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Learning foot switch, sea level first?

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pj sofine
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Re: Learning foot switch, sea level first?

Postby pj sofine » Tue Sep 03, 2019 1:57 pm

Great advice, nice vids ! I feel inspired to keep pushing !

matanshapira
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Re: Learning foot switch, sea level first?

Postby matanshapira » Thu Sep 05, 2019 7:40 am

OzBungy wrote:
Tue Sep 03, 2019 10:06 am
Given the topic talks about "Learning to foot switch" I assume the actual gybe is not an issue.

I like to differentiate between "surface" moves and "touch down" moves.

Surface moves are where you bring the board down onto the surface. Do the move. Ride off and back up onto the foil.

Touch down moves are where during the move the board touches down momentarily.

You can practice swapping feet on the surface if you want. It won't hurt. You will get comfortable moving your feet about. It won't help all that much with the foiling foot swap. It leaves out all the important stuff. It's not a bad thing to be comfortable slogging along on the surface.

Touch down foot swaps are fun and quite easy. You move your new front foot to the strap. Move your old front foot back. During that instant where you only have one foot in the front strap the board will touch the surface, bounce off and away you go. It can be really fast and fluid. Again, it doesn't help all that much with learning the foiling foot swap.

To learn the flying foot swap, imagine a zone from just in front of the mast to 2/3-3/4 the way to the front straps/foot position. You can stand pretty much anywhere in this zone of stability and the board will happily foil along.

Practice cruising along in "ski" stance with both feet together in front of the mast. Just get used to feeling the feedback from the foil through your feet. Move in and out of ski stance and just get comfortable with the movement and the feeling.

When you get comfortable doing that move your foot to the other front strap. You've now done a flying foot swap.

Keep practicing and learning the feeling. Over time you can add a bit more kite power and a bit of a pump to the foil. With a little more practice you can start going from strap to strap and you're doing full on foiling foot swaps.

There are two advantages of learning this method. You get to practice to movements and the feeling without crashing all the time. You can adapt your foot swap technique so that you can swap at any time with any power and your kite in any position.

Possibly more importantly, you get used to controlling your board in almost any attitude and position. It becomes huge fun to swoop your way out of a foot swap with power and style.
Totally agree, great reply, I think everyone should read carefully.

this is why I started this post, because I started thinking that surface foot switch is too different from foiling one and that one who practice it are not taking the optimal learning path.

skideeppow
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Re: Learning foot switch, sea level first?

Postby skideeppow » Thu Sep 05, 2019 7:15 pm

PurdyKiter wrote:
Mon Sep 02, 2019 9:04 pm
slowboat wrote:
Mon Sep 02, 2019 8:22 pm
Helps to be well powered as kite will help balance you.
Agree.
My biggest break-through day was when I learned to bring the kite high to where it almost felt silly high 11:30 or 12 o'clock. Sheet-in and switch in one move using the kite to lighten the load.
sam with me, use the kite to de weight.

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Re: Learning foot switch, sea level first?

Postby matth » Fri Sep 06, 2019 2:28 am

skideeppow wrote:
Thu Sep 05, 2019 7:15 pm
PurdyKiter wrote:
Mon Sep 02, 2019 9:04 pm
slowboat wrote:
Mon Sep 02, 2019 8:22 pm
Helps to be well powered as kite will help balance you.
Agree.
My biggest break-through day was when I learned to bring the kite high to where it almost felt silly high 11:30 or 12 o'clock. Sheet-in and switch in one move using the kite to lighten the load.
sam with me, use the kite to de weight.

Same here, just un-weight and switch the feet in one quick mini hop. Before that I was trying to do the 1,2,3 step maneuver and failing...


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