jibing stability

[abel]

I have a kiting friend that has an Airush foil and had a session with my Silente for the sake of comparison.
He was on an Airush Ultra 9 @ 12-16 knots .
His basic comment was that the Airush HF is faster while the Silente is significantly more 'nice' to jibe.
I'm not jibing yet, so I take his word for it.
He couldn't explain me exactly why.

Any of the skilled can elaborate pls. ?

[Peter_Frank]

Usually, a lower aspect wing makes carving and jibing easier, as it turns faster and has softer stall.

Also, a more overall lifting wing, will make jibing easier for most riders.

Both of above are the slower wings so to speak.

Turning faster at slower speed means you can turn narrow with little input, and you dont get slack lines as easy, so you have more control and pull from the kite to make the feet switch at "any time", or just carve back and fourth.


I dont know the Airush compared to the Silente precisely, but it seems, the Airush is quite high AR, and the Silente medium, so this could very well explain.

Apart from this, MANY other parameters are important in the full constellation, like the wing design and profile, and the same for the rear wing - apart from sizes and distances to strut.

Extremely individual, those used to speed might find a faster racewing with low torque (less pitching moment, goes much smoother) is easier to jibe, where others like the slower tight turning lifting wings.

Just one angle on this - my wings are very different to carve, but generally the low AR big ones are the easiest, then the smaller low AR ones (both are wave types), then the big high AR ones, and finally the small high AR are the most difficult to carve and jibe.

IMO only, important

PF

[davesails7]

I think it depends on whether you are talking about jibing to toeside or switching your feet.

In both cases I think the slower your foil can go the easier things are.

My new Delta race foil is WAY more pitch stable than my spotz2 was. This makes switching feet in a race style jibe much much easier. I had been trying to learn the foiling race style jibe for years on spotz 2 but couldnt because if I got my weight too far back for a second it would come flying out of the water. The delta can also stay foiling at a slower speed which helps.

In the case of just carving around to toeside, the delta is not pleasant because the high pitch stability makes for a huge effort to do a tight carving turn. When i do a race style jibe i cover what seems like 50m downwind through a wide sweeping turn.

My brief sessions on MHL and LF foils I was surprised how easy it was to carve around to toeside.

[Mossy 757]

I agree with Dave, the single biggest variable for me is whether the foil wants to launch out of the water with pitch instability or if it'll just kinda toodle along while you switch your feet. Delta has this figured out at the expense of a foil that someone riding waves would call "too stable." For a racer, that's perfect, no such thing as too stable. For someone ripping around in the shorebreak with a tube kite, might not be ideal. That's why I think a lot more surf style foil videos have hopping feet switches instead of the more One-Two approach of a race gybe.

[Peter_Frank]

I will say Mossy is right yes, that many higher speed racestyle foils are more stable particular at some speed, and a 1-2 step jibe is possible/easier.

Not so with a small tubekite on a wavefoil with a small stabiliser and high pitching moment, one can not really do the 1-2 step jibe, but have to "hop".

The other IMO even more important thing is kite lift, when you are more powered you can make a 1-2 step jibe, or any jibe, way easier - it feels almost like cheating, as everything becomes really easy regarding jibing/feet switch
Have tried it sometimes when the wind has picked up so much more powered than the wave sweetspot, especially with bigger kites it is a lot easier when they lift for a longer time and very predictable.

Whereas carving becomes more difficult the more powered you are and the bigger the kite, as you will not be able to make tight wavecarves nomore, but have to make bigger forced carves or fly the kite higher to make just reasonably tight ones, and riding toeside on the waveface becomes impossible

It is all a tradeoff so to speak, you can not get it all.

PF