Issue 323 - MARCH 2013
FRONTSIDE THOUGHTS pt 1
PETER HART TECHNIQUE Good waves, currents, a bending wind and the presence of others help master the tactics of wave-sailing. In Jeri you have to work for your waves but the rewards are huge and the punishment for misdemeanours very minor – perfect!
FRONTSIDE THOUGHTS pt 1 Words PETER HART / Photos Hart Photography
PETER HART MASTERCLASS DOWN-THE-LINE DESIRE Fresh from an epic trip to Brazil, Harty sheds many beams of light on the challenge of learning to and improving your front-side riding. In the first of a two part series, he focuses on the tactics
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WAVE SAIL or SAIL in the WAVES
A lot of wind can be an unwanted distraction for the beginner wave-sailor, in that it gives them a big motor to charge about. They have plenty of speed from the rig so there’s no incentive to tap into the wave. In Jeri our team became most alert to the importance of tactical nous when the wind eased. They then had to manoeuvre into the right place on the wave for speed and had to use it to get back upwind. Basically they started thinking like surfers. When they did get into the right spot on the wave they instinctively took up much better positions because they weren’t being forced into the back seat by a tugging rig.
Photos Dan Smith The essence of up and downwind riding is to spend as much time on the wave face as possible. The longer you linger on the flat, the more you slow down.
O
ver the years I have asked friends on my wave sailing courses to think of analogies to describe their experiences learning to sail waves and the nature of the challenge itself. Here are a few favourites. “Standing under a cold shower tearing up £20 notes whilst someone beats you around the loins with a cricket bat and fills your underpants with shingle.” “For me it’s like being being that really annoying, ugly bloke at the night club dressed in the Saturday Night Fever suit, who plays the percentage game, where he asks every hot chick to dance, in the belief that one of them (drunk or blind or both) will eventually say yes. If one does it’s marvellous and unexpected. But most of the time they don’t. I’ve noticed that wave sailing involves a lot of rejection.” “It’s fishing. For a lot of people fishing isn’t just about catching fish. There’s a boot-load of attractive equipment, the ritual, the environment, the getting way from the partner for a few hours, the solitude and time for reflection; and there’s the sense of anticipation that one day you’ll land a monster. It’s the not catching fish which is important and makes it all the more special when you do get one.” It seems that having given it a stab, most accept the hit and miss (but mostly miss) nature of wave-sailing as a big part of the attraction. But, they’d still prefer it if there were a few more fish in the pond.
Making it easier Windsurfers are attracted to the ocean by the wind and their wave-sailing careers traditionally are born when they’re forced to deal with the waves whipped up by
....In lighter winds especially, as soon as you’ve had your fun and the wave has closed …
that wind (usually onshore). It’s not a bad apprenticeship but it’s really hard. It’s a southern stand-up comic having his first gig at the Liverpool dockworker’s club. He may develop a thick skin but he’s unlikely to emerge overly encouraged or any the wiser as to what is funny. There are 5 slices in the wave-sailing/riding pie – the physical, the psychological, the tactics, the skill and the technique. Blasting in and out in onshore conditions and getting trounced by white water, alerts you to the increased physical demands. You certainly get more skilful having to be responsive and ready to dodge or exploit the random wedges. It’s the tactics and technique of riding waves that get left behind. When the waves are relentless, messy and short, it’s hard to develop wave sense. You sail in and out and by the law of averages stumble across odd good moments rather than seek them out. As far as developing wave-riding technique, those moments are too few and far between. If you do chance on a fine slope, you seem to have too much power from the wrong direction. It all happens too quickly and before you know it, that clean slope is a rumbling torrent of bubbles. And because the situations are hard to read, psychologically, you remain a little fragile spending much of the time spontaneously fleeing danger rather than seeking pleasure. The sailors who are ripping up your local patch in what appears like random conditions, have invariably spent time in a place where the conditions aren’t random; where swells are longer, cleaner, more recognisable; where the wind has blown from a direction which automatically sends them the right way down the face; where they weren’t having to compete with an overpowering rig; and where rides were longer and where they had more time to work things out. Where it was basically easier. Having felt the right feelings, they return to the home
....head back upwind on it. Don’t waste downwind space by heading off down weak white water.
patch armed with both the tactics and techniques to recognise and exploit those moments to which they were once blind.
