Let’s first define what I mean by “breaching” because I’m not sure it’s the correct term.
When proning (waves, surf), getting too high on the mast and suddenly losing all lift, and collapsing, often resulting in falling down in a pretty uncontrolled way.
Sometimes happens when I’m going too fast with decent waves.
But, “surprisingly”, happening even more with super small waves.
Because waves are small, to exploit their small energy, I need to be high on the mast, and to place mini pumps here and there during the wave, when linking turns to get going.
As I’m working much close to the surface, I tend to breach.
It’s not helping that small conditions usually come with crystal clear water, which makes very difficult to assess the height on the mast. I sometimes breach and fall while pumping on absolutely flat sections between two waves…
This is the event I find the most dangerous in foiling.
Is there any specific technic or tips to limit these events ?
FYI, I am riding Code 980s, and I am a mediocre foiler.
Our coaches said to think of your height on mast like a seesaw - you want to be low on your mast as you initiate turns and the power from the turn will bring you higher on the mast. This helped me a lot. If you watch Adam B on some of his harder carves the side of his board literally skims the water while he carves so he never breaches.
For smaller swell with low energy I find that it really helps to constantly be turning to generate more speed vs. staying as high on mast as possible and pumping or going straight. Might be worth trying that?
fwiw, what is happening here if not obvious, is that your foil is “breaching” the surface of the water, resulting in the loss of lift and drop. This can happen either on one or both sides. here is a video
The way to think of it is like a drift in a car. From a beginner perspective, a car losing grips means you will certainly crash, however we know this is not necessarily the case. If you anticipate it, and react correctly, you can “catch” the drift and control it.
get some straps and practice ollies and jumping on the foil, this wil give you the feeling of a ventilated foil hitting the water, and the reattachment of flow onto the foil, this way you develop the feeling
Agree with this. When on a wave, rather keep the foil moving (which creates lift) by turning with a lower mast position than going straight or (worse) pumping while on the wave.
For pumping, being high on the mast is a good problem to have. I find the sudden speed/efficiency burst is a good indicator that im close to breaching. For a quick reset i lift back leg instead of trying to lean forward. Lifting back leg immediately puts pressure on the nose as apposed to bending knees/body forward that takes a split second longer.
Also, when that high on the mast, i stop listening the “experts” that tell you to hop instead of stomp. If you take your weight off the board at that height you will breach. The times I’ve managed to recover from a near breach, involved either just gliding with front foot pressure (back leg lifted), or light stomping heals with level board deck that creates forward drive and lowers the mast. 2c. Works for me.
Yeah, I’m making tiny little maintenance pumps when I’m high on the mast. Nothing else works. But the good part is it takes very little energy when in that zone so all it takes is little pumpy pumps
There’s not much you can do about a breach while going straight, as the whole foil ventilates, but there’s a technique to accelerate while turning through a tip breach that is extremely fun and helps you to feel the surface. Start riding high on the mast, and do a slight counter steer and drop height, leveraging your weight into the coming turn as you roll the board to new direction, then swivel the board in yaw direction and pressure the tail to accelerate through a dive and pump the board into the new direction almost like riding a swing. Tricky in the heelside direction though. This can let you drop while turning on small waves without breaching, or if you want to turn super sharper with a breach that’s super fun and pretty controllable in this position.
I found that a smaller front foil helps for me. Using an Armstrong HA 780 with a dart 140 tail. Of course it’s harder to pump, but I’m more concerned about riding the wave then connecting a wave. I also practice breaching on purpose when winging.
I dont want to hijack the thread but I tried to wrap my head about that turn and cannot break it down. Would you mind helping me on this one ?
Here’s your tips:
1- Start riding high on the mast,
2- Do a slight counter steer
3- drop height,
4- leveraging your weight into the coming turn (as you roll the board to new direction)
5- swivel the board in yaw direction
6- pressure the tail (to accelerate through a dive)
7- pump the board into the new direction (almost like riding a swing)
I can see two scenarios :
First : step 1-3 are the bottom turn, step 4 is the transition and step 5-7 are the top turn.
Second : Step 1 to 6 are the bottom turn ans the top turn is step 7 (kinda like this turn here : https://youtu.be/DLS547Ecux8?si=OeyLm8ieAUGA4HuI&t=133).
Being in a place without foilers, its so sick to have detailled tips like this!
Thanks
I’m thinking maybe like the first one, but basically just a cutback where the counter steer is super brief, with your body momentum staying in the same direction but letting the board move to the side to position your body to maintain a single turn within the steepest part of the wave and then flying down the line in the other direction. I’ll usually just come into it riding along the top of a windswell. I feel like I’d need a pretty broad wave and lots of precision to be able to come into it from a bottom turn angle.
