Getting more comfortable foiling in 2-4 foot waves/swell. Goal is to ride wave with minimal kite input. What's the best way to do this? Turn at the peak onto wave and then depower kite?

Check out this.

Look to kill kite power and speed before you get on the wave its self. Then you can use the wave power to drive you. You run into trouble when you drive into the wave with kite power and speed. The combined power of the swell will immediately over power/speed you.

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snalberski said..
Check out this.

His kite is so small i can' even see it haha?? but he has huge balls to try that!!

My experience is to pull onto the wave and immediately de-power and turn onto the wave face and push the front of board down with my front foot to get lift and speed heading off down the line.

Or

I head out to wave and carve left or right onto wave face, the wave will give you a big lift and heaps of speed as you attempt to head down the line of the wave. Pretty easy to end up five metres in front of the wave. I immediately de-power and push the front of board down with my front foot to get lift and speed heading off down the line.

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bigtone667 said..
My experience is to pull onto the wave and immediately de-power and turn onto the wave face and push the front of board down with my front foot to get lift and speed heading off down the line.

Or

I head out to wave and carve left or right onto wave face, the wave will give you a big lift and heaps of speed as you attempt to head down the line of the wave. Pretty easy to end up five metres in front of the wave. I immediately de-power and push the front of board down with my front foot to get lift and speed heading off down the line.

This is helpful, thanks. I guess it depends of how the foil is setup but I find that when I start going down a steep face, I need more BACK foot pressure, otherwise, the nose of my board dives into the water. Curious.

While I have yet to go out in small surf. ( just because I want cross shore wind and nice power to get out back, which around here means head high plus)
i have found that rather than treating it as a skill exercise and beating myself up over not being on foil all the time etc.
i just bash it in and if speeding up which would have me outrun the wave, I just turn in and go for it.
if there's a touchdown so what,
a grin is a win.
might not help with your question but having fun always helps.

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emmafoils said..

bigtone667 said..
My experience is to pull onto the wave and immediately de-power and turn onto the wave face and push the front of board down with my front foot to get lift and speed heading off down the line.

Or

I head out to wave and carve left or right onto wave face, the wave will give you a big lift and heaps of speed as you attempt to head down the line of the wave. Pretty easy to end up five metres in front of the wave. I immediately de-power and push the front of board down with my front foot to get lift and speed heading off down the line.

This is helpful, thanks. I guess it depends of how the foil is setup but I find that when I start going down a steep face, I need more BACK foot pressure, otherwise, the nose of my board dives into the water. Curious.

That's why it is important to avoid travelling straight down the face the wave. You end up with too much speed and a fun time finding the right board angle and mast depth to survived it.

If I am going straight down the face of the wave, I always try visualise my position relative to the angle of wave and I try and make my board perpendicular to the angle of the wave at that point, ie lots of front foot pressure as soon as I head down the wave with pressure quickly easing as I head out to the front of the wave.

It happened to me a lot when I first started hooking into waves on foils like the xeeko carver and spitfire cause I could not get the speed under control.

So I solved the problem for myself by going to a bigger slower SUP wing. Not as fast onto the wave, but once there, much easier to turn and head down line (still get un-controllable down the wave speeds on the odd occasion).

Yeah, I am using a 1100 cm surf wing which does help slow things down. Still very challenging figuring out the pitch control when you are really steep and fast. I should accept more touchdowns I think and keep my wing deeper in the water.

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emmafoils said..
Yeah, I am using a 1100 cm surf wing which does help slow things down. Still very challenging figuring out the pitch control when you are really steep and fast. I should accept more touchdowns I think and keep my wing deeper in the water.

What size mast?

92 cm mast.

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emmafoils said..
92 cm mast.

Your mast length will help. I generally run a 70cm in the one to two stuff we mostly get and break out the 90cm as it gets bigger.

It is just practice.

why the need for the smaller mast bigtone? Now that you are proficient with the foil wouldn't you just stick to the longer mast?

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dafish said..
why the need for the smaller mast bigtone? Now that you are proficient with the foil wouldn't you just stick to the longer mast?

I have just found the 70cm mast more agile and fun.

fair enough...will have to try one some time

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dafish said..
fair enough...will have to try one some time

70cm certainly makes your movements more precise ??

I'm getting comfortable in the waves now. Was riding some head high stuff yesterday, For me the key is to be able to handle speed. Then if you end up going fast it doesnt matter. Also when you can carve hard at speed that is also great for fast waves,

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Plummet said..
I'm getting comfortable in the waves now. Was riding some head high stuff yesterday, For me the key is to be able to handle speed. Then if you end up going fast it doesnt matter. Also when you can carve hard at speed that is also great for fast waves,

Since I started this thread, I have had several sessions varying from 3-4 foot ocean swell to head high waves and have learned that being able to handle the speed IS the key. When it gets steep, you know it's going to get fast. I get really low, depower the kite and let the wave take me down the line. So much fun once you get used to the speed.

I was dicking around in two footers on sunday and got some good speed up coming across the wave, quickly heading towards uncontrollable and breaching the foil. So I pulled the kite to 12 and de-powered and concentrated on pushing nose of foil down to avoid cavitation and just let the speed bleed of slowly. To my amusement, the kite had flown to 12 and proceeded to travel in the opposite direction of me. The end result was the kite gently touching down on top of the wave 32m away with me still foiling on the wave. I enjoyed the swim back out with the foil so I could re-launch the kite.

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emmafoils said..
Getting more comfortable foiling in 2-4 foot waves/swell. Goal is to ride wave with minimal kite input. What's the best way to do this? Turn at the peak onto wave and then depower kite?

This guy had it nailed on a Kai foil and a custom board at Deep Six, Cottesloe, WA last night.

We are fairly windless at the moment. I've no stand-up or paddle-in skills, having never surfed, but the SUP foils intrigue me.

I think he said 700mm mast. Custom 5' board made by Amundson in Hawaii.