How to lift our foils steadily?

[ariel_cloud]

Hey guys,
I practise foiling with my KFA MK3 for a while. I am able to get on board and freeride. I try hard to balance the board by shifting my weight to the front with my back foot strapless, but I can't lift my foil steadily.
Maybe I need to improve my speed a little bit, for I often reduce the speed to avoid crash when it picks up. So it touches water again.
Please advise.
Thank you.
Ariel

[plummet]

Relax. Learn forward and backward more slowly. Relax. Don't fight the foil. Relax.
Did I say relax? relax!

Do what Yoda says. don't try just do!

Add a bit of speed and relax. Lean back a tad, add more speed, when you start rising out of the water lean a little forward. relax. if your getting too high lean more forward. relax!

[Kamikuza]

Yoga lunges.

Turn the audio off and of course, not this extreme but it's the right motion: keeping the upper body upright and lunging to shift weight
https://youtu.be/R47u4ZssPZc?t=0m55s

And as Uncle Plums said, you have to ride faster than you do on a TT so be prepared for that.

Once you have a bit of practice, you can basically just ollie it up or down to whoever you like . . .

[jakemoore]

I'm a beginner so my advice is based on a very small amount of experience but this has helped me get through the painful wipe out phase.

More time taxiing on the surface helps me as an early learner. I find if I get up on foil too soon everything explodes. Therefore I make a conscious choice to go 25-50 meters with the board on the surface and get the board stable at foiling speed before foiling up. I don't know why but is especially true for me when going toward my stronger side.

Second is to control height with kite power rather than board movement. Once at speed pull in the bar to rise. Sheet out to allow yourself to sink. Shifting weight back and forth creates too big a change resulting in ventilation or violent touch down. This is especially true near the slow limit of foiling speed where the board begins to porpoise.

I'm getting to the point where I am starting to adjust pitch with back-front foot pressure. It is way more sensitive than a twin tip or surf board, especially near the slow limit of foiling speed.

[Jyoder]

As I learn, I find my ideas of what i’m doing and what i’m actually doing don’t always line up.

That said, it helps me to pay attention to keeping my knees mostly locked in one position and using my torso to lean forward/backward. Pay attention to the feel of the harness and it’s pull, as it affects your weight shift and you have to balance kite pull with forward, backward, and sideways weight shifts. Like mentioned above, sheeting the bar becomes a game of counter-balance.

[tmcfarla]

When I was learning, the thing that clicked for me was unweighting my back foot instead of weighting my front foot, and vice versa. So if you feel the foil coming up, instead of driving your weight forwards to weight your front foot, focus on lifting your back foot up. I think what is actually happening is that this limits how fast you can change your balance point- using the normal method of leaning forwards and backwards to change balance point results in porpoising on a foil. It pretty quickly becomes second nature.

[stevez]

I think you'd be better served with a more beginner friendly lower aspect foil with a lower take off and cruising (and crashing) speed. They also give a lot more warning before stalling, whereas faster high aspect foils will have more of a tendency to drop off suddenly.

[TomW]

I'm 50+ hours and a year into the journey.
Get more board speed.
Point your knees forward.
And All the vets here told me to keep practicing, it's true it takes more hours than other sports.

I'm getting my carves / gybes nailed now and it's hard to believe that it now is clicking and feeling the flow, after back in hour 25 thinking it's impossible.

Edit : I watched yoga video. I don't point toes of back foot backwards, but sideways. Seems to work for me, I'm bending knees to shift weight forward.

[ariel_cloud]

Relax. Learn forward and backward more slowly. Relax. Don't fight the foil. Relax.
Did I say relax? relax!

Do what Yoda says. don't try just do!

Add a bit of speed and relax. Lean back a tad, add more speed, when you start rising out of the water lean a little forward. relax. if your getting too high lean more forward. relax!

Thanks Plum and all of you fellows,
I found some of your tips particularly helpful, let me sort it out and move on.
Cheers.
Ariel

[ariel_cloud]

When I was learning, the thing that clicked for me was unweighting my back foot instead of weighting my front foot, and vice versa. So if you feel the foil coming up, instead of driving your weight forwards to weight your front foot, focus on lifting your back foot up. I think what is actually happening is that this limits how fast you can change your balance point- using the normal method of leaning forwards and backwards to change balance point results in porpoising on a foil. It pretty quickly becomes second nature.

Thanks your tips mate,
You did make a good point to make the weight shift more gentle.
Ariel