Foiling Jibes -- Strapped or Strapless?

[junebug]

After almost a year of foiling, I'm finally starting to get a few foiling jibes, but only going goofy to regular. Going regular to goofy, the foot switch feels like my new front foot (right) never wants to go forward enough and my new back foot (left) never wants to go back enough. Also, even when I do get the right foot forward enough, I can never seem to find the strap. (I've been trying strapped.)

Anyway, for those who have mastered the move, which way is easier for learning it -- strapped or strapless? I like having the strap to aim for with the new front foot, but I'm wondering if I might do better with a little more margin of error that a clean deck will provide.

My bigger problem is likely my confounding inability to turn my hips during the foot switch, but that's a question for another day.

Thanks in advance.

[rightguard]

I was trying to jibe for the first time yesterday and that is dangerous. I felt like I was giving it good tries but they all ended in crashes that either wrapped a line around the foil, smashed my shins or hit my head. I need to learn how to fall without killing myself.

[Peter_Frank]

How do you jibe ?

Three often used ways:

Like a surfboard, going around and switching on the last part.

With big kites (powered) you can switch halfway, when dead downwind.

Or you switch going into the turn, completing the carve afterwards, maybe downlooping the kite.


The two last ones are the typical race jibes.


I assume you are trying the 3rd method, as the two others dont require twisting your hips.
Must say I think you should just keep going, it IS not easy (for a few yes, but most takes forever and some never learns, around here) and takes a long time.

It does not matter if you dont hit the straps, as if you just stand feet a bit further together you are still in balance and it is fine, you can even start this way, meaning it will be just like strapless and then having the strap as a "stop" so a win win so to speak.

You could try strapless, but my experience is it wont make it easier

PF

[evan]

Have a board with straps you can stomp on the water at full speed without crashing, that has helped me from crashing strapless gybes everytime to 100% racegybes within a year.

With this setup you can go downwind at a reasonable speed, head deeper downwind, put the board on the water and switch your feet while downlooping the kite and ride off following your kite. Increase the speed through the gybe and make the touchdown part shorter and shorter until you can do it without touchdown.
Don't try to learn switching feet at a low speed, your kite and foil will be too unstable to make any progress. With speed your kite keeps pulling so you have someting to balance against while switching feet. Straps help to hit the right foot position every time and to keep from falling when the board hits the water.

[DukeSilver]

I'm only 3 months into foiling and haven't yet found the courage to do the foot swap while flying. I need to touch down briefly to swap my feet. If I'm right foot forward, I swap my feet prior to initiating the turn. I do a controlled touch down, do the foot swap, get back up on the foil and do the turn. Left foot forward, I'm comfortable turning from heel to toe side on the foil, touching down while riding toe side, then doing the foot swap and popping back up on the foil again. The very few times I've attempted the foot swap while on the foil, it's turned very ugly and potentially dangerous. Low speed might have been the problem as another poster has just mentioned.

[cglazier]

I am no expert but I find going fast with a well powered kite makes things easier.

There are two parts to this, the foiling foot switch (difficult) and the foiling jibe (not difficult).

1. Take you back foot out of the strap and put it in the middle of the board.
2. If you are going deep downwind you should head slightly more upwind to ensure power is in your kite
3. Spring your body upward to lighten your weight on the board as you move your back foot into the front strap
4. Immediately move your original front foot to just in front of the back footstrap or into it.
-(if you touched down, no problem, with practice you will minimize your touch down time)
5. you are now riding toeside and ready to begin your jibe.. which is the relatively easy part to do in the air.

You can also do the footswitch during or after the jibe but I suggest you learn by doing it first.

CG

[junebug]

How do you jibe ?

Three often used ways:

Like a surfboard, going around and switching on the last part.

With big kites (powered) you can switch halfway, when dead downwind.

Or you switch going into the turn, completing the carve afterwards, maybe downlooping the kite.


The two last ones are the typical race jibes.


I assume you are trying the 3rd method, as the two others dont require twisting your hips.
Must say I think you should just keep going, it IS not easy (for a few yes, but most takes forever and some never learns, around here) and takes a long time.

It does not matter if you dont hit the straps, as if you just stand feet a bit further together you are still in balance and it is fine, you can even start this way, meaning it will be just like strapless and then having the strap as a "stop" so a win win so to speak.

You could try strapless, but my experience is it wont make it easier

PF

Your assumption is correct; right now, I'm trying switching feet first and then carving heelside with a downloop. It's frustrating because I am getting it going goofy to regular on foil, but I just can't seem to hit the new front foot in the right place going regular to goofy. I inevitably get unstable, don't do a quick switch because of the instability, and, with both feet forward, the board touches down.

I suppose I just need more practice, practice, practice on my weak side.

Thanks everyone for the tips.

[opie]

I surf goofy, and had trouble learning to switch to left foot forward on foil. Something that helped me a lot was drilling that switch at home on dry ground. I would do 30 foot switches in my living room before I drove to the beach, ( since its not something I could bring myself to do in public), and it made a big difference.

[lovethepirk]

I was trying to jibe for the first time yesterday and that is dangerous. I felt like I was giving it good tries but they all ended in crashes that either wrapped a line around the foil, smashed my shins or hit my head. I need to learn how to fall without killing myself.

I'm on my 8th ish sesh. On my 5th sesh I tried what I thought was a timid, careful jibe and I still have a knot on my shin 2 weeks later. I love the barrier to entry on how tough this discipline is

[Barbs]

When I first tried gybing last summer, I could occasionally stay on the foil on if I switched to toeside first in strong winds when I didn't need to downloop, but also ended up watching my foil fly past my head (SS hoverglide, so that would have hurt), the board in my lines and numerous other close calls.

This year, in strong winds I was able to switch my feet first going from port to starboard and afterwards from starboard to port, aggressively pulling the kite over the top to avoid losing too much power and consistently staying on the foil in both directions. If anything started to go wrong I pulled hard on the bar and flew harmlessly away from trouble...

When the wind dropped, this wasn't possible and I was told I had to downloop, which filled me with dread as my previous downlooping experience had involved a coastguard rescue, a self rescue and a very close shave with my foil and the feeling that this was a great way to kill myself...

Hating the fact I could no longer gybe, I tried downlooping again and on my second effort managed to flip my board and hit the hoverglide foil tip stomach first. Fortunately I was wearing a waterski floatcoat/impact vest with about 10mm of padding that combined with the force shearing off the bolts attaching the foil to the mast stopped me from being impaled and departing this mortal coil...

I then went back to a twintip and spent an hour doing downloop after downloop after downloop, until I was relaxed with what the kite was doing, being able to do them without looking at the kite and without being pulled off balance at any point.

I then had to use an airush foil (fast, small and not the most robust) as mine was lost to the sea and found that although I could previously switch my feet on the foil, this was no longer possible for me, but it did mean I could practice downlooping without being on the foil which was good and allowed me to regain some confidence.

On my last day I got to use a guy's slingshot silencer and managed a couple of airgybes in both directions, downlooping. I believe the key to doing this without injuring yourself is to be super confident about your downloops before you start, starting with the kite as high as you can get it and then committing to the gybe and to help with balance potentially doing it one handed.

lessons learned:

1. Be super confident about your downloops before you start trying them on a foil
1.1 If you can, move the foil to the furthest back position and practice downlooping off the foil
2. Try and use a kite that you can pivot
3. Use a big slow foil to start with - It was a shock to find I couldn't get close to switching my feet on the foil on the airush, having done it 85% of the time on my hoverglide
4. Wear an impact vest, helmet and booties
5. Commit to the gybe
6. Have a lesson and ideally a rescue boat near by...