Vulcan Theory

It's been a while. It's overdue. I must write another post about freestyle theory. There are many reasons for it:

• It's been so hot that I want to spend as much time in the water as on the water. Freestyle is called for!
• The ABK camp in Hyannis is coming in less than 5 weeks! (You have registered to reserve your spot, right? It often sells out!)
•  Rumors have it there may be an ECWF-style event in Hatteras in October. Unlike the ECWF Cape Cod on September 15-16, I should be able to compete in Hatteras.
• I've watched Nina for more than two years hacking away at the Flaka, with very slow progress. But she recently started to try Vulcans again, and progress seems a lot faster.
• I recently tried to try Grubbys again, and was quickly rewarded with a sail-damaging catapult. I learned what the dreaded "loop crash" in the Grubby is!

So, taking everything together, there was plenty of reason to look at the Vulcan again. The final straw was when I looked at some videos on Continent Seven to check on a question that had come up from Nina's Vulcan tries - especially Yentel Caers Spock into Culo. 

Let me start with what I remember from previous lessons and videos about how to Vulcan:

1. Twist your body and your feet.
2. Move your hands into a rather uncomfortable position on the boom.
3. Carve and S-turn, and pop the board out of the water, while at the same time flicking the boom, looking back over your shoulder, and letting go with the back hand.
4. While most of the board is in the air, except maybe the nose, push down and pull on the boom, and move the rig around so you can grab the other side of the boom.
5. Land sliding backwards, throwing your weight forward so you don't get ejected backwards.
6. Sail away switch, or somehow change your feet and sail away.

All that sounds rather complicated - perhaps well suited for big-brained windsurfers, but too much to fit into my head. Then, there's the motivation issue: the Vulcan was the "must learn first" new school freestyle move, but in itself not much fun. It takes most freestylers between 200 and 1000 tries to learn; since I learn tricks a lot slower than others, my number would likely be in the several-thousands. Are we really surprised that I stopped after playing around with just popping the boards a bit? That I looked for alternative "first" moves like the Flaka and the Grubby? Even the loop has gotten more tries on the water, despite the fact that I try loops only once in a blue moon.

But now let's look at a screen shot from Yentel's Spock (for those not familiar with freestyle: the Vulcan is the first part of the Spock; you remember that Spock was half Vulcan, right?). Here it is:

This is just as Yentel takes off. Note that his front hand is close to the harness lines; his front arm is extended; and the sail is sheeted in (check the movie if you want to verify this). This is actually how most instructions for the Grubby start! Having the sail forward and powered after takeoff makes the nose of the board turn downwind, and starts the board rotation. Then, when the nose is in the water, it creates a rotation point, and the momentum of the board makes it turn around all the way to a backwards slide. 

In contrast to what we see in the picture above, most Vulcan instructions focus on turning the board with the body. That includes pre-twisting feet and body; looking back; and pulling and kicking the board around with your feet. All that "active board movement" happens while you also switch hands on the boom, and move the rig around so you can grip the other side! Did I say "complicated"?

Part of the confusion comes from the fact that the Vulcan can be done in different ways. It is perfectly possible to rotate the board with your legs and body. It's also possible to start the board rotation by pulling the mast backwards, and pushing down on the boom; or with "sail forward" pressure, similar to the loop, like Yentel appears to be doing.

Let's look at Yentel half a second or so later:

The nose of the board has touched the water. The board has rotated about 45 degrees. Yentel is leaning to the inside (away from us), and the board is tilted so that the leeward edge is closer to the water. The front arm is still long, and the tip of the mast is over the nose of the board. At this point, the weight of the rig is pushing the nose of the board into the water, supported by Yentel pulling up with his back leg. One more picture a bit later:

At this point, the board has turned 180 degrees (which is as far as it needs to turn for the Vulcan). Yentel's head is over the mast foot, and all his weight is over his front foot and on his arms to keep the nose of the board in the water, allowing the board to slide backwards. 

