Messages

1

Technique / Re: Preferred Method to Right Larger SUP in Surf?

« on: December 18, 2018, 10:15:43 AM »

Like a jetski, you grab the tail from behind with one hand on each side and flip it. It's almost effortless.

2

Foil SUP / Re: Finally all Foils available

« on: November 24, 2018, 12:47:51 PM »

After owning both track and Tuttle setups, I am a Tuttle proponent. Yesterday, my 5'6" Kalama production sup foil board and my GoFoil Maliko 200 (with 29.5" Tuttle mast) were caught in some nasty shore break over 2 ft of water. After being slammed for half a dozen waves, I thought the damage would be horrible. Not a scratch! From previous experience, I know that a track mount would have been ripped apart.
 My Kalama board has both mount options. Why not just keep it that way? I personally wouldn't take the chance any more with a track mount on a sup foil board but different strokes for different folks...

3

Foil SUP / Re: Anyone with specs on the Dave Kalama type foil boards?

« on: September 05, 2018, 05:41:46 PM »

Thanks! I just ordered one from Big Winds.

4

Foil SUP / Re: Anyone with specs on the Dave Kalama type foil boards?

« on: August 30, 2018, 11:34:19 PM »

Does he sell them on a website?

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Foil SUP / Re: Anyone with specs on the Dave Kalama type foil boards?

« on: August 30, 2018, 12:15:04 PM »

My buddy just bought a Kalama production board. We took it for a flat water paddle this morning. 6’0” x 28” x 115L. Very stable for its size. Weight in normal construction is 18 lbs.

It looks like a great board!
Where did your friend buy it?

6

Foil SUP / Re: Places to foil in L.A.

« on: August 05, 2018, 09:21:40 PM »

Salut!
Latigo is pretty fun at high tide (at lower tide, the rocks get too close to the surface for comfort). Zeroes is also a good spot (left).
El Porto ( North of 42nd to avoid the crowd, between the smoke stacks and the jetty) gets good when the swell is smaller (happens a lot in the summer) and the tide high  enough.

7

Foil SUP / Re: SUP foil pumping epiphany.

« on: June 29, 2018, 09:06:49 AM »

Looking good Dialy!

Pumping with a paddle looks way cooler than without one. When the prone foilers are pumping it looks like they're on a pogo stick which looks kinda silly. With a paddle it looks like you're chopping wood.

Thanks SaMo! I do like having a paddle in my hands rather than just flopping my arms like a featherless seagull. It feels great as long as I don’t let the wing tip crack my paddle blade...
Here is a video of Dave Kalama on the subject of paddling  while up on foil:

8

Foil SUP / Re: SUP foil pumping epiphany.

« on: June 28, 2018, 12:10:59 AM »

Beasho, I am very glad that you put these tips to great use!
Being able to pump back out to sea makes this game even more fun. As you noted though, what a cardio workout!
It seems to get easier every week though as we probably become more efficient at it and maybe more fit ( who needs a gym after that?).
I’m having so much fun with it now that I often shorten my ride on the wave just to pump back out. Only drawback is that I have destroyed a brand new paddle by planting it in the wing’s path. At 12mph (seems like the average cruising speed), the wing can be lethal for an immobile paddle blade. I’m learning to plant the paddle away from the path of the foil now. I’m probably going to lose one or two more paddles but it’s worth it!
Here is one of my paddles straight back out on my Kalama 7’0” and GoFoil Maliko 200.

9

SUP General / Re: Is foiling even related to SUP?

« on: June 16, 2018, 11:39:12 AM »

If you are standing up on a board while paddling, aren't you stand up paddling?

10

Foil SUP / Re: SUP foil pumping epiphany.

« on: June 12, 2018, 12:56:56 PM »

Hey Beasho, I’m very glad I could help! I have been benefiting a lot from your many insights on this forum, on my journey to figuring out this new and exciting sport.

11

Foil SUP / Re: SUP foil pumping epiphany.

« on: June 12, 2018, 12:31:47 AM »

You are welcome 805.
I think I have just figured out a simple way to explain the process.
The difficulty comes from the fact that the motion is at first counterintuitive:
In order to bring the foil up, we have to squat (=“bringing the knees towards the chest”) which unweights the foil and lowers our head. On the other hand when we push, we are extending our legs and raising our head which increases the weight on the foil and lowers it. 
We keep inverting the pumping sequence and fail at the very beginning because our neurons have not yet properly integrated the fact that our head (our point of reference) and the foil move in opposite directions.
The mantra should be:
1- Squat to bring the foil up.
2- Rise to bring the foil down.
When you kick out of the wave, start by squatting and bringing  your paddle forward to plant it.That will properly initiate the motion sequence.

12

Foil SUP / Re: SUP foil pumping epiphany.

« on: June 11, 2018, 07:19:37 PM »

I’ve spent enough time watching Austin Kalama (live in person) switching between his prone foil and SUP foil, back to back, to completely switch my opinion on what wins when it comes to pumping.....it’s not prone.

Austin performs better on his SUP. By far, pumping farther and easier on his SUP.

It gave me great hope for the future of SUP foiling.

Amen to that!
Since I fell in love with SUPing, I have not felt the urge to prone surf again.
“Why crawl when you have learned to walk?” said a wise man. Now he can add “why crawl when you can fly?”. Jokes aside,  standing on top of the water with a “stick” in hand feels to me, instinctively, like a more natural way for a human to venture into the sea. Paddling around on my stomach, completely blind to what is under (and I have seen some scary monsters down there since), was always, for me, the least desirable part of surfing. I’m glad that I won’t have to go back to crawling just to experience the joys of pumping.

