Riding & Control 30 minutes

Overview

The aim of this video is to give you the control and confidence to ride both upwind and downwind on the foil. This is a truly amazing feeling and highly addictive but may feel like learning to kiteboard all over again. By breaking down the techniques in four progressions you are able to learn new skills gradually and build up to riding on the foil in all directions.

Modern beginner freeride foils will help but you can save yourself a lot of frustration and hard crashes if you are will to show some patience in these early stages. We can teach you the new stance that you’ll need to master to control a foil but so much of it is muscle memory, very small subtle weight changes and ability to react instinctively to issues when they happen. This takes practice and the following four progressions will help you understand what you need to learn and give you the exercises to go out on the water and practice. Once it’s sunk in, move on to the next.

The four progressions are:

First runs off the foil - your first experience of lift from the foilThis is the most important part of learning to kitefoil and requires you to first master riding off the foil, so you can get used to the extra lift and change in weight distribution required. Then we’ll look at rising up on the foil and those first short rides gliding over the water. They’ll be techniques for riding with more power upwind. And finally riding downwind, requiring more control of the foil, so starting once again off the foil before experiencing the exhilaration of downwind foiling!

Rise and Glide - learning to rise up onto the foil and maintain short runs in control

Foiling Upwind - staying on the foil for longer runs, handling more power to point higher upwind

Downwind foiling - starting off the foil to learn this new balanced stance before introducing foiling downwind