I am struggling hard with prone foiling. Had a week of terrible sessions. I know positive attitude is a big part of progression at anything but I am having a hard time stopping negative thoughts. I am fighting thoughts like “you are wasting your time. You are too old to get this. You were not a good enough surfer to start with. You have the wrong gear. Conditions are not good enough here. Etc”. I figured I would reach out to the tribe to get motivated back on track. I also assume I am not the only one struggling so others might benefit from hearing that the challenges are not unique and able to be overcome.
so details: I’m 38 years old, 97kg, was an mediocre to average regular surfer, riding a 65L Proper prone board, using my old Armstrong HS1250 foil (I have more modern foils but figure this is the most forgiving). Riding mostly in San Diego at Sunset cliffs. I’d say I’m an advanced wing Foiler. Not throwing huge aerial rotations but can do basically any maneuver with my foil in the water. Including riding in heavy surf. I’ve been logging my sessions and have gotten out 40 times in the last 80 days (had some travel for winging mixed in when I wasn’t proning).
I still suck. I can infrequently catch waves and ride them a couple hundred yards with some turns but can’t connect. And I biff about half of my take offs. And some sessions I can’t even manage to find a take off. Literally was out for 2 hours yesterday and caught 0 waves. I just need someone to tell me I’m not alone. That if I keep putting in work I’ll get it.
You got this man. First off Sunset cliffs. Conditions are definitely good enough there haha. It’s just a different animal from surfing. Everyone on this forum has or will have a throw away day of foiling. Just make sure it doesn’t keep you from going again. Because trust me it’s worth it. I am in Jersey where we just got done with crazy winds and cold temps this winter. I am certainly happy I stuck with it in my conditions and I have surfed the cliffs. That place is heaven.
Realistically I know I’m being silly. I’ve windsurfed/kited/winged/surfed for 25 years and only have 3 months of prone. And I know everyone is different but think by session 100 I’ll be competent? Haha. I know it’s dumb to try to quantify learning but I’m a scientist. Love my metrics.
Why aren’t you catching waves? Is the problem catching them? Popping up?
If your goal is to connect a double you have to catch a wave and get off of it in the first 5 seconds. Figure you can stay on a foil run for 30 seconds. Don’t ride for 20 seconds and then start pumping. Catch the wave, get initial speed, kick out and pump to the next one immediately.
When winging, flag the wing and pump til failure. 20+ pumps. That’s what you’ll need to do to double up in the surf. Kick out with the wing flagged and try to pump out to the next wave.
A few days at San O might help you progress in that regard.
I’m not exactly sure. Some days I’m on fire and will go 20 for 20 in an hour. And other days (unfortunately more of these than the former) I feel like I’m just paddling around and never finding the right spot. I guess its my ability to read waves that is lacking. I will set up on the inside to try to get whitewater takeoffs but either be to early and I just got rocked by the wash or too late and the wave looses its power. And then when I try to just set up at the peak it will be too steap and I struggle to handle the drop. Probably need to just balls up and send it.
No issues pumping when winging. I can drop my wing and pump until exhaustion. My lungs are the limiting factor. But winging has the advantage of starting the pump with a ton of speed. Good tip about kicking out of the wave early. I just get so excited when I get a wave that I hate to not milk it but will start working on that.
Should go up to SanO more often. I’ve been a handful and never seem to pick the right day. Last time I was there was for the little event they had with the Hawaii crew. Everyone was foildriving. It was a struggle trying to get in on paddle power.
Intellectually you know it will take a long time because so many people have told us so. But, reality hits hard. Keep at it and adjust your expectations. Sometimes my sessions are ‘I’m gonna get some exercise today.’ Conditions play a much bigger role than I had ever thought and often subtle adverse conditions go undetected. There was a time when I’d whimper to my wife “I just want to get a ride for 2-3 seconds without feeling terrified!” Ha, now I’m beyond that and have other milestones to enjoy/achieve. We all thought we should have gotten it sooner. It just does not work that way. I can now prone fine and sup fine, and DW is next! I know and accept the apex will be a struggle, but worth it. ¡Ánimo!
