Broken waves when pumping out to sea, how do you deal with it? From surf ski rescue board days I know to accelerate and try get as much speed, but I wonder if that is appropriate? I also feel like I’m overdoing the climb to get over it, and end up stalling by trying to gain too much height over them.
Maybe the trick is to just hammer straight at it with just enough height to clear the board but no more?
Unbroken waves seem easy, just roll them like a skate ramp to get a speed boost.
Down the line on a close out wave, how do you kick over it to pump out to see without stalling out in the foam? Seems like you need to attack it a bit like a foam climb, and ideally find a slack section, but sometimes on the beachy waves they don’t have an easy exit. Any tips?
This is important where we live as we get so many closeouts. I’ve found that hitting it medium speed seems better than fast and then don’t try and pump until you’ve cleared the turbulence.
For taking off on closeouts I’ve found that getting the foil as high as possible as soon as you can allows you to ride straight in a bit further giving the whitewater time to die down before you angle your way over it. Same thing, get high on the foil glide over the foam and don’t try to pump until you’re well clear!
Nice, do you think the medium speed applies to HA/fast wings as much as MA? The MA wings that is easy enough, but often find the hardest on the smaller wings (899) that medium speed + the need to delay the pump means I’m inclined to hit it at full speed.
I imagine this being a useful niche skill to master for those of us with a pitchy beachbreak.
I actually think that MA wings are a much better tool for the job. The increased span on HA makes the turbulence more of an issue and the higher stall speed means digging out the other side is harder. When conditions are like that reach for my 195 MA. On the HA wings it’s much harder.
I also think tail plays a part. A narrow tail with longer chord like the Blunt makes it easier to dig out at low speed once you’re past the wash.
Just posted a clip on my insta if you want to see it in action.
I think that illustrates your point around timing too, wait until the wave has made the initial punch before kicking over, as it gives you a nice little exit section there. And yes tail is important, you ideally want 4x4 low-range feeling to dig through the mush. Key I think is to attack it at sufficient angle, the bigger/hollwer the wave is, the more angle you need.
For what it’s worth, here is the example of failing to deal with broken waves head-on. I think that wave was bigger than I really knew what to do with.
Broken waves when pumping out to sea, how do you deal with it? I know to accelerate and try to get as much speed, but I wonder if that is appropriate? I also feel like I’m overdoing the climb to get over it, and end up stalling by trying to gain too much height over them.
I usually try to time it so that I have enough speed to coast through the whitewater with legs compressed so ready to absorb and react to start pumping again. Also I try to visualize how deep the whitewater is affecting my foil. In other words, keep the mast high but the foil under the white to reduce pitching moments. Also u want to work on this technique when there’s more water column to work with, bc whitewater and shallow sandbar is a very tough combination.
Still trying to crack this, primary issue is the amount of turbulence behind the wave combined with the fact that you lose so much speed getting over it… I guess there is probably a limit to the size / power.
Straight-hander beach breaks are not really foil compatible.
when we see this here in Israel, we search for a different spot where there’s a deeper area to the right or to the left where the wave doesnt break allowing easy pimping to deep water. This will be at the edge of a sand bar or somewhere with a rocky bottom
Thanks @FoilMad, that was the best of 20++ attempts, the day before I managed to escape to the backline but this day I was not so lucky.
@MediterraneanFoiler yeah usually that spot has a good peak breaking along a sand bank, but once the size gets overhead then it starts to closeout quite consistently.
First hit for foiling in Israel shows a clip of some foam climbs
You did really well to get that far. The 2nd one that takes you down. It’s just to big and to strong. Needed to somehow let the power subside before trying to go through it. Either way. Try to glide up high on the mast for longer after going through the white water. Glide as long as possible before you have to pump again. Get to clean water. Really hard to do.
Could’ve maybe turned on the first one and rode that one in a bit to let the outside wave lose some energy.
Great attempt for those sized waves. It looks like you had an opportunity to pull out right after you got up and make it outside. Once you ride that far in it gets so hard to break thru. With whitewater that big pump hard, stay light on your feet and pray!
What are people’s thoughts about this situation: shallow beach break with a-frames. I’m a bit stiff, which I’m working on, and in thick booties so my pop-ups are slowish. So if I take off straight at the beach I’ll often end up far enough from the gap that it’s hard to make it there in time. That’s what I’ve been doing lately but I think I was having better luck before when I’d pull in and immediately turn down the wave and as long as it wasn’t closing on me then get to my feet. In this way I maintain a more constant speed on a wave that stays consistent, and I’m able to peel out as soon as I’m up and have gained a bit of speed. Common wisdom is always straight at the beach but I’m wondering if that is more relevant to nice bars with channels?
