Foil jibes - a few observations

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FoilDodo
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Foil jibes - a few observations

Foil jibes are cool if for no other reason, they keep you foiling in conditions where you can barely even pump on to the foil. It's like the amusement park ride that never ends. I'm by no means an expert although I did a good job of showing Gene what not to do yesterday. Lol

I don't make every jibe and I'm certainly not an expert. However, some things have occurred to me while swimming and then dragging my butt back on the board a few few hundred times. A lot of this is a synthesis of stuff I've seen and read elsewhere. However, a lot of people tell you what to do but aren't clear about how it's different than the jibe you've been doing for 1, 5 or 25 years.

The step jibe so many of us have been taught and do is your enemy - sort of. (For those starting out, the original back foot steps forward by the mast as you get ready to flip the sail. This steadies and flattens the board which helps it plane through the jibe.)

The strap to strap jibe - I believe, because I really don't do them- doesn't have as much of these issues (in this one, you don't move your feet until after completing it). However, a strap to strap jibe on most of the foil boards we use - 80cm and wider - is difficult. That's why you see it in say, a Slingshot promo video, but not in an IQFoil race.

Here are the issues:
* You will instinctively step forward of the front strap as you jibe. As soon as you do, you will never complete the jibe foiling. The board will set down on the water. All your footwork has to occur between the straps. You have to force yourself to make that step either up to, or better, into the new front strap. There is no way around this. I remember having to say it out loud to prevent my monkey brain from making me stepping forward.
* The step forward we used to do opened the sail as we went downwind. When you don't open the sail, you will get backwinded. You know this is happening when you are almost dead downwind and then the sail flattens you even if you jibed in a gust. If you are no longer stepping forward, you have to do that yourself. Focused on Gene yesterday, I didn't and swam. What works for me is to consciously sweep the sail across my face so that the harness lines pass across.It's a big sweeping motion as you go through the carve - both hands start on one side of your body and then end over at the other.

A few extra thoughts:
* Don't look at your sail as you flip. Just don't. Looking at the exit solves all sorts of problems. If you are having trouble with the flip, getting pulled over, turning too far upwind, etc it's because you are looking at what your hands are already doing. On a finned board, you can occasionally get away with this. On a foil board, especially as the sail gets bigger, you can't.
Looking at the sail also slows your brain down. It separates the steps of the sail flip and the exit. If you let your hands deal with the flip, your brain can concentrate on the exit and keeping the board at the correct attitude. You can save a lot of crappy jibes this way. It's surprising.
* If you are in under 20 mph of wind - look for a gust to jibe in. The gust is your friend. The extra speed gives you so much more time to glide downwind and do everything at half speed. The lighter the wind, so you don't lose speed, the tighter you have to carve and quicker everything has to happen.
* In super light air, let the sail rotate around your backhand, not around the front. This lets the backwind pressure flip the sail by pushing on the front half.
* Where you place the back foot when you step across controls the board's tendency through the carve. If you are constantly landing about halfway through the jibe, try placing the back foot a bit further back.
* Just like a regular jibe, bending the knees helps you stay forward, open the sail and do the flip.
* Last - no one is scoring your jibes. The important thing is to exit with speed. If you touch once or a few times, maybe you feel like you are losing style points. But, it doesn't matter and nobody else cares. What staying on a foil does is help you keep speed (less drag) which is why we do it. Over time, you can polish things up and it's certainly easier with a small sail. Don't get hung up trying to look like a promo video. It's like instagram models - a lot of time real life looks very different.

I hope that there's something in here that helps others.

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Re: Foil jibes - a few observations

Good stuff
Thanks

Alan

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Re: Foil jibes - a few observations

Gwen jibes his new board. Note the footwork and sail motion. 10 kts of wind


https://www.facebook.com/1079199753/videos/10220161977934547/
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Langdon
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Re: Foil jibes - a few observations

Gwen got lots of dead flat water to practice on.

The flights on WP were so much smoother than Lanier.

Learning to windsurf on Lanier is kinda like learning to play basketball on gravel. Yep, we will be better for it in the long run but it gonna take awhile.

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webguy
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Re: Foil jibes - a few observations
Langdon wrote:

Gwen got lots of dead flat water to practice on.

The flights on WP were so much smoother than Lanier.

Learning to windsurf on Lanier is kinda like learning to play basketball on gravel. Yep, we will be better for it in the long run but it gonna take awhile.

To paraphrase Mike Tyson: Everyone has a plan until they get hit by the chop on Lake Lanier

--- The Arrogant Jerk: Crabby and irritable since 1998.

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Re: Foil jibes - a few observations
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Langdon
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Re: Foil jibes - a few observations

How to do a Foil gybe? Windfoil Web Clinic Ep. 3

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Langdon
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Re: Foil jibes - a few observations

Just saw Gwen's latest video and there's a real nice jibe that shows how wide to make a powered up jibe. A lot of us, starting out, try to cut a pretty sharp curve and we end up coming around too fast. Check this one out. He glides a fair distance downwind and does his sail flip and foot change while still way off the wind. Only after that does he round back up to a reach. He's on a 6.3 freerace sail in what looks like 12-20.

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Langdon
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Re: Foil jibes - a few observations

Also

When jibing in higher wind with swell and wind chop.
There is a few seconds while going downwind that ones perception is that one is traveling very slowly because your board speed is close to that of the surrounding wave speed.
I have to make myself look away from the water and look toward shore. I think as I get use to the rise and fall of the swell as I go thru the jibe this will become easier.

Also again. Gwen's foiling playground is a lot smoother than ours with many less moving obstacles.

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webguy
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Re: Foil jibes - a few observations

The last couple of sessions, my port and starboard jibes were worlds apart. Jibing with the right hand forward, I could do no wrong. With the left forward, it was a disaster. Same person, same gear, different directions, different results. Fool

One thing that was apparent was that on the bad side, I was exiting too quickly and sharply. After much thought and trial and error, I discovered a few things:
1) Bend the knees. Yeah, I know - supposedly I learned that one 25 years ago but, on a foil, you aren't bouncing around so it's easy to forget. Bending the knees not only steadies you but, more importantly, helps you open the sail enough.
2) Spot the exit. But, but, I thought I was... Finally it dawned on me: on the bad side, I was spotting just outside of the clew and that's what was forcing me to carve too far. On the good side, I was spotting the exit through the sail. This forced me to stay downwind and stop carving back up. Once I flipped the sail, I could easily start back up and accelerate.

Now, before I'm misunderstood, you have to have the sail very open and swinging across your face when you spot the exit through the sail. If you keep the sail too tight and on the inside of the turn, you'll get backwinded and b*tch slapped into the water. Do not look at anything outside of the clew (end) of the sail until you've flipped. Once you've flipped and the board is steady, then you can turn back up to a reach.

Hope this helps and keeps someone from swimming like I did a few times today.

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FoilDodo
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Re: Foil jibes - a few observations
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