A classic catapult triggered by the sudden (relative) breaking resistance of the board (caused by a gust, or submerging the nose in the back of a wave, or cutting the leeward rail down in the water, or ventilating the fin, or ...).
Traveling in approx. 13 m/s cross offshore wind on a Tiga Freecarve 61 with a Gaastra Grind 5.4. |
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Anders is happily planing on a beam reach - but what you can't see from these awful pictures, is that he has in fact reason to feel a little stressed by his sailing buddy, who threatens to overtake him from a leeward position (see the original video here). | He is pushing hard - and perhaps a little too hard. His more inboard/forward position and the lifting of the clew of his sail indicates, that for whatever reason (perhaps a spin out - or perhaps running into the back of a little steep wave) the board isn't traveling with the speed of Anders and his rig anymore. |
The nose of the board is placed low in the water, and now it also looks like the board is capsizing a little to the leeward. | The board is definitely trying to stop Anders, and in his effort to stop his movement forward he clings to the boom and over-sheets the sail. |
The board now seems to have transformed into a submarine, and Anders - still tied to the rig through the harness line - pulls the rig forward. |
The 100 kg weight of Anders slams into the water with his heaviest parts first (belly and arse) - pulling the rig in the same direction. The downward pressure on the board has been so great that it now pops up in the air behind Anders. |
Is this whales breaching or tail slapping? Well, if it wasn't for the blurred pictures above, we wouldn't know. | A couple of minutes later: Still with the life jacket high up his neck Anders attempts to water start. But look at that asymmetric boom - you can almost hear the local windsurf-pusher laughing ... |