If you watched the videos from the PWA freestyle competition over the past few days, you may have noticed how often the pros did a forward loop. It seemed like every pro threw at least one forward per heat. This is somewhat surprising to me, considering that everyone claims the forward loop is so easy! A few of the pros spiced the loop up a bit - Tonky Frans did some of his trademark Bonkas (a loop into Flaka combo); crazy (as in: crazy good) Balz Müller did a one-handed rail grab loop. But the vast majority of loops were "simple" plaining loops.
During our Jeri trip, one of the highlights were the freestylers that were out every day. We saw plenty of loops, including some of the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. Here is an example that Nina filmed while standing in knee-deep water:
A thing of beauty indeed. For all those working on learning the loop, here are a few screen shots from the movie, with a few notes:
Not a lot of power here
The back hand moved far back on the boom
Compressing before take off
Front arm extending, moving the sail forward-windward
Fully extended front arm and back leg; fin is still in the water
Fin leaves the water. Both arms long, no sheeting in. Nose starts turning downwind
Starting to pull himself up over the boom
Upper body above boom, nose getting pushed down
Fully up-down; both arms are bent, still not sheeting in - but the sail is getting power now
Back leg fully bent, front leg extended
Almost there - starting to extend arms to push sail up and stop the rotation
Soft, controlled landing
Planing out
The windsurfer in the movie and pictures is Edvan Souza (BRA250), a former PWA competitor who now runs Jeri 250, where you can rent gear and take lessons. Here are a couple of more videos - first a close by loop followed by a Shaka:
Another great planing loop, with a Flaka before and a Spock 540 after:
I've been windsurfing for more than 30 years, although this includes several multi-year periods where I did not windsurf at all. I got really hooked again a few years ago, after getting married to my lovely windsurfing wife, and starting to take ABK clinics. We mainly surf on Cape Cod, with regular trips to places all over the world.
I have a Ph.D. in Biology, and have worked in the biomedical field for more than three decades. This include postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School, leading a research group at a biotech company, and starting a company that develops software for biomedical research.
