tack on the snow

[Regis-de-giens]

Hi all,

I thought I had open a topic for this last year but cannot find it ...

I tried this move last year and found it had a lot of potential : turning upwind instead of a classic gibe, mainly with skis;

Now with a bit more of practicing it, I feel that it is an excellent move, efficient if wind goes toward the summit, pleasant when you rotate under the bar, and quite beautiful

now I even do more of these tacks than the common gibe actually ...

Here is the video:

[fernmanus]

Perhaps, it is obvious to you what you are doing, but it would really help if you had someone else film you. I can’t tell what you are doing from the video. Thank you.

[foam-n-fibre]

Yes. I'd like to hear more about this. I recently saw some guys doing this on skis with foil kites in light wind. I've never tried but was wondering if it would transfer to the hydrofoil and help my summer progression. Winter is almost over here but hopefully we have 2 or 3 more weeks of snow/ice riding. If any one has any tips about the best way to try this I'd like to hear them. I'm going to start by guessing... not overpowered !?!

Peter

[SaulOhio]

Its a lot easier with a foil kite, especially with a race foil like the Ozone R1. But I have managed to do a few with an inflated kite.

[rickythecat]

Not sure what I am supposed to be seeing in this thread. (Not trying to be snarky). Can someone explain? Thanks

[thekitemonster]

Perhaps, it is obvious to you what you are doing, but it would really help if you had someone else film you. I can’t tell what you are doing from the video. Thank you.

Kenny ask Jake to demonstrate a tack, he does these so smoothly and easily it's deceptive. You would have seen him do this countless times. It's a 180 into the wind. He gets a bit of air, or slightly weightless anyway. If your ever at Waddell check out the Caution guy Peter doing them near shore, he's another master. I have seen him do dozens of them but still can't process how it works enough to get it because he's doing it regular foot (I am goofy, and anything switch/toe-side sends me straight into panic mode and instant full face plant. Pretty sure it's a 180 back roll transition to toe side, (or a duck tack without switching the feet.)

[Regis-de-giens]

Perhaps, it is obvious to you what you are doing, but it would really help if you had someone else film you. I can’t tell what you are doing from the video. Thank you.

Well, sorry that sounds obvious for people working transitions on hydrofoil, but not for others ... Unfortunately I have nobody able to make a video of me ; next time I will lay the helmet with my video recorder on the ground to get an external view ; but the video of SaulOhio shows it very well , for example at 0:16 and 0:29

The principle is to turn upwind, so facing the wind at the middle of the transition, while "standard " transition on snow are turning back to the wind (like SaulOhio video at 0:50 for example)

This is applicable on hydrofoil , called "air-tack" and you can find wonderful videos of it ; very technical on the water ; the particularity on snow is :

- if the wind goes upward the slope, you can use the slope to pursue a long upwind direction, absolutely facing the wind and endless if the slope has enough angle ; you can see two very long transitions on my video; this is crazy, having a 0 angle to the wind , but be careful if the slope is too high, you could fly like a paraglider, very dangerous for non-experts

- on a hydrofoil you need to with foot during the tack ; while on skis , since they are symmetrical, there is no notion of changing feet and your pursue exactly like you were riding before the transition

- it is quite easy to perform this on snow, hence a good exercise to learn hydrofoil tacks

- it is very efficient and you loose nothing upwind, while on a standard gibe with speed, you go deep downwind and loos a lot upwind.

My video is not a wonderful tutorial but shows how effective and pleasant it can be.

With no slope like SaulOhio, or worse if wind goes downward the slope , it works but requires a different technics and better timing ; I can recover an old video later on if you want

[rickythecat]

The principle is to turn upwind, so facing the wind at the middle of the transition, while "standard " transition on snow are turning back to the wind

Ahh!..This explains what I was missing in the above videos. I'll have to try this on snow tomorrow.

[Regis-de-giens]

Another session end of last year in south of France , where I did a lot of tacks that I kept in the video; I love this tack more and more, even in the "bad" conditions of this video where it is the worse configuration : heavy powder (so low glide) and wind going down the slope (where a standard transition of turning back the wind is more appropriated) ; even in these bad configuration is was pleasant regarding the feeling and the trajectory and I noticed I did it more than standard gibe downwind.



I am quite surprised to never hear of this move and never see another rider doing it. Just try it !

[edt]

If we get wind I'll try to grab Jeff (he's an expert skier unlike me) and get some tutorials on ski gybes and tacks by doing some chase filming so you can see everything. It's much different than doing downhill turns on the ski hill. I can't see what the skis are doing in the regis videos and that's a key difference. Snowboarding it's just like being on a twintip so there's no need for snow board kite transition tutorials but there're turn techniques on skis with a kite that you see nowhere else certainly not downhill. Regis if you reshoot this video so it's easier to see make sure to show a gybe too as most skiers don't do it right and end up going straight downwind on their turns and half the time their kite falls out of the sky.