GO FOR THE GUSTOS -  Unless you're severely overpowered, try to start a planing jibe in a puff - not a lull.  In flat water, speed is your friend when it comes to jibing. Extra speed helps two ways.  One - high momentum will help carry you thru a jibe. Two - since you'll be traveling faster than the true windspeed, the sail will automatically de-power as you de-accelerate, which in turn makes it easy to flip the sail.

GET SHORT - I'm not going to tell you to bend your legs more.  I repeat:  I'm not going to tell you about not bending your knees enough.  Knee bend gives you a lower center of gravity (for increased stability) and better shock absorption when going over chop. Bend your knees enough so you can almost look under the boom when carving a jibe. Try for 90 degrees of bend.  Grab a magazine and look at the pros knees in all the pictures. I've never heard of a person having a problem of too much knee bend. I dare you to try and bend your knees too much. Try and get someone to video a few of your jibes. How much are your knees really bending?

SPIN - Don't Hinge. Can you imagine the difference between the way a revolving door spins versus a hinged door?  Most people incorrectly let the sail rotate around the mast instead of spinning around the center of effort (or very near). The secret to getting the sail to spin instead of hinging around the mast, is to PULL as well as push.  If you just push or let go of the back hand only, the sail will hinge around the mast.  Try to pull the mast forward with the old front hand as well as pushing with the back hand to get the sail to spin in your sail releases.  Most hinge sail releases result in the mast falling to the outside of the turn which causes the board to round-up and complete the dreadful “J” jibe.

BROAD TO BROAD - Most failed jibes end up on a pinch or heading slightly upwind.  The jibe should be completed onto a broad reach instead.  Go into the jibe on a broad reach and finish on a broad reach.  How do you finish the jibe earlier?  Go into the jibe with plenty of speed, which will aid an early sail flip.

QUIT WAITING - One of the things that keeps people from flipping the sail soon enough, is the obvious tardiness of the sail flip.  Why?  There is a short period during a jibe when you'll be traveling the same speed downwind as the true windspeed.  Here's the scenario: During this short period there is no pull in the sail...which means the sail won't help hold you on the board...Oh my gosh!...I’d better wait a little longer to flip the sail...I’m slowing down now as the the wind  catches-up and refills the sail...Now the sail is pulling on my arms again and I can counter-balance against the pull to help keep my balance...but now there's a lot of awkward pull from the clew first sail and Ill just instinctively dig in the tail to counter this...which slows me down more...which puts more pull in the sail...which I counter with more tail dig...which slows me down even more...which makes the pull even harder...until I either fall or finally let go of the sail.   How to avoid the “vicious circle of jibe?”  Flip/let go the instant the sail has no pressure/pull and is de-powered.  This slack time is a blessing. Don't let it pass you up - flip the sail. A good exercise in fast flat water, is to see how soon you can let go of the sail.  Most people already know how long they can hold on ... too long!!

RELEASE ME - Often, people don't let go of rail pressure soon enough when jibing.  The jibe is tentatively initiated with very little rail pressure and progresses to too much rail pressure at the end of the jibe.  This often results in what I call a “J” jibe.  The jibe starts out straight and planing and ends up slow, slogging and overturned. The most successful jibers press on the rail firmly during the first half of the jibe, when there is a lot of board speed and flatten the board (reduce rail pressure) for the second half.  This gets the majority of the carve out of the way while the board has planing speed.  The second half of the jibe is more of a coast than a hard carve.

