I would like to know if there is a teacher in Perth can help me with a kite foil tack with a foot change ? I can tack but the board stays on the water and I know I need some help. I can footswap on a foil in both directions from heelside to toeside and from teoside to heelside. I can also gybe in both directions including downloop gybes. I have some Peak4 foil kites which I use to foil in 6 knots and upwards.

Hi Jhana. One thing to think about... it is very difficult to tack with the Peak 4 as it has almost no lift as you send the kite overhead. As this is the critical moment when you are switching feet, it is very hard to stay on the foil unless you have a lot of speed and a foil with lots of glide. You will probably need to use a different kite if you are to succeed in mastering this manouver.

Peaks are crap to tack, they have no lift to hold you up when you foot switch. Use a good sized closed cell foil kite or a single or multi strut LEI. UFO/Clouds aren't the best either as I find the don't have much lift when passing overhead.

You need good wind too, not marginal light stuff. My 15mtr Sonic is perfect for the foot switch, so much lift as it passes overhead and not too fast. The 10 Soul is good too, not quite as easy as the Sonic. As you get more proficient you will be able to do them with smaller kites.

Hi Rod,

Tacking a foil is about speed and precision and does not really require lift from the kite in order to complete a tack. However, having said this, the ability to learn to tack will be greatly improved by using a foil kite with a heap of lift. Shorter lines (15-17m) are also easier than longer lines (20-24m).

The trick is to be super fast and precise with your foot swap. If you have to look down at your feet, you haven't practiced enough. The footswap should be fast and an unconscious movement. You can practice this on the beach without the kite. Forget the back strap initially as back foot placement is not critical unless racing. The front gybe straps must be easy to get into and out of. Having deck grip under the straps can also slow the transition down whilst learning. The movement is a two step dance move. Back foot into front leeward strap as you go through the eye of the wind, immediately as you get your back foot into the other front strap (ie, you will have both feet in the two front straps), you remove your original front foot to the back foot position. The whole foot switch should take place in less than 2 seconds. Any longer and it is too late.

Speed and accuracy! This comes from muscle memory. Muscle memory comes from repetition, repetition comes from lots of practice on the beach before you get on the water. Until your foot switch is fast and unconscious, don't even bother trying to learn it on the water with the kite. The speed of your footswitch is racing the clock against the time you instigate the tack and begin an upward trajectory with the board and foil. The moment your back foot leaves the deck, the board will start to descend, until you get your previous front foot back on the tail to stop the dive back down off the foil. Foil kites give you extended time to get your balance, feet changed and tack the kite. Without the foil kite, you are relying on speed of foot change to happen before the dive back down of the board without kite lift.

Best to begin the footswitch from a low, close to the water foiling and pump the back foot to begin a high foot change before the descent. This will give you another second to complete the change. You can also benefit from a really floaty big front wing which will give you glide and time.

Once you get the footswitch fast and accurate, get a hold of a foil kite as the foil kite will give you the lift and time to make the footswitch whilst flying on the foil. Of course you can learn with a Peak4 or even an inflatable kite, but how far they sit back in the wind window makes it hard to duck the lines during the tack and also doesn't provide the lift.

Learning to tack a foil is the hardest thing to do on a foil which is why you see so many riding toeside and never changing feet. It takes a thousand attempts to nail your first one, and then thousands more to perfect it.

Baby steps

DM

Select to expand quote

ActionSportsWA said..
Hi Rod,

Tacking a foil is about speed and precision and does not really require lift from the kite in order to complete a tack. However, having said this, the ability to learn to tack will be greatly improved by using a foil kite with a heap of lift. Shorter lines (15-17m) are also easier than longer lines (20-24m).

The trick is to be super fast and precise with your foot swap. If you have to look down at your feet, you haven't practiced enough. The footswap should be fast and an unconscious movement. You can practice this on the beach without the kite. Forget the back strap initially as back foot placement is not critical unless racing. The front gybe straps must be easy to get into and out of. Having deck grip under the straps can also slow the transition down whilst learning. The movement is a two step dance move. Back foot into front leeward strap as you go through the eye of the wind, immediately as you get your back foot into the other front strap (ie, you will have both feet in the two front straps), you remove your original front foot to the back foot position. The whole foot switch should take place in less than 2 seconds. Any longer and it is too late.

Speed and accuracy! This comes from muscle memory. Muscle memory comes from repetition, repetition comes from lots of practice on the beach before you get on the water. Until your foot switch is fast and unconscious, don't even bother trying to learn it on the water with the kite. The speed of your footswitch is racing the clock against the time you instigate the tack and begin an upward trajectory with the board and foil. The moment your back foot leaves the deck, the board will start to descend, until you get your previous front foot back on the tail to stop the dive back down off the foil. Foil kites give you extended time to get your balance, feet changed and tack the kite. Without the foil kite, you are relying on speed of foot change to happen before the dive back down of the board without kite lift.

