Wave Sailing The Sticking Points

Fresh from a season of wildly windy wave courses around Atlantic shores, Harty has much advice for all standards of wave sailor on how to overcome the classic stumbling blocks.

- Peter Hart ​​​​​​​

Are you stuck in the waves? I don’t mean are you down in the impact zone going round and around in some eternal circular rip; but do you feel you’ve reached a point where the next level, whatever that is, is frustratingly elusive? Many people take up wave sailing as a means to launch themselves off the dreaded ‘in and out, dodgy gybe at either end’ freeride performance plateaux. The variety and ferocity of the environment forces them to up their game, move a little, get the heart rate up, lose a few pounds, trim and turn the board differently, sensitise feet and hands and experiment with smaller kit and setups. But the meteoric rise is often followed by the ‘I really should be doing better’ moments.

The good news is that so much improvement can be made without developing muscle, flexibility or lightning reflexes, but through a better understanding of the environment, cuter tactics, shrewd kit choices and then … yes perhaps, by smartening up a few essential skills. It’s an immense subject, so I’ve cherry-picked some real life examples from very recent experiences. We start by acknowledging the elephant in the room, and feeding it a big juicy bun.

FEAR

In the grand scheme of wave sailing, it was a very benign day. Had there been a pro competition, the judges would have decided that the paltry swell was too meek for a fair competition. Yet Jim stared unblinking at the horizon with a lot less colour in his ashen cheeks than a whitewashed wall. Wave sailing is a long journey. He hadn’t even got into the bus to the airport and was already homesick.

Jim was a fit, planing, tacking, gybing small board sailor. He had all the skills necessary to give this a lash. What was he afraid of?