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The Beach Start
Up until now you’ve started off by wrestling the rig from the water by uphauling it. The task of starting off can be made a lot more efficient by beachstarting. This puts you on the board in the sailing position and looks cool when done well. All you need is some shallow water and good technique. It is important to not only learn this move but also improve at it and become very proficient, as you will be calling on these skills whilst learning the waterstart. The waterstart is a progression of the beachstart but guess what, no beach! This move opens up strong wind sailing, smaller boards and too much fun!! |
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Foundation
Having an efficient sailing stance will greatly assist you in this. So apply the relevant fundamentals to your stance and add in these practices:
- Sailing kneeling down
- Rigless beach starts
- Dragging your front foot in the water
- Sailing one-handed
On terra firma get into the physiology of it by stepping up onto a chair, note what your legs do and how your body moves.
You will also need to be proficient with your board and rig control in the water. This video clip shows you a great drill to work towards that will really help your rig control and steering. I will cover this in detail in a future article, but in the meantime give it a go.
 Dry Gybe [MPEG, 1.0MB]
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Fundamentals
- Look where you want to go - Firstly to assess your sailing line and then to assist in steering. We need to move forward and in so we look at the mast foot to get up and away.
- Rig away - In order for the rig to have the leverage to pull us out of the water, the rig must be kept away through extended arms that are shoulder width apart.
Ideal Conditions and Set-Up
- Wind direction: Cross-offshore, cross-shore, and cross-onshore.
- Strength: Force 2 – 4
- Water: Flat and a gently shelving beach from knee to waist depth.
Launch your board and rig. Walk around the back of the board holding on to the mast and bring the rig across you to grab hold of the boom. You will be upwind of the board and towards the back. You are now ready to start!
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Set-Up |
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Look upwind to check out the wind and see where you are pointing. Practice steering the board in the shallows. Push down through the front arm and twist the rig to bear away, and pull up to come upwind. Look where you want the board to go. |
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Here you can see the board has been pushed downwind. Check out how extended the front arm is and my position in the water in relation to the board. |
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Position the board across the wind. Keep the rig away for control and stay upwind and towards the tail. Glance over your front shoulder to reaffirm your sailing line and to check for wind strength. |
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Getting On |
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Reach out with your back leg and place your heel on the board. Position it towards the windward (upwind) rail, and keep your toes up. The board is held on course with subtle steering, pushing or pulling through the front arm. The body is facing relatively up the board.
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Get on up. Pull the board in by bending your back leg, as you simultaneously extend the arms and look at (eat) the mastfoot. It’s the head that leads the step up, observe how its over the front foot and will continue moving forwards and in towards that ever so tasty mastfoot. Get hungry! |
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Keep extending the front arm and pull in with the back arm as you push off on the toes of your front (beach) foot. The front foot is placed relatively late on the board. The back leg stays bent as you come up under the boom. |
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View video of this move:
Low
bandwidth [MPEG, 0.5MB]
High
bandwidth [MPEG, 1.6MB]
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The hips are now raised into your stance. I'm sure you will not look as wooden as me here.
Now at what part of the move was my back leg straight? Never – that’s right. The back leg starts bent and remains that way all the way through to your stance.
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- Take some tuition and/or get a mate to video you. Seeing that windsurfer types are so helpful, get someone to give you some pointers!
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SUMMARY
- Steer the board with front arm pressure
- Position the board across the wind and place heel on
- Pull board under arse with bent back leg
- AND extend those arms
- WHILST looking at and 'eating' the mastfoot
- Keep back leg bent
- Into your stance
Get out there and have it!
 Discuss beach starting...
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