THE JERI FACTOR I’ve just returned from Jeri in Brazil. I don’t work for the Brazil tourist board but I might as well. Jeri reminds me of one of those bicycle-training grounds that within a small area contains different road lay-outs, junctions, hazards etc, where kids can learn the rules without being swiped by a milk float. Jeri has all the ingredients, a point break, waves that change direction, a rip, a wind shadow at certain states of tide; even a wind bend. To exploit the conditions, you have to sail tactically. The rides are long and glorious if you get it right. And if you get it wrong, you have to suffer not so much a walk of shame as a stroll of joy in 35º over golden sand past about 30 cocktail bars inhabited by semi-clad natives who are not hard on the eyes. It’s all very benign. And for these ten days the same 20-25 knot wind blew slightly offshore over waist to head high swells. It was like returning to the gym day after day to do the same circuit. The ten in my group came with a common purpose to understand, and go some way to cracking, down-theline wave riding. In 10 days some learned more than in 5 years plugging away at home, thanks to that all too rare commodity in wave-sailing – a continuity of constant, perfect conditions. I’ve picked out certain points from their journey, which are applicable to all conditions. The first priority has to be to develop smart tactics, which not only allow you to end up in the right place on the right wave more often, but also fill you with the confidence and know-how to seek our scarier and places and cut loose. It starts with the elements.
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PETER HART TECHNIQUE THE CROWD ISSUE
One of the biggest inhibitors to wave performance is the presence of others – especially good others. Surfing rules are pretty straightforward. The surfer nearest the break (the white water) has right of way. And the surfer who is up and riding a wave first has right of way – i.e., don’t attempt a late take-off and try and squeeze in between them and the peak. But on a windsurfer, it’s a little more confusing. We are faster and more mobile. We can latch onto a wave miles out to sea, we can outrun white water sections easily, which adds much more scope for confusion and confrontation. At a spot like Jeri where the wind is slightly offshore and where everyone is hacking off down the line, generally the upwind rider claims the rights. But there’s also scope for common sense and if the wave has a few peaks and sections, it’s OK to join in downwind so long as you leave space. Don’t be a pain but don’t be a pushover. When people are feeling their way, it’s all too common for them to doff their cap to everyone. If people suspect you’re an easy touch they’ll just barge in.
Yes technically the board upwind sort of has right of way on this wave. But if anyone started giving you grief on a wave this size, you may suspect they’ve watched a few too many surfing movies.
This on the other hand, is a different matter. This was one of the best waves I’d seen in Jeri for about 5 years and if you messed it up for someone, you’d expect an earful. The guy on the green Goya took off on the peak and our Dan on the Ezzy just downwind, did the gentlemanly thing and pulled out at the last moment.
WAVE-SAILING and the FOREIGN CITY
head too far out – more in a moment. In offshore winds therefore, you make the most ground Sailing a new place as a beginner wave-sailor is like upwind right inshore as you sail out. As you launch, visiting a foreign city for the first time. You’re not sure head up immediately. Yes you may have to bear away how to behave, where to go, who to talk to, what to say. momentarily to take a wave head on, but as soon as To begin with you remain shy and contained staying you’re over, head up again. Then just when you feel the in very safe areas. But after a day or two your radar wind start to bend and ‘head’ you, that’s the time to becomes more sensitive. You become less anxious, a tack or gybe. little bolder. You talk to strangers and err away from In side-onshore winds it’s just the opposite. The wind the tourist areas into the more local hang-outs where bends more onshore by the beach. As you come in you you get a real feeling for the place. Seasoned travellers get lifted, to the point where for the last 100m or so pick up on the local vibe pretty quickly. In Jeri the main you’re sailing almost parallel to the shore and making difference between the group on day one and the end, massive ground. was the swagger. To begin with they tried to stay out of The common mistake in Jeri in the slightly offshore everyone’s way, sailed straight and hardly dared put the wind was to head out straight at the waves, effectively board on its edge. But with practice came familiarity. on a broad reach, losing ground by the second. Suddenly the elbows came out and they were fighting for waves, gouging the rail and delighting in the odd rinsing. With tactical knowledge (and a little extra fitness) comes confidence and only with confidence do you begin to attack the waves.
