Proficient windsurfing comes from balancing the forces of the wind power in your hands against the fin power under your board.  You are the rigging in this connection of forces, so getting comfortable in the harness is a key step towards increasing your control and reacting more efficiently.

I use a low seat harness, which has a couple benefits that I find integral to this connection.  First, the spreader bar webbing that takes all the force goes under my butt so I can sit down onto the rig load. It’s kind of like perching on the edge a tall bar stool, where with a subtle upper body movement, you can easily transfer your weight from your feet on the floor to your butt on the stool.  That weighting transition is really similar in windsurfing and critical for windsurfing faster, as you have to be able to fluidly transition from weighting rig through your harness, to weighting the board through your feet, and back again, continuously.   And it can be a 100% movement from one state to the other, from standing in the board to hanging completely from the rig in a jump.

Second, my spreader bar has 10cm of side-to-side movement on the webbing, so I can turn my hips forward while maintain full rig loading.  I find that I ride better with more board control if I can turn my body stance forward, into the direction I’m heading.  The hip rolling is really critical when sailing upwind when you need to also lean forward with your upper body to keep the board down and driving upwind.

To windsurf faster you have to be able to load up the sail and un-weight the board to allow it to ride up on the power of the fin.  Pointing your toes really helps to flatten the board and light up the fin, which powers up the rig further.  It perpetuates as you accelerate until you are entirely weighting the rig and flying through the air.  And this is the other half of wind surfing – air surfing the wind pressure as well as board surfing the water waves.