Hi,
I've got a couple of years windfoiling experience and have been wingdinging for about 4 months now. I can get up and going easily. Turning and control is fine. Gybing is difficult but I'm getting the occasional one. When I come out of a gybe, I'm trying to ride switch and I last for about 4 seconds at best before I'm off. The board seems to be real skittish/reactive when I ride switch. Any tips?
I've looked at heaps of vids and those that ride switch make it look like a walk in the park. Is it really that easy (and I'm a muppet ), or is it something you need to work hard on?

Practice riding switch off foil , get comfortable with the power control of the wing before trying to ride switch on
foil. You will find very quickly which switch do you prefer, starboard or port tack. Things will then gets better when
you ride switch On Foil. The four seconds will then last longer and longer until you switch back.
Good luck

Are you talking about Switch (non-dominant foot forward), or Toeside (back to the wing)? I would have thought most windsurfing people would be almost equally comfortable with either foot forward, and very uncomfortable with their back to the wing.

The fact that you're coming out of a gybe on Switch means you've swapped feet either before or during the gybe. That's more than most people can do and if you can do that you've got more than enough skill to sort out riding switch or toeside.

Two tips for most foiling skills. One is to use the glide of the foil, preferably on a wave. You can glide for ages and that leaves you free to try out a heap of tweaks to your technique.

The other is to explore the balance point of the foil (which you should have nailed if you're swapping feet). The balance point is usually somewhere just in front of the foil wing, about halfway from the mast to your usual front foot position. You can stand on that point for ages in all sorts of directions with either or both feet on it. You can move your feet to and from the balance point any time you like, with and without a lot of power or speed and very little risk of crashing. That frees you to experiment with the stability of the foil while messing around with toeside and foot swapping and all the rest.

I'm talking switch Toeside (back to the wing and toes pointing upwind). As a windsurfer, I'm pretty comfortable riding goofy or regular. But when I've gone through a foiling gybe, I'm not switching feet and coming out toeside and that's when it all goes pearshaped. For a couple of gybes I've swapped feet and have managed to get it, but the whole process is wobbly and unsteady to say the least.
Ideally IF I can master toeside both directions that would be great.
Thanks for the tips fellas. Appreciated. Time to practice.

Other people might disagree, but it you're exploring the balance point, then you can do things really slowly. You don't have to quickly move your feet or anything. This gives you all the time in the world to get stable in a new position and work out what's happening.

You're likely to be going more downwind in that position and that's fine. A bit more wind helps to compensate for the apparent wind you lose.

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martyj4 said..
Hi,
I've got a couple of years windfoiling experience and have been wingdinging for about 4 months now. I can get up and going easily. Turning and control is fine. Gybing is difficult but I'm getting the occasional one. When I come out of a gybe, I'm trying to ride switch and I last for about 4 seconds at best before I'm off. The board seems to be real skittish/reactive when I ride switch. Any tips?
I've looked at heaps of vids and those that ride switch make it look like a walk in the park. Is it really that easy (and I'm a muppet ), or is it something you need to work hard on?

Im struggling with the same issue, comfortable riding heel side, very sketchy riding toe side. Im only trying to ride toe side in my natural stance (ie gybe without a foot change)

Last time out (when riding toe side) started to make a conscious effort to sheet out more and stay more vertical over the foil so im not leaning too much against the force of the wing, seems to help. Interested to hear if you give this a go and it helps.

I call this twisted stance... I hate riding twisted stance so I quickly learnt how to switch my feet back on foil back to a normal stance. In twisted stance you can't achieve the same upwind angle comfortably (well I can't) . There's loads of good vids showing how to switch your feet on foil. I now switch my feet halfway through a gybe, pop the front of the board up do 180 turn, switch feet pull back hand in and turbo boost upwind and out of the turn. Feels nice!!

When riding toeside the things that helped me most was pointing my feet more towards the nose of the board. This allows your body to face the direction of travel. Much easier

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martyj4 said..
I'm talking switch Toeside (back to the wing and toes pointing upwind). As a windsurfer, I'm pretty comfortable riding goofy or regular. But when I've gone through a foiling gybe, I'm not switching feet and coming out toeside and that's when it all goes pearshaped. For a couple of gybes I've swapped feet and have managed to get it, but the whole process is wobbly and unsteady to say the least.
Ideally IF I can master toeside both directions that would be great.
Thanks for the tips fellas. Appreciated. Time to practice.

I'm in the same position, can ride switch stance (natural one way, goofy the other) no worries, working on making gybing both sides but struggle riding toe-side coming out of a natural stance gybe for any length of time. I'm trying all the tips posted above and am slowly putting in the practice. Straps don't make it easier (for me anyways) so I remove them to practice it, also experimenting with the stance, facing more forward (hips forward) helps but essentially its practice, practice, practice

So hard to say without being able to watch you, but it's real common to try and go to far upwind in the toe stance w/o realizing it.
I went ahead and paid my thousand falls to learn to switch stance. ;) But sometimes when I turn on a wave I'll stay in my stance which results in a toe-side stance. If find your stalling or the board shoots out, it's probably trying to go upwind, think broad reach next time on your weak side and then slowly work higher into the wind once you feel stable. You can also slightly adjust your feet before the jibe so they are less parallel to the board and closer to each other. Good luck.

