After two weeks of trying to prone foil almost every day, I was beyond frustrated. Coming from a surf background (but zero foil experience), it was the hardest thing I’ve ever tried.
I kept a journal of each session (conditions/crowd/learnings), listened to the pod casts, read every article and watched every video trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. I felt helpless.
Suddenly today, something clicked. I had my first 10 second ride down the line with control, then another, another, and eventually took a few for 500ft+ at my local point break. After so much frustration, gliding quietly down a perfect mushy wave a few feet in the air - absolutely priceless. I feel like a little kid discovering some kind of magic. Mind blown.
I might be kidding myself, but idk. I’ve only tried dw on marginal days like 15kts/1.5’ max waves, and managed to get up briefly a few times. I guess we will see when I get actual conditions. OTOH, prone has been insanely hard for me. Stiff hips means hard pop ups, and a beach break means I need to get a lot right very quickly. It’s been a couple of years almost and I’m barely connecting. I have to remind myself that even short flights are fun, although I feel breakthrough is perpetually at the next session. I’ve gone from excited to learn to proud I haven’t given up.
If yesterday taught me anything, a breakthrough can come when you least expect it! The first 30 min of yesterday’s session were terrible - then boom. Gives me hope for trying new things in the future haha
Happy to hear it. If you figure out what it was that clicked, I’m interested to know! Been at it about 1.5 months and I’m getting 5 sec rides but still feels off. I did find watching the board as it came into foil helped with the initial movement being more stable and consistent
so as a newer foiler as well there is something to be said about the first couple waves of a session. They might suck haha. You spent years surfing so your brain is still trying to figure it out. I am 10 months in and popping up is just starting to feel second nature. Keep it up. It gets better and easier and those 500+ feet rides turn into almost two minute rides. It turns into a game and you learn control over your foil.
For me, I realized I was rushing my pop-up, staring at my feet after taking off, and not keeping my body tight (moving the least amount possible once up helped me a lot). Crazy how sensitive the whole thing is.
I also find myself getting antsy/overly excited when a set rolls through - taking a few deep breaths to calm down before paddling for a wave helps a lot. From there, getting a nice stable take-off, slowly lifting, and focusing only on going down the line (not at my feet). Doing some very slow pumps also helps (I like to rise slowly and then go down faster to generate some more momentum). I realized a lot of my early instability came from going too slow (its like trying to ride a bike that is going extremely slow - harder to balance).
Overall, just doing everything slower helped me a lot. I almost always botch my takeoffs when I jump to my feet,
I don’t love the idea of self promoting myself on this forum but I feel like it might help you a little. I have a YouTube channel pretty much documenting my first day to today literally. Might be a few tips in there for ya. Feel free to check it out if interested and no hard feelings if it is not your cup of tea.
I found looking up, or where you’re going, helps for me, like that tie die guy who was actually interviewed on the show said: look up, stay up, look down, fall down. That’s true with pumping I find. Many times I’m looking to see how high I am but that makes me slow down, and I go where I’m looking, which is straight down. Look and jump to where you want to be. Another thing is flat hands vs rail grabbing. I think flat works much better.
Btw I also learned recently that extending your body on every pump helps a lot, so with the other learning I sing a Bob Marley tune: look up, stand up, stand up for your flight. Idk it’s silly but it might help remind me of the main points.
Reading so much info and listening to so many podcasts can be mind bogging… You go down the rabbit hole…
But feeling it and clicking it’s the best feeling… Take a while… Feel all the new stuff you’re learning… And then read and listen again … Those feelings will be like … “I know kung fun” matrix scene
