It has been 3 weeks since my last session
on the foilboard. I wish I could go for a practice daily but I've found
out there are occasionally other things in life too!
I was afraid such a long break from the
action would seriously hamper my efforts of learning to foil properly.. but that turned out to be unfounded!
So I went out to Sealine this time, armed
with a paraglider, a kite and a foilboard in the truck. Wind forecast
was easterly somewhere between 7-9 knots for the afternoon. Funny enough
the actual at Sealine when I left home was still northwesterly at
around 12 knots. But the wind has an interesting way of changing into a
nice seabreeze almost daily anywhere between 10 am and 1 pm.
And that is exactly what happened today. By the time I arrived it was
pumping at a crazy 8 knots nicely onshore. My friends Chris and Sarah
came out for the day as well and together we found a nice spot that
looked paraglideable and was still directly on the coastline.. Time to
get set up and hit the water!
At first I dolphined around for a good 10
minutes probably. My last session had been on a regular board where I
needed lots of pressure on the back foot. Time to make a big adjustment
and think forward foot only and go for it. That really paid off, i
foiled my longest stretches without even touching down or crashing
today! (Except for once or twice where a little waved caught me off
gaurd maybe..)
Turning into wind and starting to lean
and balance back more is becoming easier. Going upwind is no problem
whatsoever. Going downwind is what needs a lot of work! So I try to
point the foil downwind and have the kite besides me instead of directly
in front. This is not easy. It is hard to work out where the kite
should sit to have a steady downwind direction and speed. I can send the
kite up and down and get back downwind that way but there should be
more elegant ways to do this! Or is that something reserved only for the
top race competitors in the kitefoil scene I see on Youtube?
Anyways I managed a more upwind and a
more downwind angle than ever kiting on the water before, so in the end I
can say I did make some progress today! I can still have hopes of
eventually being able to go all over the place, gybing and tacking away
and flying high above the water..!!
