The original thread says too old to post new messages, so hence this new one.
I made contact with Slowbaot the other day asking him about his technique of "Light Feet", which he stated he said to himself while going over the vicious chop on that 50 knot run, here's his reply which he said was OK to publicize:
"light feet means trying to keep weight off the tail. This does not mean you cant load the fin. There is an optimal fin pressure/speed that balances with the rig power- its not something you can easily quantify but you can feel it when you find the speed "groove". Basically you want the fin to be running at its maximum lift/drag angle _when_ the sail is generating enough forward power to overcome that fin drag. Deep off the wind, generally the lower the fin load the lower the total drag and thats what you are looking for. On a tighter course, more fin pressure is required. With downward pressure on the back foot, you only need enough to keep the board in the water. Load it too hard and the board will try to follow the chop and make things uncomfortable...
The other trick, when you go into a gust, try to squeeze the power on, not force it. This means anticipating the gust, and if necessary sheeting out a little just before it hits. The reason is that the apparent wind will swing back suddenly, which suddenly increases the sails effective angle of attack. If you are already at the limit, it will stall if you lock it. The fin load increases dramatically in this case and so does the drag. Again this comes with practice and feel"