THE TACTICS pt I Holding Station and the environmental factors In Jeri it typically takes a recreational sailor 2-3 days to work out how to stay upwind. It has less to do with their ability to point than their failure to spot the rip and exploit changing wind and wave directions.
Wind Bends Wind will try and cross the shore at right angles (it’s all to do with the friction of the land - don’t ask…). That means in a side-offshore wind it’s more offshore right by the beach. As you move away from the shore, it swings more side-shore and ‘heads’ you and pushes you away from your upwind target. That’s one reason not to 74
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At most proper wave venues the wind is always ‘flicky’ having blown over and around hills and headlands. If you can put your tactical racing head on and note (and act on) the shifts in wind, which may be huge, you can stay upwind without even having to point.
Freestylers have added an unforeseen element at some venues. Their flat-rockered boards don’t ride waves too well so they take different lines in the waves often bearing off in front and using them to bump into a trick. In Jeri not all of them seemed to know the rules but after every minor confrontation claimed to be in the right! Bending Waves Waves for the most part are wind driven and so roll straight downwind and will continue to do so until an underwater obstruction - a reef, a sandbar, a headland, a beach - deflects them. At the upwind end of the Jeri bay lies a point. The waves near the point are tripped up and bend around it. If you catch a wave near the point, it will pull you upwind as it curves in towards the beach. The mistake many make is to catch a wave too far from the point. With nothing to trip it up, it rumbles off dead downwind. If they stay on it, it carries them way away to the far end of the bay. It’s about vision. As soon as you catch a swell, lift the head, get a physical reference so you know where you are and where you’re heading. Use the slope of a swell to get planing but then if it’s rolling too far downwind, head up off the back of it. Getting on the right end of the curve. Waves tend to mirror the shape of the shore. As they roll into the half moon shaped bay of Jeri, they form into a curve pushing out in the middle. To stay upwind it’s crucial to be on the right side of the apex of the curve. On the other side of the apex it bends off downwind and no matter how hard you head up, it still carries you downwind. Malingering in the rip. From Clacton to Hookipa, where waves roll in with any force (maybe not Clacton then) you will get a rip current as the water trapped at the beach head tries to retreat. Because of the angle the waves are driven onto the beach most rips (but not all), travel downwind along the shore and then through channels out to sea.
COLLECTING the CREAM
These are the images you dream of when you decide to have a crack at waves. If someone plonked you on a clean, unbroken wave, the act of steering off the lip isn’t technically as hard as many other moves – so long as you have sizeable cojones. However, to get yourself into this position, that is to say, get through the break, work upwind, catch the right wave and manoeuvre yourself into that very spot where the curling lip is going to smack the nose and redirect it down the face, takes either supreme luck or a lot of vision and smart tactical decisions. These boys, Jeremy, Till and Dragan, show what’s possible if you get a run of consistent conditions. It was immediately noticeable how their confidence and technique improved proportionally to their tactical awareness.
Jeremy, Till and Dragan slot into position A1. It was all in the tactics. When it’s consistently windy and you have instant speed you tend not to notice them. You plane across them in seconds. But when the wind is fluffy inshore and you have to bog out off the plane or waterstart, that’s when they’re a right pain. The big mistake people make in Jeri, is at high tide they catch a wave and ride it too far so it carries them into the rip and out of the wind. For every second they spend trying to waterstart or are off the plane, they’re losing about a metre downwind. Two things to remember about downwind rips: 1. The longer you spend in one the more ground you lose. It’s better therefore to bear away and get planing so get through the rip more quickly, than try to head up and wobble through it off the plane. 2. Simple avoidance. Note where it is and kick off the
wave before you get in the rip. And which move do you think most helped the upwind cause? It was the running, planing beachstart. If you launch on the plane, you make it through the rip in a second. If you don’t, thanks to the confused white water and gusty wind around the impact zone, you tend not to get planing until you’re through the break and have spent a lot longer in the rip.
In Jeri I suggested this simple progression. 1. Get back to, or upwind of, your start point. 2. How many in and out circuits in say a 20 minute session. 3. How many proper waves in a 20 minute session. The latter is sure-fire gauge of your fitness and tactical awareness. By the end of the Jeri course, pretty much everyone had doubled their wave count.
