ION CLUB Windsurf Hacks - the Carve Jibe

The carve jibe! Maybe the most practised Windsurfing manoeuvre of all times and a true cornerstone in every windsurfing career. At the ION CLUBS all over the world, carve jibe lessons are one of the most requested teaching sessions and all combined we accumulated centuries of experience teaching this manoeuvre.
Learning a new manouver such as the carve jibe always follows the same principles.
1. you need to know what to do? Those are the keypoints of the manouver
2. You need to practise and compare what you´re doing to what is supposed to be happening.
3. You need to understand which parts of the manouver you´re still struggeling with and why
4. If possible focus only on those parts which are still hard for you, before practising the entire manouver again.
5. Celebrating your first real Carve jibe
In this video we like to look at part one, the key points of the Carve Jibe and explain you how it works. Part 2, 3 and 4 are the parts on which we strongly recommend having an experienced instructor looking at your actions, and help you efficiently to solve the reasons for mistakes, rather than looking at the symptoms.
And well, for step 5, you should make sure that enough people are watching to celebrate your success with you!
Let´s have a look at step 1. The key points of the carve jibe.
Preparation
A crucial element in order to smoothly plane through your jibe is speed. Approximately 50m before the actual jibe, bear away into a downwind course, in order to accelerate even more.
Take your back foot out of the Footstrap and place it right, before the Back footstrap in the Centre of the board.
Move your backhand further back on the boom, keep your knees bent , your sail sheeted in, and hook out of the harness
Carving
If your intention is to plane through the jibe, you need to choose a rather wide radius for your turn. Gently lean into the curve and apply pressure on the leeward rail by letting your sail drop forward and into the turn. Raise the heel of your front foot and pull up on the strap.
The back foot is only a supporter, but not the key element. Too much pressure on the back foot will kill all the speed you have instantly.
Exiting
Now there are only two things left to do. You have to flip your sail and change your stance. The order in which those two things have to be done are maybe one of the most discussed topics in Windsurfing. The simple answer is, that there´s no answer.
The order depends on personal style and the actual situation.
If you´re board at that stage is not planning anymore, you will have to change your stance before, flipping the sail. If you wait too long, your feet will feel like they´re clued on to the board.
If you´re still fully planning, there will be a moment, when you´re board speed more or less equals the wind speed. So atmospheric wind and headwind are similarly strong. At this moment your sail will begin to feel very light and easy to hold. That is the moment you want to flip the sail and change your stance at the same time in a fluent movement.
Last but not least, if the water is choppy, the wind very strong, or you having a hard time doing those two things at the same time, a good alternative is to flip your sail first and change your stance once you have the sail back in your hand and with it something to hold on to.
Once the sail is flipped and your stance has changed, start accelerating again on a downwind course, hook back into the harness and sail off!
As a final note, the reason why carve jibes are such a complex manoeuvre are exactly those necessary variations in technic.
No matter which option you prefer in the first place, in the end, you need to be able to adapt your technic from one second to the next, depending on the actual situation.
Besides years and years of experience and passion for Windsurfing and teaching,
our instructors will not only use videoing to help you understand on which parts of the manoeuvre you might struggle, but also waterproof headsets to give you instant feedback on your actions.
And of course celebrate your first Carve jibe with you!
See you on the water!
Your ION CLUB Instructor Team