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with Swift and Seadi

5 comments 01:43PM Mon, 11th February 2013

Robby Swift joins Boardseeker to talk you through some of the most radical moves in windsurfing today, first up we take a look at the push loop forward…

This is my favorite move in the world. I love doing push loop forwards. It’s not every day that you can do them. You need good sized waves and lots of wind. I have done one on a 4.7 but really overpowered, I have seen Philip Koster do them on 5.0 but also over powered. My favorite size sails to do them on are 4.5 and below. Best is 3.6 overpowered.

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with Swift and Seadi

Pic 1.You can see the white caps behind the wave, it is really windy. Kauli os on a 4.2 here and has chosen a big wave, going full speed and full power.

Pic 2. Here he is jumping up in the air, he goes pretty straight up, very vertical. His legs are bent to get wind coming from the bottom of the board, his body is tucked up ready to make a fast rotation.

Pic 3. Here you can see the rotation is starting, he is going really fast so still gaining height.

Pic 4. Here he is throwing his head back to initiate the rotation properly. You don’t want to go sideways or it will be very hard to stop the rotation and start the forward. This is very important.

Pic 5. Here you can see how vertical the rotation is. The mast goes straight below him.

Pic 6. Here he is on top of his sail, He has his legs tucked up under him and is looking at the water.

Pic 7. Here he has just about finished the push loop rotation. You can see the wind has come from the other side of the sail already. This is important because it stops the rotation. If this doesn’t happen, you will never be able to change the direction of the rotation into a forward.

Pic 8. Here his is stopping the rotation and preparing to do the forward. He is getting his body weight into the right position to pull with the back hand. You need to wait until you feel wind coming from the right side of the sail though. If you pull now, nothing will happen.

Pic 9. Here you can see he is now in the upright position that you would be in if you were about to start a stalled forward. The wind is coming from the right side of the sail but it doesn’t feel like you have much wind in your sail. You need to wait a second longer.

Pic 10. Here he can feel the wind in his sail so it is time to pull the sail. His legs are quite straight now. He will bend them to initiate the rotation. You can see that he has moved his back hand to the back of the boom already. This is important to let you get enough power to pull the sail really hard.

Pic 11. Here you need to pull as hard as possible and start looking back over your back shoulder. You have to trust that it will rotate. At the beginning it won’t want to, but as long as you can feel wind in your sail it will work. You need to pull up your back legs under you and try to spin as fast as possible. Even though you are high at the moment, you will fall quite fast so you have to make the rotation as fast as possible.

Pic 12. Here he is pulling as hard as possible and has his legs bent. You will notice that the rotation of the forward is naturally quite sideways, not vertical. This is good because it means it is quite controlled. You have to hope now that you are high enough to spin round all the way!

Pic 13. Spinning round. Now you are falling quite hard. There is no way to get around it, you will land on your back very hard. I like to wear a protective wetsuit or vest to protect my back from hard slaps when doing this move. Either way, if you pull one off, you will be so happy that you will ignore the pain! It feels good to land one.

Pic 14. Sailing away. What a pleasure! This is the most rewarding move that I have pulled off. Windsurfing is the only sport where you can do a backwards rotation followed by a forwards rotation in the same jump, so it feel special to be one of the very few people in the whole world who has experienced that kind of rotation.

Pic 15. Sailing away. Pretty sore in the back, neck and head but desperately looking around to see if any of your mates saw you pull that off!

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Check out this video from the recent Red Bull Storm Chase, of Robby performing one of the best pushloop forwards you have ever seen – at 30 secs.

This technique was previously part of the ‘Radical Action’ series, after our switch over to the new website Boardseeker is now re-editing and posting updated versions of your favourite techniques….what moves would you like to see next? Would you like to go back to basics with moves such as 360′s, vulcans, forwards and simple blasting technique? Or do you want to learn more about how the pros pull of the hardest moves? Let us know in the comments below!

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Amy Carter

Watersports addict and former world tour windsurfer, now loving reporting on and sharing windsurfing news.

amy@boards.co.uk

with Swift and Seadi

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Thomas Paenhuys

A Look Back at the Jump Ramp