Short Foilboard water start tips?

[trnsprt]

I'm a sometimes foiler. I travel with the foil but it isn't my primary choice. Point is while I'm a proficient foiler, I'm not a dedicated foiler, so I'm dumb essentially when it comes to foiling.

So, I've just transitioned away from my beginner rig, which has been a Nobile Split Foil. ride it strapless, can jibe, can fall at high speeds and hurt myself so I feel like I am doing fine.

I'm appx 200lbs My new board is 3' and the foil is a 1200 normally use a Strutless 9m. I had ZERO luck waterstarting it on my first session. Eye opening. Everything I've done before didn't work. I biased my front foot heavily to prevent the larger (to me) foil from breaching on my starts but it just wanted to shoot up. Or when I did get up over the board I'd pearl the nose and sink.

So, any good tutorials for water starting a smaller board? I've read you need to get right up on the foil. Is that just a learning curve thing and I'm going to have to put in the time?

Any advice or links would be appreciated.
Tom

[tkaraszewski]

You need to weight your back foot until the nose is above the surface. You won’t be able to foil with the board underwater, so you need to get the nose up and then flatten the board with more front foot pressure. Take advantage of the foil wanting to shoot right up to get the nose up, then flatten.

[trnsprt]

Yeah, that makes sense. It must be timing. It felt like the moment I powered the kite the nose was popping up and I didn't have time to flatten. I'm sure you're right. Almost like a pump. Power kite, nose up, pump down and back up without powering kite too much.

Sounds like I'll be learning to foil again for a few sessions.

Thanks

[Foil]

Yeah, that makes sense. It must be timing. It felt like the moment I powered the kite the nose was popping up and I didn't have time to flatten. I'm sure you're right. Almost like a pump. Power kite, nose up, pump down and back up without powering kite too much.

Sounds like I'll be learning to foil again for a few sessions.

Thanks

Yes this is a problem that I had not known about myself,
that is until my 110 board arrived a few weeks back
normally I am up and away in a flash on my 120 without any failed starts on any water state,
But then my first session on my 110 was a flipping nightmare, the same problems you mentioned above, the harder I tried the worse it got,
I ride full strapped so thought I had screwed the straps to far forward, and then thinking my mast was too far back, it took me around 20 to 30 goes before I realised that more back foot pressure and sometimes pointing more off wind worked,even being a tad more aggressive with the kite to the point of just trying downlooping with gusto from behind, which of course works well if a little bit extreme, but then after a bit more practice it became just as easy as using my longer board.
It was a bit of a shock though, to feel like a newbie for a session was not what I was expecting, and getting going on my weak side from a water start is still not that easy compared so my "huge" 120 board, never thought that 10cm would be such a big difference.
8th session in now with my little 110, and well happy now, waves are more fun, the board can be pinwheeled around, it feels like I am sailing around stood on top of a mast, and jumping is just the same, I did fear the nose dipping on landing but its not happened after my first time getting it wrong, if anything- because I am more aware of the need to use my back leg more on landing then my "dry board" landings have increased, so result there!
I do wonder how many others have had this wake up call like us.
funny how I was blaming everything else and not me.

[Jyoder]

Is your back foot behind the mast? Try moving it forward slightly. Counter intuitive, but having a shorter stance with your back foot right over the mast helps dampen porpoising on water start. Porpoising is caused by over correction. Once riding, wider stance is more stable.

[trnsprt]

Foil...absolutely. Exactly how my session went. I guess that's the fun of what we do? Otherwise it'd be boring. Thanks for sharing your experience, it gives me hope LOL.

Jyoder...yes, but I'll double check my setup if I get back out today. Maybe I had the mast in the forward setting? I'll double check today. I did make sure I was placing my back foot on top of the mast or slightly forward after the first few porpoises. It was also a little fluky wind yesterday so not a steady day for trying new gear. I probably should have used a slightly larger kite. Thanks

[windfreak74]

hello trnsprt,
this is what made my first waterstart click
when waterstarting instead of diving the kite from 12 to 3 and getting a downward pull try to get the kite from 3 to 12 to pull some off the weight up and then dive the kite forward to get going.that somehow helped me equate feet pressure on board and takeoff easier.

[jumptheshark]

As foil pointed out, its a self limiting question.

Loads of us have been surprised by how something we thought we were good at is beyond us with a simple parameter change. Then we dive into a whole "set up" fiddling fiasco all the while denying that we ourselves are the issue.

Give it a week of good wind and you will have forgotten all about it.

[grigorib]

I’d make sure that feet position as related to mast mount is same as you’re used to. Sometimes tracks are positioned differently and it’s easy to place the mast too far forward and have to stand on front foot barely able to keep foil down, or too far back - not even having a chance to fly up.

I didn’t have any challenge going from large boards to small ones except for extremely light winds

[Peter_Frank]

As foil pointed out, its a self limiting question.

Loads of us have been surprised by how something we thought we were good at is beyond us with a simple parameter change. Then we dive into a whole "set up" fiddling fiasco all the while denying that we ourselves are the issue.

Give it a week of good wind and you will have forgotten all about it.

Spot on.

Nothing (except for light wind which wont work) is different on a super short board.

BUT, you have to change your muscle memory to fit the lack of nose so to speak, when starting.
And it is way more sensitive, the front-back foot weight distribution.

It will come very fast, nothing special to it, just get used to it, and you will soon start just fine.

Dont "overthink" it - just practice till you get it

Peter