Welcome to Beginner Tips and techiques   by  jim Desilva 

Beginner Tip #50--------------------  Heel Heavy!

 

Most beginners share the common problem of sailing on their heels.  By that, we mean not having their weight on their toes, but sailing heavy on their heels.  The problem with this is two-fold:

--By sailing on your heels, you rail the board to windward, which makes the board slow, slow to plane, and it makes you round up into the wind.

--By sailing on your heels, you have no ability to react to changes in the wind….the only thing you can do is fall back.  When the wind lets up and you have to come inboard, you can’t because all your weight is on your back foot.

 

How do you know if you are heel heavy?  Most people think they are not because they have been doing it for so long they don’t notice it.  Have your friend sail behind you and see if the board is tilted to windward when you are JSA (just sailing along).  If it is, you need to shift your weight onto the balls of your foot to FLATTEN the board.

 

This is the number one problem of beginners/intermediates who are trying to plane for the first time or plane more consistently.  The board has to be FLAT to plane, if it isn’t you need an excess amount of power to go or, worse yet, you may not plane at all.

 

Weight on the balls of your feet, not on your heels!