Aerial freestyle windsurfing is now at a staggeringly high level, but whether you’re doing a double culo in the PWA or a cheeky chop hop at the weekend, it all starts with a ‘pop’! So how do you ‘unglue’ your board from the water? Finn Mullen speaks to Fanatic, Duotone and Severne for design insights, while John Carter asks the men and women of the PWA for their ‘pop’ tips.

Words  John Carter, Finn Mullen, Gollito Estredo, Raoul Joa, Klaas Voget, Oda Johanne Stokstad Brødholt, Yentel Caers, Taty Frans, Balz Muller, Ben Severne, Amado Vrieswijk, James Hooper,
Dieter Van Der Eyken, Phil Soltysiak, Adam Sims & John Skye.  //  Photos  John Carter  

GOLLITO ESTREDO
It’s all about speed! If you don’t have the speed you will not take off! For double moves you need to be full speed and have a lot of power in the sail. You have to load the sail at the right time for maximum ‘pop’. Also the best equipment helps and my Duotone sails are perfect this year.

“ It’s all about speed! ”

RAOUL JOA – DUOTONE WINDSURFING LINE & PRODUCT MANAGER
For good ‘pop’ in a freestyle sail you want a high draft position and an elastic luff panel which nicely blows up. In the Duotone Idol LTD, the Dacron panel between the battens is convex now to harmonise the stress ratio between stiff battens and the very elastic Dacron.

“ You want a high draft position and an elastic luff panel. ”

KLAAS VOGET – FANATIC WAVE / FREESTYLE R&D
The ability to ‘pop’ is essential for a modern freestyle shape, as the more ‘pop’ you get out of your board, the more airtime you gain for your rotations. We’ve implemented heaps of volume into the tail section of our Skates, which helps to push yourself off the water surface without sinking the tail. At the same time it’s not a tail which is mega wide and instead is nicely pulled in. This helps for quick changes of direction, which is essential to steer the board just at the perfect point of the bump you’re going to use to ‘pop’, as hitting the right spot is key for maximum airtime. The third and most important factor is speed. The rocker line, bottom shape and rails of our Skates make the board extremely fast and let them accelerate in an instant. The faster you go, the harder you can ‘pop’ yourself off the water.

“ The faster you go, the harder you can ‘pop’.”

SARAH-QUITA OFFRINGA
I think it is important the way you handle your sail. On flat water the thing you need to do is sheet in with your sail, but as you launch you press down with your back leg to get the board up and then pull up your front leg so the nose comes up. Once you are airborne you make sure you put your nose into the wind. Once that happens you pull in your back leg as well. This technique helps you to get off the water. The point is to bring the bottom of the board into the wind while sheeting in the sail and lifting your back leg. It is an explosive manoeuvre so I think jump squats are great for this. I think that is a pretty similar movement. It is a very coordinated move. You need to coordinate the sail pulling and the jump. For a chop hop it’s the same thing only that you have help from the chop for the launch. If you can ‘pop’ a board in flat water then you can chop hop. While you press with your back leg you pull in your front leg and you sheet in, then you pull in your back leg as well. 

“ I think it is important the way you handle your sail. ”

 

ODA JOHANNE STOKSTAD BRØDHOLT
To ‘pop’ I will bend my knees and then extend. In flat water I think it is a bit like skateboarding. I like to feel that my board is flying really hard on top of the water with good speed. When you hook out you go over the board. Then you squat down and then push up like a skateboarder. On flat water you stay over your board. For a Vulcan the technique is more like the ‘ollie’ in skateboarding but in the flaka you bend down more and then extend, you don’t tuck up the leg again. For a chop hop I lean a bit more to the back. If I would like to fly longer I stretch out the front leg, tuck in the back leg and at the same time get closer to the sail. I stay close so the wind stays in the sail. You fly longer if you make yourself small and stay close to the sail. Right before the landing you stretch out the back leg so you don’t land flat!

“ To ‘pop’ I will bend my knees and then extend.”

YENTEL CAERS
I think ‘pop’ is all about going fast. You need strength in your whole body and to perfect your timing. I don’t do any training, I just windsurf. You have to be really explosive when you take off. It’s a combination of the sails which give you the lift and the board that ‘pops’. Most freestylers sail overpowered, that is why we can go high when we ‘pop’. When you go fast there is less power in your sail but when you take off you have the power to go high.

“ You have to be really explosive when you take off. ”

TATY FRANS
Bending your knees is the key to ‘pop’. Just bend your knees man! It is the same as when you do squats. Bend your knees and come up really quickly. All the gear the guys use is the best, so it is hard to find an advantage with equipment. It is up to the riders to train hard to create more air. I work on my legs in the gym and it is hard work. Heavy leg workouts, squats and squats with weights.

“ It is up to the riders to train hard to create more air.”

BALZ MULLER
For me the ‘pop’ is always coming from my back knee; I get an extra kick out of using the back knee. What I am doing is first bending my knees, then I push the back leg down then I pull the front leg up and that gives me the whip. When I lift off I pull my body above the boom so my bodyweight gets above the boom. I use the same technique for a chop hop, a shaka or a high jump. I train my knees by walking along the beach crouching and jumping off one leg. Don’t train only one leg or you will end up like me with at least 2cm more muscle on one side! 

“ For me the ‘pop’ is always coming from my back knee.”

