Staying on my knees

After breaking my thumb (Easter 2019), I was wary when surfoiling of standing up after take-off.

I have resolved to do all my surf riding kneeling, to focus on using the foil to get lots of speed across the wave, pointing higher than is possible on a normal board.

Once I get more time wind foiling I will review the no-standing policy.

HOVER Crossover 120

Back in February I upgraded to a Naish Hover board - back to the future?

Yes, I should have mentioned it earlier.

Anyway, reading this site today I noticed some things:
naishusa.com/p/2020-hover-crossover-120

Thing one:
SUP-foiling (in forward position) + windsurf-foiling (in back-most position)

I have been doing both from the middle position, mostly without much success.

Thing two:
They say "this board is a great choice for beginner foilers, while those more experienced can position the foil further back for greater manoeuvrability."

So maybe I was right to have it in the middle position, the last thing I need at the moment is "greater manoeuvrability".

Also
From the specs Crossover-SUP/Windsurf Foiling 120
It is 120 litres
length 7’6”/228.6 cm
width 30”/76.2 cm
Fins: comes with FCS 4.5 + 3.5 Quad
Sail range 3.4 to 6.0 sq metres

I am using it with the 5.4 sq metre sail in the picture above and a 4.2 sq metre sail called a Chopper.

Instead of the quad fins that came with the board I am using the following fin setup to sailboard without the foil.

Look closely and see how having four bolts in the front of the plate allows me to have the fin further back than the US boxes would otherwise allow.

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Did I mention that I am very close to getting this working for me?
Any day now..

All I have to do with the Windfoiling is unlearn 40 years of sailboarding and sheet on, not off when I come up on the foil.

All I have to do with the SUPing is get to my feet from the kneeling position before the board comes up on the foil. Had some fun rides staying on my knees but I want to "take this to the next level".

Any day now..

Another board and a bigger foil

If at first you don't succeed - buy more gear.

Here is a photo of another board that I converted to having a foil.
Southpoint Bonga Perkins design 9'5" by about 28" wide, wide point forward.

All this stuff at the bottom is a record of riding it for the first time, SUP foil style (on-the-knees to take off).

10 waves in 2 hours was a reflection of the long period of parts of the small swell.

[I doubt I will be using the orange board again.]

Pumping

I knew all along that pumping was worth doing but I was focussed on getting up and foiling before trying it.

Anyway in today's conditions (3.5+m and 11 secs) the sheltered bay was giving all sorts of opportunities to foil. Most of what I did was use a breaking or broken wave to get going and then as it swelled out to pump to keep going. Left me with a positive feeling that I was getting somewhere. Lots of exercise.

ALSO bumped into a bloke with a SMIK board - see photo.

I took this photo to check his tail rocker against mine. I can't see any difference. The positioning of the foil box was basically the same as mine - reassuring.
A bonus for me was that the board was also 130 litres and could be used as a sailboard.
After 5 years of doing what I do, it was strange to find someone with anything similar.

Progress

Since I last posted I have been getting a bit down about the lack of progress.
Some wrong choices; of places to sail or surf; wrong time of day, etc. have not helped.

But the solution has been to make sure I have some fun.
So now I take both the boards in the photo and if the foil is likely to get ripped off in shallow water; if the shorebreak is too heavy; the wind too strong, then I am on the white board (no foil) having a good time.

I may hack it up and put the foil mount on it (properly this time) and a centre fin box for the mast base.

Recurring lessons

Lesson 1 - Stance
After I have wiped out (quickly) on a wave I remind myself that my shoulders were in the wrong position.
How I want to stand is natural surfing stance with both feet on the stringer, back foot in the foam pad.
Then the upper body should be twisted at the hip to make the chest fully facing forward. Then the arms and shoulders can provide the tiny bit of steering necessary.

Lesson 2 - Legrope
After wiping out (inevitable?) when I get back on the board I should deliberately check that the legrope is not wrapped around the foil.
If it is these two things happen: the board is dangerously close and it behaves unpredictably.

Lesson 3 - Paddle onto waves with the nose high
Until I get a board with a flatter bottom..

Monkey does

Today I caught two waves where I took off kneeling up; got to my feet before the board went up on the foil and rode the wave mostly on the foil.

The difference was that I was surfing with a bloke riding a SUP (5'9" 90 something litres). A case of money see monkey do. Also, I had even higher spacers under the rear of the mast base.

I am still struggling with the amount of rocker on that board. When I paddle onto a wave I have the nose of the board very close to the water (force of habit). I know at this angle that the foil is diving, not flying.

I am going to either paddle on further back or tilt the foil base even more.

Watching this SMIK flat-bottom board today brought this home to me.

See these videos for more seeing for us monkeys:
seabreeze.com.au/forums/Stand-Up-Paddle/Foiling/SUP-and-surf-foil-videos

Try some onshore

The video in the previous post had these ideas that I took to the beach today.
1. Onshore winds are better than strong offshore winds.
Result: did not work for me the waves in Sydney are not like Hawaiian waves - the wave face crumbles too easily.

