Whether you're on slalom gear or wave gear, these tips will help you be the benchmark for speed at your local beach.
Phil Soltysiak going fast! Photo by Bob Stawicki / iwasphotographed.
Sail powered up - You need power to go fast. If you want to consistently be the fast guy at your local beach, you can never be under powered. Challenge yourself and push your comfort envelope into more wind with bigger sails. Rig big, or get rolled.
Choose your route - The water surface is always changing. Use swells and chop to your advantage. Smooth water and downhill are always faster than going up swells or over steep and unorganized chop.
Read the wind - Keep an eye on the water ahead and upwind of you so that you know what kind of wind you will be sailing through. If you can anticipate gusts, lulls and shifts in the wind direction you have a huge advantage over a sailor oblivious to what the wind is doing. Keep your speed up in the turns by jibing in the gusts
Let your gear go fast- Good equipment will go fast. Let it. If you're fighting for control chances are you're not going as fast as you could be. Relax and let your awesome gear make you fly! If that's not working, tune your gear: https://www.sailworks.com/windsurf-race-gear-tuning-tips
Help the board fly - In lighter winds or sailing through lulls freeride and slalom boards can use a little artificial lift. These boards and fins work best with the windward rail flying just a bit. In conditions too light to make the board fly on it's own you can re-create this flying windward rail using foot pressure and keeping the sail very upright. This may take physical effort similar to planking, but you will create extra board speed, which will create more apparent wind, and you will be able to keep up this higher speed more easily.
Sail on the edge - At full speed you will be on the edge of control. If you never nearly lose it or crash, it probably means you're not pushing yourself hard enough.