Man… I actually started laughing reading your post because I could’ve written it myself. My wife and I moved down to Encinitas about 5 months ago, and I’ve been grinding through the prone learning curve ever since. Feels like all your foiling experience goes out the window once you pop up.
A couple things that have helped me stay sane:
Someone in a recent thread talked about “gamifying” the exercise side of it. I track sessions on my watch and focus on paddle technique (Nathan Florence has a good video on this). Even if I spend two hours chasing positioning and only have one wave to show for it, I walk away feeling like my fitness improved.
I also remind myself that, as much as I would love to be linking waves right now, the learning process has always been one of the most rewarding parts of any foil discipline for me. So yeah, prone has been a slower burn than expected, but I’m grateful to have a long runway of potential ahead to work for.
Hope that’s helpful. DM me if you want to catch very few waves together. I’m mostly at Tabletops and DM Dog Beach
I am a life long surfer (age 40) and its took me a few years of prone foiling practice to get good enough to connect into another wave out the back. It can definitely be frustrating at times but stick with it and you will notice small improvements. Embrace the struggle its all part of the fun
With your sailing back round maybe consider wing foiling or the parawing ?? Its a great way to get on foil. Hope this helps
Have you considered Foil Drive? I am under 20 sessions in and I just started foiling. I stood up on the second session and now I’m buzzing around catching bumps out the back way away from surfers. There’s no waiting around. 45 mins on foil with a spill here and there. It’s a cheat code and I’m sure there are some spots down there that open up with FD. Even just e-foiling around on FD is insane. You might want to consider it!
20 for 20 is not bad man. Just be patient. I’ve been learning prone for a year and a half in San Diego as well. But I only had enough time to go once every two weeks or so. I have about 45 sessions in. I also started on a 65L board. I had my personal best of 20 waves in a session the other day, including the links.
I’m not very consistent. I’ll feel stellar one day (like that one) and crap another day.
The wind has finally stopped blowing hard onshore and finally ditched the gloves as the water is warming up, and so of course two back to back nightmare sessions because everything feels different and can hardly pump and bogging every turn. I was in a nice groove and now it’s all reset. Infuriating.
Hard to get good and impossible to master is a nice combo compared to all the easy options I reckon
I HATE white wash wave takeoffs. The paddle hard and white wash around you and you’re gaining speed to just take off on the non-breaking wave…these are the worst types of waves that are inconsistent and generally frustraiting for me as a surfer of +16 years.
I found the best waves for me were normal breaking waves or sandbars, even if its just a giant wal-mart wall of water that’s 1ft tall, you can gain enough speed to paddle and get on foil, once the wave crashes it starts to rebuild in the inside and you can pump back out and catch another wall or just keep pumping.
I also think your board is too heavy at 60liters. try 35L board, less than 6ft. youre unable to duckdive that thing
I learned to sup and prone foil a while back 15 years older the op. Neither was very difficult for me if the conditions were good (peeling point/reef waves waist high and just enough white water/throw to get going.) Pumping on the other hand has become a chore, so switched to FD. Took a couple days of pure physical abuse to figure out how manage all that extra weight while on foil!
It’s totally worth putting in the time to get good prone. But, you need the right conditions and gear. A frustrating aspect of being 97kg is needing a bigger foil. A lot of the bigger foils can’t handle the acceleration of a take off. I’m not familiar with the HS1250, but it might be one of those too big for take off and too small to pump foils where you get lifted hard, but then the foil drops out when you try to pump. That said, I learned on some pretty bad gear and sure had fun on it. Since you’ve got plenty of time on the water so far, I’d for sure demo something like a Code 1130S or 1300s as an older but really good foil that doesn’t lift too hard and does pump great.
I agree. 65L sounds like way too much. Okay for the fattest days maybe. But anything else it’s too much energy at take off. Trying to get to your feet as the foil is already lifting up. Okay for an experienced foiler but not for learning
Conditions, conditions… For an admitted avg. level surfer, a midlength 65 liter lets a 97kg (215lbs and why would a SD say “kg!”) paddle out to the reform area at the cliffs and get in early. Short period beach break, then go shorter and thinner. I still think it’s the foil…