AMADO VRIESWIJK
It is all about the timing and the landing. You need to set off at the right moment at the right angle and have a lot of power in your legs. The more speed the better. When it is dead flat it is all about the way you move the sail and use the wind to take off. It is not all about throwing yourself and the gear in the air, you really have to use the wind to get up there.

“ You really have to use the wind to get up there.”

BEN SEVERNE
The two main factors that maximize ‘pop’ in a freestyle sail are inflation and leverage. By tightening the leech and moving the shaping higher in the sail we can increase leverage.  This makes the effect of loading up and then releasing power more exaggerated, and increases the lift. The inflation is how the sail can become deeper and more powerful when loaded up. There are a few variables that influence this – materials, skin tension and shaping distribution. 

MATERIALS: We use more flexible materials to allow the profile to become deeper under load. The Freek’s Dacron luff panels and eM3/eM4 laminates are more elastic than traditional X-Ply materials. This helps the sail to load up and then explosively release power like a spring. The wider mast sleeve also increases the use of flexible materials and positions the most flexible (Dacron and sleeve cloth) right at the front of the sail.  This means that this power surge pulls forward rather than sideways for maximum efficiency.

SKIN TENSION: The softer the sail (less skin tension) the faster and more it inflates. Rigid sails with high skin tension do not allow enough range of movement in the sail. The Freek uses 5 battens to get its stability and this allows us to decrease skin tension for more dynamic inflation.   

SHAPING DISTRIBUTION: Most of the shaping in the Freek is added onto the luff curve at the front of the sail.  At rest the sail sits very flat with a lot of excess material in front of the mast. Then when it’s loaded up this material pulls back into the sail and becomes depth. The difference between these two states is what makes it ‘pop’.

JAMES HOOPER – SEVERNE BOARD SHAPER
To make a freestyle board ‘pop’ we need to increase the angle of attack from the flat/planing trim position to launch angle as instantly as possible. The main variable is the distribution of surface area. By reducing surface area behind the back foot, the tail of the board can be jammed down just prior to release. This maximizes the ‘pop’ effect when the rider unweights the board. The Psycho has parallel rails to allow the board to sit comfortably in the planing trim and then a tapered tail to create a clear difference between these trim positions  – load and unload. High volume rails allow the rider to progressively build up pressure to load up before take off. Thin rails can knife into the water before the pressure can increase. Square edges release water instantly to prevent any sticky feeling when the board leaves the surface. Understanding and balancing these variables is the key to maximizing ‘pop’ and our freestyle board – the Psycho – is the result.

DIETER VAN DER EYKEN
In general I think speed is very important. In freestyle using the rail is also key, it is a bit like wakeboarding where you really carve the rail in. At the same time you need to load your sail with counter pressure. These two opposing pressures give you a lot of ‘pop’! My training for ‘pop’ is doing squats! You need to train your legs! Explosive squats are ideal. Because when you jump up with the board, basically you are doing a squat. For chop hopping it is really important to bring the sail up as you jump. A lot of people pull their boom down rather than pushing it up as they go in the air. Once in the air you pull yourself up towards the sail, that is how you are going to do the best chop hop. With freestyle we do a lot of moves where we duck the sail. If you are on the other side of the sail, it gives you something to build pressure with. As you carve at the same time you are loading up your sail with the two forces going against each other. This is pushing a lot of pressure on the water. When you take off that pressure that you’ve built up, it helps you get into the air, like wakeboarding.

“Using the rail is also key.”

PHIL SOLTYSIAK
The most important ingredients for ‘pop’ are speed and power in your sail. On flat water make sure you are really lit up. If everybody is using 4.0m, then take a 4.5m! Then sail as fast as you can. For freestyle tricks, if you are doing the ducking ones, it is a matter of angle too. If you are going across the wind or a bit upwind then you get more power in your sail versus going downwind. Push the board hard into the water and lift it up as high as you can with your legs. You have to be explosive. If you can time the ‘pop’ with your legs, front leg pushing the board down, back leg pushing the board down then front leg lifting the board up and back leg lifting the board up, and also use your sail, then you are ready to be explosive. If you can time this, all the forces will be going your way and you will fly. Just for a chop hop it’s speed and power, once you have taken off then you expose the bottom of the board to the wind to get more lift from that air you have under your feet!

“ Make sure you are really lit up. ”

ADAM SIMS
These days finding that perfect piece of chop is key. It is often behind the one you think. You use the chop to get over your board and use the back foot to lift you into the air with the front foot straight after, skateboard style. You use a little bit of pressure in your sail but not too much. With ducking moves you are using the power of the sail for the move. You tend to throw your body into the move rather than trying to ‘pop’. I just windsurf a lot for my training. I used to go to the gym but I did not feel it made a huge difference. I was doing CrossFit, jump squats and high jumps. It only made a difference for me on flat water. For me it is about finding the perfect ramp to give you the release. Also making sure you get air under the board. As you ‘pop’, even off the smallest ramp you do not over-sheet, so you stay very neutral with the sail. Just hold it, let it lift and tuck in really small. . 

“ Finding that perfect piece of chop is key. ”

JOHN SKYE
Speed is key. My other tip is to keep your hands closer together on the boom. This helps to get a bit more lift when you take off. When you take off you bend down in your stance, straighten and then pull it all up again in the air. Squat, stand up, squat! When you jump into the air heading up a little bit helps. You change angle, you bear off to obtain your speed, when you see your ramp if you head up a bit then the wind will get under you gear and help give you that lift.

“ Keep your hands closer together on the boom. ”

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