I’ve been watching some videos and experimenting myself when doing some turns. I notice some of the advanced foilers when doing a hard turn will move their foot back 2-3" and then when the turn is completed move it back up 2-3". I’ve tried doing this a few times but usually end up getting my balance wrong an falling off. Is this a good strategy to turn harder when riding a wave?
This depends significantly on what foil you’re riding. For example, on Lift foils you need a ton of rear foot pressure to crank out turns. But on go foil, it’s the complete opposite. So this question is a little bit foil specific. Ultimately, if you can’t move your foot while maintaining balance then it’s not a very good technique. Then you should probably start off just keeping your foot a little bit further back. I think you’ll find the reason they moved the foot forward is because you get a bit better glide and easier pump. Something you could try to help with the balance is go with a longer fuse. But that will hinder your turnability. You might find that a longer fuse combined with a smaller tail is a happy medium balance.
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When I’m riding a wave I ride my back foot at what I consider my baseline stance. When I turn off and start pumping out I shift my back foot forward 1-2 inches and sometimes shift my front foot back also.
This narrows your stance and makes the pump power delivery more efficient as the power comes more from your body weight from a full body jumping motion vs just burning your quads pressing down. I think what you’re seeing is the opposite, people are shifting out of their “normal” stance for the pump, not for the ride. Having your foot further back while riding gets your weight over a narrower section of your board and gives higher leverage for rolling (leaning) for sharper turns.
Probably depends a lot on the board/foil combo you have though. This is my experience with Unifoil.
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Makes sense! Thanks for the tips
It makes sense to move your feet for a more efficient pump. I must have just caught them at the end of the wave when I was watching it. I will have to work on that my pump is not very good. Thanks for the tips.