rfh, I'm a little lighter at around 90 kgs and 6'5" but have been used to starting the sequence from the side of the board with my elbow on the board flying the wing from the forward strut handle. I then quickly grab the opposite (downwind rail) with my free hand and get both knees up, feet angling over the upwind rail. Back hand quickly goes to back handle and then wing goes up, feathering power as needed before getting front foot on deck then back foot on deck as I stand. This happens pretty fast in big swell/wind and requires accurate positioning and wing control. My home spot is much like the Gorge on a good day. It's really just been practice. I do this on a 90L and 76L board with equal ease now. I've been trying (just to test) the two hands on the nose and scooting the knees quickly onto the deck with good success too but the front hand thumb seems vulnerable to getting tweaked by an erratic wing in high wind. The sniper method of swing the front leg forward as you power up the wing doesn't work for me so far at all as it seems to throw an awkward/crucial move into the mix, but I really haven't practiced it enough. Basically in high wind and big swell everything has to happen so much faster and you develop the muscle memory for your preferred method.
Select to expand quoteWindoc said..
rfh, I'm a little lighter at around 90 kgs and 6'5" but have been used to starting the sequence from the side of the board with my elbow on the board flying the wing from the forward strut handle. I then quickly grab the opposite (downwind rail) with my free hand and get both knees up, feet angling over the upwind rail. Back hand quickly goes to back handle and then wing goes up, feathering power as needed before getting front foot on deck then back foot on deck as I stand. This happens pretty fast in big swell/wind and requires accurate positioning and wing control. My home spot is much like the Gorge on a good day. It's really just been practice. I do this on a 90L and 76L board with equal ease now. I've been trying (just to test) the two hands on the nose and scooting the knees quickly onto the deck with good success too but the front hand thumb seems vulnerable to getting tweaked by an erratic wing in high wind. The sniper method of swing the front leg forward as you power up the wing doesn't work for me so far at all as it seems to throw an awkward/crucial move into the mix, but I really haven't practiced it enough. Basically in high wind and big swell everything has to happen so much faster and you develop the muscle memory for your preferred method.
Thanks for your post! I haven't seen your sequence described before and it definitely seems like it could work for me in big swell/wind conditions. With your elbow on the board flying the wing from the start, this would give greater clearance to crawling up on the board to knee position and thus prevent the wind from flipping the wing over when one side is higher than the other. It would seem the trick to this technique is proper positioning of knees with 1 knee in front of the other (along the long axis of the board instead of side to side) and balancing. Feet off to the wind side of the board probably helps with balance.
? when you get up onto the board, I assume you place the back knee on first, then follow with the front knee and then immediately grab the rear handle?
Definitely, going to give it a go, thanks again!
For what it is worth & I am by no means an expert or even using a sinker, 85 pies on a 96l board however I have been using this thread to help having downsized my board.
I climb onto the board under the wing, holding it by the windward hand where the wing is neutral and get into something like a "childs pose" except my knees are wide to allow me to get lower plus it stabilizes the board with the cross waves etc
I then grab the back handle & then lift up onto my knees, sheeting in for balance & to get forward momentum
I'm using all these techniques and varies depending on water state (flat to big chops to overhead swell) and board size (from 120L down to 35L), 8 knots to 40+.
The bigger and tighter the waves, the more timing, speed and precision you need to land your knees in the perfect board position.
The only unchanging factor is the elbow holding the wing resting firmly on the nose of the board with the wing flying under a bit of power across the wind for stability.
Select to expand quotedrlazone said..
I'm using all these techniques and varies depending on water state (flat to big chops to overhead swell) and board size (from 120L down to 35L), 8 knots to 40+.
The bigger and tighter the waves, the more timing, speed and precision you need to land your knees in the perfect board position.
The only unchanging factor is the elbow holding the wing resting firmly on the nose of the board with the wing flying under a bit of power across the wind for stability.
Yup.
I also find it much harder in 3m wind&chop with ,less support from the wing,wave wind shadows...but this is to be expected i guess.
Everything becomes more demanding when it is really blowing and bumpy.
I'm 93kg, recently tried this successfully on a 90L Wing drifter. Felt borderline corky and hard to keep under me (wind was super light, maybe 5-7kts in the gusts).
Currently putting the finishing touches on a converted kite race board around 83L. Should I expect this to be a little easier being slightly wider with harder rails?
Select to expand quotedrlazone said..
I'm using all these techniques and varies depending on water state (flat to big chops to overhead swell) and board size (from 120L down to 35L), 8 knots to 40+.
The bigger and tighter the waves, the more timing, speed and precision you need to land your knees in the perfect board position.
The only unchanging factor is the elbow holding the wing resting firmly on the nose of the board with the wing flying under a bit of power across the wind for stability.
Same except I have both elbows down the board .. two hands holding each side of nose with wing obviously in thumb of windward side. Knees come up and wedge into the ends of each elbow. Very stable under all conditions. Lift and go.
ps I start sitting on board Like a surfboard. Both hands down on nose at same time with knees already moving into position. 1. Hands 2. Knees 3. Lift and go. I actually count it out because I'm on the spectrum.
Select to expand quoteeppo said..drlazone said..
I'm using all these techniques and varies depending on water state (flat to big chops to overhead swell) and board size (from 120L down to 35L), 8 knots to 40+.
The bigger and tighter the waves, the more timing, speed and precision you need to land your knees in the perfect board position.
The only unchanging factor is the elbow holding the wing resting firmly on the nose of the board with the wing flying under a bit of power across the wind for stability.
Same except I have both elbows down the board .. two hands holding each side of nose with wing obviously in thumb of windward side. Knees come up and wedge into the ends of each elbow. Very stable under all conditions. Lift and go.
ps I start sitting on board Like a surfboard. Both hands down on nose at same time with knees already moving into position. 1. Hands 2. Knees 3. Lift and go. I actually count it out because I'm on the spectrum.
Hey Eppo what size board did you settle on for this technique and how does it compare to your weight?
Thanks
Select to expand quoteeppo said..
60L FG. At 75/77kg
im even using it to prone at the moment 
Thanks
