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                                          Pumping

         Learn to do it and launching the plane with pumping

Fonte : www.youthwindsurfing.com

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By Charles Ivey

A key to being fast around the course in lighter conditions is to get onto the plane quickly and to do everything you can to stay on a plane.  That means you simply must become good at pumping to launch the plane, and to get the most out of a dying plane.  Yacht sailors are not allowed to pump (they call it kinetics) but windsurfers really need good pumping skills to get going in lighter winds and if, after a jibe or tack, he or she falls off plane.  Plus, if you can pump onto a plane when everyone else is bobbing along, how cool is that?

There are at least two kinds of pumping.  Before you start to plane, you will need to be pretty dramatic in how you pump.  Wait for a little increase in wind then back up on the board and put your rear foot along the center line just in front of the rear straps.  Your front foot can be in the front strap if you do not put weight on it.  Use whole body pumps in which you try to bounce the board into the air, pulling up on the front strap as you pull down on the sail.  This takes rhythm and strength.  You want to pop the board out of the water and bounce it onto a plane.  You should expect to pump several times with increasing amplitude as you pull the sail in and raise your knees up using your entire body.  If you can get into the back strap, you can make even better pumps and board lifts so try to get both feet strapped.  As you come down, use your legs to push the board forward and against the fin, as if you are trying to squirt a watermelon seed between two fingers. Your board will finally slip onto a slow plane if there is enough wind, but you may not be accelerated up to full speed - hence the second form of pumping.

The second form of pumping is used to get more speed.  First you hook in and push the sail away from you.  The harness provides a fulcrum point around which you want to alternate a rapid pull in and push out with the back hand while alternating pushing away and forward with your front hand.  It is as if you are using your arms like two opposing pistons. As one arm pulls in the other pushes away and then you alternate so the in and out motion repeats several times. Try to speed up the pumping to a really fast tempo and the board will accelerate rapidly.  Then get into your fully powered position and let it rip.

This form of pumping mimics what birds do when they flap their winds past a normal angle of attack all the way to a critical point where a stall would happen.  The sail is quickly over sheeted creating the first signs of stall at the luff.  When you shove the clew back away from you into the disturbed air, you can catch the little whirlwinds near the clew and get a form of something like reattachment.  Some estimates are that one can get about 15 percent more lift out of your sail doing this if you do it perfectly.  That sounds good and I read that some where - maybe it is correct.  All I know for sure is it works.

If you notice a little slowing down, bear off the wind a bit and pump using the second form to regain speed.  If the wind is dying and you are going to fall off plane, revert back to the first mode of pumping and try to get an extra 10 meters of planing out of the dying breeze.  Remember, an extra 10 meters here and there around the course will add up to a lot of ground that only the better pumpers will get.

There are lots of styles of pumping and these two seem to work well for me and for a number of TeamUSA sailors.  Just remember, pumping takes time to learn.  You will not be a good pumper your first few tries.  You have to learn the timing and best body positions.  Plus, no matter how big a pump you make, there are sailors who are making bigger ones and they have learned to balance their bodies and rigs in order to optimize their motions.  Try it and discover, a good pumper will launch the plane and keep it going when others are complaining about slogging along.