It's the coldest time of the year - lots of snow, but not much opportunity to windsurf. So the mind games start... even more so since the annual trip to the warm Caribbean waters is coming up. Nina says this is the year that we need to learn new school freestyle - pop, slide and spin instead of just back and forth. Perhaps I agree with her. Or maybe I'll remain in my old mental state - the "lawn-mowing chicken".
I don't want to remain a chicken. I need motivation. Here's the move I'm thinking about:
It's the Grubby. I need motivation to try it. So here are 10 reasons to try the Grubby:
The Grubby is one of the easiest new school moves.
You don't need to switch hands or feet.
It looks cool.
It can be planed through.
You can do it when you're just barely planing (as Danielle and Maxime show).
Crashes hurt less than Loop or Vulcan crashes, because you're always holding on to the sail.
You can add a jibe at the end for a really cool, fully planing turn.
When Andy Brandt tried to do Grubbies, he ended up looping. That's a perfectly acceptable outcome.
I blogged about it again - time to do it!
I like steps to measure progress. The Vulcan makes this difficult, since you need to pop, turn, and flip the sail, all within less than one second. To complicated for my simple mind. Here are steps for the Grubby:
Pop the board, fin nicely out of the water.
Push the nose down to create a rotation point.
Turn the board 90º downwind. Try doing that by sheeting in at take off.
Turn the board 180º.
Keep the weight forward so that the board slides backwards.
Push out with the sail hand, let the mast hand come in, to complete the rotation.
Sail away dry.
Plane through.
Add a jibe, sail duck, or downwind 360 at the end.
The only part I've done before was step 1, but it's been a while (chop hops are different!). I'll be quite happy if I make it to step 5. Maybe I'll spend some time on step 3, trying to get a feeling for different ways of turning the board. I think that some new school moves primarily use sail steering, while others rely more on twisting and unwinding the body to rotate the board while in the air. Playing around a bit with this may be worth the effort. For all those crashes, Tobago has a definitive advantage over Bonaire: much less sand in the board shorts afterwards, since the water is deeper! But it will be just as warm and sunny :-).
I am a lawnmower sailor - back and forth, back and forth. I put on a GPS and call it "speedsurfing", but you only need to look at my speeds to see that's just an illusion. Only when the winds are too light to plane do I do freestyle. Ok, I love light wind freestyle. I sometimes even do a little bit of freestyle in high wind. I never really committed to learning new school tricks, though. Now I think I want to learn the Switch Kono:
Kiri Thode mid-Kono in Bonaire
Here are my reasons:
It's one of the coolest looking new school moves. In Bonaire, I have often been absolutely amazed how much air Kiri, Taty, Tonky, and the other pros get in Konos.
Tricktionary states "As soon as you learned how to duck the sail properly it is not that difficult".
Andy Brandt says you do not have to duck the sail! You just start a downwind 360. With enough speed, you end up switch stance backwinded after turning through downwind.
I had almost forgotten Andy's statement until I tried 360s a couple of days ago. In one of the wet tries, I fell backwards, and the board shot up in the air, as if I was doing a jump jibe. That's when it occurred to me - hey, is that not similar to the 360 entry into the Kono? Looking at the Kono in the Tricktionary quickly confirmed that.
This got me excited. My favorite trick is the jump jibe:
I love the way you kick the board vertically in the air. I also love that you are allowed to fall into the water, as long as you get the clew first waterstart to get going again. I do it sometimes just for fun, or when space is tight, and have a reasonably good success rate. Now look at this movie of a Switch Kono:
Ignore that he enters the regular way, going switch and then ducking the sail. You can also get into the position he has 5 seconds into the movie by doing a downwind 360 in the straps. Then, it looks like the sail is powering up and pushing him backwards. That's a very typical fall when learning the 360! The difference here is that he also jumps the board:
The board is almost vertical, but barely out of the water, and the sailor is falling towards the water. Very similar to a jump jibe!