KILL THE POWER - In order to successfully plane thru a jibe, you have to de-power the sail somehow.  There are two ways to correctly kill the power, or de-power, a sail (sheeting out is not one of them). Outrun the wind - Sounds hard but its not.  You're probably doing it now if you're planing.  Example: In a  twenty MPH breeze, everyone's going 25 MPH. The trick is to carry that speed into a jibe.  If you start out traveling 25 MPH on a reach and wind up going 20 MPH half-way thru the jibe (straight downwind in our example 20 mph wind), there will be no wind, and hence no pull, in the sail. As the jibe progresses, your speed will continue to decrease and the pull in the sail will increase as the wind catches-up.  You see the problem right? Don't wait to flip that sail.  Flip as soon as possible after carving past straight downwind. Otherwise, the pull in the sail will be too much and you'll have to lean back... which kills the speed even faster...which increases the pull... Heard it before, right? Outrunning the wind is the easiest way to learn how to plane thru a jibe on flat water in winds under the mid-twenties. Go into your jibes with mucho speed. Oversheeting  is the second way of “de-powering” the sail. Often this technique is used in conjunction with outrunning the wind or by itself.  Its the only technique that's going to work in near 30 MPH or greater winds, on confused & choppy waters.  Oversheeting is your KEY to highwind jibing.  You're never going to be able to lean your sail and body forward and into the turn, unless you learn how to oversheet.  Its easier to oversheet when you're traveling close to the speed of the wind.  You can start to learn oversheeting even when outrunning the wind.  Before you get to the point when there is no wind in the sail (mid-jibe), give the back hand a little tug to oversheet the sail.  By starting the oversheet pull progressively sooner in the jibe, you will eventually be able to start the oversheet motion almost as soon as the jibe initiation.  This opens up the door to tighter and tighter jibes. Jibing between swell/waves (instead of bouncing over the tops out-of-control) will be in your bag of tricks. Oversheeting is the only way to jibe when there is too much wind to outrun the wind (most bodies of water get choppier with increasing wind and will limit your board speed to near 30 MPH).  How to oversheet? See “Cheater Bar” section.  You will often have to be patient when oversheeting the sail. When truly powered, it will take a little turning in the jibe to decrease your apparent wind enough to allow the oversheet.  Just be patient and commit to the forward and in, lean of the sail and body.  After you oversheet the sail, you need to usually let the clew out a little or you may become backwinded. Don't become so focused in oversheeting that you forget the early release and overturn the board (See “Broad to Broad”).

CHEATER BAR - If you have a really stubborn bolt or nut to loosen, what do you do?  Increase your leverage. Get a cheater bar.  If you're having a hard time oversheeting the sail, in order to de-power the sail, what do you do?  You use the equivalent of a cheater bar - Move your back hand to the rear of the boom at least 12 inches.  Try for 18 inches.  The bigger the sail and the more powered-up you are - the bigger the cheater bar (reach farther back with that rear hand).

REVERSE OR STEP?  - I personally feel that a step-jibe is harder to master than a reverse-foot jibe.  Some might think I have this reversed.  I'm right and they're wrong.  Sure a step-jibe is the jibe to learn for racing, but it requires you to switch your feet during a crucial part of the jibe (the sail flip). It also becomes harder and harder to step-jibe in higher winds.  So why not learn a technique that you can use to plane thru a jibe in the broadest range of wind first - the reverse-foot step jibe.  After you get the reverse-jibe wired, then learn how to step-jibe like the Robbys and Bjorns.  In a reverse-jibe, you flip the sail and then you step.  Often these two happen very close together.  Almost simultaneously, but the sail flip happens first.  This allows you to continue (and feel) the carve with the feet, while you flip the sail.  Once the sail has been caught on the new tack and power starts to build-up in the sail, then untwist your legs.  Its a good exercise to try and see how long you can sail on the new tack with your feet in the reversed stance.  Its even cooler to try and jibe back to the original direction without ever having changed your foot stance.  From personal experience, learning to reverse-foot jibe (flip then step)  was 50% of learning how to plane thru a jibe in higher winds (25 mph or greater).

SHIFT GEARS - Too bad jibing technique for non-planing and planing conditions doesn't shift like an automatic transmission.  Remember, in light winds (non-planing) you're actually reverse steering with the feet.  Pushing down on a rail helps the board to turn in the opposite direction. This is true in both short and long boards - very obvious with a daggerboard down on a longboard.  Most people forget this on a shortboard in non-planing conditions, or when they biff a planing jibe. In non-planing conditions, the dominant turning force is the sail - not the rail.  Leaning a sheeted-in sail to the outside of the turn is what most helps turn the board.  This is the opposite of a planing jibe, where the sail needs to be leaned into the turn.