"So what?", you ask? Let me explain! 

In the first picture, Yentel starts the board rotation with sail steering, similar to what many Grubby instructions suggest. I've tried that a bunch of times. Most of the time, I held back, and got just a little rotation, with the nose of the board under water for just a fraction of a second. But the one time I really committed, I got a lot of pull in the sail, and got catapulted very nicely. The sail hit the water so hard that a top panel ripped just from hitting the water. My neck was sore for a couple of days. So there's definitely enough power for a rotation that can be generated this way! I know at least 4 people who actually learned to loop while trying to do a Grubby this way. For me, though, the idea of letting go with the back hand to avoid the catapult seems like a great idea,

In the middle picture, Yentel uses the weight of the rig, pushed forward by his extended front arm, to get the nose of the board into the water. In many of Nina's Flaka tries, and in my few Grubby tries, getting the nose into the water briefly was easy, but keeping it in the water was very hard. The common advice is to "lean forward" or to use "more commitment", but that's very hard to do. Using the weight of the rig on an extended front arm seems a lot easier. It's even similar to what you can do in a jibe to keep the board from bouncing! But perhaps the more relevant tidbit is that Nina reports that she had her best Vulcan tries when she acted on a tip to keep her front arm long and forward during Vulcan attempts.

From all this, a simpler approach to the Vulcan emerges:

• Sail on a beam reach with decent speed and power
• Widen the grip a bit by moving both hands
• Pop the board while extending the sail arm forward and pulling in with the back arm
• Let go with the back hand, pull up with the back leg
• Keep the front arm long and lean "into the turn" as the board slides around
• Extend the back leg, bend the front leg to keep your weight forward for the backwards slide. Grab the mast (or go directly to the new side on the boom).
• Get both hands on the boom on the new side, pull down on the boom to stabilize, sheet in, and sail away switch (or switch your feet to sail away normally).

I don't have a clue if these instructions really work, but at the very least, they are simple enough to fit inside my head. I've done some similar things in the past, and the differences make complete sense ("let go with the back hand when the pressure gets too much") or are quite natural ("grab mast and boom so you can sail away"), so chances are pretty good that I'll actually try this. Maybe I'll just try a few until I have crashes that discourage me. Or maybe I'll have to try this a thousand times before I make a Vulcan, but as hot as temperatures are these days, crashing a thousand times seems like fun. 

A World Champion at the ECWF Cape Cod 2015!

It's official now: we will have a World Champion competing at the East Coast Windsurfing Festival Cape Cod on September 19-20! Kiri Thode, PWA Freestyle World Champion 2013 and currently ranked #2 in the PWA freestyle competition, just booked his flights.

The pro freestyle competition at the ECWF Cape Cod should be fantastic - top East Coast freestyler Mike Burns was recently spotted in Kalmus working on one-handed Burners and other crazy freestyle tricks, and will do his best to add Kiri to the list of PWA freestylers that he has beaten in competition. We are also expecting top level PWA freestyler Phil Soltysiak again at the event; at the recent competition in Fuerteventura, Phil and Kiri competed in a very close heat that Kiri won (Kiri finished the event in 2nd place, Phil was 7th).

We are very exited to get the chance to see the inventor of freestyle moves like the Kono and the Kabikuchi on Cape Cod. Here's an movie of a Kiri Kono:

So mark your calendars, and join us at the ECWF Cape Cod on September 19-20 at Kalmus! As much as we love to see Kiri and Phil compete, this is primarily an amateur event, open to windsurfers at all levels. We will have fun races and an amateur freestyle competition, and a couple of new ideas to make racing more fun for all. On the 20th, we will have a raffle for all competitors where we give away many fantastic items from our sponsors, which include some amazing items like a sail, a winter wetsuit, a free ABK windsurf camp, and much more!

