foil sailing fiasco

[PonoBill]

I tried sailing my foilboard today. Fiasco. It's been about three years since I've windsurfed, and who knows how many years since I've uphauled a board. I managed to get rolling and sail out to the upper Kanaha reef, but I fell in on the jibe and then couldn't get the damned sail up. I tried everything I could remember but I just flailed around. The gusty wind didn't help. I tried waterstarting it, but I didn't want to kick the foil so it was two feet on the board. With the foil underneath the board tried to round up like crazy so that didn't work either. I body dragged with the sail for a while but I wasn't getting anywhere fast. So I took down the sail and did a basic self-rescue, paddling in with the upper mast section. What a drag. Wound up almost at kite beach. The lifeguard came by on a fourwheeler and said he watched me come in. Said if I'd been having trouble he would have come out with the ski, but I looked like I had it together. Gave me a ride back to the upper lot with my gear, which was pretty nice. Good guy. I appreciate that he didn't launch the ski. I wasn't in any danger, just frustrated. Maybe I need to practice uphauling a bit. I'll give it another go tomorrow, but I'm not going out to the reef until I get the basics back down.

[yugi]

The joys of learning something new. Again!

It weird when it’s in a sport you’re already good at. But still need to get through that learning curve again.

Keeps you young. And humble.

I suck at uphauling now too. Didn’t do it for so many years. Realized when I’ve windsuped a bit.


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[covesurfer]

HM and I did the race. He went ski, I went OC1. The wind was bizarre, off shore, medium sized windswell with plenty of surface chop. By the time we got to Sprecks, and upper Kanaha area, the inside was super light wind but the surface was still plenty busy.

It would have been hard to uphaul with all that chop with any kind of gear and waterstarting would have been difficult too, I'd think. They fed us afterward, and served up some awesome poke that was the highlight of my day. That and a couple of beers after a hard paddle.

It was a good geezer day. It's too bad they did away with the SUP division, you could have at least gotten a workout and a lunch. The more I read, the less I want to go through all that pain of learning to foil. If I want to humble myself, I can always go windsurfing. Since I never do it anymore, I am now a kook at a sport I used to be pretty good at. So there's that. But it sounds like you are hooked. If you're hooked, you'll stick with it and get good. Or die trying 

[DavidJohn]

Uphauling was my main hurdle when I stared windfoiling.. Although I’ve windsurfed for more than 40 years I haven’t uphauled for about 30 years.. I didn’t even own an uphaul rope.

It was flexibility when getting from a kneeling position to my feet that was my biggest problem.. Also my uphaul that I bought was slippery and had knots in the wrong place.. Fixing my uphaul helped heaps..

I’m thinking of selling my 122ltr Naish Hover board and ordering the new 142ltr Naish Hover board that’s due out in a few weeks to help with the whole uphauling thing.

[stoneaxe]

Mmmmmm....poke....

[FloridaWindSUP]

Uphauling on a small board in rough water ain't easy. Bill, what board/sail/foil setup were you using?

[PonoBill]

8'5" Jimmy Lewis and a m200 Gofoil.

I had the same problem as DJ--I'd get one foot up and the other would be stuck in some odd spot. Also I needed to get a lot of weight forward, the GoFoil pulls the tail down if I'm back even a little too far. Once it starts tipping back I'm done.

And then there's the odd roll of a sideways foilboard with swells hitting the board and foil, and my concerns about hitting the foil or mast.

Giampaolo is showing people how to sail foil with a big, clumsy looking and very beat up SUP board that I made some snide remark about a few days ago. Karma bit me on the ass. I should have known GP would have a good reason. I think I need to make one of those.

[Surfside]

Oh, how I can relate to this.....I haven't up hauled in 30 years

[PonoBill]

When I started sailing my SUP boards about ten years ago I started uphauling again. I used to be good at light wind waterstarts, but the volume of the board in the tail precludes the usual method of crawlng up a sunk tail. I got good at uphauling with a sharp pull with the sail vertical in the water. it comes up sharply so you can get it drawing and hang from the booms a little. Didn't work at all. I'm sure I'll find the right technique, but sloshing around on the reef wasn't the place to learn one.

[SUP Sports ®]

I've built both of my windFoil/SUPfoil boards...7'6" Mallet and 8'5" Hammer with enough volume to uphaul a sail rig on...

This clip starts with uphauling the 7.6m2 Mallet in barely a breeze...



Light air water starts with a windFoil can also be challenging...as they require you to kick with your back foot...
I split a big toe nail in half and lost it last Summer kicking the mast...OUCH!!!

This uphaul sequence that I took on Maui a few years ago, shows that you want to remember to bend at the knees...not the waist...;-)

[PonoBill]

That young lady looks a lot better than I do bending over. I'm pretty certain that a similar series of me would get banned from the internet.

I think my technique is OK (I always do, no matter how bad). Back straight, head up, knees bent, feet wide, eyes on the horizon, lift with the core. At least that was what I kept yelling at myself. Looking down at the mast is the biggest flaw I have. Can't do that or you join it in the water.

[DavidJohn]

8'5" Jimmy Lewis and a m200 Gofoil.

I had the same problem as DJ--I'd get one foot up and the other would be stuck in some odd spot. Also I needed to get a lot of weight forward, the GoFoil pulls the tail down if I'm back even a little too far. Once it starts tipping back I'm done.

And then there's the odd roll of a sideways foilboard with swells hitting the board and foil, and my concerns about hitting the foil or mast.

Giampaolo is showing people how to sail foil with a big, clumsy looking and very beat up SUP board that I made some snide remark about a few days ago. Karma bit me on the ass. I should have known GP would have a good reason. I think I need to make one of those.

Same here.. One foot up (no problem) and trying to get the other foot up and under me my body would freeze up and say (are you kidding.. that’s not gunna happen)