Issue 313 - MARCH 2012
FOOTLOOSE
Guy Cribb Intuition
Footloose Words: Guy Cribb Photos: Guy Cribb INtuition
There’s plenty of INtuition tips that are equally suitable for both beginners and experts and when it comes to footstrapping, whether you’re on an INtuition Freeride Course in Bonaire, Greece or Dahab learning to use footstraps for the first time, or if you’re with us in Hawaii, Australia, Morocco or Brazil catching waves and rushing into footstraps this tip has become a thoroughbred throughout my coaching which really improves guests footstrapping- whether beginner, intermediate, advanced or expert windsurfer. So even if you are already using footstraps comfortably, try this - it helps!
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Before you attempt to go into your front footstrap, locate the back strap with your back foot - touching it with the knuckle of your little toe.
‘1’ Touching the void…
‘2’ Touching cloth… Locate the back strap with your back foot BEFORE even thinking about moving your front foot.
This feature will give further foot-strapping info which might just prevent you from swerving into the wind again, or outrunning that wave...
Footloose and fancy free!
Speed is your friend! I encourage my guests at all levels - beginner to expert, to get into their footstraps quicker. Much quicker. Watch any pro and within a split second of leaving the beach, they are in their footstraps and fully planing. All of you can speed this process up and make a tremendous difference to your windsurfing, whatever level you’re at. By focusing on this skill you will improve planing exits from carve gybing, improve control and stance, develop key skills for wave sailing and performance windsurfing. So, make it a high priority to get into your footstraps much earlier than you are comfortable with next time you go out.
Look upwind
A key thing that separates the experienced windsurfer from the less experienced is their wind awareness - a pro glances upwind at the gusts on the water and immediately knows exactly how much ‘fuel’ they have for their sail over the next hundred metres. With this instant information, by looking upwind, they know whether they can get on their board and go straight into their footstraps, or not. Knowing there is enough fuel, they’ll get in their footstraps before they even get planing, give the sail a couple of revs and accelerate incredibly. The less experienced windsurfer generally does not gauge the wind by looking at it, but by feeling it in their sail. They get on, feel how much power they have and if they get planing, then try and get in their footstraps. This causes a major problem because if your board is already planing it is harder to get into the footstraps than if it is just about to plane, because moving your feet around whilst the board is bouncing along is nigh on impossible.
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Guy Cribb Intuition Please spend more time looking upwind at the gusts, establish if there is enough wind for you to plane, if so get into the footstraps, give the sail some revs and then get planing. Hope is not a strategy! Which came first- the chicken or the egg? The egg. Eggs have been around long before chickens evolved. Which comes first- foostraps or harness? The footstraps*. Once you’re in the footstraps, you have better control and faster acceleration. Basically, if you are in a difficult situation you should use the footstraps first. For example if you are a beginner to footstraps, get in
them before hooking in. If you are overpowered or there’s a wave coming, get in footstraps before hooking in. There is a time and a place for hooking in first - if there is enough wind to get planing and there’s no obstacles like waves or traffic ahead, in this utopian world you can hook in first. Any doubts, or if you want to accelerate fastest, go for the footstraps first. That’s the basic rule of thumb. Trying to develop your skill of using the footstraps first will massively improve your performance windsurfing, for example planing gybe exits and wave sailing.
How?
Just go for it faster! Literally - whoever you are, first rule is just going for them faster than you were previously comfortable with. Many of you can work it out from there. However, following this more detailed approach will help too. Sequence for getting into footstraps (whether hooking in before or after footstrapping): Take your marks Look upwind and establish if there’s enough wind to get planing (looking directly upwind) Look ahead and establish if there is enough wind to stay planing (looking approx. 45 degrees between upwind and your direction - there is no point getting planing if you’re just about to sail into a lull.) Take your time on this - a pro will gather this info in a split second, but take as long as you want - you need to be sure - hope is not a strategy.
Get set Slide front hand back. This keeps the rig forwards in the most powerful position. Apply INtuition’s Growler or Missing Link - stabilises everything - see guycribb.com/technique Touch back footstrap. Press on back toes - trims board flat/prevents swerving upwind. (total ‘get set’ time - 1 second)
Go!