Best to begin the footswitch from a low, close to the water foiling and pump the back foot to begin a high foot change before the descent. This will give you another second to complete the change. You can also benefit from a really floaty big front wing which will give you glide and time.

Once you get the footswitch fast and accurate, get a hold of a foil kite as the foil kite will give you the lift and time to make the footswitch whilst flying on the foil. Of course you can learn with a Peak4 or even an inflatable kite, but how far they sit back in the wind window makes it hard to duck the lines during the tack and also doesn't provide the lift.

Learning to tack a foil is the hardest thing to do on a foil which is why you see so many riding toeside and never changing feet. It takes a thousand attempts to nail your first one, and then thousands more to perfect it.

Baby steps

DM

Thankyou Darren much appreciated

Select to expand quote

ActionSportsWA said..
Hi Rod,

Tacking a foil is about speed and precision and does not really require lift from the kite in order to complete a tack. However, having said this, the ability to learn to tack will be greatly improved by using a foil kite with a heap of lift. Shorter lines (15-17m) are also easier than longer lines (20-24m).

The trick is to be super fast and precise with your foot swap. If you have to look down at your feet, you haven't practiced enough. The footswap should be fast and an unconscious movement. You can practice this on the beach without the kite. Forget the back strap initially as back foot placement is not critical unless racing. The front gybe straps must be easy to get into and out of. Having deck grip under the straps can also slow the transition down whilst learning. The movement is a two step dance move. Back foot into front leeward strap as you go through the eye of the wind, immediately as you get your back foot into the other front strap (ie, you will have both feet in the two front straps), you remove your original front foot to the back foot position. The whole foot switch should take place in less than 2 seconds. Any longer and it is too late.

Speed and accuracy! This comes from muscle memory. Muscle memory comes from repetition, repetition comes from lots of practice on the beach before you get on the water. Until your foot switch is fast and unconscious, don't even bother trying to learn it on the water with the kite. The speed of your footswitch is racing the clock against the time you instigate the tack and begin an upward trajectory with the board and foil. The moment your back foot leaves the deck, the board will start to descend, until you get your previous front foot back on the tail to stop the dive back down off the foil. Foil kites give you extended time to get your balance, feet changed and tack the kite. Without the foil kite, you are relying on speed of foot change to happen before the dive back down of the board without kite lift.

Best to begin the footswitch from a low, close to the water foiling and pump the back foot to begin a high foot change before the descent. This will give you another second to complete the change. You can also benefit from a really floaty big front wing which will give you glide and time.

Once you get the footswitch fast and accurate, get a hold of a foil kite as the foil kite will give you the lift and time to make the footswitch whilst flying on the foil. Of course you can learn with a Peak4 or even an inflatable kite, but how far they sit back in the wind window makes it hard to duck the lines during the tack and also doesn't provide the lift.

Learning to tack a foil is the hardest thing to do on a foil which is why you see so many riding toeside and never changing feet. It takes a thousand attempts to nail your first one, and then thousands more to perfect it.

Baby steps

DM

Thankyou Darren much appreciated

It's also worth bearing in mind that the smaller the angle of tack the easier it is to accomplish... by that I mean the nose of your board should be pointing as far upwind as possible whist maintaining speed. When switching a smaller angle (60-70 degrees) is much easier to achieve than flying cross wind and trying for a 120 degree plus turn.

Select to expand quote

snalberski said..
It's also worth bearing in mind that the smaller the angle of tack the easier it is to accomplish... by that I mean the nose of your board should be pointing as far upwind as possible whist maintaining speed. When switching a smaller angle (60-70 degrees) is much easier to achieve than flying cross wind and trying for a 120 degree plus turn.

Do you mean that the smaller angle of attack translates into not so sharp carve as a 120 degree turn?

Select to expand quote

Jhana said..

snalberski said..
It's also worth bearing in mind that the smaller the angle of tack the easier it is to accomplish... by that I mean the nose of your board should be pointing as far upwind as possible whist maintaining speed. When switching a smaller angle (60-70 degrees) is much easier to achieve than flying cross wind and trying for a 120 degree plus turn.

Do you mean that the smaller angle of attack translates into not so sharp carve as a 120 degree turn?

