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Haven't noticed a thread with suggested progression steps. So what I'm kind of looking for is the skills you can tackle that progress from one to the next to make the next skill easier to learn. E.g. I have never attempted a tack on a surf board before. So would learning a 360 on the foil be a skill that made learning the tack easier (no foot change) or would it be the other way around

I'm kind of looking to figure out what the easy stuff to learn is I tried downloop turns for the first time yesterday and found they seemed easier than on a twin tip. Be nice to have an idea of what stuff is beyond my current skill level (will involve main failure and crashing) and what stuff is doable with a positive attitude at any time of the progresssion.

I'm assuming the list might look something like this (I'm still fairly new to foiling so some stuff I have as intermediate might be beginner stuff - IDK)

Beginner stuff
- Riding both ways
- Riding toeside
- foiling turns
- foot switches

Intermediate level stuff
- foiling footswitches
-tacks
- big jumps
- 360s
- back/front rolls
- rodeo riding
- caneri / superman riding (lying down on the board)
- ????????

Advanced
- foiling tacks


*Edited to accomodate suggested changes

I would put " foiling tacks " in advanced as they are way more difficult then any of the other things you mentioned.

Proper Foiling race jibes are also not easy (meaning downwind jibes at speed), specially when done both ways.

Rodeo can go to intermediate (but Rodeo and standing back on the board its much harder)

Caneli Man its way harder then rodeo (starting from standing position ofc)

Foiling 180s and 360s can go intermediate.

I would restrict the list maybe to "foiling tricks only" and take out all the normal backrolls etc, because if you do those on a Twintip you will do on the foil once you get used to foiling.

Sorry slight highjack. Now that i can foil ok(ish) my main progression goal is to be able to ride rodeo past my twin tip friends, giving them a casual wave when they're struggling to get going in light wind.

For me, the progression of transitions has gone:

Jibe to toeside no switch
Jibe to heelside no switch
Jibe to toeside with switch (this took me a long time to get without touching down)
Jibe to heelside with switch
Heelside 360
Heelside 180 (tack without switch)
Toeside 360
Toeside 180
Tack (tack with switch) (still working on getting port tacks dialed in)

For me, the above list was in order of difficulty, with two exceptions. First, although jibes with surface foot switches were not terribly difficult (particularly with a big, floaty board on smooth water), jibes with flying foot switches were the hardest thing for me to learn out of everything I have tried. Second, I would put tacks (with switch) above toeside 360s/180s. I didn’t even try a tack (with switch) until I had jibes with a footswitch and heelside 180s dialed in, so that made it a lot easier.

I think the 360s are easier than the 180s. With 360s, you just loop the kite and ride out the same way. With 180s, you have to figure out the timing of when to stop the rotation and stop the loop so you can ride out.

I generally learned these on my strong side first and then took the principles and applied them weak side, but a few maneuvers I got easier on my weak side first for some reason, like the heelside 360 and 180.

I have no desire to sit on the board or jump, so I’ve never tried either one. Maybe some day, but I’m having too much fun learning transitions for now.

Edited for clarity

junebug wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 12, 2018 12:44 pm

For me, the progression of transitions has gone:

Jibe to toeside no switch
Jibe to heelside no switch
Jibe to toeside with switch (this took me a long time to get without touching down)
Jibe to heelside with switch
Heelside 360
Heelside 180 (tack without switch)
Toeside 360
Toeside 180
Tack (tack with switch) (still working on getting port tacks dialed in)

For me, the above list was in order of difficulty, with the one exception being I would put tacks (with switch) above toeside 360s/180s. I didn’t even try a tack (with switch) until I had heelside 180s dialed in, so that made it a lot easier.

I think the 360s are easier than the 180s. With 360s, you just loop the kite and ride out the same way. With 180s, you have to figure out the timing of when to stop the rotation and stop the loop so you can ride out.

I generally learned these on my strong side first and then took the principles and applied them weak side, but a few maneuvers I got easier on my weak side first for some reason, like the heelside 360 and 180.

I have no desire to sit on the board or jump, so I’ve never tried either one. Maybe some day, but I’m having too much fun learning transitions for now.

Interesting. Was hoping some of the 180s or 360s might be easier (or at least less painful) than learning flying footswitches.

Good tips though. I hadn't thought of just looping the kite and going for it. Will have to give 360s a go. Should at least be funny for the people watching from the shore

People will spend alot of time working on foiling jibes (foot switch) because its a need to be able to ride comfortably, but if you look back and realize how much time you spent to get those done, you will hardly find another trick that will take you that amount of time and atempts. So i think that anything that doesnt involve a footswitch (180s, 360s) its easier than stuff with a footswitch.

I should have been clearer in my original post. For me, getting the foot switch flying all the way through was much harder than 360s/180s. I have edited my original post.

nothing2seehere wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 12, 2018 1:34 pm

I hadn't thought of just looping the kite and going for it. Will have to give 360s a go. Should at least be funny for the people watching from the shore

I learned the 360 by breaking it down into 2 parts. I first just tried to carve upwind. It took some practice to understand pushing out on the bar, looking under my forward shoulder, and pulling in on the bar to try to get the nose of the board around. Pretty soon, you realize that you have to move the kite pretty far in the new direction and start an aggressive dive earlier than you would think to actually make it work. Once you have that feeling, it’s just a matter of pulling hard with your back hand and following the kite around.

And yeah, if you are like me, you will probably have some spectacular wipeouts. I learned with front straps, but if I had to do it all over again, I would probably go strapless to avoid ankle injuries. Strapless is harder, but less risky.

Once you can tack and gybe both directions on the foil, everything else is going to seem crazy easy. Upwind foiling race tacks require expert kite control, timing, and foil control. If you can do that, a backroll is basically the same thing just don't worry about sending the kite a bit harder and faster.

What should be mentioned somewhere is that the size/ type of the wing makes a MASSIVE difference when learning.
When I learned full foiling foot switches, I tried about 10 000 times for many months on my high AR wing without relevant progress and a success rate between 10-20% at the end. I then bought a surf wing (onda) and had them dialed in after a few sessions and less than 50 attempts with 80-90%. Same applies for all the toeside/ heelside tricks.