If you’ve never tried foiling before, it’s hard to get the hang of it. This can be made easier if you combine it with other practices:
- Wing. In winging you also pump to lift yourself up and it helps to keep your balance on the foil. In my case I learned to pump before but this helped me progress faster in winging, so it works both ways.
- Efoil. An efoil is a board with a small electric motor on the foil. Renting one can help you get the feel of the foil under your legs. There are even people who use it to lift themselves up and then turn it off to pump, so you save the step of jumping off the dock and you’re already in the right position.
- Wakefoil. This consists of being pulled by a boat or jet ski with a rope. It seems easy but I did it once before starting to pump and I could barely hold on for a few seconds before falling into the water.
- River with current. You can try to lift the foil in a river with a current by holding on to a rope, but think about safety first. Make sure there is nothing dangerous downstream, make sure there is enough depth. It is not usually recommended to use a leash in a river in case it gets caught on a rock or tree trunk, and if you do, put on a waist leash for quick release, and it is essential to carry a knife on hand to be able to cut it if necessary. You can also get tangled up in the rope you are holding and drown due to the force of the current, so in these cases you have someone next to the rope to cut it in case of problems.
It can also be interesting to practice some exercises out of the water:
- The initial jump putting the board on an armchair or bed
- The pumping on a skate park, or even with the board on the bed.
Watch videos, read experiences, buy another foil or second-hand board to change things up… The important thing is to find something that motivates you to come back and keep trying and trying, which in the end is the limiting factor.
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