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Unhooked foiling

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Re: Unhooked foiling

Postby joekitetime » Mon Jun 01, 2020 3:16 pm

You got it! Funny!

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Horst Sergio
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Re: Unhooked foiling

Postby Horst Sergio » Thu Jun 04, 2020 11:09 pm

Hi everybody,

can't tell what awesome fun unhooked foiling is, it is getting similar as monofoiling years ago and even after starting nearly a year ago, exploring more and more is expanding even more the field of what is possible.
Haven't found any limits, doesn't matter if you jibe, tack, jump, 360 ... ok, I think for one handed boardoffs I will never have the physical strength but one handed backflips should be in the reach.
To just give a few more hints: Thinking to stop using a normal harness, thinking about using a 2 line bar / kite, etc. will see. To tell all I have in mind would fill some pages, so for now just a few hints for how to start.

Yes the easiest is downwind, but don't worry same as with a wing you also can go upwind easily but with more physical effort, allready riding in place for 1/2 h without ever been hooked.
The trimm is also not such a big problem, in the best case you are using a Peak in 4 m² for lighter in 5 m² for heavier riders in its low to medium wind range around 16 knts on a large foil.

Just pull the trimmer around 5-10 cm (find out while riding) and start to hook of riding slightly downwind. For longer upwind runs you may pull a bit more until it just don't flap. In the named condition with a Peak you don't have to care about any stalling (front or back). When you see it in my videos it is just about dynamic turns or riding to much and to fast directly downwind, but you can go into that step by step riding more and more dynamic turns, so don't worry.

Hope to be back with more and a video in the next weeks.

As already said
Unhooked + Peak + (mono)Foil (+ Windwave)
to me actually is the best match I have seen in very activ over 30 years doing most existing board sports.

Also riding a lot unhooked with my sonics but it is much more sensible, no comparision with Peaks and also would not recommend heavy tubes with strong fly down, the joy comes when you can just put the bar beside you with zero pull. Started to let it go, sometime it is possible to have it just flying there a long with you till you grab it again. :D
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Re: Unhooked foiling

Postby junebug » Fri Jun 05, 2020 8:37 am

What are the benefits of foiling unhooked? I’ve never tried unhooking other than just goofing around on the beach.

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Re: Unhooked foiling

Postby Horst Sergio » Sat Jun 06, 2020 10:56 am

@junebug:
Simple question trying to answer first with a conter question and a long not so simple answer behind:

What are the benefits of depower? (which is the only thing you lose when going unhooked)
Depower while riding can be quite overrated, as the main profit I see is in gusty conditions and for high jumps, as in both cases you need fast changes of angle of attack.
(For sure for the sport, high depower kites since 2006 saved many lives and turned it from a serious action sport to everybodys disney land pus ... I better stop here :wink: )

So following this if you don't want to jump high and you have constant wind then depower is less important than most may think.

Coming back to the question:
The benefit of unhooking are mainly two things:
1. high control of towing point position and
2. control of riders distance to the kite
both in the range of around 2 m (your arm span)

But what does this mean for the ride?
1. Being hooked you just have pretty low control of towing point of just a few cm under effort when pushing the bar against the depower rope, which you need and use for example to start and end some rotations, especially in jumps.
Being unhooked you reach here another dimension, so if you need some momentum for a turn, it can have a meter of lever not cm.
2. If you are following a wind wave you often have to quick change your riding line faster than any kite can react, if you are hooked it just means on one side the kite will pull you of your natural line or you run into slack lines.

When being unhooked you have those up to 2 m of play range to once hold the bar over your head and then pulling it down to your foot constantly changing distance to the kite to allow the kite to fly its line while you are surfing yours indeependently. This picture from the shown video should show both effects I mean and what you just can't do being hooked

Image

More free feel is just (foil)surfing for sure, but I don't think as much as many may think :wink:

Being hooked on a wave feels like being jammed, similar horrible as riding a foil with a stabilisator :wink: :nono:
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Re: Unhooked foiling

Postby Toby » Sat Jun 06, 2020 11:00 am

because if you ride unhooked, you are cool.
Hooked is just uncool.

Look at wakestyle...so much cooler!

NOT

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Re: Unhooked foiling

Postby Horst Sergio » Sat Jun 06, 2020 11:27 am

@Toby:

Oh no, hooked riding is also VERY cool, Toby, every body loves You and Your Style :allbegood: :remybussi: :wink:

But to add another aspect, for unhooked (sorry Toby) :P

After having turned kitesurfing my self into a disney land pus... like going monofoil with nearly no resistance and pull, but additionaly using a harness for wing foiling ...

It is a very welcomed physical exercise for the upper body to be unhooked. Hooked sitting on a stabi foil is realy something you could fall asleep doing it. Seriously wanted to try this once adding an additional back rest on the board. Or maybe in the canery man position as I prefer to sleep on the front anyway :wink:

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Re: Unhooked foiling

Postby jumptheshark » Sat Jun 06, 2020 11:49 am

Unhooking on foil is in its infancy, but it builds on what unhooking offers any other type of riding. In a simple sentence: For downwind foiling in swell, it removes leaning your weight against the kite, freeing up your riding to be foil and swell centric. It can also just be a fresh way to ride around really underpowered when there is not much swell to play on.

