switching feet on the fly

[slowboat]

Looking for tips on switching feet while foiling in a straight line.

You want some speed, you want the foil rising and the kite high. Anything else?

Where should you first place your new front foot? Into the strap or more towards the middle of the board to help with pitch control.

Which is easier: switching feet from heelside to toeside or toeside to heel side. Is it just individual preference or is there a mechanical reason one direction is easier?

Is it easier to learn first by doing little shuffle steps or try bigger steps?

Thanks

[MattyM]

Eager to here some advice on this. As a relative newb, all my worst wipeouts now occur trying to switch feet whilst foiling.

[joyrider1]

Some of you might kill me now because of some other threads
But be aware that when you want to change the direction of feet then you somewhat turn/twist around your body axis. This twisting applies yawing force on the board/foil and will lead to steering the foil "out from under you". Makes all the spectacular crashes. Same principle as in countersteering... Guys, it`s actually so easy... Before you throw bombs at me, please think about it first
Of course this is not alone the difficulty in switching feet on the fly, but don`t underestimate the applied force of your body yawing/twisting.

[junebug]

Check out Gunnar's videos. There are also lots of prior threads on this.

To supplement, I will say that for me the breakthrough came when I realized that it isn't just a foot switch but more of a stance switch. This was most evident to me in the hips--if I focused on rotating my hips around to the new stance at the same time I was trying to switch feet, the foot switch was likely to be quicker and I had more stability once I had switched feet.

I personally find going from heel to toe much easier than toe to heel, but that's probably because, as I am still a relative noob, I have done the former way more often than the latter.

[Mossy 757]

Watch videos, obsessively if you must. You can program your brain with visualization and video lessons, ultimately it's just a timing thing and a confidence thing. I didn't start nailing foiling gybes until I just sent it as hard as I could, with more speed and power the board is more stable because the hydrodynamic forces and kite power are creating a stable platform. When you're going slow and low powered, the board is all over the place wobbling back and forth.

This is one of the best videos out there to demonstrate the timing necessary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPH31Z2uqvs

[cglazier]

Gunnar's video above is great.

Here are some points to emphasize that work for me:

-learn the heelside to toeside footswitch first
-be sure you can ride toeside first (gybe to toeside and then ride toeside..without any footswitch)
-be sure your front footstraps are loose enough to get in and out of easily
-go quite fast, it makes the board more stable and gives you more time
-rotate your body stance toward toeside before switching your feet so that you don't have to rotate as much during the foot switch
-keep power in your kite but push your bar out a bit.. try to become light by having the kite lift you
-just before switching feet bounce your body upward slightly to take weight off the board
-be nimble with your feet (my friend says it is like ballroom dancing)
-at first I found a "jump" footswitch was easiest.. I moved both my feet simultaneously rather than one at a time
-don't try to gybe, just switch your feet while going forward and then gybe afterwards

At first you will touch down during the footswitch and as you practise the touch downs will get shorter and shorter.

I hope some of the points above might help somebody.

CG

[Mossy 757]

One more to add on is that once you've successfully switched feet and are ready to carve around to the new direction, carve a little bit more upwind than you think seems natural so you can tension your front lines. If you don't carve upwind enough on the new direction, the kite might just sort of stall overhead and you can end up riding underneath it so that it's actually upwind and behind you falling out of the sky.

[skideeppow]

thanks for the info