TACTICS pt 2 – upping the frequency.
If you’re sailing miles out to sea, sailing in between waves, walking upwind, you’re not riding. It’s a waste of precious time.
There are many ways to judge performance in the waves. How many bottom turns on the same wave. How much spray you throw up on your top turns etc. But actually it’s often simpler than that – the best sailor is generally the one catching the most waves.
DOWN-THE-LINE (but not all the time)
Riding downwind facing the wave is such a glorious and, for most, rare experience that you can be lured into doing a bit too much of it. In the side (with a little bit of ‘off) shore wind of Jeri, a downwind ride takes you pretty much … dead downwind. And if you get carried away, not only do you quickly run out of wave, but also find yourself with a big trek back upwind. In that wind direction you can ride upwind (backside) as well. The trick is to catch the swell early, then use it to take you upwind so you have a clean wall to bear away onto. And then if the wave is peeling slowly, after one top turn, come back upwind again to repeat the process. That’s the way to sail down-the-line AND hold station.
A lovely situation but if he keeps charging downwind, he’ll soon run out of wave. Time now to cut back upwind and allow the wave to wall up again.
Top tactics. Dan has caught the wave early and has started by leaning on his heels to track upwind along the face. He’s now opened up a beautiful wall to work with.
The Horizon Factor “Why are you heading miles out to sea on every run?” I ask. “There’s nothing out there but trouble.” The two common answers are: - To have a rest. - Delaying the inevitable gybe attempt waterstart routine - I love blasting! - To make ground upwind. Yes, yes yes and yes … There is a case for taking a breather beyond the break in places where launching and landing are a bit of a nightmare but generally the best place to rest is on the beach. The more gybes you attempt, the better you’ll get. If there are ride-able waves about, blasting is for another day. Yes you can make lots of ground heading out to sea – but if tide and wind bends are against you, you may not. The very best way to make ground is to get onto the swell you’re going to ride early and crank upwind on it. On the right wave, (one that’s bending in towards the wind) you’ll make more upwind ground in 100m that on a 2 km blast out to sea.
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PETER HART TECHNIQUE PLACES to AVOID
You can talk about it all you like but the way to develop good tactics is to go out there and feel it. Advice like “Don’t come in too far or you’ll get caught in the wind hole.” And “don’t try and ride the double-up waves;” mean a lot more when you’ve actually made those mistakes.
The three waves on the inside are too close together, are sucking the energy out of each other and hence have no shape or power. Dom in red makes the smart decision to gybe out and try again. Don’t waste time and space on useless waves.
Waves only serve as an upwind conveyor belt if they’re rolling at an angle to the wind. Extreme example, if the wind is dead off shore and the waves are dead onshore, then a wave, if you manage to get on one, will carry you dead upwind. But if the waves are rolling dead downwind and you catch one, even if you head along it, you’re still going to end up downwind. Intensity The simple algorithm is that you only have to halve the length of your reaches out to sea to double the number of runs back in and therefore your chance of picking up the ‘wave of the day.’ And another thing about the gybing/tacking/falling in issue – in long distance races, loads of people fall at the gybe mark because they’ve been locked in their stance for half an hour, have barely moved and so are stiff and immobile. 76
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In a side-off wind, the wave creates a barrier and the wind behind it is like twister. Either back right off or better still, gybe out and start again.
Wave-riding is all about movement. The less time you spent hooked in on long reaches the better. Yes it’s tiring. But if you’re panting, blood will be coursing into your muscles, you’ll be warmer and more dynamic. Just take more rests!
Vision and Rhythm The principal reason for staying close to shore is that the good ride-able waves become less shapely and harder to spot the further you go out. In Jeri it’s not until they wrap into the bay and make contact with the seabed that you can distinguish the good, long set waves from the wedges of wind slop. By keeping the runs short and staying inshore, you also get a feeling for the rhythm and frequency of the sets. The most frustrating feeling is that of heading out through a barrage of clean peeking rollers only to gybe round to be confronted with a mirror calm sea. That’s what’s called ‘being out of synch.’ If it happens more than once, STOP! Wait inshore or drop in out to sea until you reverse the situation.
