F16 suggestions please.

[nalu-sup]

Brought my new SIC F16 home yesterday. Despite having surfed most summer days for 40+ years, and SUP surfed for the last few, I am a newbie at downwinding, having done just two Malikos and one Kihei run last fall with wonderful Jeremy Riggs coaching. He let me try an F16 on that last Kihei run, and all of a sudden the sport made sense and was fun. I did not expect any wind today, and of course a new board insists on getting wet, so I paddled it out into some small glassy surf, the one place this board is not meant to be, but I wanted to get a sense of working the rudder, and getting back to the tail for turning on a swell.
Here are a few of the things that I think I learned, but I would love for anyone experienced with downwinding these boards to chip in and correct me where I am wrong, or add some thoughts that I missed. Although the waves were small, it is a reef break with some punch, so some of the drops were not the shape of wave this board was designed for.
1. The rudder worked way better than I expected when just paddling around, turning to catch a wave, or when gliding along cruising the gentle inside rollers, but when there was a little juice to the wave creating some speed, I found at first that when I used the rudder to turn one way, the board tended to tip the other way especially when there was more speed. I got better at correcting for this as the morning went by, but any tricks?
2. I was usually able to jump back on the board and trim either way along pealing waves. However many attempts to make any turns beyond that ended up in a rail catch and fall.
3. I think I figured out that even when turning off the tail and using the rails, you must not lean into the turn at all, because the board just does not turn sharp enough to allow for that. My muscle memory was to lean my body into the turn when I pressed on the rail like I would on my Flow, but that always ended up in a splash. If I just used my foot and ankle to rail the board, while keeping my body balanced over it, I got a few minor turns without getting wet.
4. If I got my rear foot back right on top of the fin post, that seemed to release enough of the 16' rail to allow better turning, but having my foot even just a little ahead of the fin post often resulted in a rail catch if I tried to use the rails to turn. Is this accurate?
5. Trimming along the face of the waves gave me a good sense of how many people say we should trim the board once we have caught a good bump when downwinding. However, it was really hard for me to get the board to cut back down the face of the wave using the rails (since I was usually back near the tail at this point), without the rail just catching and the board continuing to go straight along the face. Sometimes it seemed to work almost better to use a sweeping paddle stroke to turn back down the wave rather than trying to use the rails?
6. When riding the mellow inside rollers, it was easy and fun to keep my front foot on the tiller and do some S turns while riding straight in towards the beach; this gave me a good sense of how it would work when riding a bump downwind. However, when I had some real speed from a steeper breaking wave, I had to get further back on the board and could no longer reach the tiller without a really awkward stretch with my front foot, and even then it felt too far away from where I needed to stand. Standing midway back on the board felt like it would work fine for just riding a bump straight downwind, but if I wanted to trim along it, what felt like the right position on the board was too far back for my front foot to reach the tiller, and too far forward for my rear foot to reach the rudder post, so any turning did not seem to be very accessible without just catching a rail?
The tradwinds are coming back this afternoon and it looks good for at least a week or so, so hopefully I will be able to get this board out in its element for some downwind learning experiences. Thanks for any input on my newbie thoughts above.

[covesurfer]

I rode an F16 for a few years, now I've got a Bullet 17-4, V1, with a pretty rockered nose, similar to the F16. I'd echo your observations pretty much. When I took mine in gentle surf in K Harbor, Kanaha or at Kihei, I found that the big volume, long rail boards (my Bullet 17 4 is similar) do not handle like a sup surf or regular surf board. There is just so much rail in the water and, the boards are so buoyant, once they get going on a wave, it's like riding on a train, you aren't going to get it to change directions. Caveat is that someone really skilled can probably do amazing things with these long boards in surf. I just saw a Starboard vid of a guy on a 14 race board, absolutely working it in waves. But, for me, I pretty much felt like a passenger most of the time, unless everything went just right. I've had the most success stepping back on the tail, quick stall and pivot and then transfer weight to the front foot, maybe even try and move up to accel the board again. But, no matter what, a 16 or 17+ foot board is just not agile in surf. And, as you correctly point out, it's not made for surf.