Umm I'm not sure of the best way to articulate... If you were heading directly into the wind then all you would need to do is move the kite to the other side and duck and rotate as the kite passes over, continuing in the same direction. If your traveling at 90 degrees to the wind then you need to change the direction of the board 180 degrees to be traveling at 90 degrees the other way, whilst moving the kite to the other side.
Heading directly into the wind isn't mostly doable but getting as close to that as possible for the purpose of duck tacking stream lines and minimizes the action required

Select to expand quote

snalberski said..

Jhana said..

snalberski said..
It's also worth bearing in mind that the smaller the angle of tack the easier it is to accomplish... by that I mean the nose of your board should be pointing as far upwind as possible whist maintaining speed. When switching a smaller angle (60-70 degrees) is much easier to achieve than flying cross wind and trying for a 120 degree plus turn.

Do you mean that the smaller angle of attack translates into not so sharp carve as a 120 degree turn?

Umm I'm not sure of the best way to articulate... If you were heading directly into the wind then all you would need to do is move the kite to the other side and duck and rotate as the kite passes over, continuing in the same direction. If your traveling at 90 degrees to the wind then you need to change the direction of the board 180 degrees to be traveling at 90 degrees the other way, whilst moving the kite to the other side.
Heading directly into the wind isn't mostly doable but getting as close to that as possible for the purpose of duck tacking stream lines and minimizes the action required

Thankyou , So the best is to not lose speed and get as close directly into the wind as possible, moving the kite over 12 and ducking under the lines

Select to expand quote

Jhana said..

snalberski said..

Jhana said..

snalberski said..
It's also worth bearing in mind that the smaller the angle of tack the easier it is to accomplish... by that I mean the nose of your board should be pointing as far upwind as possible whist maintaining speed. When switching a smaller angle (60-70 degrees) is much easier to achieve than flying cross wind and trying for a 120 degree plus turn.

Do you mean that the smaller angle of attack translates into not so sharp carve as a 120 degree turn?

Umm I'm not sure of the best way to articulate... If you were heading directly into the wind then all you would need to do is move the kite to the other side and duck and rotate as the kite passes over, continuing in the same direction. If your traveling at 90 degrees to the wind then you need to change the direction of the board 180 degrees to be traveling at 90 degrees the other way, whilst moving the kite to the other side.
Heading directly into the wind isn't mostly doable but getting as close to that as possible for the purpose of duck tacking stream lines and minimizes the action required

Thankyou , So the best is to not lose speed and get as close directly into the wind as possible, moving the kite over 12 and ducking under the lines

Thats it ! Of course directly into the wind is not really gonna happen but the more acute the angle the less movement is required to complete the challenge. If your anything like me it will still take a thousand attempts to approach any kind of regular success, but it feels pretty good when you finally nail one.

Select to expand quote

snalberski said..

Jhana said..

snalberski said..

Jhana said..

snalberski said..
It's also worth bearing in mind that the smaller the angle of tack the easier it is to accomplish... by that I mean the nose of your board should be pointing as far upwind as possible whist maintaining speed. When switching a smaller angle (60-70 degrees) is much easier to achieve than flying cross wind and trying for a 120 degree plus turn.

Do you mean that the smaller angle of attack translates into not so sharp carve as a 120 degree turn?

Umm I'm not sure of the best way to articulate... If you were heading directly into the wind then all you would need to do is move the kite to the other side and duck and rotate as the kite passes over, continuing in the same direction. If your traveling at 90 degrees to the wind then you need to change the direction of the board 180 degrees to be traveling at 90 degrees the other way, whilst moving the kite to the other side.
Heading directly into the wind isn't mostly doable but getting as close to that as possible for the purpose of duck tacking stream lines and minimizes the action required

Thankyou , So the best is to not lose speed and get as close directly into the wind as possible, moving the kite over 12 and ducking under the lines

Thats it ! Of course directly into the wind is not really gonna happen but the more acute the angle the less movement is required to complete the challenge. If your anything like me it will still take a thousand attempts to approach any kind of regular success, but it feels pretty good when you finally nail one.

This has got to be one of the hardest transitions I've ever tried to learn kiting. In the right condition and on the right gear I'm probably 80% success. But as soon as something isn't quite right eg. lighter wind, the success rate plummets. I've been practicing the foot switch tack for two seasons now, hundreds of attempts.

Might have missed this in the thread but is there a reason you don't start with a tack to toeside first? Do the footswap as you ride away? Isn't this a good way to break up the movement into an easier chunk?

Select to expand quote

weebitbreezy said..
Might have missed this in the thread but is there a reason you don't start with a tack to toeside first? Do the footswap as you ride away? Isn't this a good way to break up the movement into an easier chunk?

Yes you are right, I can do the heel to toeside tack, however quite often I touch down .