Regardless how awesome Kainani Drexler is, this video gave a good insight into preparing for a foot change. Watch it to the end.

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KIT33R said..
Regardless how awesome Kainani Drexler is, this video gave a good insight into preparing for a foot change. Watch it to the end.

Awesome!

Goddammit I feel old and useless!

Makes it look so easy - amazingly talented young lady!!

I can change feet on the foil but still can't do it and rotate my hips at the same time... Couldn't consistently get my feet into a good position maintain trim.

Messing up a surface change after a gybe, discovered I could "ski" and it was dead easy, then the next step was swapping feet.

Long story short, the breakthrough for me was squaring my hips up to direction of travel then changing feet straight forwards and backwards, THEN rotating hips.

Great vid and well explained by the young lass . What a playground she lives in !

The foot tapping is clever in that the move prepares her to get her weight ( COG ) in the right spotover the foil before she transitions feet ... but it is happening subconciously as she makes does the drill .

As she comments , this is one technique ... mine is almost always to change feet after the gybe . Its from my windsurfing days I reckon .
Some friends swap before on one tack and after on the other as a rule , they ride surfboards like that too .
I need to be more symmetrical ...
I make sure I step off the back foot with some pressure ... not the front foot , this way the foil is on the rise slightly as I swap. Kite fairly neutral .
And for sure , as Kami says ... The swap always works better if my feet are both pointing in the direction of travel not at an angle to it .

After a bit you can also trust the foil will will keep flying forward without much foot contact on the board , so if its a messy transition for what ever reason , its best to avoid heavy contact while you get sorted to make the save . Sometimes just a toe..

Being able to hop the back foot forwards and backwards is super useful. Among other things, I bring the back foot well forward and lean back over it to give my front foot a break during long tacks out.

Often amazed now at just how badly my foot placement can be and I can still ride it out. Just getting hours under the belt, eh.

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KIT33R said..
Regardless how awesome Kainani Drexler is, this video gave a good insight into preparing for a foot change. Watch it to the end.

Thanks for sharing.
What a delightful young lady.
A credit to her parents and friends.
If we can do a fraction of her moves it will be a bonus.
Well we can only try.
She makes it look so easy and fun.
And look behind you before you jibe.
What a little gem.:)

The Drexlers are a class act. She is such a sweetheart and man she has come a long way in a very short period of time. Great to be able to listen and learn from younger minds.

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Kamikuza said..
I can change feet on the foil but still can't do it and rotate my hips at the same time... Couldn't consistently get my feet into a good position maintain trim.

Messing up a surface change after a gybe, discovered I could "ski" and it was dead easy, then the next step was swapping feet.

Long story short, the breakthrough for me was squaring my hips up to direction of travel then changing feet straight forwards and backwards, THEN rotating hips.

Now that I can understand. Thanks. Now for practice ... .

There's a sweet spot on the board that extends from the front half of the mast to about 2/3 way to the front foot position/straps. You can pretty much stand anywhere in this sweet spot and ride and steer fairly comfortably.

You job as a learning foiler is to explore this sweet spot and get used to the feel of pressure in different parts of the sweet spot. The more experience you have in this sweet spot the better you are going to get.

When you're doing the foot swap you can shuffle your feet around inside the sweet spot. It's ugly, but it's fairly reliable. With a little practice and good conditions you can do it very smoothly.

The important thing is you learn how to move your feet around on the board and every mistake is not an automatic crash. I quite like it when the foil tilts precariously in one direction and I bring it back into a diving swoop.

You can extend the sweet sport further forward by having more power in the kite, by pulling in the bar, by putting the foil in a rising trajectory. When you get very practiced you can step in and out of your straps at will and can do strap to strap foot changes, You don't need the extra lift of a big kite or foil kite. You don't need a big wing. You just needs lots of small bits of practice.

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Gorgo said..
There's a sweet spot on the board that extends from the front half of the mast to about 2/3 way to the front foot position/straps. You can pretty much stand anywhere in this sweet spot and ride and steer fairly comfortably.

You job as a learning foiler is to explore this sweet spot and get used to the feel of pressure in different parts of the sweet spot. The more experience you have in this sweet spot the better you are going to get.

When you're doing the foot swap you can shuffle your feet around inside the sweet spot. It's ugly, but it's fairly reliable. With a little practice and good conditions you can do it very smoothly.

The important thing is you learn how to move your feet around on the board and every mistake is not an automatic crash. I quite like it when the foil tilts precariously in one direction and I bring it back into a diving swoop.

You can extend the sweet sport further forward by having more power in the kite, by pulling in the bar, by putting the foil in a rising trajectory. When you get very practiced you can step in and out of your straps at will and can do strap to strap foot changes, You don't need the extra lift of a big kite or foil kite. You don't need a big wing. You just needs lots of small bits of practice.

Exactly....I found that sweetspot by slowly moving my feet until I could "hang ten" with two feet side by side in that zone. Once you find that spot you can swap very easily and still be balanced. I had learned to swap before I learned to do that, but I should have learned this sooner because it taught me more about the balance of the wing itself.

Great thread and perfect timing for me! I just took my front footstrap off last session and made the jump to strapless. I'll be working on Kai's taps and also hip rotation and skiing next session.

I'm now using the Slingshot Foot Hook up front (no back strap) and finding foot changes easier and safer. Still can't change on the fly but working on it.

So you guys are saying you are best to find that spot where you can have your feet side by side... skiing as the big K described .. THEN try the feet swapping thing?

