Can’t make upwind progress toeside. Whenever I point upwind I just get yanked off the board. Holding the bar with both hands seems to help a little but I never see other people doing that. Is there some trick around where the kite is supposed to sit in the window?
you may need to flag out the sail by holding the top corner of the bar with your front hand to reduce the pressure from the canopy…then, lean into the harness with your hips
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Just switch feet, job done.
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Try to keep the PW higher in the wind window (10 o’clock for goofy & 2 o’clock regular). Look to where you want to go. Lean the foil over a bit. I pump the foil a little bit too and you get even more of a upwind angle
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I use a sliding hook and lean hard against the pw. I’m trying to get to where I can touch the water with my upwind hand 
This way I can go upwind even when silly powered, like the other day on 5.7m Pocket Rocket v2 in over 20 kts.
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Sounds like you are positioning too deep in the window, and might be aided by a harness line or slider which allows you to go one handed while opening up your shoulders.
But as others have point out … really hard to get a proper upwind angle without a foot switch.
If so, then maybe just pull the back of the bar to get the PW to move back and or dont point the board so hard upwind
As others have said, a harness is crucial, otherwise your arm is a long lever that is working against you. One thing that I had to learn was that you have to yaw the board to point it upwind farther, you can’t just lean and turn. Get comfortable being clipped in to your harness and yaw upwind(kinda like a kick turn on a skateboard) then lean and dig until you almost stall out. Fall off the wind a little bit to pick up speed and do it again. As you get better with the harness you’ll find you can point quite high upwind toe side.
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Ok so I haven’t really dialed in the harness. I guess tldr is “use a harness”.
Suggestions on harness? I have the brm one but it feels very short and I don’t like redoing the clove hitch while I’m in the water untangling my lines
A few weeks ago I was right where you are at and started this thread:
It was super helpful to me, definitely give it a read as there are lots of great tips from the community in there.
I’m now feeling pretty comfortable using the harness all the time, from being in the water hooked in to getting on the board and getting up to jibing and sailing hooked in. It saves tons of energy, especially when you aren’t up yet so get used to just hooking in all the time. I am now finally making great upwind angles and starting to fold up the wing and surf. I’m super stoked, tons of progress these past few weeks and this thread and putting in the time learning how to use the harness were really the keys to unlocking all of it for me.
I followed the advice of the crowd and went with the PKS single point harness as recommended in the thread. I have all sizes and for me now with a bit more time on them I think the medium suits me best, so that’s my recommendation.
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Not sure if this helps. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKBJDYyPtVH/?igsh=bmxicGlxcXFvbnVu
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First off, what para are you on? I don’t switch and can rocket upwind toeside. I bring feet closer together almost like a sup stance. I use a simple loop of cord as a harness line. Even without hooing in, i will put a couple fingers in the loop with my free hand to take pressure off of the bar hand. I do this on heelside too. Get yourself an S3 and start throttling upwind with little effort. Mine goes upwind better than lei wings. I have verified this multiple times.
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Pocket Rocket v1 and last weekend had my first session on a brm paia. Yes the paia makes upwind way easier but still my angle was terrible compared to heelside. Granted I was overpowered that day.
That was me last winter. What did it for me was pointing my shoulders as much or more upwind than the board and then really dig in. I hold on only with the front hand.
Big progress this weekend. Harness helped and so did leaning the board over. But the biggest thing, and I guess I didn’t mention it before, was that I need to stop riding overpowered.
I often go out on my 110L wing door and it’s pretty hard to get on foil. I have a DW board but I’ve been avoiding it because the tipping over just wrecks my sessions. But this weekend I took that DW out at a flat water spot and was able to fly easily without being lit up.
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I guess what you have found is something all parawing riders who can ride switch already know and that is riding toe side is very limiting in multiple ways including angles and narrower wind ranges.
Enjoy the challenge of learning switch in your lake as i don’t think riding toeside to gain upwind is sustainable on anyone’s body over time.
I ride switch just fine, but I can’t switch feet on foil. Also I can’t get on foil switch unless the wind is strong.
Yes heelside angles are better. And one day I’d like to reliably switch feet on foil. But I think that’s still a ways off and I’m tired of swimming upwind at the end of my sessions.
I ride in the gorge and the reaches are very short so I don’t switch feet. Totally agree that yaw angle upwind is critical as is a harness hook. I try to push hard with my back foot almost twisting around the mast until I almost stall and then back off. Upwind angles are very comparable to heel side reaches. Also makes it easier to hold down a bigger wing toeside. The other thing I would say is avoid letting yourself get into a broad reach as it’s easy to quickly get over powered and blow up.
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Something that I should have mentioned is that the brand and model of parawing has a big impact on just how detrimental toe side riding can be. Wings like the quest and PP aren’t made to be pushed hard upwind so although toeside is still a penalty it just not as big a penalty as on a PW designed to push hard upwind.
I have lots of time now on the V2 PR and I seem to be choosing a size bigger than i would have chosen in the V1’s. So much performance seems to come in the top of their wind range. When i unhook on my heels side for the gybe I can barely even hold the bar due to the pressure but as soon as I slip the harness line on it feels normal. When riding switch and getting out of the harness to jump around to toeside it literally rips me downwind into the gybe whether I like it or not. Unharnessed or toeside is unimaginable on the V2 for me.
I think upwind progression is severely limited riding toeside. It literally takes 1 second to switch feet and power up hard.
I was never compelled to ride the V1’s powered like I am with the V2 PR.
Straps? I remember struggling riding switch winging until I tried straps then it was easy
With kitesurfing and windsurfing and to a degree snowboarding riding switch was never really a problem or even much of a worry. Kite and sail you have the pull to stabilise, much like parawing
But riding switch on a foil is a real chore and I wonder if straps might be worth a shot
(i also feel pretty out of control like a canonball run when I’m riding switch fast, but straps reduce that feeling)