Im just a beginner, I carved to toeside and back yesterday on foil for the first time. This is my 5th short session altogether on a foil, so I'm still a bit intimidated by it..
My main problem is the footstrap. My board has a single strap and all the tutorials use two straps. I cannot footswap easily with the single strap.
I'm scared of the strap anyway as I have fragile ankles. Should I just take it off and learn strapless or is 5 sessions not enough for that?
I can ride comfortably upwind and downwind and sort of carve on the foil. I can gybe on a strapless surfboard half of the time
Im just a beginner, I carved to toeside and back yesterday on foil for the first time. This is my 5th short session altogether on a foil, so I'm still a bit intimidated by it..
My main problem is the footstrap. My board has a single strap and all the tutorials use two straps. I cannot footswap easily with the single strap.
I'm scared of the strap anyway as I have fragile ankles. Should I just take it off and learn strapless or is 5 sessions not enough for that?
I can ride comfortably upwind and downwind and sort of carve on the foil. I can gybe on a strapless surfboard half of the time
Yeah go for it! Riding along is not difficult strapless the only real Challenge is the water start as the strap makes that a lot easier to start with. Particular when the wind is lighter. But no harm in trying.
These users thanked the author robclaisse for the post:
Im just a beginner, I carved to toeside and back yesterday on foil for the first time. This is my 5th short session altogether on a foil, so I'm still a bit intimidated by it..
My main problem is the footstrap. My board has a single strap and all the tutorials use two straps. I cannot footswap easily with the single strap.
I'm scared of the strap anyway as I have fragile ankles. Should I just take it off and learn strapless or is 5 sessions not enough for that?
I can ride comfortably upwind and downwind and sort of carve on the foil. I can gybe on a strapless surfboard half of the time
I don't have any issues with gybes anymore and the kite helped me a lot in the process. I've learned hydrofoil with Rebels 12 and 9m. 5-struct kites are the worst drifters out there and struggled a lot with the kite failing from sky due to slack lines. Thus I've bought an Alpha 8m and it was a night and day change. So much easier... it's my go to kite for hydrofoiling nowadays.
Now I'd like to start the first foot swaps but I'm a little bit scared of the foot strap too. My board uses a half-strap, that is rigid. I'm now training to ride with my feet as close as possible and, actually, it's not that hard, however, I'm stuck to commit the foot swap. When my feet are close in the center of the board, the front foot is completely out of the half-strap. Yesterday I tried a foot swap pointing the board a little bit downwind in order to put my body in a more stable position but I've already noted that it would be better to just commit and try to change the feet in the air than doing it slowly. Yep, I've already watched a bunch of videos, including those from @robclaisse and it seems there are two ways to make the foot swap: 1). bring the back foot close to the front and send the front foot to back (as on @robclaisse's videos); 2) make a small jump while changing the stance (Sam Light video). In both cases you have to pump the board a little bit to catch when it's returning.
In my short experience, the gear is half the way.
I started from zero, had never used a TT, and never used kites... only years of surf (mainly longboards)
I learnt with a gong surf Foil and a fs peak. Of course it toke me some sessions to fly the Foil... Specially toeside... Once toeside mastered, gibes went easy... due to the slow gong Foil and good peak handling properties.
Of course I struggle on the following steps like foot change and riding goofy, which is the weak point for a regular surfer
Any advice about breaking regular to goofy inertia is wellcome
Of course I struggle on the following steps like foot change and riding goofy, which is the weak point for a regular surfer
Any advice about breaking regular to goofy inertia is wellcome
Funny that you start with gear because the peak is probably one of the hardest kites to learn any maneuver that favors lift from a kite eg footswitches and tacks. This is because of the lack of lift from the kite.
Easiest is probably 10m range dual skin foil kite because slow and lots of lift. Tube kites are also fine but using my 11m foil kite feels like cheating.
For footswitches without any lift from the kite you will really need to “pump” the board up. (You should always do that but it’s probably a lot more critical to make it work without lift from the kite)
I've been teaching lots of people to gybe recently in private lessons and virtual coaching, so thought I'd chirp in with a couple of specific things that come up over and over again - like pretty much with every person I've ever taught to gybe (probably 50+ people by now). But also to say there are so many ways to do a gybe, as many others have said - wind strength, kite size, kite style, foil size, sea state all play a part and can change the way you have to gybe. So just be aware that even once you get it for your 9m moderately powered in flat water, you may still have some re-training to do the next time when you are on your 12m or there is some chop etc. Anyway here are three things I seem to have to cover everytime:
1. Entering the Gybe - Faster than you think & Bent legs.
Most people enter the gybe too slow, whether its off the foil or foiling. Your initial speed is gonna get you through the first half of the carve. Don't go in crazy fast just a good moderate speed riding across the wind.
