Normally I do not have to deal with shorebreak but am currently on vacation. First attempt to go out I tried pulling the board by the foil nose to shore. This position with rig in water has lots of drag and I was not making much ground, but the worst thing was a pretty small wave maybe 2-3 foot face broke right on top of me and board (rig was pointing towards shore) and the mast snapped right near the boom. I was about to give up and switch to fin but then I remember this picture posted by WoH a few years ago. Anyways a variation of technique B worked way better. In the video below the waves where not as big as that mast breaking day. Its still nice to be able to walk out without much drag.

I have the rig attached to board, with board flipped over onto the mast and foil pointing upward, and board nose pointing away from water, then grab rig by boom just behind head and board by foil mast and drag kit behind me walking backwards into water. Now I do have a a heavy duty nose protector on the board, really necessary because board is getting dragged with only nose touching the ground. That works in shore break of 3+ feet where I can stand on the bottom.

Below is a picture of kit before walking out into water, to do that would just flip board over to the left onto mast, then grab boom close to head, and foil by mast, and with back to water do a 180 degree turn so that board nose points away from water while mast tip points towards water with wind keeping sail off of the water.

Thank you, I'll try the carry on head method. When I tried other ways it did not go so well in the shorebreak that I normally beachstart then sail through with a fin.

Maybe we should just petition for these to be installed at our launches:

in (actual) shore break there's really only one way:


if it's dead onshore coming in is actually much harder than heading out.

this is one (more) area where being tall helps a lot!!

Its certainly not fool proof. I got rolled first time today, waited too long and stuffed the nose of the board into an incoming wave and the whole thing flipped off my head. No harm to me. Second time was much better as soon as it was shoulder deep I water started and pushed through. I got video of the second made attempt, will post later

Are you renting gear in La Ventana ?

yes at prowindsurf la ventana with our accomodation

I think you will soon learn that launching is much easier than recovery. When you launch, you know the water depth. When recovering, you can only guess at the depth and you get punished for too deep or too shallow. Also much easier to time gaps between sets when launching.

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jdfoils said..
I think you will soon learn that launching is much easier than recovery. When you launch, you know the water depth. When recovering, you can only guess at the depth and you get punished for too deep or too shallow. Also much easier to time gaps between sets when launching.

There's a guy here that is really good and launches in the swells. I haven't caught his technique on launch/return though. He told me that he still hits the bottom with the foil somewhat regularly. This is in a fairly recognizable sandbar area too, where I can usually tell when to step off the fin when the water isn't that transparent. That makes me more nervous than anything about trying it out because his skills are far above mine.

A drone flyer caught him and another guy (winger) out recently. He's riding a phantasm (the i76 style front) and I think a 3.7 here:

www.skywayscott.com/Most-Recent-Shots/i-nJGnPCV/A

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aeroegnr said..

jdfoils said..
I think you will soon learn that launching is much easier than recovery. When you launch, you know the water depth. When recovering, you can only guess at the depth and you get punished for too deep or too shallow. Also much easier to time gaps between sets when launching.

There's a guy here that is really good and launches in the swells. I haven't caught his technique on launch/return though. He told me that he still hits the bottom with the foil somewhat regularly. This is in a fairly recognizable sandbar area too, where I can usually tell when to step off the fin when the water isn't that transparent. That makes me more nervous than anything about trying it out because his skills are far above mine.

A drone flyer caught him and another guy (winger) out recently. He's riding a phantasm (the i76 style front) and I think a 3.7 here:

www.skywayscott.com/Most-Recent-Shots/i-nJGnPCV/A

Super-nice long lumpy waves at that spot - perfect to rip with decent windfoil surf kit

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azymuth said..

aeroegnr said..

jdfoils said..
I think you will soon learn that launching is much easier than recovery. When you launch, you know the water depth. When recovering, you can only guess at the depth and you get punished for too deep or too shallow. Also much easier to time gaps between sets when launching.

There's a guy here that is really good and launches in the swells. I haven't caught his technique on launch/return though. He told me that he still hits the bottom with the foil somewhat regularly. This is in a fairly recognizable sandbar area too, where I can usually tell when to step off the fin when the water isn't that transparent. That makes me more nervous than anything about trying it out because his skills are far above mine.

A drone flyer caught him and another guy (winger) out recently. He's riding a phantasm (the i76 style front) and I think a 3.7 here:

www.skywayscott.com/Most-Recent-Shots/i-nJGnPCV/A

Super-nice long lumpy waves at that spot - perfect to rip with decent windfoil surf kit

Oh yea would to foil that spot!

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jdfoils said..
I think you will soon learn that launching is much easier than recovery. When you launch, you know the water depth. When recovering, you can only guess at the depth and you get punished for too deep or too shallow. Also much easier to time gaps between sets when launching.

Yep yesterday when I came in I just ran the foil into the bottom

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aeroegnr said..

jdfoils said..
I think you will soon learn that launching is much easier than recovery. When you launch, you know the water depth. When recovering, you can only guess at the depth and you get punished for too deep or too shallow. Also much easier to time gaps between sets when launching.

There's a guy here that is really good and launches in the swells. I haven't caught his technique on launch/return though. He told me that he still hits the bottom with the foil somewhat regularly. This is in a fairly recognizable sandbar area too, where I can usually tell when to step off the fin when the water isn't that transparent. That makes me more nervous than anything about trying it out because his skills are far above mine.

A drone flyer caught him and another guy (winger) out recently. He's riding a phantasm (the i76 style front) and I think a 3.7 here:

www.skywayscott.com/Most-Recent-Shots/i-nJGnPCV/A

Love how that windfoiler carves left to right. I tend to get locked going left or right. Got some things to work on for sure

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thedoor said..

aeroegnr said..

jdfoils said..
I think you will soon learn that launching is much easier than recovery. When you launch, you know the water depth. When recovering, you can only guess at the depth and you get punished for too deep or too shallow. Also much easier to time gaps between sets when launching.