TOW - One more obvious tip.  Time on the Water is better than time on the shore watching.
Go get wet !!    --  Barry Ritchey

Rail Pressure and Jibing by Bob Dow (from rec.windsurfing newsgroup)
Experienced windsurfer (15 years) takes lessons and works on basic jibing technique over two summers. Has epiphany about rail pressure. Seeks converts. 
Proper rail pressure is vital in jibing. The benefits are substantial, and proper rail pressure is straightforward to achieve. The things you do to get it are all low speed, conscious movements. How do you do it?
1. Take some lessons from an instructor who will sail behind you and give real-time, on the water feedback. I worked with Jason Voss, who's giving a clinic/board test in Maui Oct 6-20.
2. Adopt proper posture on entry: Knees bent, back straight, head up, front arm straight, back arm sheeting in. Imagine you are trying to align all your weight above the carving foot.
3. Raise the front foot up onto the balls of the foot or even the toes during the carve. Don't think about it, just do it. Explanation later.
Several years ago I started updating my boards, moving from older stuff to current gear. All of a sudden I wasn't carrying as much speed through my jibes, and in overpowering conditions I was spending too much time in the water. My jibes were chimerical. I signed up for some 1:1 lessons with Jason Voss, taking 10 lessons over two summers. Jason sails right behind you, yelling at you to straighten your back, pull in your butt, etc. You can feel the changes immediately.
The epiphany occurred when Jason yelled "Head up!" just as I was entering a tricky jibe for me, high speed over 1 foot washboard chop. As I raised my head the board started to accelerate instead of slowing down. At the 5 o'clock point I had, no exaggeration, 2X the board speed of previous attempts. I had gotten good rail pressure.
The nice thing about getting good rail pressure is that it comes from proper posture and weight distribution. Minimal coordination, timing, or strength is required. From feet upwards here's what you do:
1. Take the back foot out of the strap and place it on rail. Try to point the back foot more forward than perpendicular to the board. Have your weight centered on the back foot, neither on the balls nor on the heels, but centered.
2. Raise the front foot up onto the balls of the foot or even the toes. This guarantees that all your weight will be on the back foot. It feels weird, but works. It also has the effect of freeing the front foot from the strap so you can switch more easily when the time comes.
3. Knees flexed comfortably.
4. Butt over the back foot.
5. Back and neck straight. Reference has been made in this forum to "curtsy, not bow." That means just dip the knees, no bend in the waist. Don't bow.
6. Front arm straight, back arm sheeted in. Mast pointed towards the inside of the turn. You feel like you are "over" the boom.
7. Keep your head up, pointed where you want to go.
The benefits of this are numerous: board feels slippery and accelerates quickly as you jibe into a gust. The board is much less affected by chop. It's on a steeper angle and slices through chop like butter. Watch out for getting air on those swell backs that used to slow you down. More board speed preserved means more room for error on sail flip and foot switch. More board speed preserved means fewer rounded up endings and much less energy expended getting on a plane again. Overpowered jibing becomes far easier.
What happens to the sailor when he or she tries jibing while overpowered without correct rail pressure? In an overpowered jibe, board speed across the water is most likely less than wind speed. Apparent wind builds up quickly from behind as the downwind turn is initiated, pulling the arms and body forward and trying to pry the sail open. The board accelerates sluggishly. The bottom of the board feels sticky. It feels un-safe to resist the pull of the sail, and the sailor uncommits, letting the sail open up. As the sail opens up it catches more wind from behind, pulling the body forward, straightening out the carve, and now sinking the front rail, slowing the board down and thus increasing apparent wind from behind again. Now the sailor is in a vicious circle which will end with surrender or, in the limiting case, a spectacular maneuver where the board stops suddenly but the rider continues on through the air at something like 25 mph, and it's just unfortunate that this trick has no name.
When using correct rail pressure, the sailor adopts the correct posture and begins to turn downwind. He pays special attention to feet: front heel lifted, and weight centered over back foot. The board accelerates instantly. If it feels sticky, odds are that weight is too far forward and he rocks back a little, making sure his back is straight and his head is up. With a gradual initiation the board accelerates so quickly that there is never a lot of scary force from behind on the sail, which allows the sailor to keep the sail sheeted in. He feels like he is secure, comfortably sitting on top of the back foot and waiting for the board to go fast enough downwind to produce that nice feeling of neutrality in the sail when he can flip/step or vice versa. If there is a big gust during the carve, he holds his posture, knowing that the board will accelerate quickly and neutralize the gust. It's very choppy but it doesn't feel like it. It's fun. He switches, flattening the board quickly and exits on a broad reach, with enough board speed that he can get organized without experiencing heavy wind forces on the rig. He hooks in and is soon back on a beam reach. Much excellent advice has been given in this forum about jibing, and there has been some thoughtful advice about rail pressure in particular. This poster believes that concentrating on rail pressure exclusively for a few weeks can pay big benefits in preserving board speed and improving overpowered jibing. Give it a try!

