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Hydrofoil is a great lightwind weapon, but in ultra lightwind it can be impossible to relaunch the kite again. Compared to a raceboard (which is also good for lightwind) it is easy to paddle back to the shore, but a hydrofoil is like a anchor - any tips here ?

https://vimeo.com/67342615


The huge anchor actually helps with the relaunch. If all else failed, your kite will not go up, the huge anchor will help you get to shore quicker than a surfboard.

Thanks. Nice video. Would have liked to see how he got it from the position where the le is on the water to where the video starts whith the kite on the wingtip.

Hawaiis wrote:The huge anchor actually helps with the relaunch. If all else failed, your kite will not go up, the huge anchor will help you get to shore quicker than a surfboard.

It looked like 3-6kts
I used to relaunch in very similar way but take into account that it was 3 years ago on the super heavy duty Crossbow 2011:

Nowadays I do it in similar way however I pump forward lines and control the kite position by a top steering line. It's a bit easier and more reliable than "waiting for 6kts gust" method.

Yes, pumping the forward lines tends to tilt it forward and pumping the rear line tends to tilt it back, so its a case of using both alternately to keep the kite tilted back at just the correct angle for it to be pumped into the sky.

BraCuru wrote:

Hawaiis wrote:The huge anchor actually helps with the relaunch. If all else failed, your kite will not go up, the huge anchor will help you get to shore quicker than a surfboard.

It looked like 3-6kts
I used to relaunch in very similar way but take into account that it was 3 years ago on the super heavy duty Crossbow 2011:

Nowadays I do it in similar way however I pump forward lines and control the kite position by a top steering line. It's a bit easier and more reliable than "waiting for 6kts gust" method.

Nice video, the Ozone 17 has a race bar with more than twice the depower travel of the Cabrinha. Every kite is slightly different on the way they work. I am curious as to what happened next in your video. Were you able to get up on your race board and ride?

As Hawaiis says: A foilboard travels extremely fast on its own downwind !

And maybe with you too - havent tried that.

I dont know why, yet, but it is so.

When it is turned tail upwind, it accelerates on its own, and drifts faster than any other boards.

Really odd, but a fact.

Maybe it is because it gets more "weightless", when the surface waves go up and down - while the foil is more fixed ? Kind of an oscillating pumping motion ?

I dont know, but quite evident to see, that it travels fast away from you downwind, as soon as it is pointed DEAD downwind.

Peter

Peter_Frank wrote:As Hawaiis says: A foilboard travels extremely fast on its own downwind !

And maybe with you too - havent tried that.

I dont know why, yet, but it is so.

When it is turned tail upwind, it accelerates on its own, and drifts faster than any other boards.

Really odd, but a fact.

Maybe it is because it gets more "weightless", when the surface waves go up and down - while the foil is more fixed ? Kind of an oscillating pumping motion ?

I dont know, but quite evident to see, that it travels fast away from you downwind, as soon as it is pointed DEAD downwind.

Peter

It is the current, not the wind.
It is the same principle how a surfboard will catch the wave and drift toward shore.
the Hawaiian found this out hundreds if not thousands of years ago. The foil in the water accelerates the drift. If you pump the foil up and down, it actually goes forward and accelerates.

Exactly - it works almost like when you "wiggle" the rudder on a dinghy, and can get forward speed in no wind.

Here it is just even very subtle surface waves, that creates this "force" which equals speed - just like a dolphin tail

Peter

Hawaiis wrote: I am curious as to what happened next in your video. Were you able to get up on your race board and ride?

I managed to ride reaching only few minutes. Then the wind died out and I was drifting in a bay for 30 minutes ish with a chance being eaten by a crazy shark who terrorized entire Sharm El Sheikh in December 2010. The video was taken in Dahab at the same time.
I was lifted by a local rib assisting our racing camp.