Freestyle is one of the most popular disciplines in windsurfing. Several moves, tricks, and impossible manoeuvres have been invented in the past decades. Freestyle windsurfing is rapidly gaining popularity, with many top-tier windsurfers competing in the Professional Windsurfing Association’s (PWA) World Tour. Experienced windsurfers constantly strive to master the sail, mast, board, and wind in extraordinary ways. They perform daring tricks in both big wave conditions and on calm, glassy lakes. At Joluka Windsurfing we have just the gear to get you started.
These windsurfing tricks blend acrobatics, technical sailing skills, speed, and an understanding of wind and ocean conditions. Freestyle windsurfing attracts many amateur and professional athletes, as well as large crowds and online followers. This high-performance division requires extensive training, precision equipment, and advanced fine-tuning skills. It remains one of the most popular disciplines on the PWA World Tour, though it can be challenging for spectators to fully grasp and evaluate the competitors’ manoeuvres and skills.
How To Score
Judges focus on the overall impression of a windsurfer’s performance throughout the heat, rather than just on standout individual maneuvers. Essentially, they want to see how the entire performance comes together, like an artist painting a complete picture. The PWA highlights that a windsurfer who performs only one impressive move but little else will not score as highly as the one who consistently executes multiple high-quality tricks throughout the heat.
One or two judging panels, each with at least three judges, evaluate each competition. Judges score a windsurfer’s trick on a scale from 1 to 12, with increments as precise as 0.1 points, such as 7.10. Before the event starts, the PWA Representative and the Head Freestyle Judge announce the number of scoring categories and the multiplication factor for each on the Official Notice Board.
Freestyle Windsurfing Guidelines
- Diversity: Competitors should showcase a variety of manoeuvres and variations during their heat. Performing tricks on different tacks earns more points.
- Technical Skill: Windsurfers need to demonstrate high-difficulty manoeuvres to gain extra points. Tricks that are not controlled will not be scored.
- Style: Moves that exhibit personal flair or attitude score higher than those that are safe or repetitive.
Judges pay particular attention to clean, stylish, difficult, varied, and complex manoeuvres, avoiding scrappy or disjointed performances. They also assess the overall choreography and the sequence of moves. A windsurfer who shows smooth transitions between different tricks scores higher than one with a fragmented performance. They multiply scores for diversity, technical skill, and style by a factor of 1. They then multiply the final score for the overall impression by a factor of 3. The total score determines the winner of the heat.
The History
Windsurfing, a sport that emerged relatively recently, transitioned from a leisurely activity to an exciting, high-performance sport, paving the way for freestyle windsurfing to gain popularity. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the concept of performing intricate and sometimes awkward tricks began to emerge. Early windsurfers discovered that the sail could pivot around the mast, allowing their boards to spin and rotate. This breakthrough revolutionized the sport, attracting many new enthusiasts.
However, the tricks and techniques from that era were quite different from what we see today. The equipment was heavier, the designs were less aerodynamic and hydrodynamic, and there were almost no jumps above the water. The first freestyle windsurfing events were held in rectangular areas marked by four buoys. Each three-minute routine combined elements of sailing and gymnastics, with judges scoring based on the windsurfer’s choreography. There were also some unusual tandem windsurfing displays that often ended in dramatic wipeouts.
Classic Freestyle Windsurfing Moves
Some of the most popular old-school windsurfing moves included:
- The one foot
- The back-to-back turn
- The spin tack turn
- The back-to-sail and sail 360 combo
- The inner tack to split combo
- The head dip from split combo
- The back-to-front rail ride
- The back-to-back leeward rail ride
- The front-to-back rail
- The spin 180 into everoll
- The stern-first rail ride
- The clew first rail ride
Last Tip!
Windsurfing freestyle is still a young sport! So if you start tomorrow it will not take long for you to immerse yourself into it and really get confident in those tricks on the water. Check out our stock of the latest Windsurfing gear to get you started! Or check out our package deals to have a full setup ready.