Foiling jibes are hard, if you ask me (just don't ask Nina). I've spent countless our watching instruction videos; have taken camps and private lessons with one of the best foil instructors in the world; bought new foil boards hoping that they would solve my jibe problems; and tried jibing on the foil often enough that I discovered dozens of ways to screw it up. But I still cannot foil through jibes consistently.
Here are some of the things that I remember from various lessons and videos:
- Use a wide board, it's easier (my Stingray 140 qualifies!)
- Take a big step close to the rail to start the turn. That's suggested in many videos, except that Nico Prien suggested a smaller step closer to the center line.
- When it's time to switch feet, step heel to heel, bringing the old front foot to the back foot.
- Move the old back foot straight into the new front strap.
Can you spot the problem? When I followed step 2 and took a big step, then my crashes in step 3 would be virtually guaranteed, and often scary (like the one where I fell onto the foil with the back of my head .. in case you wondered why I now always wear a helmet). I've blogged about my problems with step 3 before, step 4 remained a pipe dream - I count it as a success when I step on top of my foot straps, instead of landing in front of them, as I usually do (which is 100% effective at dropping the board onto the water).
One issue that I could never wrap my head around was this: if I take a big step to the outside rail, and then try to bring my other foot heel-to-heel, that's also a pretty big step. While taking the second step, all my weight is near the edge of the board, and the board is above the water - meaning it is very tippy. Maybe I'm just to slow? But whatever it is, the board would tilt as if I was trying to start a rail ride, and I'd have to hope that my fall would be away from the foil.
Things finally started to click when I watch a video about the One Hour Classic at Lake Garda:
About 45 seconds into the video, the boat close to the jibe mark captured great footage of several foil jibes. Everyone is on a wide board (#1), and everyone does takes a wide step to the carving rail (#2). But when it comes to moving the old front foot to the back, nobody follows rule 3! Instead of a single step, every single racer takes multiple steps with the new back foot. The first step is a small step out of the front strap, a bit to the back and towards the center of the board. This is immediately followed by the carving foot sliding forward a little bit into the foot strap. After that, there are one or two additional small movements of the back foot that bring it to the other side of the board. Except for the first step onto the carving rail, all foot movements are small.
Considering that the flying board is very reactive, and that we don't want to unsettle it while switching the feet, these multiple small movements make a whole lot more sense than a single big step! I went back to look at some of the instructional videos I had watched, and in most of them, the instructor also takes multiple steps to move the old front foot to the new side. They just don't ever talk about it. All those foilers who learned the foil jibe relatively quickly must have either noticed it, or figured it our on their own. But I know I'm not the only foiler who has a hard time learning to foil through the jibe!
So I'm excited about trying this our in my next foil session (and to try some ideas I have about the tack footwork, too). But I also found it quite exciting to read that at the One Hour Classic, foils were significantly faster than fins. The winner in both fin and foil categories, Jordy Vonk, completed 21 laps in the foil race, but only 19 laps in the windsurf race. The recorded top speeds were also faster for the foils, with 33.59 knots vs. 31.84 knots for fins. Just as amazing was the average speed of 27.4 knots for the hour. On the GPS Team Challenge, the fastest 1-hour result ever posted for the US was about a knot slower (26.46 knots by PWA sailor Taty Frans on slalom gear). So an average speed of 27.4 knots with 20 jibes in Lake Garda chop is pretty amazing!
