Technique Time

The spock was a revolutionary move for the world of freestyle and it was invented by former world champion Josh Stone (Goya Windsurfing). Today the spock is a relatively simple move in the crazy world of freestyle, but it is still an essential move for any budding freestyler as it is the natural progression from the vulcan. To help you on your spock journey we caught up with a few of the world’s top freestylers to gain their top tips and we’ll be bringing you more freestyle top tips over the coming weeks.

Max Rowe (Simmer / Simmer / Mystic):

- It can be quite a tricky progression to the spock from the vulcan if you pick up a few bad habits along the way. My big tips to make it an easy as possible transition would be…

- To make sure you’re taking off across the wind, this will encourage you to be more sheeted in and then releasing that power as you pop will help to fire you into the rotation and give you that extra bit of rotation you need to be getting the nose sliding into the spock. Alternatively make sure you’re really sheeted in as you take off!

- Speed up your hands! Lazy hands can be a big problem when people concentrate too much on the pop, so if you’re finding that the pop isn’t a problem then stop thinking about it and concentrate on your hand speed. 

- Punching your front hand downwind! This creates space for you to move into as you rotate and also means that once you’ve rotated 180 the sail will be in front of and in an easy place to get your hands on, rather than being behind you and a scramble to get your hands on. 

Rick Jendrusch (Severne):

- Go full speed and go downwind a little.

- Jump off and pull in your back hand for a really short time just to get the rotation, watch over your shoulder and pull in your back foot. It’s important that your back hand passes under your front hand to the other side of the boom.

- Keep your body weight above your board and keep the weight to the front - over the nose of the board. Keep watching over your shoulder to slide around.

- Push the mast forwards as well and don’t push too much on your backhand because if you do then you get pushed over into the water.

- Take a board with a lot of volume in the tail to make it easier to learn and also a small fin will make it easier to rotate.

Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard / Severne):

- The best tip for the spock is not to push on your backhand at all! It’s a common mistake with people learning the spock as they want to push themselves through the last part of it. 

- Really pull the mast past you to the front of the board and stretch your front hand, look over your shoulder and bend your front knee as much as possible.