| [The
equipments have changed a lot since these photos were
taken; however, the techniques stay the same]. |
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What's The Trick to Jibing a Directional Board? With Robby Naish
This is a reprint of an article from the Kiteboarding Magazine (reprinted with temporary
permission from the Kiteboarding Magazine):
Most people have a strong stance and a weak stance. What you want to
do in order to carve your turns from rail to rail is favor your strong stance - the one
where your balance is inherently better. for me, that's goofy foot or right foot
forward. Whenever I'm right foot forward, I'm substantially more coordinated than I
am when I'm left foot forward even though windsurfing has balanced them out
somewhat. I'm still better when I'm goofy foot.
When I'm going from starboard to port - goofy to regular - I stay in that
goofy-foot stance all the way through my turn until I'm fully going in the other
direction, then I switch my feet. In this (photo) sequence, I'm going from port to
starboard or regular to goofy foot. I want to get onto my favored stance as soon as
possible, so I slowly bring the kite up from the reaching position to the overhead
position. Right before it gets to the neutral position, I take my back foot out of
the strap and bring it forward so that it's basically about to go into the other front
strap. So there's a point just before the kite gets overhead where I pretty much
have both my feet in the front foot straps.
There's a split second where you're in a fairly awkward position and
that's why you don't really stick your feet in the straps. As you transition your
one foot forward, you start to slide your old front foot out of the straps. So, you
have the kite slowly going up, your body is going up and you're releasing rail pressure
and straightening out the board for a second. Then you switch your feet as the kite
swings from the neutral position over toward the other side; that's where you take what
was your front foot, step back around, put it in the back strap, load the opposite rail
and crank the board around for the turn.
So what I'm trying to do whenever I'm loading the rail and loading the
kite in the middle of the turn - regardless of which side I'm turning on - is to stay on
my positive side, which for me is goofy foot. I stay on my goofy foot foot as long
as possible in the front side position and I get to goofy foot again as soon as possible
in the back side position.
Robby Naish is sponsored by Quicksilver and Naish Kiteboarding.
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