Sylvain, I like everything in your vid, but what you already identified, no what they call Boomshaka (sliding front hand up the boom). You trapped yourself at the end. Everything else was great. You'll get there.


Here's my carve / strap to strap jibe. (as one way to skin a cat)

Carve.
Boomshaka (sliding front hand up the boom)
Flip the sail in the "vacuum" with patent pending underhand flip. "COE" of sail, or to keep it simple, mast leans to the inside of carve throughout.
Step right into front strap. Sail away on new course.





Sylvain, one thing you can do is dry-land practice over the winter. Drill a hole in a piece of wood for your base plate (so you don't bury it in the mud). And practice hand, footwork, flip sequences with a rigged sail. A light breeze at your back is good.

Beautiful jibes. I think it is the center of gravity (CoG) of the sail rather than the COE (center of effort,which is the location of the main force vector of the powered up sail)that is the critical factor. Thought experiment: If you add a pound of dead weight to the tail of your boom, the CoG changes, but the COE doesn't (or at most minimally). Your boom will come around much more slowly (rotational inertia) but you will probably have to swing the mast much more to the outside of the turn in order to keep the CoG in the same spot (I agree that it remains inside the turn, the degree depending on the centrifugal force). COE of a sail usually doesn't come into play during a jibe because the sail is not fully powered up and some sails go completely flat. The physics nerd in me has totally come out due to this thread.

Thanks, David. I was only using Kevin's "COE" as a reference point of the axis / pivot line where the sail rotates (a spot farther back from the mast). I'm with ya on the CoG and your tail weight thought. Another thing to think about is a totally flat sail opposed to one with draft up front seems to rotate at a different spot.

Aside from that, in step jibes the sail goes outside the carve and comes back in, as Kevin said.
With carve / strap to strap jibes the sail stays inside the carve.

COE is important for learning jibes because we're not planing all the way through and out of a jibe when we're learning. In other words, there's a transition from board steering to sail steering that happens sometime when we go from initiating to completing a jibe. Coming off a plane mid jibe you have to revert to sail steering techniques involving COE and CLR.

COE and COG for a lot of sails happen to align vertically somewhat over the mast base (I think), but that would change if you added weight to the back of your boom like David says.... maybe he should test this next time he goes out!

I remember my first ever jibe on a Bic Saxo 270 & 6.5 and my first time planing through a jibe on a Seatrend All Star.

Everybody here is right. None of the forces completely disappear, the COE kicks in some force during the jibe which would explain a difference between a flat versus drafty sail for optimal position during the sail flip (I'm trying to guess but can't figure it out). You can keep the mast inside the carve for strap-to-strap because the early release moves the CoG earlier. How might this all translate to my actual (still not great) jibing? Very simply, I think I'm going to try to think of the boom head moving in a circular path as it flips (clockwise R front hand, counterclockwise L front hand I think), keeping the CoG in the same place relative to mast base. Big sail, big circle, and vice-versa. I can't believe I am doing this at the same time as critiquing academic journal article on US drug prices.

Ha, found a sequence! I realize that my style is kinda slalomy so a bit different then anybody else’s but let’s try a comparison anyway. I’m doing this in a parking lot at O’Hare /not driving / and the coverage sucks so I’ll do it in steps.

This is all very helpful
Kevin, your jibe looks so perfect. This is impressive
Greg, Eric, Reid, I get what you are saying with the hand. , Reid, your video supports what you say... I’m excited to try. Let go of back end earlier, and be more proactive with the front hand to force the sail to rotate on its axis.

Ady: cruel comparison but helpful. So I appreciate it!

There is so much to think about... can’t wait to build good muscle memory

When it gets too cold to practice in your backyard... You can set up something every wife loves: The Living Room Jibatorium.

