What are some of your favorite podcasts (specific episodes) and YouTube videos for linking/reading bumps?
Classic
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Here are a few good ones to add:
Short, but really good: https://youtu.be/Xb-z-q7nNvg?si=Ml4eWBrVGFeR7P7f
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This is something that is tricky to find insights into what exactly it means to read the bumps, as the whole concept is super subtle, that said, there is lots of mention of it! (keeping track of the various things here Downwind Resources - by Matt A - dwfoil.com)
James Casey has some really good points here, and you can see how the intuition of the rider is wrong and how he has to correct them
This is OK, but probably a bit advanced conditions.
I think there is some value in looking into surfskis channel. It is super subtle, but they don’t have the luxury of a fast foil, so they really work to stay in the energy. Eg this video , and this forum
My random additions.
For takeoff, there will be a series of bumps that come along every so often that are 10x steeper and easier to take off on, the most important thing to learn is to feel them. The James case clip above August 16 describes this. Absolutely critical skill otherwise you need to be an excellent SUP paddler to get onto foil.
Learn to follow just behind the obvious bumps. Both for takeoff and riding, you are following bumps rather than riding in front of bumps. Even in surf you realise there is this trough behind each peaky wave, which has the same feeling as riding a bump. Learn to follow them to feel that little bit of energy:
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We had some good conditions last weekend so I figured I’d try to make a video about all the little things I’ve learned recently. I’m still very much learning but I feel like I got a good handle on our typical conditions. This day we had 20-30 knots for a few hours, so it was definitely one of the easier days.
Feel free to point out where I’m wrong and hopefully this helps someone.
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Epic Matt ! Solid tutorial.
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Something I’ve not heard explicitly is that in deeper water, the energy of a set of bumps actually moves slower than the individual waves, making the bump at the front subside and another rise from behind the set continuously. So when you see a train of bumps in the distance, you can expect a new wave to pop up behind every ~5-10 seconds. On a big train that means you can actually join a few bumps back from the tallest one where it’s almost flat and get a nice long ride as the back bumps build and give the best push. Sometimes you can even stick with the same train for longer by moving to the bump behind you every few seconds to stay with the slower moving energy.
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Yep, phase and group velocity. Group is one half of individual wave speed for ocean waves where depth is more than 50% of wavelength. The wiki for group velocity has a nice animation
Group velocity - Wikipedia.
When I am downwinging and really focusing on flagging out, I find my vmg pretty much always extremely close to the group velocity.
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