The Foil Zone > Foil SUP

Big Wave Foiling: UN-ASSISTED

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surfinJ:
Foiling is definitely not in my future. But boy would I love to paddle out there on my gun.

supthecreek:
Keep at it Beasho, it's fun to follow your exploits at the edge!
Speeds must be crazy and wipeouts spectacular....

You are good on the camera, but where's the drone to document this stuff?
That would be awesome!
Don't make me come out there to do it, surely some E-bikeman must have a drone and spare time!

blackeye:

--- Quote from: PonoBill on April 15, 2019, 10:41:06 AM ---...When I do survive the drop I head for the face, and overfoil at the end of the turn.
--- End quote ---

Bill, I am thinking you could grok whats happening but muscle memory works against it. I'm guessing an effort to stomp forward and initiate the turn a bit earlier might help. Says me, the armchair layabout.

jondrums:
Hey Beasho - thanks for posting photos and the stories!

I went out at Davenport this morning and there were some real bombs coming through - maybe double overhead and meaty.  Nothing quite like what you have up there though.  All I could think about was your suggestion to use a longer board.  It was nearly impossible for me to get into the big ones early since they moved through so fast and even though I can just about get my 7'0" board up on the foil with my paddle and some pumps, it still isn't enough to get into them.  There is just no way I was comfortable sitting deeper - taking that drop on a foilboard is just asking for injury.  So I mostly had to let them go by under me and pick off the smaller ones further in.  I got a couple after they broke and "rode the bull" like you talked about - pretty fun getting rocketed like that (no footstraps for me).

One new thing for me today.  On one of the big ones that I couldn't get into, I found myself up on the foil BEHIND the lip.  First time I just chalked it up to a windlip or a double-up swell coming along behind the face.  But the second time it happened I was paying more attention and kept riding the BACKSIDE of the wave - literally going uphill towards the back of the lip.  Not catching up to it of course, but sustaining foiling for a short time without decelerating.  Somehow the foil was finding power back there which was not coming from gravity.  I really have no idea what was going on, but it was kind of cool.

PonoBill:
Of course you were finding energy, there is almost as much energy on the back of the wave as on the front. It's just easier to use it on the front since the face is steeper and the energy transfer is more or less automatic.

It sounds like you have the common misconception that wave riding is like sliding down a hill--it's not. that should be even more obvious to a foiler. We can ride a three foot unbroken swell for half a mile. going ten mph or better. That three foot hill would accelerate you for less than half a second.

I had a discussion this morning with Dave Kalama about my cutback problem. He said to come up the face further, and even go past the top a little, onto the back to initiate the turn so that by the time I'm on the face again I can be down low, fully weighted on my front foot, and committed to the turn. Made a lot of sense to me. He also said to overcommit to the turn, because if I fall to the inside it's no big deal, but falling to the outside is how I'm getting hurt. True that, my shoulder is still giving me occasional shots of pins and needles from breaking my paddle shaft across it a few days ago.

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