In a few more sentences it builds on what unhooking offers in general:

Unhooking does a few things depending on what you’re riding. Most commonly known on a tt it’s generally done in short bits for unhooked jumps. In that case, it changes the axis of rotation from the harness hook to your hand/s on the bar. That’s a big difference to experience and done well it lets you lay out the pace and path of body movements to make them less pirouette like or dangly. Done poorly, its as dangly as it can possibly get! It is a drastically different dynamic affecting rotations and inversions and allows for passing the bar behind your back. That adds up to a load of difference. It’s difficult and requires understanding, practice, good timing and a fair bit of strength. It has always been a basic barrier to entry for standard twin tip freestyle and any park style riding with features. No one really rides around on a tt unhooked* for more than the time it takes to take off and land. It would be exhausting and your kite session rather short. It would have initially evolved as a safety precaution, in the two line kite days when biffing a landing could see you yanked hard by the kite. Unhooked, if you didn't land it, letting go saved you bodily punishment. As kites evolved, the need for this skill diminished eventually to the point that many kiters will never or have never unhooked and panic the moment their arms actually feel the full load of the kite when their donkey dick fails them and they unhook unintentionally. Learning to manage the kite power and get it under control unhooked so you can at least hook back in and continue is in my opinion, a very basic skill that denotes a level of proficiency in the sport. If you can't recover from an accidental unhooking, your not really that much of a kiter.



Riding a surfboard, you get moments where the harness load is light compared to on TT as ideally your riding the wave to some extent. Having the tether point to the harness means that the kite needs LOADS of depower to allow you to pick your riding line to suit the wave and not the kite. The kite tends to pull us off that desired line pretty consistently. We fly the kite in certain ways to mitigate it, and most of us end up happy with the compromise. There are some who can ride waves really well unhooked. It's again a compromise, but in a different way. You gain as Sergio mentioned a degree of freedom from the tether point as you can provide or remove slack with however long your reach is. This "freedom" translates directly to the board as you can do things with it that will no longer impact the kite... sort of.. Unhooked you are also in some respect MORE a slave to the kite as it will dictate more of your line in the big picture. Lets see if I can say this in a way that makes sense. You definitely have to conform your general direction of travel (your basic direction) to the line of travel of the kite, but you get a freedom of your board and body at the micro level that feels like freedom and lets your surfing conform a little more to your will and the wave than the kite. It's like a macro and micro thing. You sacrifice your macro line to gain freedom of your micro line. Again, you hook back in the moment the wave is no longer helping you and ride back upwind hooked in.

* Any time the kite is not pulling you really hard against your edge is a great time to unhook and learn the difference for yourself. Downwinders on a tt in places like the OBX where the water is flat but the wind high is an existential experience. Its so much fun to just peel off downwind for kilometres and ride HUGE portions of it unhooked. When your heading way off the wind, the amount of pull needed to keep you planing along is low enough you can ride unhooked for extended periods. Endless slalom turns or big walls of slalom waterski like spray are all really really fun unhooked. As soon as you want to edge against the kite enough to go on tight reach or point upwind, the loads are too high and you have to hook back in. Likewise, downwinders on a surfboard allow for extended minutes of unhooked freedom.

Any form of kiting with really low rolling resistance is a good fit for unhooking. I do it a lot on snow. Not deep powered as that requires power, but for tooling around on low resistance hardpack, playing on natural rails or kickers, I spend a lot of time off the harness. In light wind you can trim you kite to actually even ride a little upwind and tool around in an area without the need to go downwind. Its certainly more work for the arms and shoulders, but not unpleasant and as Sergio mentions sometimes welcome. You can always hook in for a rest. In this scenario, there is nothing more satisfying than a long run of slalom turns headed slightly downwind unhooked. The bodily freedom of movement is fantastic and really needs to be experienced to properly judge.

Foiling is very low rolling resistance. In light wind conditions or going off the wind, you can easily outrun the kite. Again, a great type of riding for unhooking. Recently we have had discussions on wings vs kites and one of the major draws to the wing is the lack of tether or harness. The feel of cycling the load on or off at will with it in your hand, and not tied to your waist is a very legitimate point. Foiling swell unhooked is to me the best of both worlds. Of course it has been majorly influenced by the newer and lighter kites on the scene, but you can foil around in light wind unhooked really nicely with a tube kite. You need a small quick kite and the skills to unhook ride along understanding the dynamic and hook back in on other boards before you go trying it on foil.

Some of the very best moments I have ever had with a kite have been unhooked. Big sent S bends, Strapless in waves, and under bluebird skies on snow with a kicker or a few inches of fresh powder are all highlights that spring to mind.

Any kiter that can do a really good basic raley has felt what unhooking has to offer. That simple feel of letting your whole body whip back against the rotation point of your hands at the bar instead of the tether at your waist is enough to give some insight, but make no mistake. Unhooked kiting is a pretty broad arena with multiple applications that all provide the opportunity for a better riding experience.

And yes, because its Cool as Fu*k!

12 seconds in:



one minute in:



55 sec in, 2:20, 4:35....





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Re: Unhooked foiling

Postby Peter_Frank » Sat Jun 06, 2020 7:36 pm

I think unhooking could be awesome, not for waveboards no, but for wave hydrofoiling.

As you dont need much power, and you can get it instantly when needed.

Of course the first thing I would do, was to get rid of the depower strap in the middle, so I can grab freely centered, easy to do.

First time EVER I can spot benefits in unhooking, for us non-freestylers and non-pros :thumb:

Apart from TT and wakestylers, where it of course is mandatory and major part of the game :naughty:

8) Peter

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Re: Unhooked foiling

Postby Toby » Sat Jun 06, 2020 7:42 pm

Guess then you should pick up wing foiling.

Unhooked all the way 😉

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Re: Unhooked foiling

Postby Frankieboy » Sat Jun 13, 2020 11:38 pm

isn't wave kitefoiling unhooked with peak and a 1500 wing an alternative to wingfoiling?


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