The planning carve gybe is the mecca, the pinnacle, the bench mark that Windsurfers must strive for to gain recognition amongst Windsurfing buddies and communities. However, the forward loop is becoming the standard to reach as the learning curve for windsurfing steepens every year.

This is largely due to the improvements in kit design, distribution of quality information and better Windsurfing Instruction from windsurfing centres. And the growth of windsurfing centres around the world with warm waters, constant windy conditions, excellent windsurfing kit and professional instruction.

Despite these improvements I would say the carve gybe is still a technical skill to master which has many components that if mistimed or misunderstood will result in failed gybes time and time again leading to hours of frustration. It was a couple of months of constant practice in the warm, sunny conditions in Cyprus that I managed to eventually master the carve gybe and the feeling was the best ever. In fact I had not been more excited since I conquered the water start.

The reason why it took me so long to learn the carve gybe was the whole thing was entirely too mechanized , too planned so by the time I got out on the water I had either forgotten everything or I was too stiff with no dynamic movement or synchronization. It wasnt bad enough for my fragile confidence that my buddies were using me as a gybe marker to turn around every time I fell in.

My turning point was when a local dude got me to Windsurf around his board and he shouted out the actions as I attempted to gybe around him. The water was only waist deep. After 2 hours I eventually got it and the roar from the crowd sat on the beach was enough to make me feel like a pro!

I realised I did not need to get all the components right for the carve gybe, just the main ones such as plenty of speed in the approach, bending the knees (sitting on the loo) with lots of mast foot pressure to keep the board flat, unhook gently and place the foot on the inside rail, push the sail into the turn, extending the front arm, looking in the right direction and then the change of the feet followed by throwing the rig forward and stepping forward.

Once I got the speed and the mast foot pressure sorted the board more often than not took its own course and I came out the other side. So, anyone struggling with the carve gybe, make sure you get lots of speed, stay sheeted in, lots of mast foot pressure and you will be more than halfway there. Good Luck.

Brin May

Technorati Tags: How To Windsurf, Windsurf

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 6:37 pm and is filed under Windsurf. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.