Advanced pumping - aka how the pros pump

Maybe with time on the new Armstrong setup I ordered I will acquire this skill.

3 Likes

Thanks everyone, have enjoyed reading this thread and will definitely be trying the sharp arm backswing concept.

My contribution of advice, and this applies to the heavier guys, is just lose weight. The pros aren’t 100kg. I was 87kg, struggling to pump. I was convinced by the hypothesis that refined seed oil is causing the obesity epidemic, and cut it out of my diet. (See Dr Chris Knobbe videos on YouTube). So absolutely no processed foods, just meat, dairy, fresh veg, fruit. Now 72kg and fit and lean. So 15kg lighter in a year. Makes such a difference to foiling, the paddle in, the pop up, the pumping and stamina. I love it. And the diet change was easy and clearly healthier.

6 Likes

Great work and good point! Definitely feel a huge difference with gear that’s just a few lbs lighter, dropping 15kg bodyweight must be a massive improvement!
I’m really wondering about how to achieve increased strength/stamina without gaining muscle weight. It seems that some people can be super lean and strong at the same time. I wonder if there’s a specific diet or training regime that can produce that result? Definitely don’t see much advantage to bulking up if it means your putting on a bunch of extra muscle lbs.

Just jump up as many stairs per day as you can. Its helps a lot.

I’m starting to think rider weight is a huge piece of the puzzle. I struggled all winter trying to get my mast far enough back, different boards and foil set ups, no matter what I did I struggled to keep lift under control.

I assumed I weighed around 140lbs, but finally weighed myself for the first time in a year or so and am actually around 128lbs and I think that’s why I struggle so much with too much lift. I guess I need smaller foils!

Some foils seem also to stay in a zone vs. lifting. with the latter type, its easier to have it pop out of the water/breach.

You need significant negative shim in the tail. If on Uni that’s the white shims. Definitely rider weight. I’m 155 and found that shimming is helping me dial it in on the Prog 140

1 Like

I was under the Impression that perfect technique plays the biggest role in pumping efficiently and for a long time.
The recent world records for flatwater pumping make me feel like it’s more an endurance training aspect and that plays a important role (they certainly have a good technique) but keeping a heart rate of 167 over 3 hours is definitely more a training thing!
https://www.instagram.com/p/C61qyWhrOgh/?igsh=ODBnbTk3MWt1ajNi
This was the record for 2 days which was besten shortly after. The new record is 44km flat water pumping. Insane and awesome accomplishment

1 Like

Still a kook who can’t pump here…but recently joined the Coach Casey Club and its an amazing resource, not the least of which is the ability to post videos and ask questions about what you are doing, and each week he puts them all together and does a video conference (Talk Back Tuesday) where he goes through them all, and he will zoom, stop, slo-mo, and draw on the posted videos while commenting. Super detailed and insightful analysis which I’m loving even as just an observer of others’ videos/analysis.

A couple tidbits from the latest talk was James describing the dynamics of the pump being a short, powerful down, followed by a longer gradual up that he represents this way:

And for the arms, he described them going forward and back like a pendulum where the lowest point (by your sides) corresponds to the initial sharp downward push on the board/foil:

Screenshot 2024-05-22 at 7.28.16 AM

James is clearly a super amazing athlete…and his coaching also seems phenomenal with a really well developed system/resources…highly recommended

6 Likes

I have figured this out too. All the guys that are flat water pumping for 5 mins + are out there pumping at least 8 hours a week. Also the people linking waves for an hour in the surf zone are typically riding 18 hours a week and building stamina over years.

In the running world, big gains take months, if not years of consistent weekly numbers. Literally almost zero days off.

Endurance gains take a long time to build, and you lose them surprisingly fast. Something like two weeks without endurance training to get a significant drop.

The massive size of the Indiana Condor XL foil he’s riding (clocking in at a whopping 1696mm!) is one of the main reasons for his flat water pumping efficiency… It’s likely many of us on this forum have never seen a foil this big, and I’d say with a foil of this size, technique and endurance become less critical factors.

True, but technique is huge. Go learn to pump and connect waves on a first gen low aspect foil. If you can 2-1 on a low aspect foil, then hopping on a current gen HA foil it’s easy to connect for multiple waves and pump forever.

I disagree. I had a little chat with him. He does endurance sport for 20 years. He comes from a professional sport background.
I have tried different wing sizes. It’s still exhausting. I can use the same wing as he does and I won’t last 10 minutes with it. He flew a 1300mm wing for half an hour… it’s his training and mastering. Claiming it just the wing size is too easy and not true

6 Likes

I have the Sirus 5XL and even with that, at 200lbs it takes about a 7min/mile running pace effort. Which I can do for about 7 minutes.

its incredible the distance these guys cover on lakes with training and proper gear

Surprised the world record is on the condor and not the beta foil

1 Like

https://www.instagram.com/p/C7ePf3qo9PD/?img_index=4

I’m surprised there is so much board movement and so little glide in the pump for a 4hr pump

It makes sense to me he’s not gliding long. We don’t see endurance bike riders doing sprint-coast sets, they pedal at a constant power output.

1 Like

There is a small interview with him.
He says he prefers not to glide.
If he can keep the foil going for 4 Hours high on the mast with a constant power output it’s probably more efficient that doing pump and glide.

2 Likes