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can someone post some videos or share tips of shredding some small (1-2 meter) on shore waves and swell?

I'm advanced on a surf board in waves and probably would not bother with on shore. But on a foil, it seems like it should work and I'm not sure if it's my skill (I'm intermediate on foil) or conditions. I see a few options all of which I've tried and are all fun but just don't seem right:
1) stay on the wave and ride it straight down wind (towards shore) trying to either let the kite drift or if the wave is too fast, moving the kite as needed
2) small s turns with the kite parked. heading down the wave, the kite drifts and if it loses tension, turn up.
3) more radical kite moves to follow a line more similar to a surfer, trying to make sharper off the lip turns, down the wave, carve back...

I use #2 and 3.

Working the kite, and carving around fully bottom turn and cutback (well I know it might not make much sense in small chop waves, but I still do this and like it).

Sometimes carving around on a wave to toeside, and riding the wave deep downwind towards shore, having the kite drift while you zig zag, is also a "feel good" move.

Only with 6 m2 Peak kites, and smaller, meaning from 9 knots - when bigger this is hnot really possible.

Going dead downwind drifting, never...

Peter

I used to jibe to front side and then work the kite like a Pivot up and down. The problem is going upwind toward the wave. Now I use Slash and start to ride backside to frontside to whatever side possible. Slash will stay up flying/drifting the other way. I downloop it when is starts to fall. It's tricky business.

All of the above... if the wind and waves are right.

Remember you're not riding the surface of the water, look for the barrel of energy under the water with the wing...

Also all of the above as I choose with Peak kites.
At my local bay beach we have a mixture of wind chop and sea swell usually 90°from each other making for a fairly disorderly sea. I tend to foil hard upwind and then ride whatever waves I find approximately downwind but usually taking heelside to toeside turns on a given wave while searching for the next wave. It's a bit like doing a downwinder on a SUP foil or wing foil where you're constantly looking ahead for the next swell to keep foiling. Except with a small Peak kite you never drop off the foil

Unfortunately the waves usually break on the shore in shallow water without an outer reef or sandbar to foil a peaking wave on. Could go foiling at other ocean side beaches but the local beach is so close and convenient with the best wind as well.

thanks all for the tips. it's a surprise to me how challenging this is.

Eduardo wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 22, 2022 12:46 am

1) stay on the wave and ride it straight down wind (towards shore) trying to either let the kite drift or if the wave is too fast, moving the kite as needed

That sounds like quite a weird use case to me. If it's onshore and going straight downwind, then you're going to quickly outrun the wave. No one really rides a wave going straight towards the shore. You see beginner surfers take off, gaining speed during the drop down the face of the wave, then keep going straight and soon end up in slow-mo in the whitewater. Like that, you can essentially only go as fast as the wave is going, which is not that fast. It's only when you pick a side, Right or Left, that you can stay in contact with the wave face, ride at an angle to the direction of the wave, and have a board speed significantly higher than the wave speed. Most likely in that use case of going straight downwind, the wave will be too slow, and never really too fast. Unless you're talking about riding swell with a large period over 15s, in which case, you're lucky, and it can feel like endless going straight down the face. (but you still have to deal with the kite, and it'd better be fairly windy for that!)

In real world conditions, going down the face straight down wind, straight towards the shore will only be a very transient stage, quickly followed by a (bottom) turn/carve back towards the wave, and a top turn towards beach and repeat at will. Kite will regain tension or be redirected during those carves on the wave. The more your kite drifts, the more freedom of movement you will have in terms of how much you can tighten those turns.