Tacking and gybing advice please

[Laughingman]

Thanks Peter

Okay so with a normal tack you spin your back to the front of the board and it seems your new back foot is leading and with a roll tack you spin your back to the back of the board and your new front foot is leading?

seems the regular tack is more efficient based on what I saw in the videos.

What are some situations where you would choose one or the other?

Pete

[cglazier]

The roll tack is virtually always faster and smoother but it is more difficult. I doubt that it is possible to keep the foil board up off the water while doing regular tacks.

For me, I am just happy to stay dry when tacking.

[davesails7]

LeePasty had posted some instructional tacking videos in the raceboard forum a while back. He said that (on a raceboard at least) the roll tack is faster, but when you mess up the roll tack you lose a lot more ground than when you mess up on a regular tack.

So when conditions are bad (choppy, gusty) you can play it safe with a regular tack. You'll be slower through the tack, but you're more likely to make it, and if you fall, you're still in the correct position to get up and go right away.

Not sure if this completely carries over to foilboards. It seems like the roll tack gives an even greater advantage on the foilboard than on the raceboards because the roll tack lets you stay up on foil.

[cglazier]

I am making some progress.

First of all,I am now very comfortable on the Aguera board and Spotz foil. I tried my race board yesterday and found it slow and bumpy. I think I am faster on my foil than on my raceboard upwind and downwind now. Of course I am in flat water and steady wind here on Cayman Island and it may be harder when I get back to chop and waves.
I am finding the touch down jibes pretty easy at least for anyone with raceboard experience. I have made a few touch down regular tacks and they are not too difficult either. But doing transitions while foiling is far beyond me.

On the jibe I pull my back foot out and put it in front of the back strap as I start heading downwind. Then I touch down on the water and do a quick foot switch by putting my back foot in the empty front strap and quickly moving my old front to the back of the board. I have already started my kite down loop by then. After that I just hold on and hope to keep my balance as I turn. Generally I try to get my new back foot in the back strap before I start foiling again. If I was better I would of course do my foot switch quicker and never come down off the foil.

For a regular tack it is just like on a raceboard. I made a few but now I am working on roll tacks mostly... I find them very difficult so far. I have been told that you can start doing them by touching down and then later learn to stay up on the foil.

I highly recommend a warm water location for learning.


CG

[KitesurferRO]

@ cglazier