Foiling in waves with a lot of weed? I know a few that do :) lol

Velocicraptor said..

Johndesu said..
Looking for advice & or experiences with sea weed in the water / down the line on waves / weed clumps etc., besides avoiding weed just wondering if there is a better & best way of dealing with & riding thru weed & also other floating rubbish (plastic / plastic bags, sticks etc?;-) Thanks:-)

Its such a bummer. I don't know if there is any good way to do it. If the weeds get onto your foil, or even worse your mast, its like riding with your emergency brake engaged and you are going to have to stop.

In my local spots its a seasonal thing, but there are usually channels and areas that are weedier than others due to currents, wind etc... With time, Ive learned those patterns or I just search around until I find a clear area to stick to. Fight the temptation -- even if I have to go to a subpar spot without weeds, its a better session than if I go to an otherwise good conditions with weeds. It also helps to learn chop hop jumps or deliberate tip breaches, which can clear the weeds off of a foil (works probably less than 50% of the time). I will say there are some foils that are worse than others with catching weeds (ridges, steps, tubercles are particularly bad).

I can confirm the above. On kujiras and they collect weed like they were designed for it ...
So just follow someone who is on those and you will have a clear path :)

I was up at Seal Rocks a few weeks ago, midweek afternoon, no one out, biggish fat waves with a long run across main beach
Ripper Rita, I'm out there on my prone
1st wave, get on it nice and easy and get up ready to glide, except the board never gets off the water and I end up surfing whitewash
hmm, ok, maybe I need to pump a bit on the pop up to get some more speed?
next wave, same thing
im thinking, have I put my stab on upside down?
flip board over, everything looks fine, nothing different from previous session back in Sydney
3rd wave I'm still not getting on foil, but then suddenly I shoot up for a second and breach
WTF is going on?
feels like I've got the handbrake on
i flip the board over again to check for seaweed, nothing there
No visible weeds in the water, however the water is quite dark, a green brown colour and looking closer I notice little bits of algae and tiny jelly particles
i try a few more waves but just can't get up on foil so I just paddle in dejected
next day I go out at nearby Boomerang Beach in crystal clear water and tiny waves and have an epic session
So my understanding from that experience is that "dirty water" has enough drag to stop my foil (GT1250 with steps) from getting lift.

At coronation beach last year the waves were awesome but weed everywhere. every time I got weed around my foil I would launch a jump and land straight down. That would knock the week off. Only works with footstaps

if riding strapless you need to stop, wiggle, wiggle, then off you go