A tutorial that contains more text than pictures is usually a very bad one. But sometimes that's exactly what it takes, more words to get behind the secrets and I hope that I can help some of you to crack the Aerial. Above all, these are tips that have helped me myself. And sometimes these supposedly "little tips" were also a real game changer. That was the case when I helped Graham Ezzy with his Windsurfing Masterclass and Graham gave his students the tip to get down on their knees before (!) going into the bottom turn. What sounds so banal and hardly relevant actually helped me to make my breakthrough. It's the key to generating the drive you need to reach the top of the lip at speed. And that's exactly what we need for powerful cutbacks and also for the aerial.
Note: Anyone interested in a windsurfing masterclass with Graham Ezzy has the opportunity to take part again this year. These will take place in Morocco (15-21 June), Tenerife (3-10 August) and again in Denmark (7-15 September) - among others. Here you can find all the information.
The sequence was recorded by surf editor Manuel Vogel during a winter test session in Dazendorf. The wave was barely a metre high but breaking powerfully - perfect for practising. You can find the complete sequence above - click through! We have taken up the individual sticking points in more detail below.
Preparation - Generate speed for the aerial
I learnt from Graham Ezzy how important preparation is, even when riding waves. Because by anticipating one part of the movement sequence, we can reduce the subsequent one and everything becomes easier. Until then, I had often made the mistake of surfing down the wave at high speed in the hope of reaching the top of the lip at speed. I didn't have the time to look at the wave face in peace and prepare myself. As a result, the timing and the aerial often became a product of chance. So do exactly the opposite. Even if it means failing at the beginning and you don't manage to generate the speed. It's the right way to get the timing right and stay close to the wave face. The latter is what we need for the aerial.
So sit on a wave that is still round. Prepare yourself by steering the board slightly to leeward and looking at the wave face. Reach wider and bend your knees at this point. Look for a wave that closes at the end of your bottom turn or wave ride. This is where the magic happens.
1st legwork - the pump track on the wave
Kneeling before you make the bottom turn is the key to generating drive and the necessary speed with the board. Kneeling beforehand allows you to extend your legs more and more during the bottom turn in order to exert constant pressure on the rail and build up speed. This trick can be used for powerful carved turns as well as for pumping and surfing along the wave face. It requires a little feeling and experience. If you lack the flow, it can happen that your legs are already stretched out even before the turn is finished. These are often the moments when you starve to death at the top of the lip, despite having a lot of input and initial speed. Generating drive with the board not only allows you to stay close to the wave face, but also to get up to speed with little wind and little pressure in the sail.
Look for a wave that closes at the end of your bottom turn or wave ride. This is where the magic happens
To better understand the drive and pumping along the wave face with the board, it helps to think of a pump track where you can generate speed with pushing movements, e.g. on a bike, without pedalling. You make yourself small and light at the top of the hill and then make yourself heavy on the way down and push the bike into the dip. The same applies to the bend, where you start off small and then push harder and harder during the bend. Once you've got the hang of it, this pushing movement accelerates you, allowing you to come out of the bend at a higher speed than when you went in. The same principle, albeit not quite as easy because we are not dealing with rigid concrete, also applies to windsurfing or surfing.
2. drive out of the sail
You can also generate drive with the sail. There are wave sails that inherently have a lot of drive and pull you through the turn with steam (You can find corresponding models with a lot of drive in the wave sail test). Such sails can be a great help at the beginning, but it is also possible without them. In order for the sail to develop proper pull, make the front arm long in the bottom turn. The more you manage to move your body forward at the same time and tilt the sail in the direction of travel, the greater the pull in the sail will be. If there is little wind, a little trick can help: reach further back towards the harness line with your front hand. This will give you more pressure in the sail.
3. drive parallel line
If we wanted to trace the curves that we surf when riding waves, we would see a sine curve that varies depending on what we want to do. The trick to jumping the aerial is to stay close to the wave on the wave face. This is the whole secret and the key to landing the aerial in front of the wave.
The sine curve that we draw along the wave face is flat and elongated. This makes the path to the aerial very different from the carved power turns, where we leave the wave face with a long reach and then surf back up the wave as vertically as possible. My tip: Try to ride the flat turn even in small waves.
The Aerial
Lars Petersen, one of the best Danish wave surfers, once said in his instructional videos: "It's all about timing.". Although he is more than right, I would like to give you the tip of removing the word "timing" from your head. Because timing describes the result and not what you need to have in mind as a goal. Instead, think about wanting to do a "high five" with the wave.
1. high five with the wave
The high five is a concept developed by Graham Ezzy. Not only do you reduce a complex movement sequence to a simple order, but you also make a small correction to the mindset, which can already have a big impact. It's a wonderful trick for transferring previous experience, even if it has nothing to do with surfing, to the unknown in order to intuitively know what's important. In this case, thinking about a high five automatically ensures the right line of vision, speed, body tension and timing. In short, the high five frees you from the burden of many instructions that you would otherwise have to have in your head, and the great thing about it is that the timing is automatic. I also like the idea of a high five because it also takes the fear out of it. A high five sounds a lot friendlier and more doable than the idea of going straight to where the wave is going to hit you with all its might.
So the aim is to clap off with the wave and do a high five with it. And you do this with the underside of the board. You hold it up to the wave at the moment it wants to roll over.
2. body tension during takeoff
Manuel gave me the tip not to think of aerial as a classic jump where you actively jump off and use the wave as a ramp, even if the motion sequence is the same. It helps to remember to let the wave do the work and the pop. To make this work, tense all your muscles during the high five and apply force against it by stretching your legs. The more you manage to hold the underside of the board against it, the better it can do its job, i.e. transfer all its energy to you and propel you into the air towards the beach.
You may have the same problems at the beginning as I did: you try to do everything right, but there's no sign of a pop, let alone an aerial. The board sticks to the wave. This is often due to a lack of speed or because the wave is not steep enough.
Let the wave suck you in and spit you out
However, it is also often due to a lack of flow. The trick here is to imagine being sucked in by the wave and spit out again. When a wave is about to break, it transports the water upwards from below. It sucks in the water beneath it and then rolls over. Try to mentally surf along with this suction movement and capture the shape of the wave with the underside of your board. So let yourself be sucked in on the way to the lip, bend your knees again with your legs still stretched out from the bottom turn and then let yourself be spit out at the top with a high five and your legs stretched out again in the direction of the beach.
3. the aerial flight phase
If everything went well, you are now in the air and can make yourself small again. Keep your front leg long while you pull your back leg towards you. You can optimise the aerial by lifting the windward edge of the board to get lift. You can't see this in the photo sequence because I kick the board away a little with my back leg. That's ok too, as long as it's in the air.
Tuning tips for the material
Finally, a few tips on equipment: You may find that it can be difficult to get up to speed along the wave face at the beginning, especially in sideshore conditions and with little wind. You are more or less directly on the downwind and have less pressure in the sail. A little fin tuning can help here to get over the first hurdles. A twinser setup or a single fin can do a lot to free up the board and generate more speed. With a quad setup, the board sits more firmly in the water. The fins have little lift due to their small size and the side fins are also slightly angled, which is very good for carved turns, but can be a braking factor on the straights. A compromise between the extremes of a single fin and a quad setup is the thruster setup, which combines manoeuvrability and lift. If you only have the quad setup available, it can help to screw the centre fins further back. The same applies to the base plate. If this is mounted further back, the board releases more easily and starts planing faster.
Appropriate sail tuning can also help to generate more power and therefore speed for wave riding or aerial riding. For example, if the sail has two eyelets on the outhaul, the upper one usually offers more drive.
