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when i get this flying foot switch tidied up and smooth looking then the flying tack is maybe next to try, although when i mentioned this to Gunnar 5 weeks back at Flag beach he gave one of those looks and asked why, he said they are crazy hard to do and only really needed if you want to race.
and as a guide to how hard they are he says even the race guys fall off sometimes when tacking, yikes.

Foil
Why learn to tac when not a racer??
Because it feels great to learn something new. Because it is a challenge. Because you're a foiler. Because when you nail it it feels amazing.

The tack is difficult, but not much more than the flying foot change to jibe. The tack came first for me. Try tack to toeside and 360s as these all use similar techniques.

Foil wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 16, 2018 4:17 am

when i get this flying foot switch tidied up and smooth looking then the flying tack is maybe next to try, although when i mentioned this to Gunnar 5 weeks back at Flag beach he gave one of those looks and asked why, he said they are crazy hard to do and only really needed if you want to race.
and as a guide to how hard they are he says even the race guys fall off sometimes when tacking, yikes.

I’m working on the tack now. It took me waaaaaay longer to get a flying jibe with foot switch than it is taking to learn the flying tack with foot switch. I was able to do a tack to toeside well before even trying a tack with a foot switch, so that is half the battle, but I made the first tack with foot switch that I ever tried. It took me thousands and thousands and thousands of tries to get the flying jibe with foot switch before I even came close.

Junebug (or anyone else) I am at about 100% on flying foot switch gybes now. Keys for me have been unweighting with kite, stepping forward vs back, and snapping the hips.

I would like to start to learn flying tacks now. Any tips for me on steps to getting there? Skill progression etc? I was okay'ish at tacks on a strapless surfboard--50% or so.

I’m certainly no expert on tacks yet, but the way I did it was to become very comfortable (basically 100%) with tacks to toeside first before even trying a tack with a foot switch.

From there, the only real adjustments I had to make were: (1) be sure to keep your center of gravity over the board (I found I could cheat on this and recover without a footswitch), (2) flatten the board a little before the footswitch, (3) use two hands and keep pulling in on the bar through the footswitch,(4) give the rear of the board a little push during the upwind carve, (5) the footswitch should come after you have gotten the board around dead upwind, (6) dive the kite aggressively after the footswitch, (7) keep weight on the back foot until the downward dive of the kite allows you to ride away on foil.

I’m using tubes, and being powered really helps.

Today I nailed 10 in a row! (Guaranteed to fall the next 50 times after boasting) One other thing that is helping me is doing the footswitch when my hips can face the front of the board so there is less change in the kite. Its heading a little more down wind than I was before but not so much the lines lose tension. Flat water helps a lot, as does practicing the heel toe carves, especially on the weaker side. My routine for the last several weeks has been to do a wide S-turn, followed by attempted jibe. Again and again and again. Thanks all for the tips.

Imagine if humans were three legged... Then foot switch would have been not a problem at all.

On a related note, imagine how easy strapless water start would have been if humans had three arms...

I'm telling you: that almighty being has either no respect for our hobby/sport, or his "intelligent design" is not that creative at all.

For the past month or so, I have been taking out pretty small kites and flying underpowered. I have been working on really carving into upwind 180s (tack to toeside) without any kite power and slinging the kite around. I didn’t have enough power (at my skill level, anyway) to do a tack (with foot switch) so I didn’t even try.

Yesterday, I went out with a little bigger kite with the idea of working on tacks, and to my great surprise and dismay, I couldn’t do them anymore. I had been carving the board so hard on the upwind 180s that it was ingrained in my muscle memory, and, for me anyway, carving that hard makes it really difficult to tack because the footswitch occurs as you are straightening your body from an aggressive backward lean, and I’m not skilled enough to do both at the same time. So, it looks like I have relearn how do do them. Hopefully it will come back to me after a few sessions.

tegirinenashi wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 17, 2018 5:54 am

Imagine if humans were three legged... Then foot switch would have been not a problem at all.

On a related note, imagine how easy strapless water start would have been if humans had three arms...

I'm telling you: that almighty being has either no respect for our hobby/sport, or his "intelligent design" is not that creative at all.

Jeeeze Nashi, are you talking about being like a kangaroo?

I’m sure everyone has their own technique particularities, but I have learned over the past few weeks that when I do an upwind 180 in regular stance, I carve through the upwind turn, but when I do an upwind 180 in switch stance, I lean back much further and sort of whip the board under me instead of carving through the turn. I guess neither way is “right” or “wrong” (although the whip is really fun in its own right), but it makes adding a footswitch much harder when riding in switch. I’m leaning so far back and having to shift my weight so quickly that I really have to focus on flattening the board out and getting my weight centered over the board once I’ve passed through upwind or I have no chance of making it. Learning to tack with a footswitch in regular was easy—I basically just added a footswitch to the upwind 180, but learning to tack with a footswitch in switch has required a lot more practice and trying to figure out what I am doing wrong.

I would like it if my technique was the same in regular and switch, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen. I have minor things I do differently doing jibes with a footswitch too.