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Learn to Loop |
by Karin Dornbusch (originally published at www.dailydose.de, translation by Tabea
Oppliger) „Learn to
Loop!“ – that was the title of an article in Surf’s July edition, 2001. So
often I had dreamed of doing that manoeuvre. What a bliss to playfully master the ultimate
move on the North Sea. Well, here was this article – a great chance to go for it! The
article „Frontloop Special“ included preliminary exercises on the beach,
analyses and hints. That should be enough to break through, but despite all the reading
and studying I didn’t achieve the wanted success. Apart from big talk on the beach
nothing happened on the water! Windsurfing at full speed, how on earth should I throw
myself around the mast? I had enough excuses, like: „Wind and waves today
weren’t convenient to practice…“ A new day on the water, a new try. I was
always much more daring on the beach than on the water. The
same old story on every windsurf-vacation. My thoughts always turned to that same
manoeuvre. What’s the big deal of a table top or my first go at a back loop? Nice,
but hmmmm, not the front loop! Well meant hints from others on the beach like „You
can do it! A power jibe is harder than a front loop!“ didn’t help much.
I
was really lucky in Langebaan. The conditions couldn’t have been better: wind for my
4.7m2 sail and small but steep waves. Again I began by practising the rig-rotation on a
sand dune. After a while one of my friends couldn’t bear the sight any longer and
urged me to get on the water. He showed me how to catapult myself forward, rotating around
the mast. It looked so easy and I was quick to follow. Bang! The mast smacked onto the
water and I got catapulted after it. Absolutely no rotation… I kept practicing in the
shorebreak when there wasn’t too much pressure in the sail. It must’ve looked
hilarious but slowly but steadily I was getting there.
In
May we went to Vargas (Canary Islands). To avoid damaging my eardrums I stuffed cotton in
my ears and then, with a pounding heart and wobbly legs I attempted the loop once more,
this time rotating with the board too. I knew that at least the fin had to be out of the
water to rotate the board, but I even seemed to have forgotten my chop hops! I was so
tense and had complete blackouts. In the end I simply tried the rotation around the mast
again. Result: black and blue shoulders and a throbbing headache! But the first hurdle had
been taken and I realised that you couldn’t get hurt that badly… I was always
afraid to crash onto the tip of the board, but you actually fall into the water between
the mast and the board. To be honest, I was extremely frustrated for not at least
succeeding in a complete rotation. What on earth was I doing wrong? Most people told me
that their first try at rotating landed them in a waterstart, which made me feel all the
worse. In
Pozo, Kristoffer Living was just holding a wave clinic. Wow – I couldn’t believe
it: the loop students were quickly and steadily improving. I definitely wanted to join in
so I decided to participate in his next wave clinic in the summer. So beginning of August
I took part with three Norwegians, three Swedes and one Dutchman. Kristoffer explained
everything once more in theory and then off we went to practise on the water. The
conditions didn’t seem to be ideal to me; extremely high winds and I had to rig my
3.5m2 sail!!! But one does everything under peer pressure… Kristoffer
followed each student on the water, observing every move closely and correcting right
away. In addition, everything was filmed for later analysing. My first tries were
hopeless. I didn’t even manage to rotate... Kristoffer advised me to grasp the boom
even further back, placing the mast-hand towards the clew as well. You won’t believe
what happened then: I succeeded in a full rotation! I was stoked to experience such
improvement on Clinic Day Number One!!! Thanks to Kristoffer! The following days I was
scared to fail… Well, I didn’t make it each time and had fantastic wipeouts! But
I was landing more and more loops. What a feeling! The other clinic participants were
succeeding too and it was so much fun to practise in the group and motivate one another.
Suddenly all the hints and learning videos made sense. Now I could go for the fine tuning!
Oh yeah, and the whole thing with wind from the opposite direction…! Personally the
front loop cost me a lot of effort and I really hope you girls will be more successful!
Have fun and keep going! |
text: Karin Dornbusch, photos: Heinrich Dornbusch © windgirls 2005 |
