New to downwinding and foiling. Second time out at the beach (flat water access is limited for me) i was able to get some good paddle time as it was slack tide and relatively calm with a 1-2ft ground swell.I noticed as the tide started coming in I had a harder time keeping the board level and it seemed like it wanted to roll or keep at an angle more as if the current was catching the foil. the wind had picked up a small amount, but i was surprised at the difficulty I was having. Maybe wave and tidal interaction?I was only in about 6-7 ft of water. Is this something to keep in mind with conditions? Should I go out further for deeper water?
learning to balance and paddle properly is a massive hurdle, tide can effect things differently in different places but as you get more reps it will likely become less noticeable and less difficult. this is the reason true flatwater is recommended, even the slightest wind, current and swell will throw you off early on. It’ll get easier, getting to deeper water could make things easier, could also make it harder, depends on where you are and all the other environmental factors, only one way to find out.
thanks for the input. I’ve got a spot picked out for flat water practice. I plan on putting in some time there.
biggest thing is just getting reps in flat water or bumps, what feels impossible ends up being surprisingly easy after you lose count of how many times you’ve practiced.
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Yeah, if a current isn’t running straight into the bumps, it can create a challenge for sure. I target those conditions for my upwind/downwind parawing sessions. If the current is at an angle to the main swell energy, it can be infuriatingly difficult to get on foil. You may start paddling or using the PW to try and get on foil using the main swell/bumps, but then the current will pull the foil in the direction to go against it. Its almost like the foil will gravitate to the most laminar flow once you get moving. As you get better, you can learn to go with it, which is easier with a paddle. With the PW, it often pulls you in a direction that takes away the line tension in the PW, leading to a failed take-off.
Balancing is all about building those lower leg muscles to counteract those inputs when you feel them, without thinking about it.
yeah thats how it felt. i was trying to go with the direction of the swell but the foil kept rolling in the direction of the current.
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Yes, I’ve experienced this too. Moving my foil back in the boxes helped me a bit. I sent a DW PW run in the ocean run with a new board and had the foil too far forward and it killlled me. I was yardsale’ing on almost every start. Had to full on rotate my angle of takeoff 45 degrees while pumping/gybing the PW and trying not to explode from the too high front foot pressure.
A similar scenario has ruined quite a few of my light wind PW sessions where the bumps are FIRING, but just not quite enough wind to go diagonally across the bumps and build speed without getting sucked straight downwind (current directly opposing wind/swell in this case). A paddle would have made life much easier.