My pump has been improving lately mostly due to me using wave energy more effectively getting back out. I’m not sure how much better I’ve gotten at the actual technique though.
Oddly enough there was one day when I was out that I seemed to make a leap of progression temporarily. It was a windy day and while pumping out I believe I was getting hit by cross winds. For whatever reason I was getting a really aggressive nose dip on the down stroke and every time I pushed against it, I felt a noticeable “woosh” sensation with strong forward momentum. That whole session I felt like that and my pump distance at least doubled.
The only other variable at the time was that I was experimenting with a slightly shorter fuselage. Can anyone diagnose what was probably happening because I’ve had trouble recreating that exact feeling since then.
I find that having some kind of cross bump or even chop really helps my pump. I think a lot of it is just giving you some kind of feel for ride height, if there’s some chop you can kind of feel that surface level energy when the wing gets really high and you can intuit more about your riding. I also think it gives me some kind of rhythm to tap into and a bit of extra energy to play off of.
Not quite sure if it’s the same, but when pumping out and it’s lumpy, if you time it so that you only pump on the Up slope, and not the Down, then you get much better glides and height.
my best pumping happens on two kinds of days: strong offshore helping me along, and glassy conditions.
I never do well with cross-wind or head-wind or confused seas even without wind.
I pump much better on shorter fuse once the tempo is established. The ability to adjust ride height and get the mast high quickly is massively important.
number one thing for pumping is riding high. ride high. ride high. don’t worry about anything else. ride high.
I think my point above is the critical unlock for pumping in these conditions. If you try pump with a steady rhythm then you have zero chance. It’s like running along boulders, you can’t just stand any old place. You need to be very deliberate about when you pump, and it isn’t regularly.
If we’re talking about texturey bumps, I totally agree. I’ve noticed, in general, that I’m most consistent when pumping diagonal to the wave energy. It feels like I’m doing all the work, but it’s consistent. If I get too parallel though, wave energy might buck me off laterally.
I’m getting better at utilizing waves when they pass through and I’m perpendicular. Doesn’t always end well due to my skill level, but if I time everything right, I can get back really high on my mast.
That graphic is awesome. I’m going to try nailing that timing. Previously I was worried about breaching when pumping at those graph points, but I’ve since realized I can push it higher than I think.
I’ve been thinking about this. Up until now, I’ve ridden with pretty long fuses. I was on the Lift 33 Carve with a fuse extender for a while. I know guys can pump long fuses fine, but for gaining sensitivity to the feel of pumping, I wonder if it’s better to play with a shorter fuse because pitch reaction will be more exaggerated. I’m on a mid-length board right now, so it’s already ironing out all the pitch movements.
I’ve always respected that foiling is hard, but coming from surfing, skateboarding, and BMX, all of which have pumping, I felt like this would have been one of the easier things to pick up.
To add to this, when pumping heading out against the waves / bumps in the surf:
If you try pump with a steady rhythm then you have zero chance. The key is to only ever pump on the face of the wave, and glide on the back. If you get two of the faces close together, then you do two quick pumps. In choppy conditions, you need to hit the upfaces, and this takes practice to spot them. And prioritise the big ones and ignore the smaller ones if it’s chopped up.
I think this is why when you are downwinding and you turn off a wave and pump directly upwind you get that huge boost feeling (try it, it’s like you could go forever, for a bit), pumping into a wave is maybe better than pumping with a wave.
Adding the image again fwiw. you are moving from right to left, waves are going left to right. The arrows show the force direction of each wave relative to your foil at that point
I discovered this effect when winging in flat water even with very little fetch. When pumping downwind with the wing flagged for exercise, I found I was going so much faster than the little bumps that I could hop from one lilly pad to the next. Very fun and interesting to learn just when the foil will be there, since you start your pump before it’s there it goes so fast with the little ones.
Here is a good explanation (7min) of what I was going for, with a reasonably good video demonstrating the timing, though I think surf foilers do it more obviously without realising
Just watched this. I have a couple questions about how gear affects the feel. I prone, so always pumping through waves and not flat water.
I know it’s said that fuselage length can affect the rhythm of the pump. I was wondering if, when learning, there’s any benefit to exaggerating the fuselage length outside of the average. Would either a shorter fuse or a longer fuse provide more “springy” feedback or more glide? Would either exaggeration reduce the feedback and therefore should be avoided?
Also, he emphasizes that running a tiny stab is important for efficiency and that a larger one will increase your cadence due to inefficiency. Would a larger stab be preferable though early on for the same reason I talked about earlier, exaggerating the feedback from the pump?
I started trying to integrate timing my pumps with the small bumps on the way out. It’s pretty hard compared to just timing an occasional wave. Easier for him where he can chill out on his “1.4 meter wing” between pumps.
Interesting video, but I had to keep reminding myself that he was addressing how to maximize LONG distance flat water pump sessions (as its own specialized endurance activity)…as his recommendation, e.g., for soft/gentle/extended pushes, seemed contrary to what James Casey teaches (sharp downstroke followed by slower rise and extension).
They might both be right for their intended context (?)
Would a larger stab be preferable though early on for the same reason I talked about earlier, exaggerating the feedback from the pump?
I think so, a larger stab feels technically, but not energetically, easier to pump. If you’re trying to go for 5+ minutes, it’s really all about getting efficient enough to stay below your anaerobic threshold, but if you’re trying to connect waves, it might be better to work 2% harder and have a more stable platform.
Learning and in surf, only focus on making it easy = longer fuse and bigger stab.
His advice can only really be applied once you are pumping for 10min + and looking to extend that, if not, ignore!
I wonder. I do the short sharp thing for surf and downwind. I don’t flat water pump at all, so that eggshell thing was interesting for me. Doesn’t really sound possible. But they pump for a very long time, and it is all they do, so there is likely to be learning from it
Looking at pumping with the rotational inertia explanation in mind, pushing though your feet is the feeling associated with raising your center of mass.
You want to do this during the tightest pitching radius, but doing it any faster than that it is putting out more power for no benefit.
If the foil pumps faster, the time you’re at that tightest pitching radius is less, and you need to be more abrupt.
I think it has been very common for us to get confused by language. We sometimes talk about a setup being “easier” to pump. That has two meanings: 1) this setup is more forgiving and easier to keep in the sweet-spot, or easier to avoid coming down off pump after a mistake. 2) this setup requires less effort physically
I think it would be good for us to start talking about setup changes making it more forgiving versus more efficient. Both make it easier, but in totally different ways and often we are trading between the two making one of them worse.
Totally agree. I think a setup that had incredible glide but a high stall speed would be considered easy to an advanced rider due to efficiency, but difficult to a beginner due to the stall being unforgiving.
