Last season I bought a RRD Longrider to compliment my 120 and 100 short boards. I love it and use it a lot more than I thought I would. After years of almost exclusively chasing (and catching with reasonable success) fully powered carve jibes, I’ve been doing a ton of light to moderate sailing and working on basic free-style moves It’s a whole new world of different feels and opportunity to get hundreds and hundreds of reps for anything new or recently mastered. Pure pleasure.

A few questions.

Heli tack - have this one rock solid in light winds and small sail (5.0) and able to come out clew first with good control. Bigger sails and more powered up conditions I feel like I have less control during the transition. Have to let the rig flip (no clew-first intermediate stage) or get dunked. Is that just how it goes?

Upwind 360 - have cracked this, but not solid. Often end up losing power and falling onto the sail. Am I waiting too long to open the sail up?

Duck Jibe - sometimes ok. But unsure of the timing in light wind. Powered up and planing seems like you need to be early and rely on the rig going light. Obviously rig isn’t going light a low speeds? When I fail the boom usually gets ripped out of my hands at the end.

Backwinded tack- love this one, and seems very practical crossover for higher wind shortboarding. Seems more forgiving timing-wise than a plain fast tack? Less balance-y as you always have something to pull or push against?

Anything else I should try? Mostly looking for things that will make me a better sailor over all. Also been experimenting with switch-stance sailing and jibe exit.

I don’t think there’s anything special about the RRD versus any other modern longboard. Longboarding in general seems a great way to get more enjoyable time on the water in the Midwest. It’s also really fun in waves as long as you’re not too overpowered.

I’m on Grand Traverse Bay now. Joined the forum when I was mostly in Evanston.

I do a lot of sailing on my Superlight with a 6.3 here on our inland lake. Good way to keep in shape for the windy days. And longboard freestyle is a fun way to challenge yourself a bit in light air.

Go into a tack, but don't move your feet. Bring the board all the way around while you stay on the lee side of the sail. Sail a ways that way, then push (with your back hand) the clew into and through the wind, following it so you are on the windward side of the board sailing clew first. Then release that back hand and let the sail swing around to the normal position. This gets more challenging in stronger wind, plus you can do it on short boards too.

Sail 360 in some breeze is fun... basically you just push the sail 360 degrees and end up where you started. The more wind you have the trickier it gets

If the RRD has a centerboard/daggerboard, have your tried railriding? Sailing across the wind, push on the lee rail with your back foot, then put your front foot under the windward rail and put the ball of your foot on the dggerboard. (you may want some protection on your shins / ankles the first few times). Once you can sail from that position, put your back foot on the rail of the board, then your front foot. Once you get the basic railride down you can do then stern first, clew first, with your back to the sail, etc.

Drew

Thanks Drew.

Very cool you have a Superlight. Started on a Mistral Maui and initially thought I wanted a used Equipe when I began thinking longboard.

Does the tack where you don’t change your feet have a name? Your description is excellent, but I’ve become dependent on YouTube to suss things out at first.

Also makes sense that you’re on a lake as well. As much as I love it, the RRD is a beast and transporting regularly might be dealbreaker.

Andrew, have you ever done a tack on the rail? I have read a number of your posts and have wondered, who are you and do I know you? I started on Windsurfer's with teak wood booms, racing one design and doing freestyle in District 5. Ran regattas in Springfield, Il. with my wife Gail. Raced in Chicago at Northwestern University with Fred Hartrey, not sure if spelling is correct. Eventually transitioned to Mistral Superlight. The old noodely windsurfer was the best for freestyle with its soft rails using a chopped fin. The Meyer's Rum District 5 Championships were a lot of fun in the 80's. I miss those days sometimes. Anyway, what's your history and where you?
John

Yeeeeeessss!!!! come to the fun side: learn FREESTYLE!!!

So, Andy Brandt has lots of videos on light wind freestyle on long boards. Also, if you don't already have it, get The Tricktionary. Tons of long board freestyle in there. I use a 190 litre Fanatic Allwave for this stuff. Working on sail handling has helped my freestyle tremendously. Plus, there's stuff you can do on a longboard that you can't do on a short board, like "anklebiters".

Chris, check out Ady's windsup tricks series.

The Windsup-light wind fun for everyone:
Thread: windsurfillinois.com/index.php/forum/win...ind-fun-for-everyone

Hey John - Yeah I think we may have crossed paths at one of the district 5 regionals... I was at Oconomowoc WI in 1979 and Little Traverse Bay in 1980. Both times I was catching rides with "grownups" to get to a dinner/party or something... and enjoying a few vices along the way

I used to do tacks on the rail, and inside the boom railrides. I need to find a couple pictures. And yeah the original WS was the perfect freestyle platform! The Superlight is faster and all but those edges are a little rough on the skin.

Andrew (gonna go dig through old photos...)

John Proper wrote:

Found a couple from 1980 or so…





Andrew

Head Dip on the rail. And an original chest harness. I need to look for some of my old photos.

Thanks for all the replies/tips. Windsurfing these days can be lonely pursuit. So any conversation around these topics is welcome.



Maybe everyone has seen this and not freestyle specific. But nostalgia and a reminder that you can definitely rip it up on a longboard. No thanks as far as the old rigs that weighed a ton and would probably injure my middle-aged shoulders in short order.

On the topic of longboards, finally got to try out my Kona (Exocet Kona, pre Kona one) and found it quite cool in light air, but definitely handles different than my 85cm x 238cm shortboard. Had a couple questions:

The mast track is a mile long: when and why are you moving it back and forth?

The first part of the tack is super easy with the board, but in the really light stuff it's hard to turn down onto the new tack, are people kicking the board up during the bearaway?

Speaking of the board, it it always full down or full up or do people run it partway down ever?

For getting onto a plane, it seemed like the board was happy to turn down on it's own, but it took a long time to accelerate, and didn't seem to notice pumping. Any tricks to getting longboards planing?

mast track forward when dagger board down. How much forward and how much dagger board down depends on how much you care about being aggressive and fast upwind like a racer. Racers trying to maximize VMG, lots of variables involved in obtaining it under various conditions. If you are planing in straps, mast track back.

Time for you to hit the big Lake. Can you water start? That dagger will keep you safe on SW wind from Greenwood, but no problem on your short board either. All beaches open in Evanston, but don't park in GW lot.