FIXED HARNESS LINES ARE FOR PEOPLE WITH FIXED MINDS:
--  By Dr. Gus Ting    (published in the Mar. '99 newsletter)
That's right. If you just blinked, the bold statement once again, fixed length harness lines are for people with fixed minds... or who sail in fixed wind or on a fixed point of sail.  I tempered my initial thought, "... with sick minds."  Has anyone out there ever had to schlog home when the wind went from planing conditions to non planing conditions? What about sailing comfortably powered-up and have the wind pick-up a sail size or two?  Have you ever had to sail on radically different points of sail during a sesh? Is all of your sailing done in the same conditions -- only flat water, only bump, or only wave sailing? And I almost forgot one: Do you ever share a rig with anyone else? If none of the above points covers your sailing, you can go back to sailing in Shangri La or seek counseling. On my top-10 list, adjustable harness lines rank up there close to clamp-on booms, as one of the neatest refinements to our sport. If you don't got 'em, you don't know what you're missing.
Let's take schlogging for example. When you're not planing, the rig is in an upright position. The rig isn't raked back.  This makes for a very high boom to body relationship. When planing, the rig is raked back, which effectively lowers the booms. Fixed lines can't cope with the range. If your lines are short enough for planing, then you have to unhook when schlogging. If they are long enough to schlog with, then they are too long for optimal sail trim & body position.  With adjustable lines, you can run them short for planing and lengthen them to still remain hooked-in if you have to schlog for a long distance or time. When the wind picks up and you either can't get to shore to down size the sail, or just want to keep on sailing, adjustable lines can improve your survivability. As the wind picks up to official overpowered strength, lengthening the lines allows the body to move further away from the sail. The greater distance allows you to better counterbalance the beast that your sail has become. Longer lines also allow you to comfortably sheet out the sail when overpowered. Most of us slow down a bit when overpowered and sheeting out corrects the sail trim. Trust me. Most racer heads have know for years that adjustable lines allow you to optimize for different points of sail. Sailing upwind, or any situation with high apparent wind, works best with short harness lines -- the rig is 'close hauled' to your body. Off the wind sailing, especially overpowered, works best with longer lines. Different water conditions can often demand a different harness line length. High speed sailing in flat water, where the ratio of induced wind to real wind is very high, works best with short lines. Choppy water sailing, when your board speed doesn't exceed the wind speed, can better be handled by just a slight lengthening of the lines. For wave sailing, you can run long lines for outbound schlogging if under powered  or shorter if more powered up. You can also run asymmetrical line lengths (port and starboard lengths aren't the same).  Patience. The lecture is almost over. Kathi and I share a quiver. Before adjustable harness lines (was that the Kennedy or Nixon era?), we would have to change out harness lines or booms if we needed to up or down size sails (thank goodness for velcro-on harness lines). Now, all we have to do is 'adjust' with a small tug or lift of the thumb. Such luxury.   Bottom line: Go out and buy some adjustable harness lines or make your own. You can use your old fixed lines as prairie dog leashes. Or better yet, give them to your friend that lives on Maui, who only uses a 4.4 in perfect 25 knot winds, who only sails the same break day after day, who never ventures up or downwind, and who darn sure doesn't share his (or her) gear.
-- Dr. G.T.  (a.k.a. Barry Ritchey)

