Tip of the Week
The crazy and wonderful world of freestyle continues to evolve and just when you think it must be heading towards its pinnacle the contortionists of the windsurfing world enter into more mind boggling air power moves. One of the latest creations is the shifty — a shaka into pushloop — and Nicolas Akgazciyan (99NoveNove / Point-7 / AL360 / Maui Ultra Fins) is now on hand to give you a glimpse into the move.
Nico Akgazciyan: “To realise the shifty it’s important to get enough speed and power in your sail to turn your rotation otherwise you will be stopped in half of the rotation. Before starting the movement you need to look for a good piece of chop to go as high as you can and get time to make the Shifty. You have to start your manoeuvre like a power shove-it going close to the wind. Then, when you feel the power in your back hand you have to pull your sail up to the wind to help your sail to take more wind on it.”
“Against the wind, only the sail will help you to turn and not your body, if you try with your body you will not turn enough. So, its important that your sails takes well the wind to propel you in the back. It looks scary but it’s the way to make a backwards rotation without waves. And once you are going into the rotation, don’t release your hand from the boom, you can’t do anything just keep your hands close to your boom. When you finish the rotation you are over the top of the sail like a pushloop or shove it, the only way to come back is to push on your back hand to land it.
It’s important to understand that without speed and power it’s very hard to turn or impossible except if you have a wave. If you don’t have those ingredients be careful. But if you going fast enough and a big chop presents itself in front of you it’s the perfect recipe for the shifty.”
Every year we listed all the moves we have in freestyle, now it’s possible to create new moves. And each year, new moves arrive more radical than the last one. The last 2 years freestyle moves came more crazy and radical. I’m sure it will help the wave discipline too, and I think that it’s only the beginning of a long series.
Where and when did you learn the move?
The first time I saw this rotation, it was 1 year and half ago with Balz Muller in Leucate. He was trying this rotation in front of me without control and he had some hard and bad crashes. I thought he was crazy because the movement was new, but we couldn’t imagine how he could land it, plus this day was very windy with around 45 knots of wind. The rotation was fast & impressive because when the sail take well the wind the movement accelerate a lot.
Then last winter we were in South Africa on a quiet lake with Steven Van Broeckhoven, Balz, Yentel [Caers] & Adrien Bosson. We saw Balz trying some but he was keeping control in the air and turning when he decided. During the lunch break Steven V.B said: “I’m sure we can do the Shifty, Balz looks like he’s keeping control on the shuv it, sure it’s feasible! We went out again and… Bam! Steven landed one — waterstarting away… Wow! Really I was there… maybe just 6 metres away, no more, and it was impressive, I was saying that freestyle was starting to take another dimension! All together we made a pact to not tell anybody else and keep it a secret, so we could show it off at future competitions!”