There are, of course, some important differences which I don't fully understand yet. In a jump jibe, we kick the tail of the board through the wind; in a Kono, the nose turns through the wind. I'm not even sure if the sail is actually powering up backwinded, or if this is more of a neutral slicing of the sail. But there are a few important things here:
The entry is very similar to a trick I already do (I mean the downwind 360 entry; I can do light wind duck tacks, but not planing switch ducks).
Jumping the board is very similar to a trick I already do (the jump/fall jibe)
The falls while working on the move seem very safe: they are either similar to typical 360 falls, or you are hanging under the sail and falling backwards into the water.
All this reduces the "entry barrier" to trying to learn a new trick. The typical first new school move is the Vulcan, but the Vulcan has very high entry barriers. Right away, you need to learn (1) how to pop the board, (2) how to initiate the 180 degree rotation, and (3) how to flip the sail right after takeoff. That's a lot of things to learn! Watching those who learn the Vulcan, the crashes seem sometimes quite violent. Why spend hundreds or thousands of tries on something where the end product is not even that cool? A Kono looks 100 times cooler than a Vulcan. At least one freestyler has reported that he got the Switch Kono during the first session that he tried - but he clearly had quite excellent skills and already knew how to go switch and duck the sail.
I am not saying that learning the Switch Kono as the first new school freestyle trick is for everyone. The traditional entry (go switch and duck) is not easy, perhaps even harder to learn than the Vulcan. The 360 entry may be a bit easier if you already worked a lot on the 360, as I have. But it is imperative that you turn through downwind on a plane, which requires very good entry speed, good carving speed, and enough wind. Here, for once, my obsession with speedsurfing and perfecting my jibes works in my favor - I can often carry plenty of speed through a turn. Nevertheless, working on this at Kalmus will be a bit a challenge: as soon as the wind gets strong enough, the chop builds up, which makes it a lot harder to carry speed through downwind. But it's only two more weeks until the summer season is over and all flat water strips are available again, and just three more weeks until the ABK clinic in Hyannis. For once, I know exactly what I want to work on if we get enough wind!
-- A few hours after writing this post, I found a couple of references to this move. Royn Bartholdi describes it on his move pages here. He is using the Gorge waves to keep the speed up through the carve. A discussion on the UK boards forum points out that Robby Naish was probably the first one to do this move in the waves, years before Kiri got credit for inventing the Kono (but Kiri does it on flat water, and starting switch and ducking the sail). Robby can be seen doing this trick at about 3:20 in this video. Then in 2009, Kai Lenny "invented" the move again, and in all modesty called it the "Kaino". I think I'll stick with 360 into Kono, though. I like the pointers about using waves or swell to keep the speed up. Seems like the move to try on a SSW day in Kalmus near low tide!
Catapulting Aaron's recent success in landing his first Vulcan got me thinking about the Vulcan a bit. Working on the Vulcan is not really high on my list - it's behind getting dialed in on my new Fanatic Skate, the speed loop (since it's supposed to be a lot easier than the Vulcan), getting started with wave sailing during our upcoming Maui trip, and then learning to survive (and maybe jump & jibe) in the Gorge in June. All of these things are rather different from my usual big gear-flat water blasting, so I see some work ahead of me. But it does not hurt to think about the next thing afterwards.
I had posted before about perhaps learning the Flaka or the Grubby before the Vulcan. During my recent Bonaire trip, the wind did not quite play along, so I did not really get to try any (perhaps the fact that I'm not 20 anymore also contributed). Andy Brandt did not like the idea at all - funny enough since he did his first speed loop when practicing for a Grubby. I understand some of the arguments against "Flaka first":
Some windsurfers find learning the Flaka hard (even the Tricktionary says so).
Falls can be harder (as someone pointed out in the iWindsurf forum discussion, the falls on the Tricktionary DVD look much harder than the Vulcan falls, partially because you fall forward onto the rig).
The jump may be more difficult, since you have to turn the nose further (into/through the wind after going deep downwind to reduce the apparent wind).
