High tide on the Drop is tricky!

Just an observation I’m sharing particularly for newbies. In the UK we have some pretty huge tides - I’ve realised at HT at my home spot/and others when the tide turns and drops it has a huge negative effect on the foil. Way more so than traditional non foil surf. I’ve realised I got rid of a new board when I did a road trip - I thought it was crap getting on foil as I keep having to surf a particular break on the drop. I went back a few months later and realised there’s a big sand bank that squeezes the tide on the drop which makes everything super hard. :blush:

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Hi there, could you elaborate, please? Does the foil want to launch you or is it more difficult to fly? Do the waves get hollower and more sucky?

I don’t quite get what you mean exactly, but I will agree with the notion that the tides in lots of places in the UK make foiling very difficult for a few reasons:

  • lots of water moving, rips, currents, etc as the tides push in and out
  • high tide usually means backwash, reverb, low tide usually means a flat closeout
  • impossible to get two waves that are the same in a session, in between sets the tide will have moved a few feet meaning the next set will hit the peak with more or less water
  • weird local effects like you describe - eg where I am, as the tide turns you get a 20-30min lull

Worst of all - in winter you can probably only get a few sessions per week to coincide with daylight+correct tide

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Tangogeoff, Matt has answered you more clearly than I could!!! Matt that’s exactly what I meant and I’d also add that I felt the outgoing tide was zapping some of the power when on a wave. It also felt slower and less responsive.

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Tides are huge in the UK. When there’s a lot of water moving about when proning it can ruin a session to the point where you feel like you’re really shit at foiling! :joy: Low tide here is usually complete garbage (too shallow / close outs) with high tide barely breaking!

Dropping tide is awesome for DW though where we are as it slows the bumps down just enough to be able to stay on them longer and they tend to stack closer together!

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Your comments are reassuring!! :raised_hands:

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