Problem tacking a small board

[<Szurfer>]

Hi. I am now sailing a 105L board and used to sail a 155L board. I find it difficult to tack now, I always fall in from the front side. I am about 70kg. I dunno what I am doing wrong but most times I tack I fall in. On the bigger board I only fall in sometimes. Any ideas?

[sukhdev]

quote: I find it difficult to tack now, I always fall in from the front side. I am about 70kg.  

If you are falling in from the front that means you are falling in during the mid point of the tack, when both your feet are in front of the mast foot? If that assumption is correct then its one of 2 things mainly:

[*]you are stepping too far in front of the mast foot[*]you are bringing the mast along with you when you step around[/list]The first one is best fixed by moving  your front foot to just along the mast foot.
The second one is the most likely reason. When tacking fast on a small board, there is a tendency to bring the mast upright as you go around. The unconscious action of keeping the mast upright ends up in upsetting the balance by the momentum of the mast getting to you while you transit. Consciously leave the mast low, ie heeled down as you go around. This will (a) give you more space around the mast for transition (b) allow you to use the mast as a balance point.
Hand movements play a part too. Most people make too many hand and foot movements during the tack. You should learn to tack boom to boom, ie back hand goes from one side right over to the other side of boom without holding the mast.

Other factors that screw up tacks:
 
[*]only moving around the sail when the board has stopped planing; move while it is still planing[*]not sheeting in hard enough to do an aggressive turn; the more the board "bites" in the turn the more stable it is[*]hesitating in front of the mast foot while moving around the mast[*]making too many hand and foot movements[/list]By the way 105litres for your weight is pretty "big" for a small board. focus on your technique, a good way to get really good at tacks is to do it on as small a board as possible.

[<FHH>]

hi,
does 'biting' hard into turns (gybes and tacks)make the board more stable ??
is it applicable to all boards too?

[sukhdev]

prettty much. the softer the rail the more you can drive it into the turn. hard railed boards need a bit of care but even there applying firm consistent pressure keeps the transition stable.

the most stable gybe is one where you carve firmly into the turn, board keeping its rail. the worst would be one where you bounce along during the turn.

take a look at any video of a good bottom turn down a wave, the rail gets really buried hard, holding the turn all the way through.

[SurfShark]

I am not really gd at small boards (thou i plan to improve myself soon ;P) but have some experience sailing a 110l 53cm wide slalom (tacking was pretty terrible for me initially also), so here's my 2 cents worth:

1. Quick feet : Dun hover or shuffle ur feet at the front of the board while tacking else the slightest chop may jus send you waddling. Jus hop over or waltz over in one smooth motion.

2. Quick hands : Ur hands transition shld be as fast as ur feet motion, sliding from one side of the boom to the other. U can grab the mast with ur front hand while tacking to give yourself more room to transit ur body over the the other side and avoid upsetting the rig during transition.

3. Dun wait till the board reaches the eye of the wind and stalls then u tack. Tack while u have speed. Once the board stops, its loses all its dynamic stability.

4. Bear away once u are over the other side to get speed and power in ur sail. The power in ur sail on ur new tack will help u balance.

5. If all else fails, and when u feel like u are going down for a swim while already on the new tack, try this - the leeward save. Most pple tend to pull on their sail if they lose their balances while on the new tack, this will only further de-power the sail and u are in for a swim. Do the counter-intuitive, push on the sail, esp with ur back hand, this lets u create some resistance on the sail and buy some time to find ur balance again.

All the above is working fine for me, so hope it will help.