The "Other" Tack

[jumptheshark]

Which tack are you speaking of? The toe side tack? Where you arch backward while facing into the wind and have the depower line up and over your shoulder? Greg does a lot of those.

To revive this topic on the other other tack, or the one in the vids above. Have tried a bunch and have made a few. I think this will end up being my go to tack on starboard tack, either that or the toe side back to heel side tack I am referring to above.

[flaps1111]

Which tack are you speaking of? The toe side tack? Where you arch backward while facing into the wind and have the depower line up and over your shoulder? Greg does a lot of those.

To revive this topic on the other other tack, or the one in the vids above. Have tried a bunch and have made a few. I think this will end up being my go to tack on starboard tack, either that or the toe side back to heel side tack I am referring to above.

Yes I mean the toe side tack. Any tips?
I can do the tack of this topic because is my usual tack on surfboard but with the toe side tack I don't see the timing. Should I do a kiteloop 12 o'clock or just change kite direction and carve upwind at the same time?

[jumptheshark]

I learned the simple heel side tack to toe side in the other direction first and repeated it until I had the timing pretty much figured out. The toe back to heel tack was the exact same timing of a slower gradual climb of the kite along with gradual change in direction further and further into the wind and once the kite is up high, the actual turn through the eye of the wind is pretty quick with a sudden looping of the kite. It feels like the whole move starts slow and accelerates right through to the actual tack. I loop the kite pretty much every time on the toe back to heel. Im usually on an 8m. I have a harder time with this tack on a 12m.

[robclaisse]

The Toe to Heel tack is my favourite and I could ride and back forth doing them all day! But I did find this the hardest tack to learn - as @jumptheshark says the kite movement is pretty much the same for all the tacks. One small point I'd make on the kite movement that I've been playing with recently is that you can actually fly the kite up high before carving, then once it's close to the top of the window, it can then be easier to carve hard and pivot the foil around in a very tight arc. It's not the only way but some people find this easier (but you do need to more powered up) but for me, the other key part is the body position...

I tried Toe to Heel tacks for ages and they were so hit and miss. Often I found I just couldn't keep weight on my front foot as I came round, the foil stopped carving round and the foil/board would cant over towards me and I'd fall off downwind. Then I worked out what the difference was - to keep weight forwards all I need to do was really twist my shoulders and head to face the new direction, early in the carve upwind. That twisting motion gets your front shoulder forward into the turn and allows you to keep all your weight properly positioned over the board. Focus on pushing your front shoulder into the turn, this also helps with keeping tension on the kite lines as you can lean into them, olay the bar overhead and keep the kite powered up.

And one more thing, sheeting out - this is so important, you need to sheet right out, dump every bit of power as you start the hard carve, this lofts the kite over head allows you to duck under the lines.

I quickly made this video that hopefully shows how that front shoulder really helps to get you round in control (not the best quality but I don't have many shots of this trick film yet, just reference shots):



So to recap - 3 key tips:

1. Drive the kite up to the top of the window
2. As you start to carve upwind, sheet the bar out and twist your shoulders to face the new direction
3. Focus on pushing your front shoulder into the turn, leaning into the bar

[cglazier]

Nice move robclaisse, very stylish.

I believe that this can be thought of as a normal roll tack but with the footswitch done beforehand. (With any tack or gybe you can switch your feet before, during or after and thereby create quite different tricks.)

I'll have to give it a try but I'm already thinking it may be even more difficult than a regular roll tack (with the footswitch during the tack).


CG

For reference here is a normal roll tack:

[robclaisse]

The early foot change version is a cool variation of the toe to heel but it does feel quite different to the normal roll tack. So you are riding heelside, and just as you first start to carve upwind, you quickly do the foot change and then do the main snap of the carve. round to heelside. The roll tack's foot change is a little later but is a lot smoother and faster overall and probably requires a more fine-tuned technique to get it spot-on, particularly with tube kites, foil kites almost feel like cheating when tacking, once you have the basic technique down

[junebug]

I tried a few normal tacks today. They did not go well. I can do foiling roll tacks, but rotating my body the other way is so strange to me. At least I figured out that you have to keep contact with your “old” front foot to keep the foil down in the water, but other than that, I didn’t really advance the ball.

Before foiling, I never rode a directional board, so I have never done a normal tack, foiling or surface. So I ask the forum — do you think I would benefit by learning to do these on a non-foil directional board first? These seem to require unique footwork, in that the “old” front foot sort of shoves the board around, and it seems like learning these on a non-foil directional board might be beneficial.

[tomtom]

I think normal directional footwork work just for surface HF transition. Flying is quite different - or at least it seems to me.

[skideeppow]

i took a lesson with Fred Hope Last week. So helpful. Started nailing by heel to toeside tack, and inadvertently was doing 360's as well, where i come all the way around. I found tilting the bar around 20% really helped bring the kite around with some power.
I can not believe how easy this was.

[flaps1111]

I am very happy a few days ago I asked how to make this transition and I have achieved it, for me the most difficult thing was the timing, without knowing when to start the turn, based on test error and I have achieved it, all the advice in this post is all you need to get it done.

Thank you guys