I've recently had problems where I go to bottom turn, engage the rail and lose grip and spinout, which tends to result in flying off in front of the wave or sometimes just flying round the front. It tends to be worst when the wave period is very small and I'm having to bottom turn over the whitewater from the wave in front (I sail up at Scarborough).
Any tips?
move or change your fin. a cm fwd or back can make a pretty big difference. Just experiment with it.
Otherwise adjust your technique, you are possibly not driving hard enough off your front foot.
Make sure your using a wave board, get a "select" wave fin appropriate for your size and the tail width of your board. See Paul @ 2nd wind problem solved.
Cheers for the tips. Problem solved - shove fin right to fron of box and really sheet in before turning. Now I just have to work on timing so I don't get crunched by the lip so often![]()
The fin is the last thing that will cause you to spin out when on a bottom turn.
Most common fact is that there is too much power in the sail, or you have your footstraps too tight, hence you are 'lifting' the opposite rail, instead of smoothly applying pressure on the rail. Also try applying some more pressure on the back foot using your toes-which means: large footstrap.
Cheers
I agree with rick here, if you can't get enough pressure on the inside rail with you're back foot, i.e. it's too close to the middle of the board, then you tend to use the front strap to lift the outside rail instead.
a lot of your grip in a fast bottom turn is from the inside rail, if that isn't fully engaged by the back foot, and the front foot is lifted, there's 2 effects. Less grip with the inside rail, and more chance of air getting to the fin.
Rick's saying to have your back strap loose/offset enough so your back foot can push down on the inside rail.
If you can't/don't want to adjust the back strap, try removing your back foot from the strap, and placing it just in front of the strap and on the inside rail for your bottom turns.
a good fin is the holy grail of the wavesailor who knows how hard to push.....or how subtle to push.
I had similar issues but found with the right board tuning problem was solved, biggest factor affecting my spin out was the position of the fin relative to wind direction. The technique is the same for BT's but the way you position yourself changes between a cross, offshore and onshore condition. If you set your board up wrong, you get frustrated with why things don't go according to plan, ie engage the rail, push hard and still spin out......
see the following for board tuning, it helped me....http://www.jemhall.com/PDF/features/Tuning_a_Wave_Board.pdf
I think both are important - fin position gives feel and confidence and a bad fin or really bad position will cause problems. Foot pressure can also cause it. I don't think it is one or the other.
this back foot thing seems to only be the guys riding really big boards.
If I do the back foot pressure thing like described here then my board just bogs out.
Next time you are wavesailing in decent waves have a look at what the pros do as you sail out over there wave as they bottom turn. Not to much back foot **** going on there
Need to get on front foot and if its and hard to get the rail set, bend your knees more to absorb some of the chop.
PS. Put fin back not forward