My jibe sucks

[gopher38]

I've finally got to the point where I can jibe probably 95% of the time without falling ... but my jibe sucks. I'm sure that there's a name for it which I don't know, but I'd call it the station to station jibe, where you turn the board, stabilize the sail, and then flip the sail. Even in fairly high winds, I can still usually pull it off, but the problem is, I come to a complete stop every time, and usually end up with the board pointing far upwind. Everytime I try to carry some momentum out of the turn, I completely miss the jibe. I don't know if I'm too far back on the board, too far forward, the mast is too close or too far away. Has anyone gone through this stage and what did you do to get out of it? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[steveb]

buy one of the many vidoes that breaks down the gybe and study(Some of the Peter Hart RYA ones are very good), when the women in your life has watched the video so many times she can tell you what you are doing wrong,you will have sufficient visualisation to get it down.
Ask experienced sailors to watch you on the water and tell you whats wrong....and whats right in your gybe.

[Randy]

If you watch most of us jibe you'll see you're not alone. For sure, study the videos and other sailors, ask questions, stay forward, bend your knees even when you think you can't bend them any more. But perhaps the biggest issue with Minnesota sailors, from our desire to stay up wind and not give up ground, is trying to make a jibe like a U instead of a V. Basically, if you want to stay on a plane, be sure to stay forward, unhook, bear off the wind, keep steady foot pressure (just as a gas pedal, the more pressure the sharper the turn), and most importantly, coming out of your jibe, continue bearing off until you're back in your straps, hooked in and fully powered, now ready to reload your fin for once again regaining the ground you gave up. Again, the most frequent errors I see with midwest sailors is 'too far back on the board', 'uneven foot pressure', but most importantly, an unwillingness to give up ground at the turn. This wisdom comes from Jim Oakes after years of sailing...simply put, think "V" instead of "U".

[gopher38]

Thanks. I'll give that a try next weekend and maybe I can pick up a video during the week.

[esteffen]

I have the Alan Cadiz video. He goes in to way more detail than anyone really needs to know about jibing, but he breaks it down in to easy to understand steps. I don't know about the other jibe videos out there.

[johntr]

I have the Peter Hart three-in-one from The House. It's very good. (Hasn't taught me to jibe yet, though. )

John

[Mike G.]

Ok.. here's the tricky part.. make sure that when you start your jibe the wind will still be blowing when you get to the sail flip

Really.. I'm not kinding; I've been trying to crack the carving jibe monkey for a couple of years now and this little "duh.." epiphony was the key. In order to make it all the way round and still be on the plane you need to have sufficient speed and momentum to carry you through the sail flip, which is why Randy and others were emphasizing the need to bear away, and not try to crank it around so hard.. you need to go further downwind than you might think.

When you flip the sail you will lose some speed during this maneuver so you have to be able to quickly repower the sail to regain your momentum and stay on the plane. You can't do that if the wind dies on you halfway through the turn. So now, when I'm working on planing jibes, I look for a spot with a steady breeze, even if it means turning round well before the other shore.

Hope this helps..

[Sid]

If my jibes didn't stall, and my chop hops weren't so whimpy, and my helitack attempts didn't slam me, I'd probably give up the sport. A lot of my enjoyment comes from the learning curve and the attendant humility. I've been at it for longer than I care to admit and it never gets old. Enjoy!

[thewavebb]

If my jibes didn't stall, and my chop hops weren't so whimpy, and my helitack attempts didn't slam me, I'd probably give up the sport. A lot of my enjoyment comes from the learning curve and the attendant humility. I've been at it for longer than I care to admit and it never gets old. Enjoy!

I agree. I had my jibes dialed in on my 120ltr board, but as my boards have gotten smaller, my jibes have gotten harder to clean. I love how i can crash pretty hard and still have a smile on my face. Now if I can just do that when I bail mt biking.