Windsurf Power Jibe: 6 Steps and 2 Tips to Stay Planing

Sometimes you just need something explained from a very specific perspective until it finally clicks. That's why I'm looking at the power jibe from a different perspective here.

Over the past years you've seen me jibe hundreds, if not thousands of times, and we've talked about jibes quite a few times. Still, power jibing seems to be the number one topic for windsurfers. That's for a couple of reasons:

• It's the first move. The power jibe is basically the first move any windsurfer learns after getting into the footstraps and into the harness. And for many, it also stays the only move.
• It saves energy. You want to turn around without wasting energy, right? A good jibe technique doesn't only make you look cool, it also saves you energy.
• You can always improve it. No matter how good you are, you always find a little something to do better. I still frequently look at my own jibes and find little flaws here and there that I want to do better the next time.

After all those years, I literally have only one jibe on camera where I'd say: okay, that's the perfect jibe, I wouldn't know what to do better. You can watch it at 1:25 in the video. The full video is also at the end of this guide, together with a checklist to save on your phone.

The power jibe in 6 steps

Most of us know the basic steps of the jibe by now, and there are plenty of tutorials out there. So I'll just quickly sum them up for you:

1. Sail slightly downwind and unhook. Before you begin, bear away a little and unhook yourself from the harness. This helps you keep control of the board during the manoeuvre.
2. Back hand back, back foot onto the rail. As you prepare to switch your feet, move your back hand back on the boom. Slide your back foot out of the back strap and place it on the rail, between the straps on the other side.
3. Carve. Put pressure on the rail, close the sail and look where you're going. Keep this position until the nose of the board points downwind on the new tack.
4. Switch your feet. Place your front foot heel to heel with your back foot, then bring the back foot between the front strap and the mast base. While you do this, try to keep a constant carve.
5. Flip the sail. As you switch your feet, slide your front hand closer to the mast and let go with the back hand.
6. Grab the new side. Grab across, boom to boom, and slide your hands into position on the new side.

Now, these are the basics. But in this guide I don't want to go step by step through the jibe. I want to give you two very specific pointers which might change your jibe for the better: the trim of the board and the angle of the rig.

Tip 1: Keep the board level

When you're learning a new move, a good way to learn is to focus on one item at a time. That might make you lose track of the other item, but it helps you get it right step by step. What I mean by that is separating what you do with your rig from what you do with your board.

Your goal must be to balance your weight in a way that the board really stays level and trim:

• Too much weight forward: you brake, and in the worst case you nose dive.
• Too much weight in the back: you slow down significantly.

The three points of pressure

There are basically three points of pressure that help you trim the board: the back foot, the front foot, and the mast base, with the pressure through the sail. The last one depends heavily on what you do with your sail, so let's leave it out for now and focus just on the feet. (How the mast base and your feet work together when you get planing is in the planing tutorial.)

Throughout the whole jibe, distribute the pressure between your legs so the board stays level:

• You lean too far back and stall the board? Then you might have to move further forward when you switch your feet, so the tail of the board doesn't sink. In the video you can see a typical example of what happens with too much weight in the back of the board.
• You feel you push the nose too far down? Then you might have to lean further back.

Consider this throughout the whole manoeuvre, already when you enter the jibe. If you tend to lean your sail too far back at the entry, lean your body weight a bit more forward, so you really engage the whole rail and not just the tail of the board. That way the board stays level throughout the whole jibe.

Tail sinking or nose diving? Here's what you do

• You're sinking in the back, so you start to brake and lose speed? Don't be afraid to bring your front foot super close to the mast base to keep the board straight.
• You're getting pulled to the front by the rig, so the sail is too upright and you're about to nose dive? Try to stretch your front leg and bring the weight onto your back leg.

Learn it on a board with a lot of volume

What also helps is to start practising on a board with a lot of volume. Even when it's windy, just take a smaller sail, but stay on the board with a lot of volume. You can't do so much wrong there: even if you're too far back, the board offers enough volume for the tail not to sink. So it's very forgiving.

And here's the bonus: by focusing on keeping the board level, you tend to instinctively improve your sail rotation too.

Tip 2: Flip the sail with the mast upright

My second pointer for you is the position of the mast while you shift the sail. Of course it's highly connected to my first one. I often see this mistake: when people shift the sail, the mast is tilted too far to the back or to the front, instead of being centred over the board.

What we do in racing

When you do a high speed jibe like we do in racing, we can often afford to tilt the mast to the back. We carry so much speed that shifting the weight to the back doesn't slow us down. In fact, if you're fast enough, you want the nose to fly over the water to keep more speed. However, when the wind is light at the jibe mark, you'll also see us with the mast very upright, so we don't stall the board and keep planing. More on the power jibe, and the race jibe as its own chapter, is in my freeride guide.

So as usual, balance is the key. But shifting the sail too far back, with the mast tilted too far back, almost always does more bad than it does good.

Three reasons to keep the mast upright

1. The board doesn't sink. If you have problems slowing down in the jibe, as most people do, you can't afford a lot of weight in the back. Because when you slow down, the board sinks even more. When you have some speed, it usually kind of works to keep going, and the board doesn't sink and doesn't stall. So in light wind it's even more important that the sail is upright: rotate the sail with an upright mast, and that really helps you keep the board trim.
2. You get hold of the boom. Shift the sail too far back and you'll have a hard time getting hold of the boom. It actually puts even more weight in the back, because you have to lean back to grab it. Rotate the sail upright on the other side and you have an easier time getting hold of the boom, without leaning back to grab it and bring it into the upright position.
3. You don't shoot into the wind. With the mast too far back, you shoot straight into the wind once you're on the new tack, and you slow down even more. Shifting the sail in an upright position helps you continue on a downwind course on the new tack, and that helps you exit the jibe with more speed.

This goes to show that shifting the sail in an upright position gives you a lot of benefits when you exit your jibe. It all is a game between the balance on your feet and the pressure your rig puts on the mast base.

In short

What you want is to keep the board level while you shift the rig in an upright position.

So it's time for you to get on the water and practise your jibes. Below are the six steps once more with a picture for each, and here's my checklist to save on your phone for the beach.