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Shoulders Forward?

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zdunigan
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Shoulders Forward?

Postby zdunigan » Sun Oct 30, 2016 3:39 am

Have been riding my foil like a pair of skis for a while now. It was pretty tricky initially but now it feels normal. Find I am now riding this way about half the time on the water. No pressure on your back or legs. Your field of vision is very wide and honestly it feels pretty natural to sail and stand forward. Finding the balance point is the key. I wiggle my feet around until I have them in the right spot.

People will look at you weird.

https://vimeo.com/189481843
toesfront.jpg
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Re: Shoulders Forward?

Postby Europ2 » Fri Nov 04, 2016 10:55 am

Nice. Interesting to have both rider and kite in the same frame. Filmed a bit far though.
Seems to me that during the air jibe you don't need any foot change. Am I right ?
Is a sliding hook a plus ?
The board shown above looks interesting. Have you made it ? Could you post a few pics ? ?


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Re: Shoulders Forward?

Postby Starsky » Fri Nov 04, 2016 12:25 pm

Search "house wakeskate" on ebay. Those baby's go for $20. You really cant beat that price point. I bought one. Cheap way to figure out stance without ruining an expensive board. I used epoxy and T nuts as inserts. Works for cruising, but too much rocker for low wind waterstarts, and the plywood is pretty cheap. Easily crushed if you over tighten. If you stress your rig much in hard conditions or put straps on it for jumping you risk breakage. You could easily laminate with a simple layer of glass top and bottom to make it much stronger.

Re: shoulders forward..... Sorry, just cant dig it. like sitting or lying down on your foil. Novelty at best. Narrowing your base decreases agility. For any kind of dynamic carving, riding swell.... sideways stance is where its at!

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Re: Shoulders Forward?

Postby lezo » Mon Nov 07, 2016 1:05 pm

Funny, last WE I have just figured out that finding the balance point by gradually pulling the feets out of the straps and closing them helps a lot in mastering the foot switch part of the air jibe. As a side-product, I also found that riding with the two feets closed is quite a fun.

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Re: Shoulders Forward?

Postby Jzh_perth » Mon Nov 07, 2016 1:26 pm

I like that - the gybe looks really cool in that stance. I notice Greg from BRM uses that stance too in his videos. If it helps practise the footwork for air gybes I'm going to give it a go.

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Re: Shoulders Forward?

Postby Kamikuza » Mon Nov 07, 2016 1:42 pm

Jzh_perth wrote:I like that - the gybe looks really cool in that stance. I notice Greg from BRM uses that stance too in his videos. If it helps practise the footwork for air gybes I'm going to give it a go.
With the single strap on the front of the LF, the only way to change feet without standing on my own toes was to adopt that stance...at least with the front foot.

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Re: Shoulders Forward?

Postby Jyoder » Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:23 pm

Sorry to revive an old thread but I wanted to share how I've progressed to this "toes to the nose" stance as well and love it. Prior to this I could gybe toeside and heelside with some success but not switch feet. Riding toeside for long is tiring and using this stance instead makes it a non-issue. It lets you do endless figure eight gybing in a very relaxed manner. Took a bit of practice to learn to ride upwind well but once you get used to it it's easy. You can even water start with feet in this position with a little practice. I think it will actually delay me learning to switch feet as it's so fun. I was getting frustrated endlessly crashing trying to learn to switch feet and carving to toeside always felt a bit forced. Now I can relax and carve upwind, downwind, loop the kite through straight downwind, etc... It's opened up a whole new level of foiling for me. I recommend newbies like me learn it if they are struggling and need a break from trying to learn to gybe and switch feet.

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Re: Shoulders Forward?

Postby Laughingman » Tue Jun 19, 2018 9:33 pm

interesting would it not be easy to switch your feet from that position? You are already half way there...

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Re: Shoulders Forward?

Postby Foil » Wed Jun 20, 2018 1:06 pm

Laughingman wrote:
Tue Jun 19, 2018 9:33 pm
interesting would it not be easy to switch your feet from that position? You are already half way there...
I am now using that stance(feet together snow ski style) but only in the right conditions,
not rough water with swell as I struggle to find the right body position when sailing over-up and down the waves and for getting high upwind.

Switching feet from that stance is for me not easy, not yet anyways, the falls are many, the board flys off violently and finding the right moment to do the switch is my big problem, it really is quite scary as there's no time for recovery if i get it even slightly wrong,and the move needs total commitment (and a deep breath)
you need to be so precise in the switch, and very fast.
ALSO I was surprised that when I touch down to see if i can cheat and use the water to stabilize me during the switch, the board is so much more unstable due to both feet being together, reminded me of sailing a windsurf board dead downwind with feet close together on a rough sea.
one day last week I managed loads of switches, with many many more crashes,then the next day in gusty winds and rough seas I managed just one, after which i gave up and gybed round to toeside instead for the rest of the day.
practice practice practice, and more practice.
and If I cant get it right for a 95% success rate then I will just fly round the corners facing forward feet together style, which does feel very much like i am skiing,
only much smoother.

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Re: Shoulders Forward?

Postby palmbeacher » Wed Jun 20, 2018 10:30 pm

Tried this today, works great! I would have no idea how to water start in this position though...

Any tips on moving your feet around on the board while foiling? I have been struggling with this for a while now and have resorted to sliding my feet.


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