Many thanks to all the windsurfers who have helped to make this possible by donating! We have raised almost $1,000 in less than two weeks, making this possible. We are still looking for additional donations to reach our fundraising goal of $1,500 - every donation helps, and shows support for windsurfing and one of the really outstanding windsurfers from Bonaire.

Help Us Bring Kiri To Cape Cod!

Last year, a lot of windsurfers helped us to bring Caesar Finies to the ECWF Cape Cod. It was absolutely fantastic to have him here - he put on a great show in the freestyle competition, often was way ahead of everyone else in the races, and gave great technique demos on the beach during the breaks.

For the 3rd Annual ECWF Cape Cod, which will take place at Kalmus Beach on September 19-20, 2015, we hoped to get another world-class freestyle to join the event. Our friend Myles happened to see Kiri Thode at an event in Aruba, and asked him if he'd be interested.

"Who is Kiri Thode?", you ask? Really? Kiri is one of the best freestylers in the world, and was crowned PWA Freestyle World Champion in 2013. He is currently ranked #2 in the PWA freestyle competition, and has a very good chance to win the world title again this year. Kiri also invented several "must-do" moves often seen in freestyle competition, including the Kono and the Kabikuchi. Here's a short video showing Kiri in action on Bonaire:
 
(There are a lot more Kiri movies on YouTube!).

When asked about coming to the ECWF Cape Cod, Kiri said yes right away - he is quite excited to return to Cape Cod, where he had some of his early successes (check the "Children of the Wind" movie!).

So we have again started a fundraising campaign to pay for Kiri's ticket and board bag fees. All donations are very helpful, even small ones! If you are feeling more generous, there are also a number of excellent perks, which include pictures with Kiri; signed event T-shirts; private lessons with ABK's Andy Brandt or Kiri Thode; a cottage rental on Bonaire; and many more. So please show your support for getting Kiri to the ECWF and donate!

We have already raised $560 in 6 days, and several enthusiastic windsurfer have offered to cover substantial parts of Kiri's expenses, if necessary. This means that we will definitely be able to pay for Kiri's ticket and board bags. If we should raise more money than needed to cover Kiri's expenses, the excess will go to the East Coast Windsurfing Association and help pay for the cost of organizing and insuring the event. The bill for the insurance alone is about $750; having the restrooms open costs about $200; and then we have additional costs for trophies, the event permit, and so on. We cannot recover these costs from the registration fees alone, which we prefer to keep low to encourage participation - instead, we rely on donations. Many thanks to all who have helped out in the past - and many thanks for thinking about helping now!

Super-X Freerace

I recently read about FreeRace, a new windsurfing event style that "fuses GPS racing with traditional course/slalom racing". Competitors pick their own course in a pre-defined area, trying to sail as much distance as possible in a given time (typically 30 or 60 minutes). GPS tracks are then analyzed to determine the winner.

Being somewhat of a GPS geek, I thought that might be a good thing to add to the upcoming East Coast Windsurfing Festival Cape Cod.  We had discussed adding a GPS speed discipline to the ECWF, but it is not exactly a natural fit, especially considering that we may not get good wind - and if we do, Kalmus is not a speed venue. But my lovely wife and ECWF co-organizer immediately pointed out one issue with freeracing: it might be a bit boring for everyone on the beach. Without a fixed course, direct competition between racers for spots is large eliminated, so spectators would just watch a few guys go back and force. May I say "booooring"?

Then we came up with the idea to make things more interesting: add a bit of freestyle to the event, similar to the Super-X races that the PWA ran for a few years. Here's the outline:

• Racers can pick their own course in the pre-defined area, and the total distance they travel during the race period (30 minutes, or maybe even just 10 or 15 minutes) is measured by a GPS they wear
• In the middle of the race area, close to where the spectators are, a few buoys define the "freestyle area. On each run through the area, racers who perform a trick will be rewarded by adding a "bonus distance" to their total distance. 
• Better sailors are expected to do harder tricks - sail-body 360s are fine for newbies, but not for someone in the running for King of the Cape!
• Crowd-pleasing tricks will earn extra "bonus distance" - awe the crowd, and get rewarded! Bring your friends to cheer you on, and improve your chances to win!
• Only one trick per run through the freestyle area will be scored; competitors will have to sail through the entire area and turn around outside before the next trick counts.