All that said, one thing that really impressed me during my recent Bonaire trip was a "slow motion" Flaka right near the beach by one of the beautiful blondes. She had to pump to get planing, popped the board barely out of the water, turned the nose maybe 45 degrees in the jump, and then pushed the board around the rest of the way, which seemed to take several seconds. I think the surfer was Xenia Kessler, who can do perfectly fine "regular" Flakas as seen on her recent video, but I'm not sure. Watching her gave me the impression that there may be a not-so-dramatic way to learn the Flaka.
I'll probably try it sometime, but common wisdom is that the Vulcan is the first pop-and-slide trick to learn, so I'll have to check that out, too. The idea of lower-speed falls going backward out of the straps onto my butt, as opposed to high-speed forward falls into the equipment, has a certain appeal. However, I have to admit that I have a mental block when it comes to learning something that may take 500 to 2,000 tries to get. As Catapulting Aaron has pointed out correctly, planing through my first jibe probably took way more than 2,000 tries. But with the jibe, there were plenty of successes in between: the first dry jibe, the first jibe with a decent sail flip, the first times with a nice hand switch, keeping more and more speed, jibing dry most of the time, and so on.
So, to make the Vulcan more appealing, I need milestones. Based on what I read and heard, here is my initial set of Vulcan milestones:
Sailing a freestyle board with a small fin comfortably.
Chop-hops with board control in the air and decent landings (this may be optional, but I think it helps).
Popping the board in small chop or flat water.
Nose-first landings after pops (or chop hops).
Getting the board to turn after the pop. The initial goal is a 90 degree turn.
Turning the board into the correct position for a backward slide (180 degrees, or perhaps a bit less for far downwind takeoffs).
Sliding backward a bit.
Sliding backwards comfortably and in control.
Switching hands to the other side of the boom while in the air (I'm a bit fuzzy about this).
Getting a hold of the new side of the boom while sliding backwards.
The last step is close to sailing out the Vulcan dry. The steps are not necessary in perfect order - working on the hand/rig movements can probably start soon after turning the board in the air looks promising. I listed the steps in this order because the order in the Grubby would be very similar - except that steps 9 and 10 would be different.
So - what good are these milestones? Well, they encourage me a lot. Instead of 1,000 tries, most likely spread out over 2 or more years, I can hope to accomplish a new milestone in maybe 100 tries. With 20-25 tries per session, I can learn a new skill in 4 or 5 sessions. Of course, some of these will be much harder than others and require more tries, but still, the same principle applies.
There's an immediate application, as I will illustrate. After my Bonaire trip this year, I was a bit frustrated because I did not see any definitive progress in high winds. In my first Bonaire clinic, I has finally managed to plane through my jibes on a regular basis; in my second clinic, I polished that, worked on Duck jibes, and got the fall/slam jibe. This year, I worked a couple of session on harder tricks did not quite make them. But in addition, I worked on the first three milestones in the list above. The first one was easy, since freestyle boards are very easy to sail - still, it took a session or two to adjust, and another session when switching to a different board. Still, #1 is done. Since we stayed mostly on the flat side of the bay, work on #2 was limited, but I had done some before. I spend most of 2 sessions on #3, and got the pop to work reasonably well on one side. I will need to adjust the timing to my new board, but that's just a good session or two. So the logical goal for the next few sessions is to work on #2, 3, and 4 - chop hops, pops, and nose landings. All useful skills, anyway, even if I should decide not to focus on the Vulcan right now.
Well, this is all theory. I'd love to hear from others who have progressed further on the Vulcan learning curve what you think. Please post a comment here, or on the "Vulcan milestones?" post on the iWindsurf forum.
Should the Flaka (or perhaps the Grubby), not the Vulcan, be the first "New School" trick to learn? I think yes, and here's why.
Sitting in the freezing Northeast and battling windsurfing withdrawal symptoms, what can a poor boy do? Well, reading Tricktionary over and over is one idea. Reading about Vulcans, Spocks, Flakas and so on helps, with a YouTube movie thrown in every now and then. But let me change themes for a second, and go back to the ABK camp in Cape Cod last fall. A few guys had the jibe down well enough, and it was time for new pastures. We got one lesson about the speed loop, and one lesson about the Vulcan. Huge difference between the lessons, though:
For the speed loop, the main issue was how to avoid getting hurt. The solution was to start small, almost downwind, jumping and turning just a bit before falling on the back into the water. I can fall on my back very well, so technically, that seems to be perfectly doable. Plenty of other articles and lectures about the loop also say it's mostly guts, and very little technique. I think I remember everything Andy talked about in the lecture.
