If your goal is downwind, it’s not essential to use the foil in flat water, but achieving it will give you confidence that you’ll be able to ride the waves (if you can maintain your balance in choppy water).
If you don’t know how to pump a pumpfoil, I don’t recommend this approach. It’s much harder to learn this way than running around a dock on a small board.
If you have experience paddleboarding, it will help, as it requires balance and efficient paddling. If not, you can do it, but you’ll need a few sessions to optimize your paddling and balance.
Equipment
You need a long, narrow downwind board; ideally, a carbon one, but it’s possible to do it with an inflatable board like the Gong Cruzader or Takoon Escape Air.
Straps aren’t necessary; in fact, they can be uncomfortable if they’re not in the ideal position, but they can also be helpful at first to maintain better balance. I used them at first, but I stopped using them when my balance in the first pumping/paddling phase was already good.
To start, you’ll also need a large, high-aspect front foil that will allow you to pump efficiently on a small board (in my case, I used a Gong Sirus XXL). Besides being easier to lift if the foil is large, it will also help with stability if the foil has a large wingspan. As for the stabilizer, the smaller ones that are efficient for pumping haven’t worked well for me; they aren’t very stable when exiting, so larger stabilizers work better for me (in my case, the Sirus L and XL stabs worked best for me).
As for the position of the foil on the board, it can depend on the board. With a Gong Hipe Cruzader, I’ve managed to exit by placing it about 1 cm forward of the initial position. This is what Ludovic Freefoiler recommends. But personally, with the Takoon Escape Air 8′, I find it easiest with the mast as far back as possible.
It’s important that the paddle is efficient. Avoid 3-piece paddles, which tend to give a little with each stroke. The ideal is a one-piece paddle, but they tend to be expensive and inflexible, so two-piece paddles are more common. There are 400g carbon paddles, 1kg plastic and aluminum paddles, and intermediate paddles that combine materials and weigh around 600g. I started with a 1kg paddle, and when I switched to a 600g paddle, I noticed a significant difference in the paddling agility that is important for this goal (in my case, I used the Decathlon Itiwit 500 paddle).
The paddle size is also important to optimize the stroke. I’ve been testing, and in the end, the one that worked best for me was to set it at 190cm, given my height of 177cm. The position of your bottom hand is also important; as a reference, I set it at 116cm, measured from the tip of the blade. I recommend sticking a piece of duct tape to that point, so you can tell by feel if your hand is in the right position without having to look.
Feet Position
Feet position is very important. It depends on the board, the foil, the position of the mast on the board… But there’s an easy solution to finding the ideal spot: doing a dock start by running along the dock with the big board. After you’ve been pumping it for a while, your feet will move on their own to the ideal pumping position, so watch carefully or record yourself doing it. This will be the ideal position to initiate the flat start.
Training
Unless you’re ace, you won’t get it right on the first day, so you have to practice several things:
Paddling only on one side and knowing how to correct your direction. This is done by inserting the paddle a little further away from the board, or by separating the paddle when removing it. At first, you can do it by thinking about it, but you have to internalize it so it comes naturally. Sometimes it can help to have a slight angle between the paddle and the handle.
Paddling with one foot in front and the other behind. This isn’t the usual paddleboarding position, so it feels awkward at first. You can practice this with a normal (wider) paddleboard; taking it out to sea or in slightly choppy waters will be a challenge. A good workout involves trying to catch small waves with the paddleboard.
Pumping the board without using the paddle. Leave the paddle and start pumping the board. When you get it right, you’ll be able to move forward without a paddle (see the next video), even correcting your course little by little. This movement is key to raising the foil. Pros are even able to raise the foil like this without a paddle, but I would say it’s impossible to raise the foil in flat water with just the paddle without pumping.
Let’s get started
Once the equipment is well prepared and the basic training is complete, let’s try it. Since the technique won’t be perfect at first, we’ll need to put in a lot of effort with each attempt. You have to give it your all, as if it were a sprint. This means that after 8 or 10 attempts, your session will start to come to an end because fatigue will make you worse.
If there’s any wind (even a small amount), always try with your tailwind. And if there’s a bit of current, try against the current; this will help you raise the foil with less relative speed.
The steps to follow:
Start picking up forward speed by paddling alone. Three or four strokes are usually enough.
Start pumping with your feet at the same pace as your strokes. At first, this step will destabilize you, but it’s a matter of training, and you’ll improve session after session.
After a few strokes and simultaneous pumps to find balance, you need to think about increasing your stroke and pump frequency. Make your stroke stronger and your pump more pronounced. Here, you need to give it your all in sprint mode.
If you do the previous step correctly, the foil will start to want to rise. At this point, it’s important to remember two key points:
Look forward, not down. If we look down, we’ll easily lose balance. You don’t need to look at the horizon; you can look at the water a few meters ahead and see the tip of the board out of the corner of your eye.
Lean your body forward. Instinctively, when rising, we tend to lean our body back; this way, we’ll lose balance as the foil begins to rise. To maintain balance, it’s vital to lean your body forward.
If you do the previous step correctly, the board will rise, but that’s not all. Even if the board is upright, your speed isn’t usually enough to initiate a solo stroke. Give it two more strokes with all your might, maintaining the key points from the previous step (eyes forward, body forward) to avoid losing your balance, and you’re done!