Click here to view larger graphics of the modification:

Racing Primer,  Chapter III     by Guy R.
So let's say you've decided that racing will be good for you, and you've prepared Your mind, your body, your spirit, and your equipment.  You show up early, snag the primo parking spot in the shade, and have your gear rigged and tuned to perfection.  You've scored a nice, easy 15 minutes on the water with each rig to warm up, and you're sipping your favorite electrolyte-balanced sports beverage watching the wind fill in nicely, and doing mental imagery for the BIG RACE.  What should you be thinking about?
Allow me to take you on a tour of the hypothetical Course Slalom course; This consists of a start line, with a Committee boat at anchor and a small buoy directly across the wind from it.  Well, most of the time.  Sometimes the Committee deliberately sets the buoy a bit upwind from straight across, just so everybody isn't killing themselves to run into the motor.  Remember Randy?  Sometimes that good thinking is undone by a windshift before the start.  Sometimes the Committee simply doesn't know what they're doing...
Anyhow, it's a good idea to sail over to the Start area early to see what the situation is.  Scope out any anchor lines.  Feel the wind.   Is it straight perpendicular across the line, or is either end of the line a bit further upwind?  That could be useful information.  Keep it to yourself.  While you're there, sail to the boat end of the line.  Look over top of the pin buoy and see if there's a landmark on the horizon you can use to judge where the line is without looking over your shoulder on a crowded start.
The first part of a Course Race after the start is usually an upwind leg. You're free to proceed on either tack for as long as you feel it's best.  That's where experience matters most, and where many races are won or lost.  The final tack to the Layline is particularly important.  Go too soon and you've cost yourself  TWO more tacks.  Go too late and watch several slower competitors slip underneath you to the weathermark as you travel all those extra yards you bought.  'S fun, innit?  Don't worry, you'll see it'll come together soon enough.
Finally, SAIL THE COURSE before the first start.  You'll have the best info on the wind over each section, and whether the reaches have any very tight or very broad legs. This kind of info can save you time or help you make up for any earlier mistakes on the course.  As you go around, measure the time it takes.  This information will also be of value to determine whether the wind is dying or increasing.  This is also a good time to practice visualizing your tactics.
So this seems like a lot to remember.   Like anything else, it's practice.  After a few regattas, all this will become routine.  Now get ready for the first white flag...
-Guy Race it.

Racing Primer Chapter IV:   White Flag     by  Guy R.
     This is the single most exciting time in windsurfing for me.  The Race Committee can't possibly communicate verbally with us after we leave the beach, so the usual convention is to use three flags which signify a specific time before the start of the next heat (or, more plainly, race).  All successful racers need some type of timer, but any cheap waterproof watch will do.  Race organizers use various sequences, but I'll define the one you're likely to see 'round here:
1:  The committee honks and waves to get our attention.  You keep your eyes on the committee boat and sail close enough to hear the prelude to the sequence countdown.

