Matt Pritchard, former PWA legend now top coach in Maui, is always sharing pearls of wisdom and he comes another. Matt talks through his top tips on jumping:

The biggest key to getting air is to  load hard on the takeoff, meaning you gotta push down with your legs and explode upwards with them while hitting the piece of chop at just the right moment. Grip with your toes to roll the windward edge of the board up so the wind can get under you, suck your back leg up and under your butt and keep the power of the sail sheeted in so that you can keep power to the jump with your sail. If you sheet out, you just drop like a stone and don’t get as high or as lofty of an air!

The landing is usually the hard part, keep the tail of the board under you so that when you touchdown you don’t spin out. A lot of people tend to straighten their legs out in mid-air and when they land like that they fall onto their back pushing the tail of the board away from them. So keep the board close to you, the more you bend your legs and arms the higher you are gonna fly! Always remember to look where you want to go….. Here’s a little sample of the possibilities for a big chop hop!

Check out more info from Matt, and brother Kevin, on their website here or on the Gaastra site here.