13

Foil SUP / Re: SUP foil pumping epiphany.

« on: June 11, 2018, 04:16:19 PM »

Ok, let me have a go at the translation (French is my native tongue).
I am going to be as faithful to Eric's words as possible so forgive me if it gets repetitive because he tends to re emphasize certain points several times and, without his visual clues, it might seem like overdoing it.
Here we go:
"Hi Everyone. As promised, here is a short tutorial on how to pump a foil. I was thinking about making only one video but, instead, I will make two because I have realized that there are a lot of things to cover.
In the first video, I will cover the basics and, in the second one, which I will upload later, we will see the specific differences between surf foiling and SUP foiling and we will go over some details that will help.
The basic thing is that, when we are pumping, we are trying to lift up the foil and, to do so, there are only two ways:
either we increase its speed or we lighten its load.
A common mistake is thinking that the motion is about pushing down with the legs. When you push down with your legs, you put pressure on the foil and it comes down. We are looking for the opposite effect, raising it up.
Since, when we are pumping, it's because we don't have enough speed already, the only option left, in order to lift the foil up, is to lighten its load. When we lighten the load on the foil, it wheelies. We make ourselves lighter, it wheelies and comes up. Once it's at the top of the motion sequence, it levels, we put our weight back on it [gravity does not allow any other option] and, naturally, the foil comes down.
The full sequence is: We lighten the load, it wheelies and comes up, levels itself and, as we put our weight back on it, it comes down [Eric says so while showing the foil coming down flat] and picks up speed.
We anticipate the bottoming by making ourselves lighter again and the sequence is repeated.
When the foil is at the top of its motion, there is no need to try and make its nose go down on purpose. If we try to lower its nose first, it will come down too fast for us to anticipate the next phase. By just letting it level itself, the foil is going to come down and speed up on its own.
Another common mistake is to try to make it wheelie and come up by pushing down with the back leg.
If we do so, it's just going to pull the brakes. What we want is to lighten up both of our legs at the same time and to let it rise up on its own. We are not trying to force its motion.
By the way, through my conversations with other foilers, I have realized that we tend to move the rear foot slightly forward when pumping. We bring it right over the mast or very slightly ahead of it.
By doing so, we prevent the mistake of trying to wheelie it by pushing on the rear leg.
The wheelie motion comes from lightening up the load and not from pushing down on the rear leg.
That's it for today. I hope this helps you. Do not hesitate to leave comments. I will upload anther video in a couple of weeks or whenever I find the time. In that second video, I will go into more details and speak to the differences between surf foil (prone) and SUP foil. Thank you." End of translation.

My personal take:
It's at the very start of the sequence that we tend to mess up by pushing down on the board when we should lighten its load.
Next time you that you are foiling, while still on a wave, when you feel that you need some pumping to increase your speed,  instead of loading up by pushing down on the foil as on a pogo stick, just raise your knees (by relaxing your quadriceps muscles I guess) to your chest and notice how the foil just comes up all by itself and pushes your knees up. I think that the foil behaves like a spring that is already loaded ( by the lift created by the water running around the wing) and you do not need to load it by pushing on it first. That only  lowers it and defeats the purpose.
Now, when you exit the wave with some momentum and you feel the foil still pushing up, raise your knees to your chest (relax your quads), it will go up some more, then, as it comes down,  quickly raise your knees again.
Repeat and rinse.

14

Foil SUP / Re: SUP foil pumping epiphany.

« on: June 10, 2018, 09:38:27 PM »

Yes, surfcowboy, I think that the glider plane analogy is spot on. After all that’s what a foil is. You let it soar and do its thing instead of pushing back against it and you repeat the motion as fast as you can.

15

Foil SUP / SUP foil pumping epiphany.

« on: June 10, 2018, 05:24:20 PM »

After 6 months of SUP foiling, I was still not able to kick out of a wave and “pump” away and I was beginning to think that the only way would be to trade my SUP foil board for one of these tiny prone foil boards. 
This morning though, after watching a YouTube video produced by Eric Terrien, I was able to exit the wave and pump towards the horizon like the cool kids. The video is in French so I will share the gist of it here.
The key is to think “un weighing” instead of thinking “pushing down” like the term “pumping” seems to suggest. Also, do not think of bringing up the front of the wing and the nose of the board by pushing down on your rear leg. When you un weigh yourself by bringing both of your knees up, at the very same time, the foil and the board will automatically “wheelie “ for you.
What goes up must come down so, as your weigh pushes the board back down, its nose will go down, completing the porpoise-like motion.
Personal note: when watching someone pump their board, it looks  as if they are creating the porpoise motion by slightly offsetting the raise of each knee.
It’s an illusion. The foil does the work all by itself. When exiting the wave, as you feel the foil still pushing you up, do not think “push back down” but “suck” both of your knees up. Bring them up to your chest like a mogul skier and use your paddle, you might as well,  to help with the propulsion. 
Also, using a foil with as much lift as possible should help. Today I was using the GoFoil Maliko 200 (I weigh around 210#) and that thing lifts me up like an anorexic  ballerina . I have not even tried my Maliko 280 wing yet...
I hope this helps all the geezers who, like me, want to be cool kids again.
Here is the video: