When you are on the water and there isn’t enough wind to start planning you can do one of 2 things:
1 Start pumping to get onto the plane
2 Go to the beach, enjoy the sun and wait until the wind increases
I'm off to the beach.
When is this windforecast going to materialise?
Sail closed, waiting for gusts to come. (see picture above)
When there is a gust coming I open the sail and put the mast forward to catch the gust. Then sheet in and plane by pushing the board downwind. (see picture above)
Planing through lulls
You are surfing with a good speed and nice power in your sail. The board is planning. Suddenly you see a big lull (no more rinkles on the water) but you want to continue to plane.
I take all the weight of of my feet and hang on the boom to put as much mastfootpressure as possible. Also try to keep the sail open and do not oversheet. (Look at the surfer to the left. He is not putting his weight on the mastfoot, the board sinks and stops planning)
When you see a new gust coming, open up the sail even more to get maximum airflow over the sail. When you feel the sailpower increasing, put your weight back over you feet. Start to sheet in the sail and accelerate again.
(pictures taken with a windspeed of 12 to 15 knots)
Kit : Exocet Warp Slalom 73, Select Viper RS 45, NeilPryde RS6 8.4, Mystic Waist Harness
