Flying your windfoil gybe is probably the most sought after goal of anyone new to foiling, and consistency the goal of every racer! After practicing on and off for about 2 years now I finally had a good session with light-medium winds about 8-16 knots and made the most of my 1000R AFS foil, FMX 91cm Hyperion foil board and 8.0 Loft SkyBlade 4 cam dedicated foil sail. I'm about 80kg and 185cm tall for comparison purposes.

A few things I've noticed over the years... feel free to agree or amend:
Comfortable but fast entry speed
Smooth movements
Back foot as far across your board as is practical... preferably in line with the leeward front footstrap.
Back foot placement is critical to maintain altitude, even more so on free ride short fuselage foils.
Lean sail in and forward on fully extended arms. The forward sail helps balance your ride height
Open sail early as you turn downwind - this is the most different part to a powered slalom gybe
Bring your old front foot to the centreline, as far back as you were standing before
Quickly move your new front foot from the leeward rail to the new front strap
Safe but slow option is to put this foot in front of the strap... guaranteed to be a planing gybe but prevents an ejection.
Flip the sail quickly by leading the leading edge around - try not to 'push' the clew around with the back hand.
If you get backwinded - especially in light winds - try to flip the sail a moment earlier. This is still my main challenge with a big sail (10.0).
Bring the sail forward - immediately - into the new sailing position to regain balance, power and the right body position
Oh and Windfoil gybes help your fin gybes too because you have to pay more attention to every angle.

To get to this point I've also been practicing my "Figure S's", sailing upwind, turning smooth and sharply downwind, then carving back upwind. Do this a few times each session, on both tacks, to get familiar with your board/foil/sails feel at more extreme angles.

Last year I was also aiming for consistently finished gybes rather than air gybes so I would put my new front foot in front of the new front strap, so I could focus on the rig flip and staying dry rather than speed, but safely avoiding an aerial loop or catapult!

Also wind speed matters! I'm much more happy in comfortable winds, too fast or too light and I still struggle! For this video I was using an 8.0 foil racing sail, but if it was a competition I would probably be on a 9 or even 10 for these lighter winds. The smaller 8 (i remember when 7.5 was my biggest sail) is much easier to handle and practice with.

still early days for me , but every time I take out my foot from the back strap in preparation I lose lift and the board falls back to slapping...then its a pain to fly again and complete the jibe. Maybe will try to move everything further back to get a bit more lift by default

Yes Georgio. The long fuselage of your newer Naish is still relatively short, so rear foot position is especially important.

Thanks for the video, Berowne. Some good tips there. The 1000 wing definitely buys you some more time. Nice nose repair!

For especially light winds (10.0), try to thighten up the turn. The tighter the turn, the shorter the time your sail is not powered up and therefore can backwind. Thighter turn also means you have to do everything else in the jibe faster

Great list.
A couple of things that help me in lighter winds (and admitting I'm nowhere near the level of many of you). Speaking as a smaller guy with bigger sails
a) If your front hand isn't all the way up by the boom, the swing is more violent and enough to unbalance you. If you are having problems on the flip, make sure that front hand is up there
b) stealing a tip I saw on a very good video that I'm too lazy to look up by an excellent Croat foiler - with small sails and in wind, we just let the sail flip around the axis of where the front hand is. That will backwind you in light air. To minimize backwinding, let the sail rotate around an axis where the back hand is. By doing this, the backwind actually helps rotate the sail instead of acting like a brick wall.

A visual cue that helps me as I sweep the sail in front of me is having the harness lines cross past my face. Something that's just not as important on a finned board but helps me describe things to my buddies.

WoH's tip to shorten the carve in light winds is gold, btw.

Powersloshin, tintin.gwen suggests that you might find it helpful to move the front straps back a nudge if you can't move the back foot further back on the step across. Something to consider.

Hers a close up of my feet in this short clip which seems to Gell with
Berowne description above...
I just need to get it more consistent

www.instagram.com/p/B4zcGVTnuhC/?igshid=15jqdcn92wxna

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snides8 said..
Hers a close up of my feet in this short clip which seems to Gell with
Berowne description above...
I just need to get it more consistent

www.instagram.com/p/B4zcGVTnuhC/?igshid=15jqdcn92wxna

I do something similar, except I have my backfoot a lot further forward. I think the exact position is a little more foil specific, I've also tried even flatter wings, and with those I'm also a little more out towards the rail all the way allthough I do have those "stages" with shuffling a little more outward towards the end of the carve.

Here's mine (which I posted a milion times already, but since its another post about jibing): www.instagram.com/p/B0tWz4DgpsW/?igshid=2gut1rttt06s

And another web find. www.facebook.com/octave.carfantan/videos/744516663025226/?

PWA Slalom Gybes

www.facebook.com/PWA.World.Tour.Windsurfing/videos/1596455253840519/

Different camera angle...

www.facebook.com/Starboard.Windsurfing/videos/616844795580687/?vh=e&extid=4KmWDiEc7iQf9uI4

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berowne said..
And another web find. www.facebook.com/octave.carfantan/videos/744516663025226/?

I like how from the moment he starts to push / rotate the sail around there is no stall in the speed of the sails rotation. Very fluid.

Most sailors myself included stall the speed of rotation to some degree just before they release the sail which of course will slow the speed of the board down resulting in a non planing gybe.

His technique for going boom to boom on the gybes without grabbing the mast is exceptional too.

Luka Mratovic (Croat sailor at 4:28)


Nico Prien (In the Youtube description there is a .PDF file of the lesson).

