| Disclaimer: I believe I should strongly advise you to get an instructor to teach you how to windsurf. Especially if it’s going to be your first attempt ever at windsurfing. Windsurfing is a very technical sport and you can make a lot of mistakes and go through a lot of frustration if you try to learn on your own or strain a friendship if you accept having a friend teach you. All the material I give away is intended mainly to serve as a refresh so you can correct any bad habits that might have sneaked in throughout the unsupervised sessions and hindering your progress. |
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Safety
Windsurfing is a sport that is done in a potentially hostile environment. This means that before we hit the water it is important that we must take the time to ensure that we will be getting back to shore. There are many thorough articles on safety out there and I will write one myself shortly. For now keep in mind these checklist items:
- Check your windsurf gear to make sure it isn’t faulty and breaks while on the water
- Avoid windsurfing in offshore winds (if you do, keep close to the shore, if possible where you can still stand)
- Don’t go windsurfing alone. If there are others on the water they can get help if need be
- Wear clothing that will keep you warm if you need to swim for at least an hour
Check out the safety recommendations at learntowindsurf.com or check out my post on safety in windsurfing for more info.
How to Windsurf
Now to the actual learning how to windsurf:
Before we start, we must first determine the direction of the wind and adjust the board and sail position accordingly. The board and sail will be put into the T-position. This means that the board will be set out 90º to the wind, and the sail 90º to the board pointing downwind.
Now with one foot on either side of the mast-foot we grab the up-haul and making sure we stand up straight start pulling up the sail. Why the back straight? The sail can be anywhere from 2.5 to 6m2 big, maybe even bigger. All that surface is filled with water which makes it very heavy. Trying to lift this through our back instead of the legs can and will hurt your back. Pressing up with your legs is a simple way to avoid pulling a muscle or doing other serious damage to your back. This factor is usually something we forget about quickly, especially as we get tired. Try not to forget! The easiest way to pull out the sail is to stand up straight and to turn our shoulders and move up the up-haul line with our hands until the mast is in our reach with the next shoulder turn.
We pull the sail up until the point where the sail is only just touching the water. As long as the sail still has contact with the water, it has some resistance and gives us something to hold on to. This is especially useful if we are in a location with waves which are going to knock us off balance. This is our base position. Here we will control the board position, making sure that we maintain the T-position. The next step is a sequence of steps. Memorize these three words like a mantra for this moment: Mast. Feet. Boom
- Mast. In one shoulder turn we grab the mast with the front hand just under the boom (if it is more comfortable to grab above the boom, your boom is probably too high). Important at this point is to make sure that the sail comes to us and not vice-versa. If we lean forward, our centre of gravity is no longer over the centre of the board and the sail will pull us forward and down. Later, as we get better, the hand will not go to the mast but directly to the boom.
- Feet. As soon as we have the mast in the front hand our feet must move towards the back of the board. Leaving the front foot in front of the mast does two things. Firstly it hinders you going as far back with your weight as you actually need to. Secondly, it opens the possibility of falling in the water, your foot still on the board and the mast slamming down on your shin. Sounds pretty painful indeed. I haven’t actually seen this happen yet but I was told this and I see a realistic possibility of it happening.
- Boom. Once we are behind the mast-foot we only need to grab the boom with our back hand. I always recommend starting off using only two fingers to pull it towards you because what I have seen time and time again is that everything goes well until we close the sail too quickly and the sudden pull of the wind sending us flying forward. Close the sail softly and start getting used to the power in it increasing and decreasing as we close and open the sail. As we become more familiar with the effects of pulling and letting go we can do this more aggressively but first it is best to go easy on the back hand.
Why not move the feet after grabbing the boom? Mainly because once we have grabbed the boom, we will not be able to move our feet. At least at the beginning. This is for two reasons: On the one hand, once we have power in the sail, you are going to be constantly on the verge of falling over forwards, using a lot of resistance in the toes. This is because the pivot point (or centre of rotation) is the mast-foot which we are going to have between our feet. On the other hand, we are going to be quite concentrated on controlling the power in the sail and will not really have any concentration space left for focussing on the feet as well.
Click on image to see in full size
Now to the actual sailing position: There are three main things we want to focus on when windsurfing. These will remain true throughout all our windsurfing life, regardless of our level.
- Front arm straight. This is the most important of the three and can be considered the golden rule of windsurfing. A lot of energy can be saved, and a lot of progress can be sped up if we follow this rule. I will explain in a future post why keeping the front arm straight is so important. For now, just trust me on this and don’t forget it.
