Foiling. What next?

[tomtom]

So!

I can ride - I'm in control, I can do S turns. I can return /go downwind/. I can ride strapless, but still feel more in control with very loose barely touching my foot front strap /the central one/.
So what to do next? My downwind isn't very good - angle aren't good - my no natural direction is better in this regard. I feel like if I cannot initiate turn by myself - I do it with kite redirection. meaning front side turns - backsides are easy. The less powered I'm the more in control and more relaxed it is.

So!
What to do next? How to progress? My background is 20 years of kiting last 7 strapless surfboard where i can jibe and tack. What is first turn to learn? Should I continue with central front strap /which is for me impossible to jibe, because foot is stuck in to while turning to toeside and riding with 2 front straps race setup feels completely wrong to me /I just cant "surf"/? Or should I go strapless even though less in control. Or should i learn toeside riding first? Then strap a or strapless? What is your typical progress? What is easy and what is advaced?

Im eager to learn!

Many many thanks

Tomas, Moses Onda, lei kites 7,9,12

[gmb13]

Hi Tomas,

Glad to hear you are progressing. It is time to get rid of the single strap and go strapless. Being able to shift your front foot position will give you better control, which will also give you more confidence in the manoeuvres.

You can learn toeside riding with or without the strap, but I would recommend trying it strapless first.

--
Gunnar

[slowboat]

So!

I can ride - I'm in control, I can do S turns. I can return /go downwind/. I can ride strapless, but still feel more in control with very loose barely touching my foot front strap /the central one/.
So what to do next? My downwind isn't very good - angle aren't good - my no natural direction is better in this regard. I feel like if I cannot initiate turn by myself - I do it with kite redirection. meaning front side turns - backsides are easy. The less powered I'm the more in control and more relaxed it is.

So!
What to do next? How to progress? My background is 20 years of kiting last 7 strapless surfboard where i can jibe and tack. What is first turn to learn? Should I continue with central front strap /which is for me impossible to jibe, because foot is stuck in to while turning to toeside and riding with 2 front straps race setup feels completely wrong to me /I just cant "surf"/? Or should I go strapless even though less in control. Or should i learn toeside riding first? Then strap a or strapless? What is your typical progress? What is easy and what is advaced?

Im eager to learn!

Many many thanks

Tomas, Moses Onda, lei kites 7,9,12

First turn to learn is just a simple carving transition: Heelside to toeside and toeside to heelside. Start on your strong side of course. Many beginners find this pretty difficult.

[tomtom]

Many many thanks! I will try.

To Gunnar: Especialy big thanks to you for everything.

[windmaker]

If you enjoy riding strapless on a surfboard you are going to love it on a hydrofoil!

[tomtom]

Today strapless session - i like it more and more - first touchdown jibe - no toe side yet.
Big thing about foiling is you can make easy 5 times as much "flight hours" than surfboard in same time because you can ride almost every day.

[TomW]

My problem now is I realise I may not live long enough, or have the physical capabilities long enough, to learn most of what guys like Gunnar can already do.
I'd have to quit work now, move into a trailer, live off of beans, rice and Hydrofoiling. I don't think my family is going along with that idea...

[Hugh2]

Same place as you tomtom, can't get to toe side reliably and had a couple bad crashes trying, so now strapless and trying for touchdown gybes, got one last summer in Cape Hatteras. At 62 and 12 years kiting, five on strapless surfboards, like TomW I see no chance of getting anywhere near Gunnar, but watching videos of him and others sure is fun, and learning something new is fun too. Just wish I had a foil here in Cape Town too, the autumn weather is perfect for that. Last week I was riding an ancient Best Kahoona 13.5m kite in the surf, enjoying myself, but a guy on an 8m kite and foil was blasting around outside having a lot of fun. Sadly foils are prohibitively expensive here, and no secondhand market yet.

[TomW]

Tomtom,
On strong side: touch down, "turn"over to toe side. At first you may barely move while Turning. Increase speed of surface turn. Gradually you will start exiting the turn with enough speed to fly up again toeside. Learn to hold it flying, steer in S turns going toe side.
Now you can fly heel and toeside one direction. You're ready to try a flying carve to toeside.
Other threads detail this.
So now you are riding toeside after flying carve, now you are ready for toe to heelside carve.
Kite up turn is safest at first to learn flying dynamic, but as soon as you are making those, start doing kite downloop.

Next: on your weak side, go to surface, switch feet, turn with downloop on surface. You will fly out of turn.
Next, goto surface, switch feet, fly up again, so toe to heelside flying turn

[Jzh_perth]

As the comments above state - getting proficient at turns is next. Before foiling I rode surfboards exclusively for years and generally would just do a regular 10km downwinder with the crew a few times a week. I started riding the foil on the same run (so in ocean, with surf and shorebreak) and this did wonders for my gybing and riding downwind at all angles. Plus its heaps of fun. Foiling gybes from heel to toeside and back again is not that hard compared to other foiling skills and everyone can totally learn it.

I also started with touchdown turns, no foot switch until i was comfortable to fly thru the turn using more speed.