What you describe he is doing, sounds like a "nose tack" as we do (did...) it in windsurfing.
Very fun in windsurfing - stepping out on the nose (the boards are bigger/floatier than kiteboards), so you actually lift the fin(s) out of the water and tack (jibe in some respect) this way

I've never tried it myself on a kite waveboard - but kiting on 7-9' malibus I often do this - great fun and quite easy

But a tack on a smaller waveboard, with speed and as little "loss" of planing as possible ?
I havent seen it - but would like to see how "far" it can be pushed

Kindly, Peter Frank

Not sure this qualifies as a tack, but I have seen Sky Solbach come in, make a little pop off the water, grab the nose of the board, spin it the opposite direction, land on it, and kite away on the opposite tack. Very cool.

Not sure this qualifies as a tack, but I have seen Sky Solbach come in, make a little pop off the water, grab the nose of the board, spin it the opposite direction, land on it, and kite away on the opposite tack. Very cool.

its kind of a tack yeah, but it defeats the purpose of going as little downwind as possible.

But definitely a cool trick!!! wouldn't say no to learning it if I could be bothered!

I doubt I could ride my SRT backwards with the fins out the water... the foot positions are just so far back!! and i'm not too sure about the shov' it with the big fins on the back :s

Tried it today - tacking on a really small waveboard !

Feet just in front of the rear and the front footstrap.

Head fast up while still planing.

Important: Keep the kite powered all the time so you wont sink on the board - but dont turn it in the other direction yet (as you'll lose upwards pull then).

When direct in the wind - switch your feet (jump your feet works best).

Right now your board dont have any speed at all for just an instant - but the kitepull keeps you "weightless" on the surface so to speak....

The board is now turned fast in the other direction, while the kite is driven in the same direction.

And then you are planing away, and can just pop into your straps again

Great !!!

Only difficulty was, that I did not have any wax or anti slip on the nose - it was totally "icy" when standing with bare feet.
So you needed to have it perfectly balanced, and could easily slip...
And if you got too much power in the kite somehow, you were immediately "history"

But it was possible and great fun - even on this slippery surface

Go out and have a ball doing it, or trying

Kindly, Peter Frank

Tophat, Felix, Will have been doing tacks for years. Lots of variations. There is the clean and simple functional switch hop, the helicopter, the kick slide, the shove it. All names I am just making up to be descriptive as I don't think these guys ever took it seriously. I think Will was the first guy I saw do them a lot. A few years ago he started doing them when we were shooting wave photos in really light wind and he did them to get a few extra feet of upwind after each wave. I seem to remember Martin and Andre doing a few at Mokes way back in his cabrinha days on a Gary Linden surfboard. Not sure about that though.

Watched Sky rip a tack on the face of 6-foot wave about to break and then ride the wave upwind without even losing speed. You guys that start pulling them off on the first day make me envious. I tried on my 5-11 and didn't even come close.

Strapless you can do it like this
http://straightout.com/stream/gustavo_n ... brazil.htm