So now that you have progressed to using a small board (a volume below your body weight) but are you finding it difficult to water start?
In my case I started in a 105L board and the moved to a 85L after about 10 months of winging. I weigh around 90kg. The first session on flat water was a nightmare. I kept slipping off of the back of the board and the board would shoot up in the air as I fell of the back! But after a couple of sessions I began to get used to it and I quickly got to the point of preferring to use the small board.
Here are a few tips I can share from my experience:
- Find a flatwater spot for your first few sessions on a lower volume board. Chop and breaking waves make it 10 times harder and tire you out
- Place one hand on the wing when it’s is in the water to provide extra stability as you’re kneeling on the board
- hold the neutral handle with your backhand when first flying the wing, this makes it easier and faster to grab the front power handle with your front hand, helping you get the wing powered up faster to provide stability
- Sit back on your heals on the board this keep your centre of gravity lower helping with stability.
- Check out an alterntechnique in the video below to get the wing flying whilst keeping maximum stability on the board.