The Weather Leg  Racing Primer  Chapter V   by   Guy R. 
 So you've come away from the Starting line in good shape, your gear is humming along, your fin is biting nicely, your rig is handling smoothly as it sucks you over the oncoming chop to windward.  What Now? 
     Over the years I have personally had the most trouble with my performance to weather.  This is where the smallest imbalance, the slightest tuning error,  or the least  gear choice mistake makes the most difference.   I always seem to FEEL that I can point higher than I am, and yet cranking the board a degree or two upwind almost always spoils the boatspeed and loses me ground. 
     "REAL" sailors speak of Velocity Made Good, or (VMG)  to describe the vector breakdown of your speed multiplied by some factor of the angle to windward of your course.   They can use compasses, knot meters, vector tables and telltales to sit and calculate this stuff as they sip their Courvoisier by the helm.    We windsurfers  just seek "The Groove".  Going fast always seems to oppose pointing high.  At the point where we find the best compromise between them lies The Groove. 
     The thing that ALWAYS seems to be a good guide to finding the groove is the feel I get from the fin.  If my foot pressure is  met by crisp, firm, tight response from the back of the board, that tells me the fin has plenty of lift, and is tracking smoothly and quickly to weather.  If the fin feels mushy, soft, and imprecise,  and the board is waffling upwind and downwind, never settling into a steady groove,then I need to ease up and let the board regain some speed before pushing upwind any more.  Remember too that larger chop means that you have to accept a little less angle due to the loss of contact with the water 
as well as the deceleration and low-lift situation you encounter after each landing.  Ease up, go faster and enjoy the "accidental air" you're sure to get while staying in the groove. 
     Turning your attention to the sail, it's important to try to get the rig "flying freely" while you hang on loosely underneath.  The sail on an efficient upwind course may actually seem to sheet out just a little and "suck you upwind".  You can LET the rig just kiss the leeward footstrap from time to time, but do not try to FORCE it there.  Forceful sheeting in to "close the gap" will NOT get you upwind faster, it will only slow your boatspeed and increase sideways drift.  Your nose may LOOK like it's pointing higher but you will not go where it is pointing, but instead slip sideways to a point much lower and slower than your APPARENT direction of travel. 
     To prove this to yourself, start from a known position (a trap marker or buoy) and sail towards shore at an angle as high as you can comfortably maintain.   Look for an object ashore straight ahead.  See if you actually can stay on that line for a while.  Next, crank the board up a couple of degrees and tighten up on the sail to maintain that angle relative to the wind.  As you hold position, look again at the object you thought you were headed for.  You may notice it gradually seems to move upwind relative to your direction of travel until it is impossible to reach on that tack. 
     Start over, but this time loosen up on the rig, let the board run freely and build up good boatspeed.   Allowing for inevitable variations in wind strength and direction, you'll probably  find over several trials that you get upwind best when you try the least! The only time I pinch nowadays is if it's the only way to save another pair of tacks over the last few 
yards before the weather mark.     Guy R.

Racing Primer Chapter VI    by   Guy R. 
     Last time I talked about efficiency to weather, finding The Groove and the futility of pinching  when you're looking for Velocity Made Good.  Sailing = Good.  Pinching = Bad.
     That brings us to the other frustrating aspect of the weather leg:  When do I make that final tack on the layline to the weathermark?  Go too soon and you'll need to tack twice more. Wait too long and you'll be sailing farther and longer than you needed.  When do I go? 
     On longboards, (which nowadays means only really light, puffy, shifty winds...) it's a good idea to stay near the middle of the course. This means stay pretty much downwind of the weathermark and try not to stray too far to one side or the other.  This allows you to take advantage of shifts and puffs that will in turn let you sail a shorter course.  An extra tack or two may often be worth it.  I usually make it a point to look over my shoulder for a landmark every single time I make a tack, whether I'm racing or not.  This is good advice in general, because it also ensures I will see anyone coming before we collide.  Specifically, though, it allows me to confirm my intuition/judgement about where I can expect to point after the tack. I can usually lay a point directly perpendicular to my longboard, or a little higher in steady wind. 
     Shortboards can't achieve or maintain the same high pointing angles, and so they are more vulnerable to shifts and especially lulls.  I  almost always seem to be wrong when I get cute and cut it too close.  A bad tack and you're toast!  Generally, I measure it like this: Sail as high as you can (without pinching... see Chapter 5!).  Look behind you.  See your wake?  It makes a "Vee" with the point at your fin, right?  Depending on your speed, it makes roughly a 30-degree angle between the windward leg of  the V and the Leeward leg of the V.  Use the shape of the V to "visually measure" another 30 degrees upwind and look in that direction over your shoulder behind you and upwind of you.  (You'll have to crane your neck WAY over to do this...)  You should be able to fetch anything downwind of the angle you just measured.  Tack (or jibe) and see if that's right.  Practice repeatedly until you just intuitively know what you can and cannot reach every time you tack.  That helps build confidence, avoid fatigue from premature transitions, and generally makes you a better sailor...Which is the point of racing.

