I am puzzled that all the foiling instructional videos teach the same method. Get some speed. Do a little pump. Back foot to the front. Old front foot back. Do it fast.
It's a problem because you can't really practice it. You do it. Get it right, or crash. You can only do it when well powered up and everything is working properly.
The method I use is: Back foot half way forward to middle. Front foot back to middle. Old back foot to front. Adjust new back foot.
There's a few advantages to this:
- You can practice the one foot movements over and over again without crashing.
- You can pause in the both feet together position and ride there all day if you want. Similarly you can break it up into a bunch of micro-shuffles if things are not going well.
- The both feet together stance is a gentle lead in to toeside riding. I know that a lot of new wing foilers have trouble with toeside.
- You can do the change at any time in any conditions. Power and direction of travel are largely irrelevant.
- It gets you to thoroughly explore the balance characteristics of your foil.
- You get better at generally walking about on your foil (see above)
- You can do it almost without change on any kind of foil.
- It automatically leads into strap-strap foot changes when you're powered up because you're so comfortable in moving around on the foil and feeling the power.