Longboard freestyle – on the railride (rail ride)

This is an article on railriding in general. Further articles will address the different railrides, one at a time. This is special enough a move that it deserves its own introduction.

Railrides is half the specialty for competitive-level longboard freestyling, if there was one. Railriding is more advanced freestyle, but it’s not incredibly difficult either. After all, in the 80s a fair portion of the sailors could do it, and even non-freestyle racer friends could pull at least the basic railride. You can still see on the Internet the railride being ridden on modern Konas and Starboards, for instance. So I must not have dreamt it…

I can assure you of one thing though: riding the rail is one exhilarating move to perform. There’s this incredible feeling from up high on a rail (after all, you’re at least one full foot higher than the water level), that you’re threading a wire and sailing at the same time. Plus, once you’re on the rail, there are so many possibilities that you wonder instantly what to do with it and how to keep it going.

This article is meant to prepare you to learn to railride – generalities I call them. Let’s start with terminology – again. Sometimes I say that one “pulls” the railride. But actually, there’s not that much pulling with the fore leg when you do that trick, as we will see. I mean as in “one pulls a trick”. So please bear with me, but really, one does the railride, one gets into it, and let’s say one pulls it too.

Historically, the rail ride is a move that first took place in competition in 1976, when the sport was still very much in its infancy. Judging from the picture, right, it seems colour photography was not even invented. Anyhow, bottom line is that’s when self-expression started bringing the sport to new levels. In the early 80s competitions, more and more railrides could be ‘pulled’ from more and more different angles in competition. As well, moves were combined once up on the rail, such as pirouettes, reversing direction on the rail, sail spin, Everole’s, tacking and even gybing, as well as reading a book and baking a pie. I never really baked a pie on the rail, but can’t wait to write that one article about gybing the rail by the way, I have good videos, it’s going be fun !!

Anyhow, indeed the basic railride is fun to do. By “basic”, I mean with the board and sail all in normal sailing position, going forward, and then the rail is pulled. But there’s way, way more fun to that trick, and that’s where the railride articles on this site will take us. We’ll start with the basic railride, and then look at the stern-first (board backwards) and clew-first (sail backwards). And then we’ll combine more angles and moves and take it from there.

Unintuitively enough, the stern-first railride (see picture below) is easier to pull than the normal board-forward railride – once you master them both. But I find teaching stern-first railrides counter-intuitive when you don’t have the basic railride. Furthermore, with the stern-first railride, the board moves about and you have less time to successfully pull it. So let’s start basic – that’s going be the first article on learning to ride the rail.

As usual, the order for learning is important in railride freestyle. Each rail feels a bit different from one another. For instance, the angle into the wind at which you must start pulling the rail varies, and so does the behaviour of the board whilst you’re in the action of flipping the board. Even the behaviour of the board after it’s pulled can be cumbersome. For instance, forward windward railrides slowly steer into the wind. Some stern-first railrides go upwind, some don’t – depends where your weight is on the rail. The leeward railride acts weird too. In any event, railrides are near impossible to steer, unlike the flat board. The individual articles will guide you in each case, plus I would be happy to field questions, of course.

How many railrides are there?
Technically, there are 32 different railrides can be, huh… ridden. Here’s the reasoning: the sail can be clew-first or not, the board stern-first or not. You can stand to leeward of the sail or not. You can be facing the wind or not. Finally, there are two rails that can be pulled: the windward rail or the leeward raid. I’m no mathematician, but that makes for 2 times 2 times… 5 times, so a total of 32 different rails. I think some cannot be pulled or ridden, and there are many I’ve never seen in competition, but at least now we know the realm of possibilities.

The big principle of railriding

Let’s discuss a general equipment reality that is the base of railriding. The following drawing illustrates this principle :

All windsurfing boards rely on a free standing rig, that’s the basic idea of our wonderful sport. This is usually accomplished using a universal joint of sorts between a vertical mast and a normally flat board. The U-joint is nearly always at some distance of the board, typically 1 to 3 centimeters depending on the system.

When a lot of body weight is put on the booms, then there is considerable downward (vertical) force on the mast. If the board happens to be at an angle at that time, i.e. if the sailor tilts it a bit, then the small distance between the board and U-joint creates a surprisingly powerful lever effect. This lever in turn forces the board to complete its flip and end up vertically, resting against the mast. The more weight on the boom, the faster and easier the board will flip. There you go, you know the trick now: put a lots of your weight on the boom as you tilt the board just a bit. (More in the articles.) Once up, it usually stays there.

