Surf foil self-sailing up wind

[Bletti]

Have a new high area surf foil with wings that floats the board on its side. Unlike my previous surf foil I've noticed the board self sailing itself upwind after falling off a bit. Anyone experience this and improve it somehow?

[bigtone667]

Sure have......my AXIS 102 not only sails away, but it looks like a enormous shark fin. Scared a few kiters.

My body dragging is now excellent.

[Peter_Frank]

Pretty normal yes.

There are numerous threads about this, in this forum.

The good thing is, it mostly happens when some wind, so you can bodydrag quite well upwind yourself, to get the board.

So as bigtone667 says, your bodydrag skills will improve, as earlier or when it by luck ended flat, we were often lazy and used to just waiting for the hydrofoil dolphining down to you pretty fast, or at least we could just do a beginner bodydrag meaning not very good

Peter

[slowboat]

Definitely happens with certain foils. Challenging on a big wave day with a tiny, underpowered, low aspect kite.

[drsurf]

Pretty normal yes.

There are numerous threads about this, in this forum.

The good thing is, it mostly happens when some wind, so you can bodydrag quite well upwind yourself, to get the board.

So as bigtone667 says, your bodydrag skills will improve, as earlier or when it by luck ended flat, we were often lazy and used to just waiting for the hydrofoil dolphining down to you pretty fast, or at least we could just do a beginner bodydrag meaning not very good

Peter

Actually its worse in light wind where you don't have enough wind to bodydrag effectively upwind. If you have enough wind it can blow hard enough on the board to push the foil down so the mast is vertical, thus solving the problem. In light wind the effect of the wind on the exposed part of the low volume board combined with the pumping effect of small wind chop, can rocket the board upwind way faster than you can body drag. This effect is far more likely if there are rocks just upwind from where you fell off the board
If you can avoid the rocks, assuming the wind is onshore from some angle, quickly body drag to shore and run with your kite upwind to get well ahead of the board and then bodydrag out to it.
I have had this happen when the wind was so light my 10m Soul was hard to keep in the air. I managed to commandeer a SUP board from someone on the beach and run down the errant foil board before it went out of sight. A Peak4 kite may have been more helpful in this situation.
Another good option if there are other kiters around is to get them to flip the board so the the mast is vertical or so the board is pointed in the other direction if that's desirable. Then you can easily recover the board and carry on.

This can be a pain under some conditions but low volume boards and surf foils are a great combination and with a bit of practice, skill and experience you can deal with it.

[Peter_Frank]

I have the very opposite experience.

In light winds say 7-9 knots (at 10 m height), where there is hardly ANY wind down at the surface, most hydrofoil combos will sink down to board flat either fast if heavy aluminium, or really slow if light carbon and big wings, thus you can just wait for it with kite parked high, so kite does not drop in this light wind.

But if more wind, over 10 knots, the wind at the surface pushes against the board and wing acts as a counterdrag to keep the mast horizontal, thus it can stay on its side forever if it ends up there after a crash.
As this higher wind makes it easy to bodydrag, not much of an issue.

It depends on the foil you got of course, my biggest area wings will just veeeeery slowly sink when put on its side with my two small boards, if almost no wind.
This is IMO is pretty perfect, so it will get flat in light or marginal winds, but sit on its side when more wind sometimes, but easy to bodydrag now.

Occasionally I have been swearing a bit, if in the grey zone just between, where it takes some time to retrieve the board - at least when its winter and cold and without gloves
But many advantages, as you can just step up onto the board most often after a fall or crash, really fast, and it does not "pedal to the medal" towards shore so it might get scratches either.

If you got a foil that ALWAYS sits on its side when put into this position, in "no" wind also, you got a problem indeed

Peter

[Kitetwin-1]

Love my Moses Onda 633, it does float on its side and I have had a few instances where I could not reach it, prolly has something to do with me in a bag dry suit. I ride in current like the Gorge so it is quite possible to loose a foil. Never let the foul get downwind if you.

[Kitetwin-1]

Meant upwind.

[Kamikuza]

If it's that light that you can't body drag to it, you can back- or sidestroke with the kite at the zenith easy enough.

I prefer it floating upwind that surfing on the swell either right at my head or downwind faster than I can loop after it

[merl]

Happened to me once. Big surprise! In the end I asked a passing windsurfer to flatten the board for me. In my case it was an onda copy wing with a low volume pocket board. Wind around 18knots and a bit overpowered on a peak 5m. I think it was a combination of the right wind for the board to do its thing, and an inefficient kite working outside its best range preventing me from being able to catch it. Maybe my technique is shit, but I never had a similar problem body dragging before.