A Look at 3 different top turns.

The first top turn is with the skate 100L with a 4.7m sail.

I use the Skate for a lot of training, due to it’s volume you must use more body angulation which means when you transfer it onto a smaller board the turns are very fast.

The first thing you will notice is how far back I am, commanding the board with my back foot.

Try to keep the sail in the same position to the wind. As the board turns you are driving with your front foot.

As you go around the turn the sail will pull you forwards and onto the board.

When the wave allows continue the top turn around so it takes you back to the pocket to do your next bottom turn.

Now the next top turn is totally different, it is with the 79L Twin fin and a 3.7m sail.

In reality there is nothing different but the outcome is.

You can see that even though I am on a much smaller board  and sail, the body angle and commitment is the same. The sail is in clue first neutral, where it will stay trough out the top turn. Plus most importantly I am watching what the wave is doing.

My choice is that I want to use the top turn to get as much speed as possible for my next bottom turn as the wave looks better further down the line.

Notice how my body angle has gone forwards to drive harder off the front leg and generate more power and speed.

You can see now that my body is right forwards driving the board down, I am in the perfect position to let the rig pull me up and go into my next bottom turn with more speed and power.

The other important thing to notice is that my sail angle has not changed.

So onto yet another Top turn, again very different.

This one is a little bit more difficult to see as it is taken from behind the wave.

You can see that this one is a little bit more radical.

But look the body angle is the same, the rig the same. This time by correct timing and speed out of the bottom turn the wave does the work.

The body angle and commitment is the same, the rig angle the same.

The body is going forwards and I am driving with the front foot.

And you see by everything being in balance the wave actually throws me into an arial. I did not go for one as I never do. The wave will always create an arial if you hit it with the right timing.

So Three very different top turns.

But the technique is always the same.