I've had some success with feet swapping but it's not a prettt sight most the time and that's when I actually make it !!!

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dafish said..

Gorgo said..
There's a sweet spot on the board that extends from the front half of the mast to about 2/3 way to the front foot position/straps. You can pretty much stand anywhere in this sweet spot and ride and steer fairly comfortably.

You job as a learning foiler is to explore this sweet spot and get used to the feel of pressure in different parts of the sweet spot. The more experience you have in this sweet spot the better you are going to get.

When you're doing the foot swap you can shuffle your feet around inside the sweet spot. It's ugly, but it's fairly reliable. With a little practice and good conditions you can do it very smoothly.

The important thing is you learn how to move your feet around on the board and every mistake is not an automatic crash. I quite like it when the foil tilts precariously in one direction and I bring it back into a diving swoop.

You can extend the sweet sport further forward by having more power in the kite, by pulling in the bar, by putting the foil in a rising trajectory. When you get very practiced you can step in and out of your straps at will and can do strap to strap foot changes, You don't need the extra lift of a big kite or foil kite. You don't need a big wing. You just needs lots of small bits of practice.

Exactly....I found that sweetspot by slowly moving my feet until I could "hang ten" with two feet side by side in that zone. Once you find that spot you can swap very easily and still be balanced. I had learned to swap before I learned to do that, but I should have learned this sooner because it taught me more about the balance of the wing itself.

de

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dafish said..

Gorgo said..
There's a sweet spot on the board that extends from the front half of the mast to about 2/3 way to the front foot position/straps. You can pretty much stand anywhere in this sweet spot and ride and steer fairly comfortably.

You job as a learning foiler is to explore this sweet spot and get used to the feel of pressure in different parts of the sweet spot. The more experience you have in this sweet spot the better you are going to get.

When you're doing the foot swap you can shuffle your feet around inside the sweet spot. It's ugly, but it's fairly reliable. With a little practice and good conditions you can do it very smoothly.

The important thing is you learn how to move your feet around on the board and every mistake is not an automatic crash. I quite like it when the foil tilts precariously in one direction and I bring it back into a diving swoop.

You can extend the sweet sport further forward by having more power in the kite, by pulling in the bar, by putting the foil in a rising trajectory. When you get very practiced you can step in and out of your straps at will and can do strap to strap foot changes, You don't need the extra lift of a big kite or foil kite. You don't need a big wing. You just needs lots of small bits of practice.

Exactly....I found that sweetspot by slowly moving my feet until I could "hang ten" with two feet side by side in that zone. Once you find that spot you can swap very easily and still be balanced. I had learned to swap before I learned to do that, but I should have learned this sooner because it taught me more about the balance of the wing itself.

Select to expand quote

dafish said..

Gorgo said..
There's a sweet spot on the board that extends from the front half of the mast to about 2/3 way to the front foot position/straps. You can pretty much stand anywhere in this sweet spot and ride and steer fairly comfortably.

You job as a learning foiler is to explore this sweet spot and get used to the feel of pressure in different parts of the sweet spot. The more experience you have in this sweet spot the better you are going to get.

When you're doing the foot swap you can shuffle your feet around inside the sweet spot. It's ugly, but it's fairly reliable. With a little practice and good conditions you can do it very smoothly.

The important thing is you learn how to move your feet around on the board and every mistake is not an automatic crash. I quite like it when the foil tilts precariously in one direction and I bring it back into a diving swoop.

You can extend the sweet sport further forward by having more power in the kite, by pulling in the bar, by putting the foil in a rising trajectory. When you get very practiced you can step in and out of your straps at will and can do strap to strap foot changes, You don't need the extra lift of a big kite or foil kite. You don't need a big wing. You just needs lots of small bits of practice.

Exactly....I found that sweetspot by slowly moving my feet until I could "hang ten" with two feet side by side in that zone. Once you find that spot you can swap very easily and still be balanced. I had learned to swap before I learned to do that, but I should have learned this sooner because it taught me more about the balance of the wing itself.

I talked to Greg Drexler about feet swapping and his best advice was to commit to doing it till you got it.

Kai started doing the feet shuffle thing and that was working for me. Over time and improved balance, I am have now gone from 20 shuffles on a grippy deck to one shuffle.

I think that by finding that sweet spot and moving your feet closer as you practice your swap makes it easier to switch around. If you are still struggling to slide your feet, (and lets face it, when we are learning even the slightest movement of a few millimetres can pitch you into the drink thus leaving imprints on the brain that are hard to erase), I have found that by pumping the board downward and doing the swap as it's headed back up is a good way to get better at it. Also, if you really want to commit to the learning just do short runs and work on transitions for the first hour. Then go for a long cruise.
I am now at the stage of pulling off the 360 ducktack to toeside with a kite loop and it has taken me real consistent effort over the last month to finally nail it with regularity. My nasal cavity has been packed with salt water from all the crashes in the learning process but now I can have real fun with the move.

I have just in the last couple months gotten to the point where I can switch feet reliably without falling off. I am still not doing them flying but getting this simple act under control has made my foiling so much more functional and enjoyable.

It was very frustrating to not be able to pull off a move that I can so easily do on a surfboard.

Moving my feet close together to find the center point of balance and having my hips rotated forward a little have been crucial to my progress. Also remember to keep a bit of speed up this helps a lot with stability.

Going strapless has really helped as well. I have always ridden surfboards strapless but was a little hesitant to take the straps off the foil board at first. But once I did I found the water starts to be relatively easy and it made the rest of my riding alot easier and better