dealing with chop?

[dwhite468]

Cheers for all the advice! Very helpful.

I managed to get out yesterday on some flat water this time. I changed my fins over to the Cabrinha fins fro my old board. It felts a lot better that the other ones, much more like my old board. I didn't stay out for long as I had injured my ankle surfing the day before, but the short session I had felt much better.

One thing I'm pretty sure I have wrong is my foot position, I read a lot that my feet should be right on the rail with only the ends of my feet in the straps? When I try this though I always end up getting my heels dragging in the water and pulling me in? Could this be because i'm not keeping the board flat enough?

To be honest I think what I need is a lot more time in the water, I get the impression riding these boards well doesn't come over night? Thats what I love about it all though, the challenge of getting it right.

I have attached a picture of me from yesterday, if you can spot anything obvious i'm doing wrong then please let me know.

Cheers

[naishdude]

Cheers for all the advice! Very helpful.

I managed to get out yesterday on some flat water this time. I changed my fins over to the Cabrinha fins fro my old board. It felts a lot better that the other ones, much more like my old board. I didn't stay out for long as I had injured my ankle surfing the day before, but the short session I had felt much better.

One thing I'm pretty sure I have wrong is my foot position, I read a lot that my feet should be right on the rail with only the ends of my feet in the straps? When I try this though I always end up getting my heels dragging in the water and pulling me in? Could this be because i'm not keeping the board flat enough?

To be honest I think what I need is a lot more time in the water, I get the impression riding these boards well doesn't come over night? Thats what I love about it all though, the challenge of getting it right.

I have attached a picture of me from yesterday, if you can spot anything obvious i'm doing wrong then please let me know.

Cheers

Pretty difficult to say from the pic, but l fear you put a bit too much pressure on your backfoot.
Try to balance your weight over both feet a bit more.
Your upper body can Be more on the outside with both legs stretched out, but this depends on the windforce.

Have a look at some youtube or Vimeo movies, especially the ones that are on this site, about the african course race cup, you will get a better idea about positioning yourself!

Good luck and good fun!!

Dude

[gmb13]

I know this probably sounds crazy, but if your fins are too big can you cut some off the bottom and sand them back to smooth?

I have a 2011 Cab 59cm wide board with quad powerboxes. It came with come pretty tiny fins, I think they are 24cm rear and 26cm front.

I saw a guy was selling a quad powerbox set of Rista fins from a 65 cm wide RRD board, so I took a chance and bought them. They are 33.5 rear and 37.5 front. The board goes upwind much better with the new fins and is good in light winds, but like you said, it rears up out of the water uncontrollably when I get powered.

So do you think I could trace out the shape of the fin, then cut 3 or 4 cms off the bottom of each fin and sand it down to the original shape or would that totally screw them up?

No you cannot just cut off the tips of a fin and sand it down.

The Tip of the fin is one of the most important parts os a performance fin.

Also just tracing the outine and cutting it out, will not do. The profile of the fin is really important too.

[gmb13]

Cheers for all the advice! Very helpful.

I managed to get out yesterday on some flat water this time. I changed my fins over to the Cabrinha fins fro my old board. It felts a lot better that the other ones, much more like my old board. I didn't stay out for long as I had injured my ankle surfing the day before, but the short session I had felt much better.

One thing I'm pretty sure I have wrong is my foot position, I read a lot that my feet should be right on the rail with only the ends of my feet in the straps? When I try this though I always end up getting my heels dragging in the water and pulling me in? Could this be because i'm not keeping the board flat enough?

To be honest I think what I need is a lot more time in the water, I get the impression riding these boards well doesn't come over night? Thats what I love about it all though, the challenge of getting it right.

I have attached a picture of me from yesterday, if you can spot anything obvious i'm doing wrong then please let me know.

Cheers

Yes. If the picture shows how you normally ride the board, then you are not flat enough.

Flat is also not really the right word when riding these boards. Your windward rail should actually be lifting off the water a bit.

Have a look at this picture to see how the board should be in the water.

In the next picture you can see the correct body and leg position for Upwind. Legs straight. Weight toward the back on the board.

--
Gunnar

[dwhite468]

Oh yeah, good shot of the up wind position. I have been watching the racing in Africa and couldn't work out why they were leaning so far back but that photo shows it really well

So I'm guessing to keep the board flat its more toe pressure?

It's looking like there might be some wind for me tomorrow so ill try and put these tips into practice.

Cheers

[ozchrisb]

What happens if your fins are a good tune up with your board i have ristas but are all dinged up! Hahaha i hit the sand beach once going crazy in downwind another time i banged them going up the stars and dinged them and the last time i hit accidentaly a turtle jybing turtle was ok but left my rear fin super dinged in the middle hahaha

If you really think it's an issue contact Paolo Rista, you can send the fins back and they'll fix them for a small fee.

[kinchencool]

What happens if your fins are a good tune up with your board i have ristas but are all dinged up! Hahaha i hit the sand beach once going crazy in downwind another time i banged them going up the stars and dinged them and the last time i hit accidentaly a turtle jybing turtle was ok but left my rear fin super dinged in the middle hahaha

If you really think it's an issue contact Paolo Rista, you can send the fins back and they'll fix them for a small fee.

Yes I will do that thanks tho

[kinchencool]

It happened to me too onlynwith tectonics

[gmb13]

Oh yeah, good shot of the up wind position. I have been watching the racing in Africa and couldn't work out why they were leaning so far back but that photo shows it really well

So I'm guessing to keep the board flat its more toe pressure?

It's looking like there might be some wind for me tomorrow so ill try and put these tips into practice.

Cheers

Hi,

No. Toe Pressure is not the way.

You need to push with your heel. Basically you hook your toes into the Footstrap ( they are lifting away from the board) and push your heel away from you.

Think of it like this: You are pushing the Leeward Rail into the water using the Windward rail.

If you push with your toes all you are doing is transferring the kites power onto the deck.

On a nowind day. Go into the water or pool with your board. Set it on the water and push the Rail near the back with your hand. See how the board reacts to when you push it in different places and which way you push.

--
Gunnar

[dwhite468]

cool, cheers for the tips, ill give that a go.