1. Bended knees
2. Sail (back) hand way back.
Kill the power of the sail when you initiate the gybe by sheeting in (practice this by going down wind and keep the sail sheeting in, good for control to handle gusts)
3. Straight mast (front) hand. Mast leaning in the turn, even a moment raking the sail back.
Select to expand quoteTasdoc said..
After reading all comments and dwelling on it for a bit longer, I think I know what the problem was.
As @Jetlag pointed out above, there are two ways of going into a gybe:
1. With your speed at or above the speed of the wind
2. Below the speed of the wind
With type 1 gybes the sail doesn't mess up your board railing as it does not have much power anyway.
However, at my home spot I am too used to type 2 gybes, when I have to slow down going into a gybe because of the chop. Then the delta between my speed and the wind speed keeps the sail powered up as long as I keep it sheeted in until it is time to flip the sail. The problem on the day was that the wind was about 25-30 knots and in my gybes I was slowing down to 15-20 knots, maybe even lower. Too much of a difference that kept the sail overpowered and was dragging me downwind no matter how much I tried to push on the leeward rail. I think the right technique would have been instead of trying to keep the sail sheeted in, depower it completely and glide through the curve.
You can't hold the sail in type 2 overpowers conditions. I used to do one handed gybe or drag the back hand in the water. Not sure if I could still get that low!! But it encourages you to carve the board and lean into the turn. So long as you move feet at correct time the sail flips by its self and you're going the opposite tack. I'll try this next time I go on the fin just to refine balance commitment and feet movement.
Select to expand quoteIcelake said..
... Kill the power of the sail when you initiate the gybe by sheeting in ...
hard
early
heavily committed to fast depowering
when overpowered while approaching the entry of the gybe even more so
Had another session yesterday, similar conditions, except much flatter water. This time I tried hard to keep an eye on the key things mentioned in this thread. I always thought that when railing the board I put my back foot just behind the leeward front foot strap. It turns out it wasn't even close. It actually was closer to the back foot strap. More forward foot placement was very helpful with carving the board. Also was going much faster into the gybes, the sail did not feel powered at all except close to the very end when it was time to flip the sail anyway. Managed to only fail about 3-4 gybes out of ~30. So, much happier session this time
Also +1 for the tip to push down on the boom. Never used this trick before, turns out it helps a lot to keep the board stable
Glad to hear that you are making progress. I think this is one of the several appealing things with windsurfing, there is always room for improvement. :)
Select to expand quoteSurferKris said..
Glad to hear that you are making progress. I think this is one of the several appealing things with windsurfing, there is always room for improvement. :)
I find it frustrating 
I want it all now..
