This category of maneuvers involves moves that have some sort of circular (360 degree) rotation involving the board, the sail, and/or the body. Many of these moves were inherited from the long-board freestyle maneuvers the 1980's but rest assured, all the great New School windsurfers have flirted with these maneuvers as well. They are key in the development of sail control, balance, and connectivity.
Rotating just your body is called a Pirouette. The simple rotations using the mast base as a pivot include the following: Rotating only the sail is a Sail 360, with the Reverse Sail 360 as another variation. Rotating only the board is a Board-360. Rotating your body and sail together is a Sail Body 360; An extension of the Sail-Body-360 is to jump on the leeward side of the sail and perform a Reverse Sail Body 360 . More of the same include the Flisbee (a Reverse sail body 360 with a sail throw.
Making a complete circle either upwind or downwind results in another subset of 360 maneuvers. The upwind variety involve two very similar maneuvers called the Flip 360 and the Upwind 360. A unique style to the Upwind 360 is the Gecko and theClew-1st Gecko.
The numerous downwind variety include the standard Carving 360, the 1 Handed Carving 360, the Carving 360 Strapped, and it's cousin, the Bender.
The Tweeked maneuvers are seldom seen and they include the Tucan (I suppose I could put this in the Willie Skipper Variaion) the Lazy Susan, and the Teletubby.
Sail 360: | Flip the sail 360 degrees while everything else is the same. |
Sail 360 Pirouette: | The sail 360 Piroutte is the concatenation of a Sail 360 and a body Piroutte. |
Flip 360: | While out of the foot straps, spin the board and sail a full 360 upwind. |
Upwind 360: | While remaining in the foot straps, carve a full circle upwind, through the eye of the wind, and around exiting in the same direction you started. |
Sail Body 360: | Rotate your body and sail 360 by using the mast base as a pivot point. |
Reverse Sail Body 360 : | Head off the wind, let go of the sail and step around the front of the mast, grabbing the boom on the leeward side. Then push the clew thru the wind for the sail rotation. |
Carving 360: | Carving a full circle (360 degrees) downwind without stopping. |
1 Handed Carving 360: | Performing a carving 360 and let go of front hand during the middle of the carve. |
Carving 360 Strapped: | A carving 360 while your feet stay in the straps. |
Clew 1st Carving 360: | Rotate the sail 180 so you are sailing clew 1st and then perform a carving 360 downwind. |
Carving 360 Pirouette: | A carving 360 with a Pirouette performed at the latter part of the moves. |
Bender: | Sail out of a jibe clew 1st and then crank the clewto backwinded while leaning forward causing the board to swing around into a 360. |
Tucan: | This move is a board 360 performed partly in the air. Jump the board out of the water and rotate 180 degrees while in the air. The board lands and slides fin first.Rotate the board another 180 degrees in the water. |
Frisbee: | Jump leeward side of board and issue a sail thow into the wind. When the sail returns then flip the sail again. |
Board 360: | Rotate just the board as it slides on the water |
Lazy Susan: | Board 360 complete in the air. |
Gecko: | An Upwind 360 but performed by sinking the nose deep in the water so the tail pops up out of the water with the sailor momentarily vertical over the volume of the board. |
Teletubby: | A switch stance sail throw followed by a body pirouette.The sail will spin 360 degrees while the body rotates 360 degrees in the opposite direction. |