Riding techniques: Water start, bobbing, gliding and riding upwind in light winds

We’ve all been there: that lowest wind range where you can just about get on your board and start gliding – or just miss out by a hair’s breadth. This is the range where everything has to be just right, where every misstep or the slightest misadjustment can prove fatal and determines whether you have a fun session or spend the whole day sitting on the shore waiting for stronger wind.

Early drift is 50 per cent technique and 50 per cent tuning.

Whilst in strong winds the advice is simply to jump on and hold on tight, light winds require considerably more fine motor skills and technique to make the most efficient use of the available wind. To achieve this, the minimal forces must be transferred to the board and sail as effectively as possible to make them count. It’s all about angle of attack, load distribution and body positioning, which are simultaneously supported and enhanced by the correct set-up of your equipment. When there’s enough wind, you often don’t even notice these ‘little details’. But if you lean back just as passively at 15 knots as you do at 25 knots, or try to let the sail pull you out of the water in exactly the same way, you won’t get very far – or very high. Instead of packing up and complaining about the lack of wind, why not give our light-wind tips a go?

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Tuning tips for light winds

Generally speaking, we want to try to catch as much wind as possible, generate as much lift as possible and, in doing so, get the board up and running. Every knot of wind should be utilised as efficiently as possible. You can adjust the following settings to achieve this:

A more upright stance thanks to a higher fork

An upright position is important in light winds, because the more upright your sail is, the more wind you catch. Pushing the boom up not only results in a more upright body position – and consequently a more upright sail position – due to the ropes automatically shortening, but also raises your centre of gravity slightly overall. In light winds, we want to avoid at all costs having the board sit too deeply in the water and thereby displacing more water. But what is the ‘right’ boom height? Shoulder height is often cited here, but it’s important to know that the wider your board is, the higher the boom needs to be set – simply because on wide boards you stand further from the centreline and thus further from the sail than on narrow ones. This means that, for example, on an 80-centimetre-wide freeride board, you’ll need to mount the gaff a few centimetres higher than on a freestyle wave board that’s only 65 centimetres wide, in order to have a comparable ‘perceived’ gaff height on the water. So, if you’re using wide boards and are standing next to your sail on land whilst adjusting the boom, it’s fine for the boom to be mounted well above shoulder height.

Long trapeze ropes

A higher boom can only feel good when combined with longer trapeze ropes. Longer ropes are also an advantage when bobbing about and in gusty conditions, as you aren’t hanging so close to the sail and you gain more freedom of movement and control. Our tip: Buy adjustable lines measuring 24 to 30 inches from the shop. You can then gradually raise the boom slightly whilst lengthening the trapeze lines a little, so you can still hang in the harness comfortably.

Move the mast base back a little

Control issues are out of the question in the wind conditions we’re talking about here. The nose won’t lift off in absolutely light winds. So feel free to push the mast foot back a little further to get the board onto the fin as freely and quickly as possible. Our tip: Starting from the centre position, moving the mast foot back by one to two centimetres will give you the desired result. You shouldn’t go all the way to the very end of the mast track, though, because if the mast foot is too far back, this can lead to a general rearward lean, which in turn is counterproductive when planing.

Trimming the sails for light winds

You can get a lot out of camberless freeride sails in particular, but also from freemove or wave sails, by using a bulging trim. If the wind is so light that pressure shifts and gust control aren’t an issue, simply ease off the tension at both ends and see what works. If the wind picks up, you can always trim it back in. If there are two eyelets to choose from on the clew, always select the top one in light winds. And don’t worry – the sail can rest comfortably against the boom in the final third of its length up to the clew.

Gliding in light winds

1: Standing perfectly straight

Try to stand as upright as possible and keep your body tense to keep your centre of gravity high and over the centre of the board. Your front arm should be fully extended to keep the mast as upright as possible. In light winds, it’s particularly important to keep the gaff high! This generates more lift.

A stronger gust would quickly lift you out of this position and easily throw you forward, so in stronger or gusty winds, you should generally use longer ropes to sit lower and be better able to control and counterbalance the leverage.

2: Remove the back foot from the loop

When gliding, it can help to take your back foot out of the strap – or not to put it in at all – to avoid stalling the board at the rear when travelling at low speed. This also allows you to glide around in a controlled manner.

Placing your foot more towards the centre of the deck helps to shift the board from the windward edge to the leeward edge, allowing it to move more freely and pick up speed.

3: Forward power transmission

Particularly during the approach phase – that is, before your front foot moves into the strap – you should ensure that the force is directed forwards. During the planing phase, turn your front foot forwards, with your toes pointing towards the bow. This will also cause your hips and upper body to turn forwards subconsciously, so that the power of the sail is transferred more strongly forwards onto the board. If, on the other hand, your front foot is positioned at right angles to the direction of travel, you’ll also be transferring the force sideways onto the board – resulting in poorer planing and the tail being pushed away to leeward.

Even with just one foot in the strap, you can glide around in a controlled manner.

Bobbing about in light winds

As soon as the wind is too light to glide at all, there’s one thing above all else to bear in mind in light winds: ride high! Every attempt to glide or a water start can quickly cost you a few metres in height. Only those who have enough height can make good use of it for fun manoeuvres.

To stay close to the wind, the following applies:

• Hook it on to save energy
• Longer ropes make life easier for you here too
• Apply pressure to the windward edge to counteract lateral drift
• Apply pressure to the mast base by extending the front leg
• Keep the rear sail taut
• Relax and keep an eye out for the next gust

Water start in light winds

The correct alignment and positioning of the material is a topic in its own right: How to set up your sail and board for a water start

This section will focus on the correct technique for climbing.

When it comes to the water start, the motto is: don’t pull yourself up – let yourself be pulled up!

Pro tip 1: Grab hold of the mast

But what if the lift isn’t quite enough to get you airborne during a water start? In that case, there are a few little tricks you can use to give yourself a bit of a helping hand!

The aim is to position the sail as upright as possible for a water start.

Pro tip 2: Adjust the lower edge

There’s one final tip for light-wind water starts. Gripping the foot of the sail doesn’t just look unusual – this pro tip really makes a difference, especially with larger sails. Small wave or freestyle sails (under 5.5 m²) are much easier to balance using this technique, but it also works with large freeride sails.

This technique takes the advice – to raise the sail as high as possible during the launch manoeuvre in light winds in order to catch as much wind as possible – to the extreme. Here, too, the initial steps (positioning, aligning, windward pull) are no different from a normal water start.