Safest transition while overpowered

[Cefirmeza]

What is the easiest and safest way to change direction while overpowered?

One foiling disavantage is that in some strong wind sessions you just don´t have a smaller kite.

Today I was out in overpowered conditions with a 9m sst and during turns I was getting dragged downwind and crashing after attempting downloop gibes.

Since I don´t have the tacks dialed in yet I could manage a few gibes by doing a tight loop near twelve and quickly turning upwind again to avoid the speeds.

Also tried a few heel to toe tacks but was a bad idea since overpowered I kept being yanked out of the board during the turn. I guess not enough foward movement towards the bar. I will keep pushing until nailing it.

[Peter_Frank]

Just do a normal jibe, instead of the downloop one.

Then you can just ride the kite as high as you want, in order to spill the power

Easy and safe.

Peter

[jumptheshark]

When your really overpowered, you can put the kite high and let it take almost all of your weight. With very little weight on the board you can foil along very slowly at really high upwind angles. You can do this to scrub almost all your speed before doing a pretty small radius simple jibe like advised above: kite high, no loop.

Loops of any kind are the first thing to drop when you get overpowered.

You can also do large radius jibes with the kite high, but this will see you heading straight downwind at higher speeds. Heading straight downwind with the kite high is only really scary for a couple of seconds before you begin to slow downs and can regain control. Just keep that kite high! Can be daunting to new foilers, but its an essential skill and a stage we all go through.

The smaller radius jibes with low speed, kite high taking most of your weight is a much less hair raising experience and the one transition I rely on when it gets gnarly.

[grigorib]

What is the easiest and safest way to change direction while overpowered?
...I could manage a few gibes by doing a tight loop near twelve...

I certainly won't attempt a loop or downloop when overpowered. Kite near zenith jibes and get to shore for appropriate size or bar which would allow more depower trim.

[joekitetime]

I've experience this many times and as the sessions grow and grow so do the skills at dealing with being tremendously overpowered. It is a skill to learn, such that one can kite way, way overpowered if need be (although it isn't fun at all, but the assumption here is that the wind piped up and you are trying to deal with getting home safely).

The biggest trick that works for me is this. I fly the kite straight up and I usually end up pulling on the bar all the way (perhaps the opposite of what you would expect). I inch the kite forward such that my forward moment is as slow as possible. I use the kite to support my weight and keep me on foil. I feel tons of pressure in my harness and it wears on the lower back. Although you feel like you are rock climbing - being held by your harness, you can modulate your speed but how much you move the kite just slightly forward or slightly back. Jibing like this too is pretty easy because you don't pick up speed. But it adds complexity because as you are going around on the jibe you modulate more by how much you either ride towards or away from the kite.

It is a skill that takes time to learn, but it ties in with control while foiling. But the biggest part of the trick, for me, is keeping the kite straight up, bar in (kite powered) but hanging from the kite but arresting its forward movement but not letting it get too far ahead of you. So you end up burning the power it is creating by making it pull you straight up rather than forward.

Hope that helps. For sure do not downloop the kite.

[cor]

The safest transition while being overpowered is the one that doesn't require the kite to be flown through the window. I find that duck tacks work best in those conditions.

[cglazier]

The safest transition while being overpowered is the one that doesn't require the kite to be flown through the window. I find that duck tacks work best in those conditions.

Agreed.
In fact I find that more power makes tacking easier.
(But if you are not already experienced at tacking, don't try to learn in overpowering conditions.)

CG