5aday
(oh bum!)
BY GUY CRIBB
’ve been working on a new tuning guide recently;
an easy way to tweak kit for the conditions. My
guests on a recent course in Morocco all
commented on how well it worked, and some of
them were “big names” in windsurfing! This got me
thinking I should make it into an article myself. Then
the amazing weeks of May winds blew and I found
myself wave sailing at Kimmeridge on the biggest
waves I’ve ever seen in England. Overpowered on
my 5.2m Zone, but in control on my JP Radical
Wave 69 litre board with my Nik Baker 22cm wave
fin, I was well equipped to handle the mast-and-ahalf-high heavy wave at on the Bench, on the
westward point of Kimmeridge. So long as I sailed
with full commitment.
I
Mast and a half high on the Bench, means if I fell
off, I might drown. Which is no longer an option now
I’m a dad. And since the other sailors out there were
sailing with 4.7’s on bigger boards, they were able
to sail on the shoulder a bit more cautiously and at
slower speeds. On my kit I was committed to sailing
this monster wave at full tilt, laying into my bottom
turns at about 100mph partly to ditch the power of
my 5.2m, partly because this board is designed to
be sailed at full speed on it’s rail and partly because
it feels great to go really deep, drop down the face
of a twenty foot high wall, lay into the turn and look
back up at the lip you’re about to smack as it’s
jagged teeth are glistening back at you.
Anyway, my 5-a-day was vital at Kimmeridge on that
day, but is also very useful for anyone freeride
cruising, wanting to get the most out of their kit.
5- a-day is making five changes to your kit every
time you go windsurfing. At Kimmeridge, I moved
my mast track further forwards to give my board
more control, pulled my outhaul on to give my sail
more control, moved my boom down to get more
weight onto my front foot for more control (and to
help me keep my legs bent for longer in the side
onshore wave riding conditions), pushed my
harness down to keep all my kit under control when
I was blasting and adjusted my attitude to how I
should be sailing the Bench. Those five changes are
all typical useful adjustments you can make to your
kit to maximise your windsurfing potential- whether
you want to get into your footstraps easier, plane
earlier, gybe smoother or handle mast and a half
high heavy waves at a hundred miles an hour.
OH BUM!
O - Outhaul
H - Harness
B - Boom height
U - You
M - Mast track
Adjust these five aspects of your windsurfing kit
every time you go sailing to experience just how
versatile your kit is and feel immediate improvement
to your windsurfing.
WINDSURF JULY 2006 000
5 A DAY (OH BUM!)
OUTHAUL
There is no single correct setting for your outhaul. It
should be adjusted frequently to cater for the fluctuating
conditions in any day’s windsurfing.
Pulling your outhaul on flattens your sail and tightens
the area around the clew, giving you more control.
Letting your outhaul off makes your sail fuller (like a
spinnaker) giving you more power.
Find the correct setting for the particular conditions
you’re in by looking at the sail where it bellows out and
touches the boom. If the boom is touching cloth for
more than two feet, you’ve got too little outhaul- even in
light winds when you need the sail as full as possible. In
light winds, in a gust, let the sail sag over the boom for
a maximum of about 18 inches.
If you’re out of control, pull the outhaul on. In a big
gust, with the outhaul pulled on, the sail will still sag
and might touch the boom. If you’re really over
powered, pull the outhaul on until it’s just off the boom
even in the biggest gusts.
Summary
Pull the outhaul on if you’re overpowered.
Let the outhaul off if you need more power.
Tip
Most outhaul systems allow you to cleat the rope off
and not need to tie any knots. With no knots to untie,
you’ll feel more encouraged to quickly uncleat your
outhaul and make a fast adjustment.
000 WINDSURF JULY 2006
5 A DAY (OH BUM!)
harness to slip back down. Many of the World Cup
windsurfers wear their waist harness very loosely, so
it keeps falling down to their hips. But they have
triangular physiques where the wide side is across
their shoulders, not their waists…
• More flattering
Those of us with a beer gut should use it to prevent
our harness from rising. Always put your waist
harness on your pelvis so your harness hook is
about two inches below your belly button. Every time
you fall in, push it back down (as it will surely rise.)
If you don’t like a waist harness, it’s because you’re
wearing it wrong. Or you’re a girl. And girls are
generally a better off wearing a seat harness
because waist harnesses always end up in your
narrow waist section, which on most women is well
above your belly button. In this case adjust your
seat harness to that your hook is just below your
belly button.