There's a guy here that is really good and launches in the swells. I haven't caught his technique on launch/return though. He told me that he still hits the bottom with the foil somewhat regularly. This is in a fairly recognizable sandbar area too, where I can usually tell when to step off the fin when the water isn't that transparent. That makes me more nervous than anything about trying it out because his skills are far above mine.

A drone flyer caught him and another guy (winger) out recently. He's riding a phantasm (the i76 style front) and I think a 3.7 here:

www.skywayscott.com/Most-Recent-Shots/i-nJGnPCV/A

Love how that windfoiler carves left to right. I tend to get locked going left or right. Got some things to work on for sure

Yeah he's good. I tried to get some footage of him the other day at another spot with swells but my stupid gopro decided to stop recording.

Hey thedoor,
Please be careful with that razor blade front wing inches from your gut. I know the racers do this and even Balz showed it in his Bonaire video, but it still just spooks me because it puts the sharp trailing edge up wave of the body. What if your feet are planted and the kit gets ripped backwards or what happens when a wave breaks on your head and sends and you tumbling with that wing near you? I just don't see a clean way to ditch the gear when things go pear shaped and the wave is pushing that trailing edge into you.

Since you are open to risking the cervical discs by head carrying why not take the same basic approach but flip the board over like in the pic below (sorry it's so low rez). This works well for small light gear like yours. It keeps the ALL the kit clear of the water and it keeps the sharp parts above and away from you. You can punch through a fair amount this way. As the waves get taller you can straighten your arms lifting the kit higher. You can also keep the kit pointed out but turn your body so that your torso is slightly sideways to the wave for less drag. It's basically the same technique as what you are doing except when you know you can't make it over a wave you have the option of chucking the kit over and then you go under. When things go bad the kit just gets ripped away and washed in without any chance of hitting you. This approach works for the ride back in too, so long as the wind is not straight onshore. As much as I like approach this approach I rarely do it anymore because it started to aggravate my neck.

Now I start with the nose of the board facing the beach, I grab the bottom handle and the boom head picking the gear up. So, I am FACING the ocean and my gear is tail towards the ocean as I carry it out as far as I can, usually about waist deep. I'll try and get a picture of this soon. Then I let go of the boom and tow the kit behind me by the bottom handle. I carry as far as I can so there is not that far to go dragging the sail. I do the same thing when coming in, grab the bottom handle and let the rig flow where it wants. The sail drag helps on the ride in. This approach is the safest for the humans, staying up wave of the kit all the time. If it's closing out on my head or if anything spooks me, I let go of the handle ditching the whole kit and I go under and out the back of the wave while the kit gets washed away from me. I am by no means an expert, but these approaches have kept me safe for a few years now. The gear, well the gear gets trashed in the surf as it always does.

Since you don't have a handle but have a narrow tail perhaps you can carry the board upside down on your windward hip until waist deep then tow by the foil mast.

Can you ask Wyatt Miller or Tyson Poor what they recommend? Was that Jay Glazier off in the distance at the beginning of your video? If so, go ask him or whoever it was.

I'm stoked for you that you got to visit there, it's on my bucket list! Stay safe and have fun!


Sandman, your method is good in that it keeps you up wave of the kit, but it breaks one of the basic rules of the surf zone. Never turn your back to braking waves. If you or as you venture out into bigger surf, you run the risk of getting worked by a big wave you don't see coming. It will throw you forcefully forwards and face plant you onto your gear.

Aero, that is the best windsurf wave foiling video I have seen in a while! That venue looks golden! I would drive across the state to ride that in a heartbeat! Can you give more details without pissing off your locals? Is that an inlet or pass?
That sailor is really skilled. That photographer/videographer is incredible, his online portfolio is so good! Thanks for sharing this!

^dm'd you. Also sent a note to the drone pilot as he's a cool guy that I've met before and got some footage of me (nowhere near as skilled though)

greg is here and if you think he's good on video, just wait until you see him in person

I'm just starting to get into the open ocean swells and am interested to see how there seem to be 2 different paths people are going down in the swells/waves. The low aspect version in the insta video and the Greg Glazier approach vs some of the higher aspect stuff we're seeing in the vids being posted from the guys in West Oz. Either way seems guys who have the skills rip, just a different approach I guess.

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thedoor said..
greg is here and if you think he's good on video, just wait until you see him in person

Go effing tackle him and don't let him up until he agrees share his knowledge! Then when he does share that with us!

Older thread
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Foiling/Foil-Racing-surviving-shore-break

I like the flipped foil on the head idea.

Flipping the board over and quickly water starting would be the hardest part...

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utcminusfour said..

thedoor said..
greg is here and if you think he's good on video, just wait until you see him in person

Go effing tackle him and don't let him up until he agrees share his knowledge! Then when he does share that with us!

I tried my best, believe me. Super humble and nice dude

I was with thedoor and talked to Greg a lot. He is super humble and was always willing to answer questions. I geeked out on his equipment setup and discussed that with him as well. He recently switched to the G800 front foil (pfi400 rear), from the pfi730. 125 cm mast and the mid-length fuse. He was on the Wizard90 nearly always (except one day when I was finishing up as the wind was getting light and he wanted to use the Wiz114 I was using (with G900).

I really don't feel there was anything magical in his gear or setup, just that he sails 3 hours a day and has it dialed. He does move the sail mast back as the sail size gets larger and he is really picky. The day he grabbed my gear he moved the foil 5 mm. Forward I think. He's about 150 I think he said and I'm 185.