- Weight on the back foot. With low winds this one isn’t crucial, but as the wind gets stronger and we sail on any course but upwind, keeping the weight on the back foot becomes more and more important. I will also explain this in a future post.
- Keeping your body straight. I see this one very often. Even people that have been sailing for ages use this “monkey stance”. It has got to be the most ineffective sailing position and least aesthetically pleasing. I insist you keep this one in mind: your front ankle, knee, hips and shoulder should all be in one line. This helps keep your weight on the back foot and forces you to use your bodyweight to counter the pull of the sail. More on the correct body position while sailing.
To this I would add that we want to try and hold the mast so that it is perfectly vertical and our hips facing the direction we are moving in. These two are important but the first three are to be corrected first as we don’t want doing them wrong to become a bad habit. One last thing: Look forward! Just as when we are driving, riding a bike, skating, skiing or whatever, we must see where we are going to avoid collision with others and obstacles 😉
Recap important notes: – Back straight when pulling up the sail. – Sail must come to you, not vice-versa. – The order: Mast. Feet. Boom. – Golden Rule: Front arm straight. – Weight on the back foot. – Keep your body straight. – Look forward
If you want to stop there are 3 ways to do so. Check out this post to see what they are.
The next step will be learning how to turn so that we can sail in both directions without having to get in the water to turn all the gear around.
Hello buddy I really like to learn windsurfing. Im living by the cove and how much is the cost of winsurf board
Hi Albert. That’s awesome that you want to get into windsurfing. Here is an article which will help you with regards to what board to get when you get one.
http://howtowindsurf101.com/first-windsurf-board/
With regards to how much they cost, this is an excerpt from a another article: ” When new they (the entire kit) can be anywhere within the 1000€ to 2500€ range. An in used condition the gear will be somewhere around the 500€ to 800€”
Around 1000-2000$
Best guide I have found. Thank you!
Thank you for the kind feedback Michal 🙂
Hi Arne,
Great site for windsurfers,
I used to windsurf as a teenager and then stopped, now I’ve picked up an old style board and rig and just cannot seem to get sailing, i manage to get the rig up but it stops there, any ideas?
Cheers
Hey Carlo. Thats great that you have gotten back into it 🙂
What do you mean with that you cant get sailing? Do you not move forwards? Do you lose balance? Does the board turn into the wind so that a few seconds later tge wind comes from the other side of the sail and pushes you in backwards?
There are quite a few things that can be done wrong, those are just a few common ones.
Let me know exactly what happens either here in the commens of via the contact form and I will get back to you 😉
Lets get this sorted out and get you sailing!
Hi Arne,
It’s the transition between getting the boom up and having forward motion, I either over correct and fall backwards or the mast will fall towards the bow and the board turns around into the wind or the back of the board where I have my weight on submerges in water, it’s like I need training wheels to get going or outriggers maybe as it seems the board is an advanced racing type? 285 open ocean are some of the stickers on it.
Cheers
ciao Carlo
ma il corso ed il video corso è in lingua italiana ?
grazie
bruno
Hi. Great article!! I wonder if you could answer my question? I got into windsurfing about 8 years ago and got to an intermediate level – just about planing. I since haven’t windsurfed for about 3 years and the last couple of times I’ve gone out I have had a problem whereby I’m stood on the board in the ‘safe’ / neutral position and once I pull the boom in the board heads up wind, the sail gets between me and the wind and it pushes me backwards. Only way to counter it is if I quickly push the sail forward – as if I’m going into a tack. I’m sure I’m missing something basic but it’s bugging me! 🙂
Many thanks
Andy
Hey Andy! Sure thing! The most common thing that happens is that when we sheet in we pull the back hand down instead of keeping the boom horizontal. This of course causes the board to turn into the wind really fast. Try that. If it isn’t that make sure that you are not pushing down on the boards tail so that point doesn’t act as a pivot point which makes the board turn even faster.
I hope this helps 🙂
Great, thanks Arne – will check that!!
Yes, one of the biggest and most immediate challenges for almost every beginner is to keep the sailboard from rounding up and holding a steady tack. To keep it on a straight and steady tack, you have to apply equal force forward (where the foot of the mast pushes at a downward and downwind angle into the board transferring power from the sail into the board) and aft (where you place your feet on the rear portion of the board to also transfer power from the sail into the board) of the imaginary pivot point on the sailboard. Put greater force on the aft and the board starts to turn upwind. Place greater force on the board via the foot of the mast, the board starts to turn downwind.
