How to develop and master your TACKS windsurfing!  

The new perspective is GOLD! It's really my favourite position as you can better see what you'Re doing with the sail and the board.

This is perfect timing, I am wanting to be able to fast tack, so essential if your riding waves and ending up a long way down wind and needing to get upwind efficiently. We have a couple of light wind days this week I will be able to start practicing this on my 105.....nice!! Some of the best tacking instruction I've ever seen!!

Thanks for the in-depth video. I’ve watched so many Tutorials about tacking. Still can’t get them properly on small board. Not even close. I see I should properly train on my 120 liter but with a bit of a smaller sail. But I already windsurf so rarely, it feels bad to sacrifice a day of full speed blasting on 7.3 for a tack training. But I shall try one day cause it’s really my Achilles heel. I can handle 40 knots, head high waves, jump and do few frontside turns. My jibe is almost stable. But I’ve never even got one fast tack in the bank!!! One reason is that I always fall in such an unfriendly position for water start when I fall that it discourages me. Again because my sessions are too rare. But anyway, the tutorial is perfect. I’ll try one day on 120l and underpowered with a 5.3 or 5.9 maybe, see if I can get in the groove. Thanks anyway.

Thanks a lot Cookie for that another helpful video and the brilliant footage! 👍And for bringing back the tack to their honor - a fast tack is not so often to be seen on the water and I even met an owner of a windsurf station who frankly declared: "tack - needs nobody!".... (no name, no comment!) The way you show it it can be as fun as a jibe! It would be great to see you some day in Vas!

Ciao Simon Long time lurker here Just wanted to thank you for the quality of the video/lessons, most likely the best videos on windsurfing globally so well done! Any chance you will be doing clinics in Italy someday? Ciao and buon vento

Lovely. I will practice very soon. Thank you a lot for this tutorial

great video, thank you!!!

Best tacking video so far - chapeau!

thanks for a helpful video

Here's my problem. I seem to face a choice: Either a) I don't get all the way through the wind, or b) I fall before making it around to the other side of the sail. Let's address situation b) first: I start to head up wind, front hand to the mast, unhook, front foot out of the strap, back foot of the strap, front foot in front of the mast, try to carve further upwind. The problem is my back foot is still pretty far back, so my legs are spread far apart. I feel like I need the back leg that far back because it gives me better leverage over the back of the board to push it through the eye of the wind. But if I make it through the wind, I have a very large step to make when I want to bring my back foot up the mast. It's awkward, and it often stalls the board, so when I make the step, I wind up standing straight up. The mast is also standing up straight. I'm now crowding the mast, my arms in close. I wobble and I fall, usually backwards. So then I try to keep up my speed to keep the board stable, which then causes problem a). I do the first few steps: upwind, hand to mast, feet out of straps, front foot in front of the mast. I try to initiate a carve, and with my speed still fairly fast, I try to get around the mast early, usually leaving before I'm through the wind. But if I make it to the other side, I'm unable to get the nose all the way through the wind. Though I try to get the mast forward, I fall because the sail is too powered up. It yanks me forward and down. So my question is, is there a certain feel that I should have in my sail before I try to jump around the mast? I see you are really hiking out to turn the board upwind. That makes sense, since your back hand is up near the harness lines, so you don't have much leverage on the sail (like when you jibe, you always extend your arm back on the boom, but that's not possible here). You manage to get the sail well oversheeted, so much that the bottom of the sail is touching your leg, before you jump over. Is your sail so perfectly tuned and sized for you that it makes oversheeting a bit easier? (i.e., is it difficult to tack when you're overpowered?) And I don't know what you're feeling in the sail at that point -- for instance, in the jibe, there's often a moment where the sail feels fairly light, because your speed is matching or outpacing the wind. But it seems like in the tack, your sail is fully powered until that moment when you release the back hand and begin your jump to the other side of the board. So you would really have to anticipate that moment, bracing yourself for the force of the sail. And since you're fully powered, it's hard to know when that moment should be. Any hints in this area would be greatly appreciated. I've been trying to tack for decades and had only dry one, on a big board. I sail in waves and it would be really nice if I could get this skill down.

Amazing lesson! So good with the specs about board and sail. Next light wind session I will skip gust hunting and just practise tacks and jibes!

Best Video Ive ever seen for tacking. Brilliant Camera work (as always)! Thanks so much! Enjoy and be blessed :)

Awesome video! I wasn’t pressuring the back foot enough and couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t getting through the wind. Showing the progression to the carve tack really helps.

Wonderful pedagogic video! I hope a similar one about jibe!! Thx!!

If I carry good speed I make the tack always doesn’t matter how small the board. Big board carriers more speed upwind and makes it easy, I marvel at people who do it on small boards barely moving hunting for waves. Feels like voodoo.

Video stupendo grazie

Excellent tutorial. It worked well on sails up to 6.0 but beyond that and with choppy water, i couldn’t seem to get any control on the sail which ended falling into the water…

This is a great in-depth video! When it comes to tacking, I'm ok at it, but I have some trouble getting the mast far enough forward after I step around it. I'm going to try what you said about keeping your body weight low and really throwing the mast hard. I'm probably not being aggressive enough about throwing the mast to the other side and keeping it forward.

I'm on plane tacking now. I carve it nice, but then i kinda jump twice. Jump to the mast and then around. Most times i make it stick but sometimes, it feels like i stall the board by carving it to hard. Like that my back foot is hitting the water and becomes more of a brakepedal.

Great vids as always Cookie!! Any tips for low volume boards e.g. I can't get many successful tacks on my 85l in say 5m sail typical coastal chop conditions...

yaaay! Will we get the same for the non-planning jibe? :D

Thanks Cookie. My problem is that during hand-foot transition I'm lose the rig downwind; still I remain on board. Rig on new side seems too unbalanced and heavy so it unbalanced me if I try to resist on keeping it in my hands. I've also tryed to put mast hand high, just under the boom handle for more leverage.

I haven't tacked in 30 years so I'd be a complete beginner..It would be a great skill to have for those days when it's too over the top to attempt a gybe. I don't really have suitable gear to learn..my 112ltre is only 64cms wide.. every year I vow to try but never do..

I am learning fast tacks, and there's something I've noticed that upsets me a bit... I can finish almost all my fast tacks, but I fail a lot the "beginner" tacks... There's something I am doing wrong in the beginner one, and that's because I feel fast tack easier? For me fast tack is easier because I don't feel I lose power on the sail, and that helps me with the balancing. With beginner tacks, there's a moment there's no power on the sail, and in that moment if a wave hits me I'm more exposed to fall. The place where I sail is low wind and usually a lot choppy, and I am using a Bic Techno II 148 lts and 4.5 sail. I'm 84 kg.

Hello, I find it difficult to angle big sails with a low foot profile far enough backwards to steer the board effectively upwind. At a certain angle the foot of the sail gets stuck on the deck and foot straps. Also a lot of times, especially on my old course racer with a big sail and daggerboard down, I find that the board doesn't want to turn into wind at all until slowed down to a near stand still. Any tips on this? Thanks

Hi cookie! Love your videos!! Usually which sail/boom mount are you using when u are filming with the one x2? Keep up the good work!

Cookie, How long will you be in Vass?

3:09

thought I'd drop in the link to the back-winded tack video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1GorYeXADoc.html. Back-winding tacks has become my absolute go-to way to get better stability in anything above 10 knots. thanks for the vid Simon!

WTF? ❤