Straps
Any webbing will absorb water and expand, so readjust straps after they’re wet.
HARNESS
Waist harness
All waist harnesses slide up your body when you’re
using them. The higher the hook goes, the less
Downforce you generate into the board (and
therefore less control - see
http://www.guycribb.com/technique/magazine
articles/downforce)
Every time your fall off, push your harness
back down.
Every time I gybe, I suck my gut in to allow my
086 WINDSURF JUNE 2006
Seat harnesses
Anyone wearing seat harnesses should consider
moving to a waist harness for the following reasons:
• They’re easier to hook in and out of.
• More flexibility in your legs (for instance
waterstarting).
• Create better posture on the approach to
manoeuvres like carve gibing.
• Warmer.
• More buoyancy (waterstaring).
• Quicker and easier to get you into the footstraps
and harness and blasting comfortably.
But if you’re racing sailing completely over-powered
to a National level, they don’t give you quite as
much control (but this is only important for about a
hundred people in the UK).
Summary
Keep pushing your waist harness down at all times- I
push mine down probably every five minutes which
quickly adds up to about a hundred times a session.
Tip
There are some great ratchet harnesses out there,
which stay tight. If you don’t have a ratchet harness,
make sure your webbing is as tight as possible, and
retighten regularly during each session, as it
stretches and slides when wet.
I wear my rashy over the top of my harness, to
prevent the harness riding up on the smooth
rashvest-material.
5 A DAY (OH BUM!)
early planing, raise your boom by as much as two
or three inches. Or if you’re learning how to use the
footstraps, to make it easier to move your front foot,
raise your boom to take the weight off it.
Lowering your boom puts more weight onto your
front foot. This is useful for board control when it’s
really rough water or if you’re over powered.
Lower your boom by as much as two or three
inches of your starting point (up to an astonishing
six inches below your early planing / flat water
boom height option!)
With more weight on your front foot the board sails
slightly on it’s windward edge. This slices through
the chop easier (rather than slapping into it) and
makes the board act like a spoiler, with the wind
blowing against the deck holding down to earth
(water), rather than getting underneath it and
blowing off the water.
Summary
Boom height should start around shoulder height
(more INfo at guycribb.com/technique) but move up
to improve your early planing or in flat water, and
down for control if overpowered or in rough water.
Tip
Don’t use a ‘boom bra’ - your boom almost certainly
doesn’t touch the nose of your board anyway, so
the boom bra just gets in the way of adjusting your
boom height, and prevents your hands from doing a
decent Boomshaka when flipping the rig
BOOM HEIGHT
Lowering your boom height puts more weight onto
your front foot. Raising your boom puts more weight
onto the mast foot (and since it takes it off your front
foot it feels like it puts more onto your back foot
once you’re blasting.)
Raising the boom, increasing weight onto the mast
foot, bang smack in the middle of the board, levels
the board off in the water so it’s flatter in every
dimension (front to back and side to side.) This
reduces the drag and thus improves early planing.
So, if the wind drops and you need to improve your
088 WINDSURF JUNE 2006
(guycribb.com/technique/coreskills/boomshaka)
If you insist on using a boom bra, for best results
attach it to the mast just above and below the
boom, making it into a ‘boom thong’ instead.
5 A DAY (OH BUM!)
YOU
You need adjusting too. Whether it’s stopping for a
drink or a think, it’s worth stopping every so often
rather than blasting back and forth aimlessly.
It’s easy to get caught up in the windsurfing ‘zone’
and only when you come ashore exhausted at the
end of your session you suddenly remember what
you were intending on trying that day. Better to
come ashore and think about what you wanted to
try, visualise it, and get back out there.
Why not bring some INtuition magazine features
down the beach to refer to in mid-session whilst
eating a banana and some Jaffa Cakes? Download
any of my INtuition features from guycribb.com for
free, or buy my forth coming Gybing DVD and play it
in your in car entertainment system!
Summary
Stop and think about what you’re doing, and try
something new every time you go sailing.
Tip
Download some INtuition features from
guycribb.com, laminate them and keep them in your
sailing bag. Come on an INtuition course
with me and get loads of tips for you to work on to
ensure the fastest possible progression in windsurfing.
WINDSURF JUNE 2006 089
5 A DAY (OH BUM!)
MAST TRACK
Moving your mast track forwards puts more of the
board into the water, increasing drag but giving you
more control. Moving the mast track back reduces
drag making the board much more lively.