2. There was a board with a foil in the video that also had some fins. Rather than put all four fins in I just did the back two.
Result: no noticeable difference but it looked cool.

3. The video reminded me that my coil leash is a bit stretched out. I boughr a new one.
Result: the only coil one they had was a ten foot leash, bright green with a calf fitting. Unfortunately kneeling to paddle rules out attaching it to my calf.
And guess what?
There was no screw to undo to swap that part.

4. Previously the screws that connect the foil mast with the base had worked loose.
Three slightly longer screws fixed this.

So progress of sorts but not nearly enough time on the foil in the surf today.

Foil Safety

It is an hour and twenty minutes but stay with it and remember.
Don't take a foil out in the "line up".

Find somewhere where you can use a breaking wave to get up on the foil and stay foiling through the bit where the wave swells up but does not wall up.

Try, try try again

Saturday 21 April was a chance to get the paddle on the knees thing going.
1.1 m south south-east swell at 13 seconds and a light south-easter.
So the place to go was:

Best surf in Sydney today?


I moved the foil base to the furthest back position on the track.
The rear bolts into the base plate were replaced with longer bolts.
Added to these rear bolts were fat washers that had the effect ot pointing the foil a little higher at the front.

So today I worked out:
1. How to get to and from this distant spot carrying all this gear.
2. That I forget about using the rear-most position on the mast tracks.
3. That when I come up on the foil if the weight on my knees is different the board turns almost immediately.
4. That if I am going to take off on my knees then standing up will be an opportunity for things to go wrong.

Blue Planet
blueplanetsurf.com
on their YouTube channel suggested:
1. That instead of footstraps to use foil foot hooks (blocks of foam to help position the feet).
I had set these up and while I did not use them today I am happy with what I have set up.
2. That boards for foiling not have much bottom rocker.
Unfortunately the Starboard (potato) Pocket Rocket that I am using is famous for its bottom rocker.
3. That the places that they go to when they doing this are not classic beach breaks.
Watch closely how the waves swell up and run for a long time.

Lessons from the weekend

Sailing
Stop turning up when there is no wind.
Chugging around the bay is good practice for uphaul starts and slow jibbing but it is time up on the foil that has to happen next and did not happen this weekend.

SUP Foil
Gently does it and don't over-react.
On the first wave I paddled onto on Saturday the foil started to lift and I let it up; stalled crashed down and got straight back up too high then stalled again.

A week moving around Surf City and Mornington

A number of things were observed, or finalised, during a week of surfing Victoria's surf spots:

1. The angle of the foil mast to the bottom of the board was worked out
2. Wave selection was initially a wave that broke and then swelled out into deep water.
3. This was extended to include waves previously unmakeable 
4. It was noted that an extra 5 degrees could be added to the angle that the board could move across the wave
5. How to bail out before the wave closes out was refined
6. Lots of practice getting the board into and out of the water (floating with foil up)
7. While most waves were ridden in the kneeling position some attempts to stand up gave a good idea of how much freedom (too much) was available in three dimensions (pitch, roll & yaw)
8. My initial idea that sailboarding foil was the best way to introduce to foiling was corrected. The best way is kneeling up SUPing.

This is not the place that I surfed (it is Bells) but it gives you an idea of the swell that was available at the start of the trip.

Here is how much the foil mast base had to be adjusted to correct for the kick in the tail of the board.

Two days in Torquay

Very early morning start on Tuesday 13th March 2018.
Then a 700+ kilometer drive to Torquay in Victoria.
It gets dark late at this latitude. The swell typically has a long period, the groundswell comes out of the Southern Ocean.
Visited Bells Beach and saw the preparations for the WSL Bells contest later in the month. The big swell had a good bit of wind behind it.
Off to the shelter of Cosy Corner.
Over the next two days I:
1. worked out how to set the foil so that it was not diving on takeoff.
2  learnt how to control pitch, roll and yaw (needs more practice)
3. found out what a stall feels like.
4. got to my feet a couple of times.
5. learnt that there are waves that surfers don't want that foilers can use.

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.

SUP kneel surfing 2nd time

OK, after frustrated by the sailboard session I found an opportunity to do some more SUP kneel surfing with the foil.
1.9 m swell and 7 sec period. But what the heck I know somewhere where the SE swell and the SE wind might give me a break. The beauty of this place is that the outside bombie breaks the wave, that should get me on the wave, then the swell should keep me going despite the fact that the whitewater fizzles out. Oh, and the SE wind is offshore, or should have been, the headland made it wrap more into the east.
So I ended up with a lot to think about, especially when I get back to sailboarding - Where do I put my footstraps?
So I searched YouTube and here is the playlist that I am collecting on this topic:

SUP kneel surfing

Got my first session with the board at Dee Why Point this morning.
I like a break that ends in deep water.
Waves over 1.5m are good too - lots of clearance from the bottom.

Experienced the feel of coming up on the foil.
Because of the rocker in the board taking off with the nose down has the foil in a diving position.
It is only when you stomp on the tail that the foil takes off.

Turning, relearn it - any normal turn is too much.  

from realsurf.com