you’re going downwind, sheeting out will straighten you out. If you’re going fast, it will slow you down. If you are low and bending your knees, it tends to make you straighten up and get stiff in the knees. Look at the guy at 5:00. That is exactly what happened to him. He’s fighting the rig, and that’s why his body is upright and even leaning back a little bit.
Most tutorials fail to mention, or at least don’t emphasize, that when you unhook, you MUST be prepared to take all that power on your arms and shoulders without sheeting out at all, not even a little bit. In strong wind, or if you are overpowered, this can be difficult. THEREFORE, IT’S EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to rig the proper sail, and NOT too big. Intermediate sailors often think that rigging a big.sail helps them plane. it can, but it also makes it difficult to jibe.
Most tutorials say move your back hand back, as if that alone will be enough to control the rig and stay sheeted in. Sometimes it is, but most of the time it isn’t. There’s a lot more preparation needed, especially in strong wind. What you really have to do is move your hand back, brace yourself for the extra pressure by hanging low and out, head downwind, and THEN unhook. Your sheeting angle can not change at all during this whole process.
Let the rig pull you up over the board into an aggressive, balanced stance. It’s kind of like skiing a black diamond run, or a goalie defending a PK in soccer--fairly low but not too low, knees bent, head and eyes level and looking where you want to go, not looking down. Your knees are ABSORBING the bumps, not forcing the board through them. If you have stayed sheeted in, the rail will naturally engage in the water and you’ll carve a turn. Your rig, instead of pulling you harder, will actually get lighter in your hands, and thus easier to control. And with your knees bent, and staying in that aggressive stance, you will keep planning through the jibe.
The old Alan Cadiz and Peter Hart videos explain this pretty well.

[peterdavies]

Thank you for all your videos on gibes especially, I watch them over and over to make it sink in I haven’t mastered the gibe yet but can’t wait to get back out to put all these tip and advice to practice, just waiting for the lakes to melt 🥶

[welleueberwelle]

Great explanations and beautiful shots!
Jibing in full plaining was also a mindset thing for me. I invested in a light nose protector, surfbent and impact vest because it feels like such a hardcore move at first. Knowing that nothing can fail is a great help :D
fair winds and following seas

[gltalc]

Hi Nico! The key point for me is reducing the radius of the turn to not come back to a perpendicular position and maintain the speed.
Even if I pay high attention of your position evolution in the video, I am missing some details of how you manage with the arms, like how leaning the sail on the correct moment and how you apply the pull/push force of both arms in order to achieve this.
In any case, it is still a master class explanation from a very talented person.

[Alexander_Kalugin]

Nice video. Good tutorial and funny addings in the video!

[andersjuul]

My newbe problems -- all three 😂. Thanks for the education ;)

[luciennieman]

Nice video and tips Nico Thanks. My problem is that I sometimes carve to hard. It makes the turn smaller but decreases the speed. So I’m going to try and keep de radius bigger and go more downwind.