I found toeside much more comfortable after switching to a high aspect foil. More speed = less resistance and pull from the wing, plus it is easier to go upwind.

I'm on the same task as you...
I too found that exiting a jibe, thus riding toeside, I'd usually fall backwards and stall.
Now I'm trying to point to the bow with forward foot, and slide back foot forwards some cm, narrowing my stance a bit.
Since I'm doing it I'm able to ride much longer without stalling. However, I'm still far from being as efficient as heel side...

But I'm gonna keep at it because I think riding toeside may be very important for wing downwinders , which is my goal...

Hey , i think its all easier when riding powered , ive noticed the end of summer weaker winds means the wing is flaccid during the gybe and not helpful at all . Also your slower going into turns when under powered and get to stall speed earlier. Not helpful at all I know but worth considering prior to judging yourself harshly. Patience haha

I hated riding toe side, couldn't even imagine how it was done. I call it Crack Head Stance.

NOW I find coming out of (goofy foot starboard tack) into a gybe then going toe side port tack very challenging and rewarding.

I will track my flights and keep recording the longest flight, not coming off foil. At first I could only fade downwind but after ~ 10 sessions I am now able to hold ground and ride for 2 to 2.5 miles without coming off the foil. Say 10 to 12 minutes with my feet in the same Goofy foot orientation IN THE STRAPS.

When turning from heel to toe side, most precarious, I just imagine I am foil surfing and getting towed into a wave for example. I have a ton of surf foiling experience so I can mentally lock on the turn and in my head say "I've got this." (Left side of view below). Turning from Toe to Heel, port to starboard, is very easy and fast. You almost fall backwards and come screaming out of the turn (Right side of view below). Just keep practicing.

One month later my tracks looked like this. Exact same location but better able to hold ground with Crack Head stance.

I have the opposite problem. I don't know how you guys switch your feet so easily. Yesterday I winged for 3hrs, 30+ miles, didn't switch feet once. Toeside seems super easy to me, and I can go upwind at just about the same angle as my buddies riding healside.

Soon as the waves stop, I'll start working on switching feet and riding with my left foot forward.

If you can point on your toes as well as your mates heel side, your mates can't be doing it right. I've been riding toeside on surfboards and kites since 1999 so I'm super proficient on my toes, but it doesn't come even close to upwind angles and speed generated switching. Being able to switch also gets you quicker and higher up the wave lineup - and also holds your ground better when trying to pitch into a wave I find. On Toes - (n the west where most waves break left so a pain for natural footers) you get dragged more easily down the line towards the shoulder to quickly.

I don't bother switching anymore toeside is fine to get upwind

Have same problem: coming out of jibe toe side and crashing in few seconds. Is there any exercises to work on toe side riding?

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motogon said..
Have same problem: coming out of jibe toe side and crashing in few seconds. Is there any exercises to work on toe side riding?

grab a skateboard

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motogon said..
Have same problem: coming out of jibe toe side and crashing in few seconds. Is there any exercises to work on toe side riding?

When you come out of the jibe, head downwind a little to give yourself some power and speed before trying to head up wind again.

What I will occasionally do on light wind days is pulled down on the rear handle halfway through the jibe before I swap hands for additional speed burst.

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motogon said..
Have same problem: coming out of jibe toe side and crashing in few seconds. Is there any exercises to work on toe side riding?

As a natural footer I've just started riding right foot forward on toeside for something to do once boredom sets in on flat water. It's like learning all over again so I can understand your issue.
For me I go along in my regular stance (left foot forward) and bring my feet closer and closer together until parallel. I foil this way for a bit and then gradually move into right foot forward stance. It's a bit unsteady initially and best to bear away and sheet out the wing. If you can do this for 50-100m you will then feel you're ready to gybe. As bigtone said above head downwind quite a bit during the gybe until you feel steady enough to cut into the wind and then sheet in and go.

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motogon said..
Have same problem: coming out of jibe toe side and crashing in few seconds. Is there any exercises to work on toe side riding?

I'd say learning to ride the foil on its own, without being powered by a wing, will help. So either behind the boat, in the waves, or by depowering the wing above your head. What this teaches you is to feel the foil itself, which is way more unstable than when you are slightly leaning over (which is what you do when winging heelside).

If you're a snowboarder, you might relate to riding the flat base of the board, vs engaging one of the two edges. When you're riding the flat base the snowboard is very unstable as it tries to engage one of the two edges.

I feel like winging is similar, because you can lean into the foil and that makes the whole setup more stable.

So back to riding toeside. This at first is very unnatural because the wind pulls you in the opposite direction compared to when you are riding heelside, and you are not used to this (yet). Your first few times going toeside you'll want to Jibe and keep going relatively downwind, just focusing on the handswitch. As you're going mostly downwind, you'll be riding the foil straight (not leaning into it, heelside or toeside). Then as you get more comfortable, you'll start leaning into the wind more, with more pressure on your toes and at the same time pulling on your back hand to sheet in.

As a surfer, I haven't bothered learning to ride switch heelside. I keep my natural stance and ride heelside and toeside. I can get 55-60 deg angles between tacks, which I think I'll be able to improve once I get my hands on a more HA wing.

Good luck learning! It's not that hard once you figure it out! Keep us posted on progress.