First session - horrendous

[Starsky]

Oz bungy said it, but it's worth repeating.

You never tame a foil. Everything gets a lot better when you stop muscling the board around with brute force. It flows easily if you learn to work with it. Goes for carrying it, body dragging, getting out past shorebreak, and getting it into waterstart position after a fall. Do it all by gliding your foil around with calm deliberation and it will become habbit.

Learning to balance your body weight forward enough on the board that it wont buck while body dragging is a small skill in itself. Learning to have the foil on its side while body dragging so the lift from the wings is helping you get upwind stops the bucking while at the same time helps you get where you want to go much faster.

Foiling is all about finesse. If you can get that, its the one thing that can really transfer nicely to the other forms of kiting. I got a lot more efficient on my surfboard after a season of foiling.

[Peter_Frank]

As said, your experience is precisely how it is to start

And yes, agree fully, it is TOTALLY impossible to understand how you can be able to ride effortlessly around doing turns and everything - when you try hydrofoil for the first time.

Have never seen anyone who quit though, because of this - as everybody KNOWS how difficult it is the first times, and can see that even "less talented" riders than they are, learn pretty fast - so they know it will come pretty quick

Regarding kite size - agree with the others, the 17 m2 is not a good choice (if you are around average weight), no matter what wind you got, as smaller kites hangs better and easier and in every way not as risky to "lose", as the bigger kites.
A 12 or 13 is much easier to keep in the air and to save from giving trouble to other beach visitors, and for you on the water it works much better too, especially in 6-7 m/s which you got.

If possible, use some longer lines with your 12/13, as this will help you a lot in terms of starting and avoid troubles in the learning period (and I still use longer lines, much better in most respects IMO)

Just remember - "Muscle memory" is the name of the game, and it takes time.
More than time, many short sessions is the best for learning.
Try to avoid riding other boards for a period, if you can, as this will improve the muscle memory learning big time - but also be aware, that you get "skunked and totally wasted" (tired) after 20 minutes max half an hour, so stop after that.

Peter

[davesails7]

You'll get there! I learned on one of the original delta race foils. It wasn't easy, but I got there.

I was using small kites at first because that was the advice everyone was giving. The. One day struggling on my 13m I grabbed my buddys 18m dyno just to try and suddenly everything was working. Once you're up and foiling you can go to a small kite, but first few sessions you probably want almost as much power as you would on a twin tip because you'll be riding the board on the water.

[TomW]

My first 3 sessions were pretty horrendous too. I'm on 11th now and flying back N forth. Still at first stage.
Session 1 I could not even get up, wind was too light even for 17m kite and trying strapless on a high volume board in onshore wind.
Session 2 I had front footstrap, got up on board but felt like standing on a yoga ball in water
Session 3, got up and riding on surface 10-20 m in both directions, tangled foil in lines and sliced a hole in my new wetsuit... Still drifting downwind..
At that point in was wondering if I'd ever be able and season was over.
Next 2 sessions were private lessons in Mexico, really paid off. I got some key pointers and tips. Many pointed out here and other threads.

[haare]

Tips from another noob:
1) Learn to control the board with wake session
- If you or your friend has a boat this will help a LOT. in 1-2 sessions you will learn how to control the foil.
2) Take same size kite that you would use with light wind twintip.
- I personally need quite a lot of wind to make it work. It is hard for me to waterstart when the kite is too small.
- So with 12knots I would take my 11m foil kite (sonic FR). It would compare to maybe 12-13m standard pumped kite. I weight 77kg.
- When you get better you can take a smaller kite because when actually flying you don't need much pull. The problem is that it is very hard to initiate flying when you have too small kite.
3) Learn first going on water surface. If it starts to foil, learn how to get it down fast if it flies.
4) Start to fly only once you can go upwind and downwind both heel and toeside and do basic turns (heel to toe, toe to heel)
5) Put shimm to your delta foil to make it stay down more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVdSx5eNdUA

It would certanly help to buy beginner gear and short mast for start.

Regards
Juha

[edt]

I'm right there with you. I'm also a noob. Today I was on the hydrofoil where I had a tack where I was foiling around, looking like a champ, board up out of the water, smiling at the people on the beach. Then I crashed forwards. Backwards. Sideways. Repeat 50x. It's been a long time since I drank so much water. Bonus is I'm really good body dragging with the foil. I take my front arm and hook it into the front strap all the way to the elbow and use that leverage to pry up the board sideways so the foil doesn't drag. Steer the kite with my back hand. Hydrofoiling also gave me an excuse to treat myself to a sick new helmet from sandbox helmets (I ride snow helmets on the water).

[OzBungy]

... I take my front arm and hook it into the front strap all the way to the elbow and use that leverage to pry up the board sideways so the foil doesn't drag. ...

I wouldn't do that if I were you. I have visions of the foil powering up and heading off in some direction and breaking your arm.

Part of the learning process of foiling is that you think you have to do this super complicated thing to get things to work. It's actually quite simple but you just haven't acquired the muscle memory to do it easily.

The "best" way to body drag is to brace your front arm against the board with your elbow at the bottom and your hand on the top rail. You can also brace against your chest. Steer the board with your front arm and the kite with your back hand.

There's also:
- Superman style with the board flat and your arm out the front of you either holding the rear strap or flat on the tail of the board. Good for getting out when there's enough wind to kite and the water deep enough for the foil but not deep enough to water start.
- Board flat and foil up
- Board tucked under your arm on the upwind side.
- Superman II. This was a favourite when learning. This is a great way to get back to the beach after eating it 50 million times. Lie on the board then add a little kite power. You can drag up or downwind with very little effort doing this. Sometimes you get up on the foil and fly for a bit.

http://kite-chino.com/blog/entry/373726 ... -body-drag

[edt]

tks oz! Nothing like being a noob all over again learn something every day.

[mcfly777]

Everyone's first (few) sessions are like that. Frustrating but it gets better.

2 tips:
- if you're in the water muscling the foil, you're doing it wrong. You'll never win against the foil. The foil only likes to go one way: forward (and slowly backward) in the water. so when you're in the water, grab it by the front and drag it forward. You'll see it is all of a sudden easy.
- when waterstarting, you want the mast to be close to horizontal, keep the wings submerged...that will give you the resistance to get up on the board, and while you're getting up, point downwind to reduce that resistance and start riding. My first few times i didn't realize that, so my waterstarts had to foil too much down, and once I got up I fell forward.

These 2 things alone helped me a lot, and sometimes when i find myself trying strength against the foil, i remember to always push/drag it forward.

Leo

[TomW]

Session 12 today, 15-16 knots pretty choppy. Side on wind. 10c air, 8c water.
Flying both directions up wind and even a bit downwind. Still doing spectacular crashing, learning how to fall with less impact. One really insane crash after trying to link some carves.
Looking back at session 3, I thought I'd never get to this level, and I still suck.( but hooked)