A better way to think of this is that as you sheet in the sail, you’ll feel a specific point on the sail (point of center of effort) which feels like the point where the sail might be invisibly connected to a tow rope pulled by a boat running parallel, downwind, and ahead of your board. You’ll want to place your hands on the boom where the center of effort rests right between your left and right hand so that it feels like you’re holding onto the handles of a water skiing tow line. To keep the board moving on a straight tack, you need to keep this center of effort directly over the current pivot point on the board. So regardless of how much force you’re exerting with the foot of the mast and your feet, focus on moving the center of effort forward or aft by raking the mast/sail toward the nose or the tail to steer the board.
Here’s the tricky part. How much force the mast exerts into the board to propel it forward depends on the angle (bow-aft, upwind-down wind) at which the mast is held in relation to the board. How much force your feet exert on the tail end of the board depends on how much you sheet in the sail and your body weight. Furthermore, the natural pivot point on the board shifts more and more towards the tail of the board as you increase board speed because more and more of the nose of the board begins to plane and lift out of the water, thus reducing opposing force from water friction.
When the center board is down, you’ll need to keep the board flat and level (left-right) to hold a straight tack. Angling the windward side of the board down (by placing more of your weight on the windward edge of the board) will make the board turn downwind. Angling the board towards the downwind side (by placing your foot closest to the tail closer to the downwind edge of the board and placing more weight on that foot) will turn the board upwind if and when you’re relying on the centerboard to steer the board under light wind conditions.
Hope this helps! 🙂
Hi Arne, very helpful site. I’m just getting into windsurfing (52 years young) and am having a hard time tuning my sail as per you instructions on a previous post. No matter how hard I pull on the down-haul I can’t get the top third of the sail to be loose. It always seems to be quite taunt. I have a 6.5m² Chinook sail with a 460 cm mast, and the sail is rated for a 462 cm mast. Might this be the problem?
Hi Arne,
YOU DO IT GREAT JOB
just check the begining of lesons you share with us…..thats a brilliant…at least I spend thursday and friday on my beloved spot in MEDULIN,Istria,CROATIA and enjoy a verry strong BURA ,whats make me first day a such problems with my skill level but in friday was superb.I realy go thru all steps you posted this days but and have in mind to this year want to improve my skills to best level as is posible.I start I can say for three years,but not participate to any cours with instructor,and last year was only three days on water.If I tell you I am addicted to windsurf, whats is for my family and friends strange because I am in age of 65.So please let me know and inform me about this year courses you organise:where,when and short info about prices,accomodations….is then some arrangement all inclusive or I find this and only participate on cours.
Best regards and greatings from Croatia.Hope to join you on the water.
Darko Defranceschi,prof.
I’m glad I found you. This article is fantastic. Even if it is only the basics, it is fantastic the way you explained it in its simples form. I can see what I need to improve.
Hi Arne, Thanks for all the good info and appreciate your efforts. I’m going to disagree with one point, perhaps an interesting conversation will come from it: For beginner windsurfers, it’s much more important to keep the mast vertical than it is to keep the front arm straight. In fact, all the basics should be first taught in the “Control Position” with the front hand close and elbow at your side. Practically & in my experience this makes everything far easier for students and gets them riding around on their own (by that I mean not getting downwinded) within the first 2 or 3 hours. Once the student can tack, jibe, ride around with control & go upwind, then it’s time to start showing how to do the figure 7 stance. And when they’re riding around with power and things start to get out of control, then quickly going back to the basic Control Position brings everything back to a manageable level so they can continue riding instead of wiping out or shooting off downwind. No need for Walks of Shame after the first hour or two 🙂 Please see this video where I discus this point in more detail:
Thanks!
Yes, I agree. At the beginning, hold the front hand close to the body with the elbow down so that the mast it as upright as possible so that the weight of the sail is literally resting and balanced over the mast foot. This minimizes the energy needed to hold the sail upright due to not only the weight of the sail, but also the wind blowing on the sail. Straighten the front arm after you have sheeted in and the board is moving. Once I learned how to balance the sail over the mast foot and leaning it into the wind, I was able to barely hold the sail and mast while sitting down on my knees in the board (just for fun).
Good morning from Turkey. First of all thank you because I learned too much from your lessons, I can say I am intermediate surfer now. My question is about inflatable windsurf boards. I am planning to buy a inflatable windsurf board (STX windsurf 280). As an intermediate surfer, can I progress on inflatable windsurf board? Or Should I stick to old fashioned hard boards?
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