And no one EVER screwed up a gybe for bending their legs too much, getting their weight too low or forward Get low and you're more likely to save a screw up elsewhere, more easily.
2. The Most Common Mistake: Flying the kite too fast
This just happens time and time and time again. People say they are existing the gybe on their toeside with not enough power, the kite ending up too low - 95% of the time you're fly the kite up and over too fast. You start sending it up to 12 and then all your focus goes on the board as you stress about the upcoming the wobbly old toeside exit. So the kite just flies right across to the other side of the wind window before you've hardly carved and when you get round to your toeside the kite is bang up against the edge of the wind window, with no speed, so no hope of turning it back into the correct place.
Fly the kite REALLY slowly up to 12, way way way slower than you think, this gives you time to follow it with the board and foil.
Your aim is for the kite to be at 12 as your board reaches pointing directly downwind.
THEN once its at 12 pull hard and drop it directly down into the powerzone - like when you are starting the waterstart, that kite movement - this will give you power on the exit. Why? The kite is down dropping and therefore will accelerate and because its moving it will still turn, so you can steer it back up. It actually doesn't need to drop it low, turn it back up early and now you can exit and have the kite nice and high. High is safe and stable.
This image sums it up:
Progression - Carving Turn - Kite Movement - Kite Over the TOP.jpg
3. EXIT/Toeside - Ride Broad, Kite High
So just to repeat what I finished the last tip with - complete the gybe's kite movement by getting it high as quick as possible. With foiling the kite is always easier to handle when is high and you are standing up over the board (rather than leaning back against the kite). As you first start riding on your toeside you'll be focusing again on just controlling the damn board/foil and the kite will keep dropping so just ensure you don't forgot and you directing it up. When I coaching people on the BBtalkin for this, I am constantly just saying, kites getting to low, direct it up, direct it up, DIRECT IT UP! Everytime. This one is something you have to recognise and fight to ensure you keep in check.
Your videos are great ... however, at the end of the day it's time-on-the-water that's essential. I'm really not sure about kite position, at this point I feel comfortable initiating the turn a number of different ways, so I don't really think about it much. Bent knees & weight forward is fundamental though. It takes a long time to move away from what you've learnt on a TT or SB. To me the most useful mental exercise is to realize you're driving the carve using the front wing not the back wing/back foot the way you do with a TT or SB - so you want to keep your weight solidly over the front foot, This becomes even more the case when you're carving using the speed from a wave face. Bending your knees keeps your weight forward & allows you to absorb the little twitches the foil may make.
Using Peaks there doesn't seem any reason to downloop - the kites travels through zenith so easily - even in light wind - because it's so light & also hardly generates any lift while it does it, so you don't have to counteract the lift. On the other hand, Peaks definitely make foot switching harder though, because of the lack of lift provide by the kite.
I've been teaching lots of people to gybe recently in private lessons and virtual coaching, so thought I'd chirp in with a couple of specific things that come up over and over again - like pretty much with every person I've ever taught to gybe (probably 50+ people by now). But also to say there are so many ways to do a gybe, as many others have said - wind strength, kite size, kite style, foil size, sea state all play a part and can change the way you have to gybe. So just be aware that even once you get it for your 9m moderately powered in flat water, you may still have some re-training to do the next time when you are on your 12m or there is some chop etc. Anyway here are three things I seem to have to cover everytime:
1. Entering the Gybe - Faster than you think & Bent legs.
Most people enter the gybe too slow, whether its off the foil or foiling. Your initial speed is gonna get you through the first half of the carve. Don't go in crazy fast just a good moderate speed riding across the wind.
And no one EVER screwed up a gybe for bending their legs too much, getting their weight too low or forward Get low and you're more likely to save a screw up elsewhere, more easily.
Hi Rob, thanks again for your tips and great tutorial on you website. I watched Foiling Gybes Collection and in my 10th foil session I managed to do curving turn/gybe while levitating on my dominant leg/direction and ride away in switch levitating first time! I'm really chuffed as previous foil session I had no success and yesterday I managed few new things!
While riding other way I do foot switch off-foil and once I'm switched I can start levitating in switch or go directly to curving turn off-foil buy it feels more satisfying to gybe levitating of course.
This tips about keeping legs bend and loads of front foot pressure was a key.
I'm far away from foot switch while levitating as my foil is Zeeko blaster 750cm^2 front wing hence it's not providing loads of lift but I managed to start gybes on it hence it's really good. I thought that I need large front wing like Onda to learn these...