I’m new to prone foiling and one of my main goals was to connect waves.
I’m a little over 3 months into the learning phase at this point and connecting 3 to 4 waves now.
I’m 165 lbs (75 kg), have surfed most of my life and kitefoiled for the last 7 years.
I spent 1 month learning to prone foil on an old low aspect wing and then got the Progression 140 and 170. I don’t have a lot of experience on other surf foils but I would highly recommend the Progression 170 for learning to how to connect waves and improve pumping. I think the Progression has definitely sped up my learning curve. If I had to describe the Progression in a single word at my learning stage I would call it forgiving.
Some tips I’ve found for pumping and connecting waves are: exit the wave with speed, keep the foil as close to the surface of the water as possible when pumping for less drag, lift the foil up close to the surface and then let it glide back down, lift your back heel up when pumping to ensure you are unweighting the board, and don’t forget to breathe.
After a month away from foiling, I am back in baja and finally got to test out my P140. Within 10 minutes, I got my first 2 for 1 connection! I had a few close 3 for ones as well.
This foil is amazing. It honestly feels like an electric assist coming from some old armstrong gear.
Just decided to abandon my Lift setup for the Unifoil progression series. Seems way more forgiving for learning to prone foil in weak/average/mushy beachbreak waves.
Amazing. What swell size do you usually foil? I am the same weight, just got a spitfire 900 ( coming from a PNG 910 & 1010 ) ; and I just had 1 session on it. Albeit it is super easy and user friendly, I was instantly dropping into the water as soon as I was out the wave, couldn’t pump it. Waves were pretty bad though, 2ft windy sideshore @6s. Typically I foil beachbreaks when conditions are subpar - onshore and/or small 1 to 3ft - and surf when good or above 3ft.
I am definitely great at pumping. So I am wondering if I should have gone with a bigger spitfire like 960 or 1030?
I assume the most likely scenario is that you are used to a large foil with low stall speed and now you are on something with a much higher stall speed.
Try running down the line and coming off the back of the wave with a lot of speed. Keep mast high and try to pump shorter strokes without a high angle of attack on the way up.
I usually switch to the spitfire 840 in waist high or smaller, although the trades were cranking 25+ a week ago and I rode it in chest+ a few days to fight the string offshores.
