After watching a video produced by Eric Terrien (in French), I have finally figured out what the key to pumping a SUP foil is.
For the past 6 months, I would kind of pump my way on a wave but I was never able to carry the momentum after exiting the wave.
Since it's a new sport, I ran into some misinformation on my way to learning how to pump. "Move your weight back and forth from one leg to the other" or "push on the rear leg" were well intended tips but, after 6 months, I felt like my "pumping" was not progressing.
And then I saw Eric's video. ( I am putting the link here and, if your French is rusty, I posted my translation of it on the StandupZone forum .)
After trying his tips, I got it!
Here is the essence of it, with my personal take on it:
The goal is to make the foil rise and, to do so, you have to lighten yourself up. How? Just bring both of your knees (at the same time) up to your chest as fast and as much as your arthritic knees will allow. The foil will rise up, nose first, on its own. No need to try and "push on the back leg". Then, naturally, as your weight settle back on it, the foil will come down and gain speed. Repeat as fast as you can.
The smaller the foil (and its lift) the faster you have to repeat the sequence.
The motion of bringing up the knees is, in effect, a squat because the foil, like an already loaded spring, will push the board against your feet (no foot straps required).
First , practice while riding the wave, without even using the paddle. You will immediately feel the momentum created.
Then, start planting the paddle (initiate while you are squatting). This will create even more momentum.
Then, try a clean exit out of a wave and keep that motion going. You will figure out how to turn while doing it ( I am still) and, with some practice, you should be able to pump into the horizon.
I think that the difficulty I had in figuring out the proper sequence came from the fact that, when you pump, the head (your brain's reference point) moves in a direction opposite to the foil's. You have to squat (head comes down) to raise the foil. And when you rise (head comes up) the foil goes down.
My mistake was to rise (effectively straightening the legs) at the very moment I should have lowered myself instead. Inverting the sequence on exiting the wave just made me come to a stop no matter how hard and fast I tried.
Just remember to squat (pull both knees to your chest) as fast as you can and initiate your paddle entry in the water at the same time.
That's all there is to it!
I hope this helps.

P.S.: If you are still not able to maintain your momentum after applying this tip, you need a bigger wing. I find it much easier to pump, at my weight (95 kg) the Maliko 200 wing than the Iwa wing. The M200 allows for a much slower motion sequence.

Great explanation Dialy! I've also been confused why my ugly gyration efforts on pumping have just been an exhausting way to delay splash down. What was more depressing was I made myself a new prone 4'11" foil board expecting that was the magic remedy for too much swing weight on my 5'11" RMS epoxy?? - it wasn't.

Frothing to give the knees-up unweighting a run next time out!

That's it.

This is another good video where Kai shows how to pump and swinging the arms downwards while pulling the legs up to un-weigh and lift the foil up:

Yep, pretty spot on. I call it un-weighting. It is the essential part of pumping. People always ask how my legs are after pumping for 4,5 or 6 waves in succession. It's not your legs if you're doing it right, it's your cardio that gets a working.

Unweight in kind of a skateboard ollie in style, if you can slightly launch yourself forwards also, this will accentuate the acceleration as you compress then join gravity and return your foil to it's lower gliding position. To ensure your launch/unwieghting is sufficient, I like to spring so far/hard that my back foot ends up on it's toes (nearly leaving contact with the board).

JB

this seems like fantastic advice - I have had only a few goes at pumping without a kite pulling me up - but ..... my largest foil is the naish L thrust at around 1200cm^2 - is that realistically big enough?

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icharus said..
this seems like fantastic advice - I have had only a few goes at pumping without a kite pulling me up - but ..... my largest foil is the naish L thrust at around 1200cm^2 - is that realistically big enough?

The Thrust Surf Large is totally pumpable, in fact you can do link ups on the medium once your technique is dialed. It is important to get to speed, the faster you are going the more effective each pump will be, the more effective each pump the less needed to keep going. As I mentioned above, the biggest part is the un-weighting. the better you do this, the easier pumping will be. Have someone film you if you can, if you're jamming your board up into the air and pushing all the time with your legs, your not quite doing it, you want to raise all the way to the top of your mast and actually steer downwards, compressing your body before you un-weight again to relaunch up to the top. You should be like you're riding over a rainbow. when you get it smooth and in sync, you'll feel the turbo boost straight away.

Enjoy,

JB

Thanks man - I have a 7'6 smik and I am 83Kg - although I have about 3 years foiling with a kite and can surf a longboard - I have done next to no sup training. So getting in the right position to even attempt a pump on the back of a swell is proving tough. I am getting out there as often as I can and feel like I was close a couple of times but either got out of shape and fell, or ran out of swell - so the board grinds to a halt. I have just ordered an XL in the hope that it might tip me over the edge. For sure this is the advice I am giving all would be kite foilers - dont even bother with a middle of the road foil for your first few months - just go as big as you can. I spent months getting the hang of a Sroka foil - but my daughter and loads of my friends have been up and running in a couple of hours on my Shinn P Foil. I also have the added incentive of being such an experienced kiter and foiler that its not a workout really for me any more. Where as the SUP training is really getting me fit - talk about HIT - the amount of times I have paddled and pumped for all I am worth - till I thought my lungs would explode only to fall off with a bellow ofFAAAAAAAAAACK! I will get this.......

This is such a good thread. So much to try tomorrow.