My beliefs have changed.

[Foil]

I like many others have had roll eye moments when the odd person on here claims
"I am up and running and cracked my first roll tack within the hour"
yes that's quite a claim and worthy of disbelief.
However
there is a guy I now regularly foil with, someone who I taught how to kitesurf back in 2002 when I was teaching part time.
he was the only guy to ever ask me to teach him to jump after 5 hours of basic beginner instruction,
Yes after 5 hours!
He went home that day able to sail both ways and complete a jump, and sail away,unbelievable but true!

Now he foils around 2 sessions a week, about 8 hours more or less.
this guy makes me question what the hell I am doing so wrong.
In the last 8 months he has gone from falling in on most attempts to tack, to then buying some bang up to date kit off me, then going on holiday to Flag beach and getting a little bit of coaching from Gunnar, to then completing every trick in the book, mostly at his first attempt,
you name it, he has done it (apart from working out how to get back up from the rodeo position).
a few days ago he said "I will try a back loop kite loop today as i am now able to boost quite high with smooth sail away landings"
he did try and yes as I expected he looped around and landed softly on the wing and sailed away without the board touching the surface.

This is not normal!

[Janus]

What kit did you sell him..

[Foil]

What kit did you sell him..

This is the thing he says made things click,
he bought my Groove skate 130L naked carbon, moses 101 mast and 633 Onda wing set,
(after I sold him my gear I missed my 130 Skate so much I bought a new replacement)
he Is the guy I reported on a little while back who pushed the 633 wing to 30 knts.55kmph
my "old" wing!
his old kit was a moses T45, 91 mast and 588 wing set, he blames that kit for slowing his progress.
he says it was hard work using that kit when compared to his new kit, which he says feels like he is now cheating, it's that easy.

but lets keep that last part of his quote a secret,
My wife Pauline picked up on him saying that,
and now she asks me why I cant do this or that as its "now so easy"

[richy-c]

What kit did you sell him..

This is the thing he says made things click,
he bought my Groove skate 130L naked carbon, moses 101 mast and 633 Onda wing set,
(after I sold him my gear I missed my 130 Skate so much I bought a new replacement)
he Is the guy I reported on a little while back who pushed the 633 wing to 30 knts.55kmph
my "old" wing!
his old kit was a moses T45, 91 mast and 588 wing set, he blames that kit for slowing his progress.
he says it was hard work using that kit when compared to his new kit, which he says feels like he is now cheating, it's that easy.

but lets keep that last part of his quote a secret,
My wife Pauline picked up on him saying that,
and now she asks me why I cant do this or that as its "now so easy"

It all starts with good kite setup. Attach all four lines in correct order. You know where im coming from

[Foil]

It all starts with good kite setup. Attach all four lines in correct order. You know where im coming from
[/quote]
anymore of that and I will hide your kite pump later

[jkrug]

news flash: some people are better athletes than others.

[oregonkiter]

^^^

Yeah, my younger son picked up foiling in about 50 minutes. After two hours he was switching feet on foil in the middle of the choppy Columbia River on a 91 cm mast. I had been working on that for weeks. He told me, "I don't know, just switch your feet..." Day 4 he is sitting on foilboard, small strapless jumps etc. None of this is an exaggeration.

Some folks just "feel it" and flow with it. Others, like me, "fight it"until we finally give in and start to accept new movements.

And yes, both of us on the 633 wing. His "board" is a free wakeboard. He sawed off one end for 3' length, slapped epoxy on the cut, drilled four holes to mount mast, used bolts from hardware store, and gorilla glued down a collection of old and spare deck pads.

[gmb13]

That is great to hear

They key thing that a lot of people still struggle with even after years of foiling is confidence and keeping the weight forward during all the manoeuvres.

As soon as you get your head around those two concepts learning all the tips and tricks gets a lot easier. And it does help having someone coach you through it, as a lot of the time you think you have a good body position and are going into the trick with enough speed, but you actually don't.

Also a lot of foilers still ride with too much front foot pressure, and that makes most of the tricks a lot harder to learn.

Just stick with it and keep telling yourself: "Just go for it!"

--
Gunnar

[windmaker]

Always blame the equipment!

[K-Roy]

I think age has a lot to do with it as well...

My 14 y old son, was up and flying both sides with in 2x40 min. session.
The second day he did the up wind "tack" (with surface tuch) on third attempt.
All of this on a 105cm mast and a race wing setup on a strapless board.

Most tricks, he tries 3 or 5 times and got it.
(roll tack, rodeo, small jumps)

What frustrates me is that all of this still hasn't got him hooked as he is into FreeStyle...