How to keep a wide board under control

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Awalkspoiled said..
Are you in Japan? If so, look into the Liberty Harness. Sits at the waist but has an around-the-butt attachment so it gives you the power of a seat harness but the strong wind good manners of a waist harness. Very expensive and time-consuming to ship to the US but I just love mine - greatly increases the range of any sail. If you're in US drop me a line - I have a couple of extra waist harnesses that would fit you - we're about the same size...

Thanks for the kind offer Awalkspoiled. Yes, I am in Japan and I saw a few people who were very happy with the Liberty carbon harness. I am trying to see if I can borrow one to see what it is like. It's a little bit hard though as most Japanese windsurfers seem to be cut out from the same Mold 165 to 170cm and 65kg. Not being mean but I had to buy my wetsuit in Australia and get it sent over as I just could not find the size here unless I got a tailor-made suit. Imagine that my first tailor-made suit and it would have been a wetsuit.

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Henners said..

Awalkspoiled said..
Are you in Japan? If so, look into the Liberty Harness. Sits at the waist but has an around-the-butt attachment so it gives you the power of a seat harness but the strong wind good manners of a waist harness. Very expensive and time-consuming to ship to the US but I just love mine - greatly increases the range of any sail. If you're in US drop me a line - I have a couple of extra waist harnesses that would fit you - we're about the same size...

Thanks for the kind offer Awalkspoiled. Yes, I am in Japan and I saw a few people who were very happy with the Liberty carbon harness. I am trying to see if I can borrow one to see what it is like. It's a little bit hard though as most Japanese windsurfers seem to be cut out from the same Mold 165 to 170cm and 65kg. Not being mean but I had to buy my wetsuit in Australia and get it sent over as I just could not find the size here unless I got a tailor-made suit. Imagine that my first tailor-made suit and it would have been a wetsuit.

Check with Liberty on sizing. It's much more height dependent than weight or girth. I'm 175cm/100kg, with a 100cm waist and am very comfortable in the Medium, per their recommendation! Wetsuit size is XXLS...

The key is to get the lower section the right distance from the waist and don't worry about waist size since the velcro/elastic waist straps have a huge range of adjustment.

As far as technique it sounds like you've heard a lot of good thoughts - especially about keeping the hammer down. I'd only add that in a three-dimensional environment you don't steer in a straight line at all unless you want your teeth rattled out of your head. Bear off slightly to shallow the angle into the chop and then harden up as you descend the back of the chop to accelerate and regain your height into the wind. Angle will overall be lower but speed through the water and VMG will be much higher (and you get to keep your teeth!)