The Vulcan lecture was much longer, and had a lot more technical detail. Andy said many windsurfers have to try 1000 or 2000 times before getting it (he was talking about slower learners like myself, not about the 20-year old water wizards who learn everything in 2 years). The problem with the Vulcan is that it introduces many new elements. The ones I remember are: hops from flat water or small chop; turning the board 180 degrees in the air; sliding backwards for the first time; and flipping the sail while in the air. Yes, getting all that together will certainly take me a while. But Andy said that this is the first "New School" trick one needs to learn to get a chance at more fun stuff like Spocks.
Somehow, that did not sit quite right with me. Ok, so I spend decades learning to jibe well - but I don't want to spend a similar time on just the entry trick for New School stuff!
Back to the Tricktionary. It, too, states that the Vulcan is the first New School trick to learn. In the book, it's right after the speed loop (and the speed loop is often not considered a New School move, since there is no backwards-sliding component). But with Tricktionary, I can look at all moves for hours without getting wet, and go back and forth to compare the picture sequences. Furthermore, it also shows pre-requisites for each move.
So, after studying the Gecko, which I hope to learn on my next Bonaire trip, I read that the Gecko "is essentially a non-planing Flaka". Looking at the Flaka pre-exercises, we also see the Upwind 360, both planing and non-planing. Comparing the pictures and descriptions, it seems to me that the Flaka is very similar to both the Gecko and the Upwind 360, the difference being the jump, starting the turn in the air, and then sliding backwards. Yes, there is the backwinded part at the end, but it's there in all these moves. Furthermore, any regular ABK camp attendees ready for New School tricks will know how to do this part (if your backwind sailing is not good enough, Andy will make you practice it - no matter how good you think you are at other stuff!).
This seems to outline a pretty clear path to the Flaka:
Backwind sailing
Backwind jibe, heli tack.
Upwind 360 (nonplaning, then planing).
Gecko.
Flaka.
Compare to the Vulcan, the only new part in step 5 is the essential "New School" element: jumping the board into a 180 degree turn, and sliding backward. Everything else is part of one of the earlier tricks, or at least very similar.
If the (entirely theoretical) analysis above is right, then the first New School move to learn should be the Flaka, not the Vulcan. Learning the Vulcan after learning the Flaka should be easier, because there is less new stuff (just flipping the sail in the jump). Interestingly enough, Tom Lepak, an ABK instructor currently working on the Vulcan, writes that many surfers suggested to him to learn the Flaka first.
Since all of this is entirely theoretical, I'd love to hear from windsurfers who actually can do the Vulcan and the Flaka what they think.
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After getting some feedback about this on the iWindsurf forum, I realized that I had ignored one important difference: the nose of the board spins away from the wind in the Vulcan, but into the wind for the Flaka. I have no clew if that makes the Flaka harder, but can imagine that it does. Also, if one learns the Speed Loop first, that's also a downwind turn. Not sure if that helps with a Vulcan, though, since the mechanics of the turn seem to be rather different (catapult under the sail for the loop, being centered on the board for the Vulcan).
This makes me wonder about the advice to Tom Lepak to go for the Flaka, though. He's managed to turn the 180 degrees downwind for the Vulcan, not upwind. Looking at Tricktionary, a downwind jump with a Flaka-like ending seems to be a Grubby. Which, in turn, seems similar to a speed loop, so we come to a much shorter learning sequence:
Speed loop.
Grubby.
I still have the feeling I'm missing something here. Tricktionary rates the Grubby at the same level of difficulty as the Spock, and thus as harder than the Vulcan, Willy Skipper, and speed loop.
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For those who (like me) barely know about these moves, here are some YouTube videos:
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. ABK also introduced us to windfoiling, which then led to winging. We mainly wing and windsurf on Cape Cod, with regular trips to places all over the world.