What’s new in racing?   by  Guy R
     Formula or wide-style boards are all the rage these days.  With such a radical change in proportions, (the boards are getting as wide as they are long...) it’s not surprising that we have had to make some adjustments in rigging and in sailing posture.
     First thing is sail size.  Winds that used to require 6-somethings are now doable with big 7s and 8s.  How, you ask?  Volume!  Actually no, it’s all that area.  See you can stand so much farther out that it begins to increase the amount of leverage you can apply to the sail as well as to the fin.  More leverage = ability to control stronger forces.  Yes it takes practice.  No I have by no means mastered it completely.  But I can now control sails and fins that until recently I would have thought myself lucky just to survive 
     Speaking of fins, yup, they’re getting bigger too.  The rules allow for up to 70 cm, (That’s 27.559 inches for you Metrically-challenged.) and it’s not over yet. I think (climbing on soap box now) Formula 31 rules should be just that.  Limit: one board, three sails.  Period. There’s no need to specify how many fins or what size.  Think you’re faster with a 3-meter fin?  Go for it.  If it turns out to be true, I’ll get one.  I want to go faster too. (Stepping off soap box)  So how come this all works suddenly?
     One big reason is the size of the air cushion that a meter-wide board creates as it gains speed.  There’s enough air under there to float the board, rig and you up onto a cloud if you fly the thing just right. The board rises up on its huge air cushion and just floats along with the fin and back 15 inches of board in contact with the water.  It can get squirrelly and you have to concentrate, but Chop that used to shake my fillings loose now disappears unnoticed underneath the board.  So how do you learn to control this gigantic floating mess?  Some subtle and not-so-subtle differences follow:
     A big change for the better is in the tuning of the sails. I’ve replaced all my downhauls with a bigger size rope.  That’s a good idea when you’re flattening the sail out as much as we are now.  If the rope looks iffy, get a new one.  Don’t even bother sailing until the leech looks like a wet noodle almost down to the clew. More on this later.  Next, the boom is now almost at the top of the cutout where I used to run it almost at the bottom.   Remember leverage?   It applies here too.  Lower boom means sail has a longer leverage to work you over. Higher boom increases your advantage.
     Next, mast track position has come back a little.  I run mine at about 43 inches forward from the midpoint between the rear strap inserts. I used to measure form the tail of the board, but there are so many different shapes back there that it didn’t make sense.  Your constant is where you’re standing on the board with respect to the sail.
     All this means I’m standing a lot straighter than before.  Straighter is stronger. The sail is raked less to windward and it is also standing straighter upright longitudinally.  Because the more upright sail is now presenting a much bigger proportion of its area to the apparent wind, the sail itself needs to be able to de-power.  This is where the downhaul comes in.
     I too had often wondered what good it does to rig an 8-meter sail and then downhaul it until the leech is so loose that it might as well be a 6.  Here’s the deal:  We ride in chop.  The board bounces, sometimes hard.  The bouncing board makes the mast and sail bounce a lot too.  The leech is under light tension until you hit something.  The sudden deceleration of the board and downward thrust of the mast causes the mast to bend a little more.  This opens the leech quickly and spills more air from the sail, decreasing its power instantaneously.  Since for a moment you’re not pulling back so hard against the sail, this frees your legs up to absorb the chop impact.  Once the board starts to recover, the mast springs back to a straighter position and tightens up the leech again.  This puts power back in the sail as you prepare to glide down the backside of the swell you just smacked.  In other words, the sail “pumps” automatically.  It gives more power when you can use it, and reduces power when you can’t. Board goes THUMP.  Mast goes BOING. Sail goes PFFFT.  You go Squirting down the face with a little extra kick.
     Well, that’s about it for tuning. To really begin to get things dialed in, I recommend a trip down to the Sea Wall.  There you’ll find nearly unobstructed wind and corduroy-smooth water.  It helps you learn to set things in a balanced position much quicker if you’re not also busting chop.  (By the way it won’t work if you try to tune with a weed fin and then bring it to the Bay and bolt up a pointer.  The balance will be too different and anyway wide boards don’t work all that well with weedies.)  You should be able to let your hands go and sail just with foot pressure.  Once things are sort of flying by themselves in the smoothies, you can head back out into Bay swells and learn the art of dodging chop without fighting against unbalanced equipment.     -Biff