There’s never a days windsurfing quite like another
and thus my mast track is used in all sorts of
different positions.
At Kimmeridge that big day I was bottom turning
right under the lip of about a thousand gallons of
English Channel, with my board banked over at
almost 90 degrees racing along literally at 35 knots,
I needed all the control I could possibly get, which
is why after my second wave, I moved my mast
track right to the very front of the track.
Three days later and I’m freestyle sailing in Poole
harbour on a JP Freestyle 100 in flat water needing
all the ‘pop’ I could muster to jump into Spocks,
and my mast track has moved back to make my
board more lively and jumpable.
Then I’m running a coaching course and I’m sailing
an X Cite ride 135 with an 8.2 Neil Pryde Saber and
I want to go fast, so I bring the mast track back to
reduce the drag and I’m flying along, albeit without
much control. When I give the kit to a guest to try, I
move the track further forwards to improve the
‘directional stability’ of the board, giving him more
control blasting and improving his gybes by
engaging more rail.
A good way of relating mast track position to sail
size is to imagine the sail is the engine and the
board is the wheels- the bigger the engine the
bigger the wheels you’ll need to handle cornering
and prevent wheel spins whilst you’re trying to get
going. So using my big 8.2m, I need a big set of
wheels and got them by moving my track forwards.
The alternative would have been to use a bigger
board.
Summary
When you need more control, for instance wave
090 WINDSURF JUNE 2006
riding, carve gibing, sailing overpowered or in rough
water, or if you want your board to go in a straighter
line, for instance when learning how to use the
footstraps, or if you’re using a massive engine,
move you mast track forwards.
If you want to go faster (but can handle a lack of
control with advanced technique), or if you want
your board to feel livelier (have a mind of it’s own)
then move your mast track back.
Tip
Plonk your mast foot in the middle of your track to
begin with and after sailing for a while come ashore
and ask yourself- do I want to go faster? Or do I
want to gybe better? Move it back for the first one,
or forwards for the second, but make sure you
move it.
5 A DAY (OH BUM!)
YOU’VE GOT TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT!
Sod all this five fruits a day- a bottle of wine in the
evening has got more fruit in it than a glass of orange
juice for breakfast, but as for 5 a Day on the water Oh bum, get INto it! It’s windsurfing’s healthy option.
What else?
This article assumes your downhaul and harness
lines are set up correctly using a Cribb Sheet or
years of experience. As a general rule neither your
downhaul or harness line position changes as the
weather changes. However experts might
fractionally adjust their downhaul to make the most
of the conditions, but I’m not even going to go there
because the majority of windsurfers still don’t apply
enough downhaul in the first place. And your
harness line position doesn’t change because they
position the rig to the correct angle regardless of
how the sail is pulling.
But there’s other things you could change like fin
size (or position on U.S. boxes (bytheway, ‘U.S.
boxes’ used to be called ‘classic box’ until people
pointed out how stupid they were, hence the name
U.S. box!) I digress. Try adjusting your footstrap
size- make them bigger than you think for gibing,
freestyling, bump ‘n’ jump and wave sailing, or
smaller for racing, tighten your battens, tighten the
front end of your boom, and more- all found on the
Tuning Cribb Sheets available at
guycribb.com/shop.
SUMMARY
Next time you’re sailing, think ‘Oh Bum!’ to
remember your five a day.
O - Outhaul
H - Harness
B - Boom height
U - You
M - Mast track
Adjust all of them frequently- an absolute minimum
of once each, but for best results, for an average
windsurfing session of two hours, approx five times
on the outhaul, fifty times on your harness, three
times on your boom height, twice on you and twice
on your mast track. Use your INtuition!
INtuition: Designed and delivered exclusively by Guy Cribb
Britain’s professional windsurf coaching
Windsurfing coaching exclusively designed and delivered by Guy Cribb, professional windsurfer and twelve times
British Champion.
Clear, concise and accurate.
Catch him if you can on this year’s INtuition UK Tour, bringing the best windsurfing coaching to your doorstep
throughout the summer, or join him for the ultimate windsurfing holiday overseas, only at the best venues, at the
right time of year to ensure perfect conditions, only using the very best windsurfing rental centres.
Use your INtuition.
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Pics by Thorsten Indra, JC and Guy Cribb INtuition
Copyright Guy Cribb 2006
www.guycribb.com
000 WINDSURF JULY 2006
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