freestyle

[<tim>]

yeah, i am considering doing freestyle but i need some advise on gear.i plan to do it in 13knts onwards.my main concern is required wind strenght for freestyle.i weight 70kg and i am 5foot10. i was thinking of the starboard freesex108 and a 6.9 expression.in what wind will i be able to plane with the specified equipment???

i am an intermediate sailor and i am now on formula gear.

[sukhdev]

Hi Tim,

you should be able to get the fsx108 going in that wind but with 2 caveats - one is you are going to need more fin than the stock one, say a 30. 2nd caveat is that if you are new to this type of board (or have never sailed wave boards) you are going to have to modify your stance quite a bit. A 6.9 should do ok in that wind strength.

[<tim>]

thanks man!um...what trick should i start with?and will the change im stance affect my formula stance???or will i be able to switch from freestyle stance to formula and vise versa.???

i heard that jumping is easy in chop w/ the freesex108 but how do you jump in flat water?
and is it possible to jump when you are flowing with the chop/swell(sailing towards the land)?

THANKS A BUNCH!

[<tim>]

sorry, you said that a 6.9 will do "ok" in 13 knots onwards.dose that mean i should go for a smaller sail???
you see,i want to keep the sail as small as possible, but at the same time begin to plane early aswell. where i sail dose not see over 18knots of wind.

[sukhdev]

what tricks? there's a bunch of stuff in mags and some of the freestyle sites linked to on our links page but things like nose sink tacks, etc are good to start with.

re affecting formula stance, i belong to the school of thought which says the more varied the boards you sail the better a sailor you become so the effect overall can only be positive.

jumping in flat water is very possible but needs speed/power and a fin big enough to push off against. you can chop hop coming in with the chop but its obviously easier doing it going against the chop.

re sail - hard to say, 6.9 is what I would use in those conditions and whether it fits right or not for you is hard to say without seeing you sail. I dont think the size is far off though, at most you would want to go down to 6.4 or 6.2 etc.