TACTICS pt 3 Catching and riding issues. When it comes to getting on a wave the options are to catch them from behind; wait for them or gybe or tack onto one.
Catching wave from behind It’s a popular option in Jeri especially on days when the wind is strong and waves are small. It’s a bit of fun jumping them on the way in and using your speed to shoot out in front, perhaps to a trick like a 360, and let the wave pick you up again. But it’s not a great routine to fall into. In an offshore wind when the waves are a little bigger, there’s a wind shadow behind the wave robbing you of the power to climb up and over. If you do get over, you have to
This isn’t wrong as such, Dan is trimming the board well off the plane, it’s just a shame. It’s a beautiful riding wave and he’s going the wrong way. If it keeps happening – big waves on the way out but nothing on the way in – stop! Pause for a minute or two so you get back in the rhythm and reverse the situation. approach with so much speed, that you tend to bounce down the other side, shoot out in front and end up in bad shape and in the wrong place to start riding.
Waiting – let it catch you up. A far better plan. After a few days, even the committed blasters in the group grasped the concept of heading up, dropping off the plane and waiting for a wave to catch up. It’s harder than it sounds. The problem is that most waves, like the ones in Jeri, are very slow rumbling in at perhaps 4mph. On a small board it’s actually quite hard to sail that slowly especially if it’s windy, hence often rider and wave dribbled in at the same speed and never coincided – or if they did, it was right in the impact zone just as the wave was breaking. With experience you not only get better at sailing more slowly, even stopping completely, but also clock where the waves are peaking and where’s best to take off. If you pass that zone, you gybe out and try again.
Tacking/Gybing onto the swell. It’s the most fun and efficient way to catch a wave. The aim is to try and get on the swell as soon as possible long before it breaks. You then have time to get properly wedged into the straps, look up and downwind, spot where the wave is likely to peak and start breaking and work your way to that point. If you gybe well, you carry speed and use that speed to catch it early. Having said that, to tack onto a wave is the hallmark of a bona fide wave sailor. It carries you upwind which is always a bonus and in an offshore wind, you have less far to turn to catch the wave and so can be more spontaneous Tacks were on the wish list of many. Having a purpose, like completing one in front of the wave, helped them overcome the cardinal tacking sin of hesitating and generally pfaffing about.
PETER HART TECHNIQUE THE CATCHING OPTIONS
The best rides occur after you’ve singled out a wave, read it and made a positive effort to join it at a certain spot. The common error with the first timer is drifting into the impact zone and catching them too late, as, or just after, they’ve broken, giving them a white water ride to the beach. The earlier you catch them the better. There are a few ways to join a wave – some much better than others.
Trying to catch the wave from behind is tricky especially in an offshore wind where the wave not only shadows the wind but also deflects it more offshore.
You need a lot of speed and power to overtake a big wave, which means you often can’t help but shoot way out in front and so start your ride out of balance and in the wrong place.
Here Dave is waiting for one to catch up which is a far better option. However, the The best plan is to spot the swell and gybe onto it. It’s a lovely move in itself wave is moving pretty slowly and if he heads directly towards the beach, even off the and your speed out of the gybe allows you to catch it early – tacking would be plane, it’ll take a while to catch up. The best plan is to head right up and stop. even better!
Waves – the good and not so good. In the highest echelons of wave performance, the riders are marked on wave selection. It’s crucial because no matter how good you are, you can only gouge and slash if you have a steep wall to work with. The best seem to have a sixth sense as to which wave is going to peel and do the business and where exactly to line up (in the absence of a supernatural power, it’s just experience). In Jeri the first lesson gleaned was that bigger waves are not only easier to spot but once 78
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the mental issue was overcome, are also easier to ride. You can generate more speed. They seem to be moving faster so you don’t tend to outrun them. It’s easier to stay on the face and you have more room to do your turns. They also worked out that the ones to avoid were those, which were ‘doubling up.’ When waves roll in very close to one another, they suck the energy out of each other. Not only are they weak but when you catch the first one you tend to bump into the one in front.
Harty continues the story next month as he switches the focus to the technical business of ripping those waves to pieces. In the meantime check out harty@peter-hart.com and his Peter Hart Masterclass Facebook page for details of his life-affirming clinics.