Downwind surfing conditions are different and there are fewer limitations than you find in surfing waves that are peaking up and getting too steep . When you angle across a swell face going downwind, you will find the wave flattening out, instead of getting faster and more critical. Many open ocean swells end up passing right under you, even when you're trying to get on them. Surfing breaking waves is just a lot different than riding open ocean swell.

The steeper the wave, the more likely that you'll drive from the tail and just pivot the nose to the direction of the next bump. In smaller conditions, I find I use the rudder with my front foot as it's not as critical to be back far to keep the nose from punching into the back of a wave. You don't have to make a radical directional change, like you might when regular surfing. Sometimes, just a tap of the rudder is all you need to get the board nudged into a different direction that will open up into a bump.

The things that I believe have helped me the most are to not oversteer when you are angling down a bump, you can use you paddle on the uphill side of the board to help turn the nose away from the swell crest and more towards the trough. And, of course, you can steer with the rudder or from the tail too. A lot of times, you will be in optimal trim, as you mention, when you're not far enough back to tail steer but you're too far from the foot pedal to rudder steer. That's when paddle steering helps.  The other thing which I find important is to always be looking for the next connection and try and anticipate it and get the board moving towards it early.

Mostly, I think it's just time on the board that helps. Going in my oc1 has really helped me see bump connections better. The problem is that now I'm more inclined to go in the OC than to ride my standup!

Be careful surfing your d/w board, you can buss em up in the surf. Think about it, they are long and the rails are very parallel which makes them almost impossible to turn like a board designed for surf. They are also not rockered that much and with all the volume, kind of bounce along the face. Anyway, don't know if any of this^^^ helps but it's all fun. Enjoy the ride, probably see you on the shuttle.

[PonoBill]

Sounds like you're getting it really quickly. I like surfing both my Bullet and my F16--Boyum and I do it a couple of times a year when the north shore waves are dinky. 3 feet is probably my limit, anything more than that and you want to be surfing for real anyhow. Really seems to piss the people off who are surfing ankle-snappers, but geez.

Pier one is a blast in tiny surf--you can ride in from way outside. Just don't fall on that reef--or hit your rudder. And watch out for all that steel in the water at the oil tanks.

Of course you need to be back on the tail pretty quick. And as you say, even back there, leaning on a rail doesn't accomplish a lot. If you touch a lot of the board down on the face of a wave it's going to round up. You might be able to catch it with the rudder (if you've snuck your foot back to the tiller) but not likely.

Realize that it's a spitfire rudder. That means it pivots almost at the center of effort of the rudder so there isn't a lot of self-centering. When you load the rudder up it's going to stay where it is a little longer than you might want. The faster you are going, the more that happens. I haven't tried the FAST system yet, but the old ASS has a lot of friction and slop. Don't just rely on the rudder coming back from spring pressure--lots of times it won't self-center. If you need to countersteer you need to actually MOVE the rudder, not just let it snap back.

To minimize rudder stickiness (assuming ASS) you need to compromise between response and friction. If you tighten the cables too much they will stick in the tubes. Use the cable adjusters on the tiller to set the tension. If you squeeze in the middle of the cables back at the rudder you should be able to flex them 1/4 to 1/2". Once tension is adjusted, loosen the thumbwheel that clamps the cable and turn the rudder until it's straight. I like to put a line with a sharpie in the center of the board on both sides of the rudder. If you have any problems, get the guys up at SIC to set it for you and show you the process.

The most useful rudder is your paddle. Either in a gentle (gentle!!) cross bow poke, or to the backside, steering harder. You can lever the nose around with the paddle to the back, but remember that you'll be pushing the nose down. The turn has to happen before the rail gets down very far.

I think playing in the surf is great practice for downwind. You'll see pretty quickly in smaller waves that if you turn across the face you have to follow up quickly with a reverse rudder to keep the board from rounding up or digging a rail. F16's are a little more forgiving. Bullets round up hard and roll you off. F16's just round up.

You're getting it.