Well up at last

Off to find some space to foil.
A 1.9 m swell and a forecast of a light westerly.
Wanda Beach, north of Cronulla, had some great A frame banks, and lucky for me, was closing out on the sets with the whitewater fading out into the channel.
Plan was to use the breaking wave to get on and the fading wave to continue foiling on the swell.

ALSO I had to guess what my latest modifications had done to the board. It turned out that the footstrap plug I added lined up with where my knees wanted to be without a sailboard rig on.

I also had wedged the foil baseplate into a position that was less likely to be in a dive position on takeoff. Result
1. Got to my feet
- will not be doing that again in a hurry. 57 years of surfing have taught me how to stand up on a board and now my standing position is all wrong and my instincts to correct it just make it worse. 

2. Got well up on the foil
- could not believe the feeling and the sound of this!

3. The easiest way to get out to the line up is to wade the board, foil pointed up, until in chest deep water. Once chest deep, flip the foil into the water, jump onto the board and paddle over the waves to the line up.

The downside

• Any lift that feels exhilarating should be a warning that the foil is about to fly straight out of the water and stall and come to a sudden stop.
• Any surf big enough to foil comfortably will mean that going through the shore break is a recipe for disaster.
• Every shore break will rip your foil off if you don't turn the board up-side-down.
• Any long walk with the board and foil is going to hurt on the way back.