That's the basic outline of our current thinking. I think this could be a real fun event, both in planing and in non-planing conditions. The details need to be filled in, but the idea is that a pure racer who does not do any freestyle would still have a chance to win - unless there's another competitor who's also very fast, but does a lot of cool freestyle during her or his run. Instead of having to pass the guy in front, throwing a few loops and Spocks will secure the victory!

We think this could be a real fun event for the competitors, but also keep spectators entertained, and show them how cool windsurfing can be. Let me know what you think!

Anti-inflammatory Andy

Windsurfers know that windsurfing is good for your health. Science is still playing catch-up with our knowledge. In one scientific study that was published just a few months ago, the researchers found that feeling awe lowered the amount of inflammatory cytokines (specifically, IL-6).

When my lovely wife read about this, she right away said "Andy is anti-inflammatory". She was talking about Andy Brandt, and thinking about the windsurf session we had a few days ago at Frisco Woods in Hatteras. After sailing for an hour, Nina stopped to take a few movies of Andy windsurfing. Here's one where Andy makes the Donkey Jibe look easy:
Here's another awe-inspiring old school freestyle move, the Free Willy:

We had been working on the light-wind version of the Free Willy just a few days earlier during the ABK camp. The light-wind Free Willy is not nearly as impressive, but it's still complicated enough to really confuse me. But with plenty of demonstrations and help from Andy, I finally go the move, Yes, only the light wind version, but it still filled me with pride and joy - two other emotion that will lower cytokines and inflammation.

I followed Andy around a bit that day, and he threw several perfect loops right in front of me. It got me motivated enough to try several times, although none of my tries even was close. But I'll count just getting myself to try as a big success. I had a bit more luck on my runs back in, where I worked on the Carve 360 with both feet in the straps. Early tries were close, but a bit wet:

After getting a couple of tips from Andy, I was able to carve through without getting wet:


Even though I understand the 360 pretty well, I would have never come up with the small adjustments that Andy Brandt suggested myself. As usual, they were spot-on, and following his suggestions made all the difference.
Funny enough, I ended up being better at the 360 in the straps than I am when I take the back foot out of the strap, even though the move is a bit harder in the straps. The likely reason? Bad muscle memory! When I take the back foot out of the strap, the entrance is almost identical to a jibe entry, and I have practiced bad ways to jibe for decades before my first ABK camp. The entry for the Carve 360 in the straps feels quite different, since you have to through your weight forward much more to compensate for the feet being further back. This setup I learned only last year, with immediate corrections from ABK instructors, so I never practiced the wrong way. It's so much easier to learn it correctly right away!

Of course, learning things correctly at ABK camps is one of the "secrets" why Nina has gotten so wicked good. She worked on getting into the straps in switch stance while planing in Hatteras, and was quite happy with her progress. Thanks to tips from ABK instructor Eric, she got quite comfortable getting into the straps switch while planing. She jibed out most of the time, but in her last run of the day, she ducked the sail switch for a Reverse Duck Jibe in the straps - a very cool move indeed. I don't have video of her doing this move, but Andy Brandt demonstrated it during the brief video session:

I'll leave you with a last video where Andy makes the Spock look easy:

Big thanks to Nina for taking the movies, and to all the ABK instructors for another fantastic ABK camp!