Manu's Windsurfing Blog

Sylvain wrote:
Thanks. I actually couldn’t finish what I started, I got busy and just came home right now . Time for some analysis. I’ll start with one of my favorite Jem Hall quotes, or was it somebody else’s, anyway here it is: “ If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail! “

I think you did exactly that, you skipped the preparation phase entirely. If you remember I posted that you don’t enter the jibe with enough speed but then I got tricked by the spike in the gps speed tracker and deleted my post prematurely. When I took the screenshots today I realized that the top of the spike is actually a plateau which tells me that you’ve sailed at a relatively constant speed for a while probably beam reach and then started the jibe from that point of sail without bearing away. I rarely sail beam reach, it’s usually bearing away into broad reach to accelerate and get planing then turning into close reach to make up for the lost ground and finally bearing away again if I jibe at the end of the leg. Most windsurfing coaches will tell you that’s fundamental to turn downwind into broad reach before a jibe to be able to shift your apparent wind direction so far forward that your sail stops pulling and becomes light and easy to flip. You missed to do it, but you still could have been able to save the jibe if you have oversheeted like I’m doing in my second picture while leaning forward at the same time to balance. To be able to do that you have to slide your back hand as far down the boom as you can which requires your front hand to be close to the harness lines. In overpowered situations you may even want to lay down the rig to spill as much power as possible. You didn’t do any of that, but there’s still a chance to save the jibe by flipping early for a strap to strap like Reid, but that’s advanced stuff and you better don’t mess with it yet.

The consequence of this failures is a powered rig in the worst possible moment when you bounce over steep chop straight downwind loosing speed rapidly. It makes you pull hard with your entire body which in turn weighs down the tail and goes from bad to worse. It’s like pushing the gas and break pedals at the same time. The pull of the rig is so strong that it literally disables you. You can’t slide your front hand close to the mast and you can’t switch your feet. It can go only 2 ways from this point, it’s either your tired hands give up and you drop the rig like in this video or you get thrown off if you keep holding .

The only other faults that I notice is where you are looking at, but that’s small mistake compared to the failure to prepare. How am I so confident about this? Because I did the same mistakes until not long ago and the memory is still fresh in me unlike the crusty salties in this forum . Oops, that didn’t sound right for fresh water oldies. How about greened muddies

PS: Any tips for maintaining a nice hair like yours?

Sylvain wrote:
If I recall my painful years of golfing, the more I tried to correct all the things I did wrong all at once, the more I screwed it up. Same with the jibes: I need to compartmentalize and focusing one issue at a time (like sliding hand near boom clip, etc.) during multiple jibes, has been pretty helpful for me. It's just focused repetition. I'm still not that good at jibing but I can stay dry more often now

Working on one issue at a time has helped me to put the puzzle pieces together with less frustration. I found more satisfaction with small incremental wins versus keeping in mind the repeated jibe fails. Anyhow, for sure everyone learns differently... As long as this stays fun, that's what matters.

Sylvain wrote:

"BoomShakas": Step Jibe and Carve Jibe(strap to strap) freeze frames.


Kevin's Step Jibe. Front hand slides up near the mast within the carve just before the flip. @ 0:18.




My Carve Jibe(strap to strap). Front hand slides up near the mast within the carve just before the flip. @ 0:20, 1:01 and 4:03




You're going to "BoomShaka" no matter what kind of jibe you do. These are the best Step Jibe and Carve Jibe(strap to strap) vids on the net. Pause'em, slowmo'em, study the shit out of them. Set-up a Living Room Jibatorium.

Nice shot. Referring to an earlier post, Kevin is still holding the boom with the back hand while the front hand has moved all the way forward, it looks like Reid has just let go with the back hand. On various videos, I see some variation in technique among good jibers, some releasing the back hand first, then sliding the front hand, some almost simultaneous, and others sliding the front hand first. Couldn't really see any consistent pattern of the timing based on turn radius, sail size, or other factor. IMO it seems having the back hand still on might help in 2 ways, helping you to shove your front hand forward, and making you move it forward early. Instructional videos don't address this particular aspect of the timing, nor do they mention Kevin's point about the circular path of sail (on its CoG axis) during the rotation.