Stop Chasing Planing: The Case for Mastering Sub-Planing Technique First

We have a problem with the way windsurfing is taught. The overwhelming focus on getting into the footstraps and planing as quickly as possible is backwards. It produces sailors who can blast in a straight line but fall apart the moment the wind drops or they need to turn. We believe the opposite approach is correct: spend your first two seasons mastering sub-planing technique, and planing will take care of itself.

The Planing Obsession Is a Trap

Walk into any windsurfing school and you will hear the same advice: get on a big board, wait for 15–25 knots (Windsurfing technique), and learn to plane. Planing—when the board skips over the water surface instead of pushing through it—is undeniably thrilling. But it requires footstraps and often a harness, and the primary high-speed turning maneuver is the carve gybe. That is a lot of complexity to layer on a beginner. The result is predictable: sailors who can go fast but cannot tack or jibe reliably. We see it constantly. They blast across the bay, then spend twenty minutes trying to get back upwind because their upwind turns are shaky.

The alternative is to treat sub-planing sailing—when the board is still displacing water—as the foundation. In sub-planing conditions, you learn to feel the wind on your sail, to steer with your feet and rig, and to execute tacks and jibes. A tack is an upwind turn where the nose of the board passes through the eye of the wind; a jibe is a downwind turn where the nose turns away from the wind and the sail swings across the front of the board. These maneuvers are the real currency of windsurfing. If you cannot tack and jibe in light wind, you are a passenger, not a sailor.

The Real Skill Ladder: Board Volume and Sail Size

The industry pushes beginners onto boards of 150–200 liters and at least 75 cm wide (UK Windsurfing), with small sails of roughly 3–5 m². That is sound advice for stability. But the mistake is thinking that once you can stand on that board, you should immediately downsize and chase planing. Instead, we recommend staying on that large board and small sail for far longer than feels cool. Use it to master the points of sail: close-hauled, beam reach, broad reach, and running. Note that you cannot sail directly into the wind—that is a physical limit, not a skill issue. Learn to luff up and bear away smoothly. These are the moves that let you control your position on the water.

Consider a 75 kg sailor. The standard advice is a 4.5 m² sail for riders under 65 kg and 5.5–6.0 m² for riders over 65 kg. But a 75 kg rider on a 160-liter board with a 5.0 m² sail in 12 knots of wind can practice tacks and jibes for hours. That same sailor on a 100-liter board with a 6.5 m² sail in the same wind will be swimming. The difference is not talent; it is equipment choice.

Addressing the Counter-Argument: Planing Is Fun

The strongest counter-argument is that planing is the whole point. Why spend months slogging when you could be flying? We agree that planing is exhilarating. But consider the injury data. A 2006 study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine followed 107 windsurfers and found an overall injury incidence of 1.5 per person per year. Wave and slalom competitors reported 2.0 injuries per person per year, while raceboarders—who spend more time in sub-planing conditions—reported 1.0 (BJSM windsurf injuries 2006). The message is clear: the more you push into high-wind, high-speed planing, the more you get hurt. Muscle strain was the most common injury at 35% of new injuries, and nearly a quarter of new lower-body injuries were lower back strains. Those are often the result of being overpowered and fighting the gear.

We are not saying never plane. We are saying that planing should be a reward for solid fundamentals, not a shortcut. The waterstart, for example, is a key technique for getting back on the board from the water. Coach Jem Hall recommends learning it early, with optimum wind strengths of about 12 to 25 knots and the mast held roughly 90 degrees to the wind (UK Windsurfing water start). But you do not need to plane to practice waterstarts. You can practice in 12–15 knots, which is gentle breeze to moderate breeze on the Beaufort scale (NOAA Beaufort scale). That builds confidence without the chaos of a force 6 strong breeze at 22–27 knots.

A Better Path: The Sub-Planing Curriculum

Here is what we recommend. For your first year, sail only in winds under 15 knots. Use a board of 180 liters or more and a sail no bigger than 5.5 m². Your goal is not speed; it is to execute 50 tacks and 50 jibes per session. Yes, that is boring. But it builds muscle memory. After a year, you will be able to sail upwind and downwind in light wind without thinking. Then, and only then, add a harness and footstraps. The harness is personal gear added as you progress, not part of the basic board and rig (UK Windsurfing). By the time you are ready to plane, you will already know how to turn, how to balance, and how to read the wind. You will be a sailor, not just a passenger.

Compare the two approaches in the table below.

The numbers speak for themselves. The sub-planing path is safer and produces more complete sailors. We are not alone in this. The iQFOiL Olympic class, which replaced the RS:X for Paris 2024, uses a hydrofoil that lifts the board clear of the water even in lighter winds (RYA iQFOiL). But even there, the fundamentals of sail trim and balance are paramount. You cannot foil if you cannot sail.

So next time you rig, resist the urge to grab the smallest board. Take the big one. Practice your tacks. Your future self will thank you.

Sources

• Windsurfing technique - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsurfing
• UK Windsurfing - https://www.windsurf.co.uk
• BJSM windsurf injuries 2006 - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2649501/
• NOAA Beaufort scale - https://origin-east-www.wpc.woc.noaa.gov/html/beaufort.shtml
• RYA iQFOiL - https://www.rya.org.uk/iqfoil-worlds-2026/what-is-the-iqfoil/