Freestyle Friday

Take your funnels into the air with these top tips

Once you have mastered the basic moves like the funnel and the flaka the next step is to be able to pull them off so the whole rotation is in the air. Not only will the manoeuvre look smoother, but the move will gain additional wow factor! To help take your freestyle into the air we asked a few of the top freestylers in the world for their top tips!

Antoine Albert (Goya Windsurfing): 

Prerequisites: puñeta, funnel, switch duck. I recommend a small chop. Do not duck down wind, you want plenty of backhand for lift, duck slightly downwind. As a ponch you have to lift the sail up and forward, imagine you want to punch a guy with one head taller than you in the face, with a curvy angle... You know what I mean? Top tips -> Same as the kono, use your legs and body to stay over the board and never stop pushing the backhand till you touch the water.

Riccardo Marca (Fanatic / NorthSails / Maui Ultra Fins): 

-  Before stepping it up to the air funnel learn how to funnel. 

- It’s really important to duck the sail right, so make sure to do this first part well. In this move you can duck the sail a little bit more forward.

- When you take off push the sail forward to the nose and look downwind.

It’s really important to time the ducking with the chop.

Philip Soltysiak (Starboard / Sailworks)

“To do any move in the air you need more lift from the sail, and the only way to get that extra power is to go into the move with a lot of speed and across the wind, not downwind like for most of the older moves.”

Tonky Frans (RRD / RRD Sails):

- Sail very powered on flat water.

- Get in switch stance pointing slightly upwind and duck the sail very fast.

- Take off slightly into the wind, throwing the front hand high in the air

- Follow your front hand with your body around the rotation.

- As you rotate, try to look around, keep the sail sheeted and pull up to stop the board hitting the water too early.

- Hold on!