Greetings:  Last time we spoke of Thumps and Boings  by  Guy R
     As time passes the goal is to reduce the number and harshness of the THUMPS. This is probably the biggest difference between a yahoo like myself and a pro sailor.  Concentration and the ability to read, then correctly and accurately respond to the wave forms in front of the board create the biggest gap between sailors of differing ability levels.  Skiers do this all the time.  They pick your least bumpy path from among a set of choices, and then maneuver the body to set the skis accurately on the chosen path.  One important difference is that the moguls on a ski slope seldom move. Or try to roll over and grab your legs. 
     Every time a sailor misjudges the water ahead, the board smacks the water harder than it needed to.  This wets out more of the rocker (slow) distorts the sail shape a little more (slow), disrupts the sailor’s position and forces him/her to sheet out a little to keep control. (also slow)  Sometimes it even causes a quick trip around the mast! (VERY slow) 
     The way to avoid some of this is to develop foot-steering skills.  This can be practiced very well on flat water, actually.  Pretend those little wavelets of chop are big enough to eat your lunch.  Keeping in mind that bigger waves move faster, you can still get the idea of how to keep your ride as smooth as possible by steering always for the most gradual slopes in front of the board. 
     Big whitecap dead ahead?  Quickly decide whether to head up a little more or to head off the wind a little more to duck it.  The consequences of either decision quickly become apparent.  Heading off requires unweighting the front foot and is scarier, but sometimes it’s the better choice.  You’ll pick up some speed, but the rate of rise up the face of the swell will be gentler and the board will tend to stay flatter as it comes off the lip. Then you’ll be able to turn that momentum quickly upwind after you land.
     When faced with steep chop, it’s often easier to step hard on the windward rail and head up quickly.  This will slow the board speed a bit, but make the angle of rise up the face steeper, meaning you may fly higher. When you come down, the board may lose still more speed and it can take a while to get it back.  In other words, it’s not always wrong to duck upwind, but remember the other choice is there if you’ve practiced heading off quickly.  Whenever you try to make quick direction changes, beware the possibility of Killer Spinout.  You’ll learn just how hard you can push before the fin breaks loose and that’s another good thing to practice.         Biff 

 Ed’s Note:  This repair advice is from a web page which is full of such useful answers to your board repair questions.  Take a look at the site the next time something breaks- you probably broke it, maybe you can fix it.

Ed’ Note   The article was lifted from a website:   http://www.maui.net/~mauiwind/MWR/rd/redeck/reeck3/  When asked for permission to reprint his article, the author responded with the following short blurb and his permission to reprint his work 
   “Tim Orden is marooned on Maui with only himself to blame.  He will drink with anyone, for any reason.  If you find yourself on Maui, at the beach, staring at an aging, long haired, kinda Filipino windsurfer,.... ask him if he'd like to go out for a beer. If he says, "let's go", you just met the author.”