Or 1 handed... maybe not mid-race!?

www.instagram.com/p/CDeavW7DK17/?igshid=e4q510y90yqx

Now this looks quick!!!

fb.watch/2y7HX9iFIm/

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berowne said..
Flying your windfoil gybe is probably the most sought after goal of anyone new to foiling, and consistency the goal of every racer! After practicing on and off for about 2 years now I finally had a good session with light-medium winds about 8-16 knots and made the most of my 1000R AFS foil, FMX 91cm Hyperion foil board and 8.0 Loft SkyBlade 4 cam dedicated foil sail. I'm about 80kg and 185cm tall for comparison purposes.

A few things I've noticed over the years... feel free to agree or amend:
Comfortable but fast entry speed
Smooth movements
Back foot as far across your board as is practical... preferably in line with the leeward front footstrap.
Back foot placement is critical to maintain altitude, even more so on free ride short fuselage foils.
Lean sail in and forward on fully extended arms. The forward sail helps balance your ride height
Open sail early as you turn downwind - this is the most different part to a powered slalom gybe
Bring your old front foot to the centreline, as far back as you were standing before
Quickly move your new front foot from the leeward rail to the new front strap
Safe but slow option is to put this foot in front of the strap... guaranteed to be a planing gybe but prevents an ejection.
Flip the sail quickly by leading the leading edge around - try not to 'push' the clew around with the back hand.
If you get backwinded - especially in light winds - try to flip the sail a moment earlier. This is still my main challenge with a big sail (10.0).
Bring the sail forward - immediately - into the new sailing position to regain balance, power and the right body position
Oh and Windfoil gybes help your fin gybes too because you have to pay more attention to every angle.

To get to this point I've also been practicing my "Figure S's", sailing upwind, turning smooth and sharply downwind, then carving back upwind. Do this a few times each session, on both tacks, to get familiar with your board/foil/sails feel at more extreme angles.

Last year I was also aiming for consistently finished gybes rather than air gybes so I would put my new front foot in front of the new front strap, so I could focus on the rig flip and staying dry rather than speed, but safely avoiding an aerial loop or catapult!

Also wind speed matters! I'm much more happy in comfortable winds, too fast or too light and I still struggle! For this video I was using an 8.0 foil racing sail, but if it was a competition I would probably be on a 9 or even 10 for these lighter winds. The smaller 8 (i remember when 7.5 was my biggest sail) is much easier to handle and practice with.

Watched your video and tried your tips...it WORKS!!! First successful foil jybe's today on Christmas Eve! Really appreciate you posting, moving the sail forward made a huge difference and the feet placement felt natural. Thank you again!

DC

Somewhere on this forum I read " look where you are going through the jibe" . It is such great advice vs looking at the nose or what the sail is doing. It helped me get consistent making foiling jibes. Thanks to the original author.

Thanks for the feedback DC!

Another FB gube...
fb.watch/2_45e_KnjL/

I dont know if someone noted it already, another thing I only recently noticed I do: Especially with the big sails (10m) in light winds another small tip is to have the mast fall towards you if you get a little backwinded. Often people tend to push the sail out through the backhand which greatly reduces speed, if instead in the beginning of the carve you had the sail far far away forward you can let the mast fall towards you if you get a little backwinded, aiding in a faster flip & saving the jibe!

I think in the jibe one should always do this to some degree. In any rotational movement its always better to have the mass rotate around its center, like a ballerina being able to speed up and slowdown rotation of their pirouette by retracting and extending the arms. Instead of the clew having to rotate all the way around the sail, better have the mast and clew rotate around the center of mass of the sail, faster flips that way ;).

And bend your knees for better control - especially with chop... yes it still affects the foil underwater.

Heres a slalom jibe from a different angle :)
Trick here is to not hit the man with the camera
www.instagram.com/p/CKLpYdhn298/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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DarrylG said..
Heres a slalom jibe from a different angle :)
Trick here is to not hit the man with the camera
www.instagram.com/p/CKLpYdhn298/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Pure Class, thats why you can crank out the 25 alpha's at will

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tonyk said..

DarrylG said..
Heres a slalom jibe from a different angle :)
Trick here is to not hit the man with the camera
www.instagram.com/p/CKLpYdhn298/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Pure Class, thats why you can crank out the 25 alpha's at will

That's a step gybe. Is sailing away switch foot until settled just the more reliable option when on small sails?

I suppose the faster you're going the more tolerance there is of a temporary imbalance.

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Ian K said..

tonyk said..

DarrylG said..
Heres a slalom jibe from a different angle :)
Trick here is to not hit the man with the camera
www.instagram.com/p/CKLpYdhn298/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Pure Class, thats why you can crank out the 25 alpha's at will

That's a step gybe. Is sailing away switch foot until settled just the more reliable option when on small sails?

I suppose the faster you're going the more tolerance there is of a temporary imbalance.

Step jibe is really the only option on race gear. Two advantages, stepping early helps sheeting out, and then you are in a more stable position to complete the flip and sheet in. Because of the high apparent wind angles you often have to physically push the clew around.
The switch stance really only works on short boom small sails and slow foils.

Interesting watching these guys gybe on ice!
www.facebook.com/553632573/posts/10157359458907574/?d=n

Nice thread, one other thing I'd add, particularly on bigger sails, is to gybe on the front of a gust where possible which helps reduce the backwinding as you run in front of the apparent wind.

For the foot change I find it easier to go for the rig flip first for the sub 6m no cam sails and and then foot change first for the larger / cammed sails.

yet another... www.facebook.com/groups/2214321668/permalink/10157642101856669/