Flowstyle 101

When Caesar Finies visited us here on Cape Cod a couple of weeks ago, he filmed a few minutes of Flowstyle from the same view point that I used in my recent video - the nose of the board. We even did some of the same tricks - but that's where the similarities end. His raw footage is much more interesting to watch than my heavily edited video. The remnants of my scientific education prompted me to study the "why" (beyond the obvious answer that he is much better looking). I will present my findings to you in a minute. Let's look at a very short fragment showing Caesar in action first - about 12 seconds. There was too much going on in these 12 seconds, so I added a slow-motion repeat, and annotated it:


Here's a list of the moves:

• Sail-Body 360
• Ankle Biter
• Sail-Body 360 (from leeside sailing)
• Clew push-through
• Sail flip and sail duck (Reverse Sail 360)

Interestingly, most of these moves are pretty simple. The exception is the Ankle Biter, which is one of the harder light-wind freestyle moves to learn; but with proper instruction and equipment, an advanced windsurfer can learn the Ankle Biter in a few days. Nevertheless, the sequence is quite amazing.

What makes it amazing is that moves flow seamlessly into each other, without breaks in between. They also all go into the same direction, which "enhances the flow". Going back to my video, I started with a similar combo, a Sail 720 into a Sail-Body 360. But in my sequence, the sail rotation was going one direction, the sail-body rotation the other direction, making the sequence much less smooth. 

During Caesar's sequence, the board turned through the wind, without any visible effort on his side. One could argue that not having a fin in the board helped him - but sailing the board without a fin is in itself not entire trivial. When I tried, I had to concentrate quite hard to keep the nose from turning into the wind. Having the board turn "automatically" in the middle of a trick sequence not only adds to the magic, but it also sets up for a move repeat (the Sail-Body 360) from a different starting position, which makes the move look quite different.

In summary, here are some of the basic "Flowstyle 101" rules:

• Keep moving! Flow from one trick into the next without breaks.
• Keep the direction of flow! If you start going clockwise, add other moves that go the same direction - don't suddenly switch to a counter-clockwise move.
• Mix the categories! Don't just go through endless series of board 360s, even if you change things like sail or board orientation. Instead, mix board moves, sail moves/throws, and sail-body moves. Two upwind 360s with a sail throw (Ankle Biter or Chacho Throw) in the middle look way cooler than three different upwind 360s in a row.
• Learn variations of basic moves! After learning the Sail-Body 360, try it going around the other way, and starting from leeside (backwinded) sailing. If you got the Ankle Biter, learn the Clew First Ankle Biter. The same basic principles generally apply, but the moves often look quite different, making your routine much more interesting. 

Light wind freestyle video

Here's a short video from a recent light wind session at Duxbury:

It's put together from about 40 minutes of Clew-View / GoPro footage. I tried to cut out the boring parts. Even with the cuts, it is quite far away from Flowstyle. My brain and body just don't work that fast. But even my slow style was a lot of fun. If you wonder why I got excited about the Ankle Biter at the end - that was the first clean one I ever did. Thanks for getting me there, Caesar!

Help Us Bring Caesar To Cape Cod!

Have you ever windsurfed in Bonaire? It is one of the best windsurfing spots in the world. If you've been there, chances are that you have seen Caesar Finies working his light wind freestyle magic right in front of the beach:

We just had tons of fun at the East Coast Windsurfing Festival in Long Island, and started to plan for the ECWF Cape Cod that will take place at Kalmus Beach on September 13 and 14, 2014. One of the great things at windsurfing festivals is to see great freestylers in action. So naturally, we started dreaming - "How great would it be if we could get Caesar to come to the ECWF Cape Cod?".

So we asked Caesar if he would come if we can pay for his airline ticket - and he agreed right away! So we started a fund raising campaign on indiegogo.com. We are trying to raise $1200, enough to pay for Caesar's ticket and his board bag. We are up to $300 in donations after just one day, so we are hopeful! Caesar will be staying with at our house while he is on Cape Cod, probably for about 7-10 days around the event. He will be showing his unique "Flowstyle" at the ECWF event if we have lighter winds - if we have a nice strong southwesterly, he'll show PWA-level high wind tricks that are rarely seen on Cape Cod! We are really looking forward to see a few of his trademark "Hail Mary" moves, where Caesar throws the rig up 20 feet in the air, and then catches it again after a few flips when the wind carries it back to him.