Equipment considerations

While we’re at it, let’s discuss a few more equipment considerations pertaining to riding the rail. First of all, nearly all longboards, most hybrids and floaters and oval boards, and even some shorter boards can be ridden. Obviously the newer Kona longboards and those Starboard boards that look (and sometimes feel) like a cricket field can be ridden. Heck, I’ve ridden a closet door once, so anything can be ridden. There you go, no excuse.

Booms: not too high, else it’s difficult to hang on to them and have control of the rig at the same time. Armpit (a.k.a. underarms) -high is right. Longer boom and heavier rigs also get in the way of learning.

A windsurfer with a daggerboard helps. Not necessary, but they’re easier to learn on. A board with skinny or sharp rails can hurt the feet – use footwear such as neoprene boots then. Steel-cap shoes, if must. If the rail is still slippery with boots, use surf wax. I use a rasp to make grooves in the rail for better grip, but I do not recommend it. Board-wise, the more volume, probably the better. Not much point to try railing short boards, and they’re more fragile for that in my experience (broken a couple in my days).

Mast: once the board is up and vertical, in some cases it will exert a fair amount of pressure on the mast foot. Make sure the mast and universal are snuggly in – am thinking of those horrible old Windsurfers I’m sailing myself. For those boards, hammer in the mast tee part with duct tape – makes it snug (but watch thems gonads – no guarantee the mast won’t come out when you rail, I leave you with the mental image of possibilities). There is so much force there that I personally reinforce the mast foot with fiberglass, but that’s a bit extreme: you’re most unlikely to break a mast with basic railrides. Consider though if you do too much of it.

The sail should be tight, as for any freestyle move. It’s too difficult to learn with flaky equipment.

“You” considerations

Riding the rail can be deleterious to your health, either whilst pulling and the crotch hits the board, or falling inadvertently from the rail. This is unlikely if you follow instructions. And after all, you can die from an infection on a blister from the finger that did channel browsing the other day. So this is another case of no pain, no gain. Just be careful, that’s all.

Wear boots or footwear to practice railrides, it’s safer. Shins can get hurt too, though it usually means you’re doing something wrong then. Still, I sometimes wear neoprene legs from an old wetsuit when I learn a new rail. I’ve also been known to wear soccer pads – no less – with duct tape too, for more extreme moves. I may stick out like dogs balls then (look at picture right), but it’s my shins first. Also makes for faster learning when you feel safe. DO NOT USE THE FOOTSTRAPS to flip the board. This is dangerous, you could twist your ankle and thats not the way to do it. Just Don’t.

I avoid sun lotion for these moves – makes the board slippery, and you can’t afford that on the rail. What can I say.

Mentally, you’ll have to be extremely tenacious for this move. Nobody ever got it in the first outing or two. May take an entire season – it took me even longer, I was particularly slow a poke. A sure thing, it’s worth it, and it’s a definite sign of complete tenaciousness, a great quality.

Learning the rail is a gradual thing, not an off-or-on experience. Eventually you start getting the feel for it even though you fall. Adrenaline rushes it, you get back on the board real quick, you start smelling your first railride! Then you get it – just this once. Then the next day you get 2-3 rides. Eventually, you can pull it 90% of the time. Great feeling!

Don’t risk injuries, try when rested and happy and sober – concentration is best then. As for other freestyle tricks, do only a few at a time, then take a break, think, re-read the instructions we will provide. Then try again a few times.

UNLIKE other freestyle moves, I recommend you learn to master a given railride only on one tack, port or starboard. Not both. It’s too hard to learn both, too much work. Too many other tricks – and railrides – to learn. That’s my take anyways.

Have fun, but above all play safe!

Meanwhile, I would be happy to field any questions, suggestions for articles and moves, and so on. I intend to get to other flat sailing moves, railrides and other stuff. If I get back to Sydney to my wave sailing, I’d like to write an article that covers freestyle common to both long boards and shorter boards alike.

You can comment on this article by posting to the forums or post a comment below. I’ll answer best I can.

We at lbws.com.au would also be delighted to hear how you’re doing with your longboard freestyle.