I've allways Gybed pulling up hard on the front strap on the balls of my feet. Wider the board, the more pressure needed to pull up on the windward rail using the back foot to determine the size of the arc on the leeward rail. Don't know if I could gybe without doing that. Ive been told that this is wrong and shouldn't have any pressure pulling up on front strap. Doesn't make sense to me. Please advise me if I should change my style!
What works well can't be "wrong"!!!! Maybe doesn't conform to somebody's ideas, but if it works for you go for it.
My only thought is, for wide backed boards with long fins it's not a problem.
But if you're using a delta on a wide board, like we do here, then you are very likely to spin out. The better technique is to put more downward pressure on the inside rail, this helps to keep the fin in the water. Probably also applies to narrow tailed speed boards with short fins as well, if you're coming into a gybe at high speed, you need as much rail in the water as you can get so you don't want to be doing any lifting.
dude, you are doing 24-25kn alphas lately..........keep doing what you are doing as it is working FOR YOU!
Pulling up on your front foot means you're transferring the weight to the inside foot. Aint nothing wrong with that!
The Physics of pulling up on the front foot means you must be putting downward force somewhere else - the boom is very unlikely as you're in the process of gybing so the only place for additional force is the inside rail (back foot).. So it all works out - just means you're being more aggressive with the gybes - as as all others have said - 25kn Alpha's mean what you're doing is spot on...