Glance down to locate front footstrap and slide foot in. (Don’t keep looking down) Increase revs (increase power with backhand). Increasing revs, helps transfer your weight onto your front foot, allowing you to move your back foot. As the weight moves to your front foot Press on front toes - stops board from swerving upwind. Slide back foot into back strap. (total footstrapping time, 2 seconds - front foot, revs, and back foot.)
Hook-in
All this in a couple of seconds makes it well worth practising on the beach/ comfort of your own home! Please remove your fin and get down with some INtuition Muscle Memory. The time it takes you to say “front foot,
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revs, back foot” is the length of time it should take to put front foot in, increase the revs and move back foot in. I have lots of guests who are very capable of using footstraps and have done so for years, but they are not particularly fast or fluid about it - on closer inspection, they were not touching the back strap first which left room for error. By locating the back strap first, they were faster and more confident. Please practise this at home! Note - there is no time or place to only use the front footstrap. If you are stuck in this predicament, like so many others, it is almost certainly either because you did not touch the back strap first, or, accelerated too fast to move your back foot in time. If by some miracle you are not reading this on the toilet stand up now and bend your back leg a little as though you’re windsurfing - can you move it now? Shift your weight to your front foot as though you’re accelerating… now you can move your back foot.
If you leave it too long, try using INtuition’s Elvis Wiggle -
With outboard footstraps, or if you accelerate too fast, or hesitate, sometimes it’s impossible to lift your back foot off the board as all your weight is on it, in this case use the ‘Elvis Wiggle’- pivoting on your heel to tuck your toes into the back strap. I often have to use this on my slalom boards when we hit Mach 10 in a split second combined with the tricky footstrap position right out on the rail.
Trouble shooting
“If I get into the footstraps first the tail will sink!” I hear you cry, well, not if all your weight is on the mast foot and the rig is pulling the board forwards. You might be a fatty, you might be underpowered, or under boarded, but the tail sinking is entirely a technique issue. Transfer your weight to the mast foot by pulling down onto the boom/tipping the rig forwards/using more revs and the tail wont sink.
Front hand back
Sliding your front hand further back down the boom naturally increases the power of the sail and the mast foot pressure, both essential for getting into your footstraps. (Download ‘Three Little Birds’ from guycribb.com/technique) The action of sliding your front hand back naturally tips the rig further forwards counteracting your weight walking back down the board. Check out my front hand position in all these photo sequences. Gybing
Planing exits. Front hand back to keep rig forwards and power on. Both footstraps before hooking in.
I get loads of my guests to master the planing exit of a carve gybe. If you go into a carve gybe at full speed and it all goes smoothly you will not necessarily plane away from it. Likewise, it is not a given that if you stall in a gybe that you won’t plane out of it… The planing exit is an ‘add on’ to your existing gybe, so regardless of your entry speed, if you can already get round with your hair dry, you should be focusing on planing exits. A crucial element of the planing exit is to go into your footstraps before hooking in. There is a lot more to it than that of course - please see the INtuition DVD/come on an INtuition course/download previous features FOC from guycribb.com but if you’re nearly planing out of your turns, this could be key. Tacking
Usual tacking skills apply - use the INtuition Core Skills ‘Growler’ on the new side or INtuition’s ‘Drop Your Guts’ if it’s going wrong. From this position with all your weight on the mast foot, rather than on your feet, rush into both footstraps and accelerate.
Summary
Touch the back strap before even going for the front strap. Hurry up!
Guy Cribb INtuition
Guy runs INtuition windsurfing courses attracting guests from all over the world for their most radical development, at the world’s very best venues from Australia and Hawaii to Greece and the Red Sea. The courses are always fully booked and have non-stop repeat offenders working their way up from waterstarting and footstrapping to riding massive surf in Hawaii. Guy transforms your windsurfing by day and shows you round the very best restaurants and local secret spots by night to give you a 24/7 action packed INtuition experience that is incomparable to other holidays or courses. Guy is Britain’s Professional Windsurfing Coach, former British Champion and National Racing Coach. www.guycribb.com INtuition. Riding the world by storm. © Guy Cribb 2011
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