So we are asking all enthusiastic windsurfers to help us to bring Caesar to Cape Cod. We have set up a few perks as a "Thank you" for all contributors, including pictures with Caesar at the ECWF, "I Sponsored Caesar" T-shirts, and more. Check it out at http://igg.me/at/ecwf!

Hugo is sick!

I am confused. It's Hugo's fault. Hugo de Sousa, that is. I watched his videos too much. My head is spinning. Why? Here's why:

This is just one small sequence from a great movie (check it out on Youtube). There's way too much action in this movie - I had to take little pieces at a time and slow them down. There are a few great windsurfers in the "iae cara" movie, but the outstanding one is a Hugo de Sousa, a 17-year old windsurfer from Brazil.

The short section above is perhaps the most outstanding freestyle combination I have ever seen. Hugo start with an Air Kabikuchi. You recognize that one, right? It when you duck the sail to the wrong side (behind your back), twist your upper body 180 degrees, and jump high from this backwinded, twisted stance. What comes next looks like a Kono, which is mighty cool in itself: throw yourself backwards so that your feet are above your head, and turn the nose of the board through the wind so that the wind catches the other side of the sail and pulls you upright again. Then it's time to add something - how about switching directions? So the nose of the board is pointed down to the water and pushed back towards the wind; the sail is backwinded (again), with Hugo being horizontal to the water (again); this pushed his upright for the landing.

There are a few world-class freestylers out there who can do Air Kabikuchis and Air Skopus (more or less the same thing, but started from switch stance). What really amazed me is what happened next, though: Hugo lands in a backwinded stance. That would be back-to-back, except that his upper body is twisted towards the sail. Then, he pushes the clew through the wind and planes out of the move clew-first. After planing clew-first for all of two seconds, he launches into a clew-first spock. Sick! Sick!

The entire thing happened on perfectly flat water. So what happens if you give Hugo a few waves to play with? See for yourself:

He just jumps higher! Ok, this is from his home spot, but his style is just crazy. That one-handed, arched-back throw-down thing he does? That is style! Hugo Style!

What - you are still not convinced that Hugo is destined for greatness? Let us look closer at something more basic - his pops. Double and triple combos are a must in PWA freestyle competition. Often, the board just makes it out of the water for the second jump (or, more accurately, pop), and the third trick is often done with the board mostly in the water. Not for Hugo! His second pops are often higher than the first ones, the tricks more radical:

I just love how he pulls out the board completely for the third jump in the last segment.

I love Kiri Thode, the current PWA freestyle world champion from Bonaire. Kiri's Konos that I often saw life on Bonaire will forever be burned into my head. But Kiri has his work cut out for him if we wants to stay ahead of Hugo. Of course, being successful in freestyle competition requires more than just excellent tricks. Conditions at the freestyle events are often crazy, especially in Fuerteventura and on Sylt; at other events, the wind is extremely light, much lighter than in Brazil. Add to that nerves, complicated event rules, and mind games others might play, and it may well take Hugo a few years to make it to the top. But I just can't wait to see what he does on his journeys! Already, there are a few nice articles about him on Continent Seven:

• Team Windjeri’s mission 2014 – A new project
• Team Windjeri’s mission 2014 – A long and weary journey
• Team Windjeri’s mission 2014 – Part 3, Puerto La Cruz

You may have noted that Hugo was next to Gollito Estredo in two of the articles above. Gollito has collected no fewer than five PWA World Champion titles in freestyle, and finished on second place in 2013. He recently released a video from his training that was rather impressive:

Well, if you are still reading this, chances are you have not clicked on the link to the "iae cara" movie above. Here it is:


The only thing we need now is good wind at the PWA freestyle events this year, and a decent life feed from each event!