Learning the foiljibe - strapless??!

Hi all,

First post in this part of the forums, so hi! My name is Bart, 24 years old and F-One int. team for windsurffoiling (and oh yeah, based in the Netherlands). I've been very active in the windfoiling section of the forum, as I have been windsurf foiling for 4 years now, and wingfoiling for over a year! I recently started kiteboarding (7 times holding a kite now), and thanks to my friends at F-One I now have an F-One IC6 set to make my first steps into foiling.

I didnt have any problems twintip kiteboarding pretty much from moment one (yay for starting sailing at age 4), currently do downloop transitions, toeside riding and 8m jumps with ease. Looking for the next challenge I had my first go on the foil 2 sessions ago for about 45 minutes. Being a foil enthousiast for the last 4 years (learned to dockstart foilpumping half a year ago) I didnt have much trouble adapting, so riding in a straight line up/down wind and across the wind is fine. The problem comes at the turns.

I have ample experience jibing the windfoil and (more importantly in this case) wingfoil, so the foil, carving the board, switch stance and the footchange is not really a problem for me, however I'd like some pointers!

I've only tried jibing with a regular steering the kite to 12 and back again, but I pretty much always overtook the kite! I'm thinking I have to downloop the kite in the turn, correct? Any other pointers? Shorter turn perhaps? Im used to doing very long carves as thats very easy and readily possible while windsurf foiling.

The main reason I opened up this thread: I've learned wingfoiling strapless, and I also have no problem riding strapless with the windsurf foil. I'm thinking to remove the straps from my foilboard alltogether for I feel it might speed up my learning process as opposed to trying to jam my feet in the straps. Any for / against strapless riding for the average freeride foiler learning to jibe???

I hope to have my next foiling session tomorrow morning!

Thanks for the advice!
Bart

Hi Bert,

The IC6 is a great first foil for fast progression! I used the same. You definitely want to be downlooping on the gybe. Its all about timing the downloop with your turn speed to maintain tension in the lines throughout the manoeuvre. I built up a really consistent downloop gybe (with foot-swap) riding on a surfboard before even trying on the foil.

As for straps vs no straps it depends on what you want to do: i'm biased towards using straps as it takes you more down the race pathway. you can put more energy back into the foil through your tacks and gybes as you kick into the straps, plus having straps makes it way easier to deal with seaweed and do jumps.

Heaps of videos on youtube on how to gybe. I recommend watching this one from Daniela Moroz, it is pretty thorough:

Thanks for the replies! I'll watch the videos. Tried again today, didnt get that much further, but the progression was there. Did some toeside rides. Was a little overpowered though, switched to twintip and was going like a madman.