After ending up torso twisted toeside after a jibe just feels so wrong as an ancient windsurfer. I end up rounding up or just splashing down. Switching feet mid jibe like a windsurfer destabilizes the critical foil pitch/yaw/carve etc and I just splash down. I have watched many youtube learner videos but still perplexed and have not completed a single jibe in a year of trying. Any tips or video links to help de-program the windsurfer in me and someday make a foiling jibe?

Biggest adjustment for me as a windsurfer is using the lift from the wing to unweight my feet and allow them to easily be switched.
Much like sinking down on the boom during a fin gybe keeps the board flat.

Don't feel that you need to switch your feet to 'complete a gybe' . it's fine to ride out 'toeside' and then later 'switch your feet'. because maybe you will one day be surfing a wave, and it will be so much easier to link turns.

It seems you are coming out of the gybe ok, but then finding it hard to continue riding 'toeside'? often rounding up into wind, or stalling?
Next time try riding out of the gybe more downwind on a broad reach, and keep more weight on the front foot, (my guess is you are subconsciously leaning toward the back of the board, which is either stalling the foil, or rounding up. keep the wing slightly out in front of you which will help stop you rounding up, keep your knees bent, and keep looking in the direction you want to go.
Practice that 'twisted up' stance on dry land.

Hard to offer a solution without watching a vid of your attempts, but I find a wide span tail will give you more stability in roll and give you more freedom to move your feet on the board and not fall in.

Find some smooth and consistent wind and water, get steady speed and wait for steady wind before the gybe. If it is gusty it's easier to gybe in the gust rather than the lull. Maybe narrow your stance a tiny bit. Do a couple of tiny tap pumps before you turn, I find this helps me feel the lift centre.

take your time you try and keep a consistent turn radius , and again remember you have plenty of time.

During the turn if im not feeling steady or to buy myself a bit more time, I do some more tiny tap pumps, the reason I do this is to engage with the centre of lift if the foil, this make you feel
more in control rather than just gliding along on a random floating cloud.

Use any chops to your advantage, starts the turn from the top of a chop and try to stay high in the bump, if you drop down you will run into the back of the next bump, then you are foiling up hill and you will
lose momentum.

As you come out dont sheet in too much just ride at a 3/4 reach and slowly come up to 90. Gybe done!

What others say plus feet position. Move feet so weight is equal front and back when heelside. I have backfoot three quarter over centre line and front foot 1/4 to 1/3 over pointing fairly forward. I sail one side much better than other unless I concentrate on ensuring feet right, and have to twist hips more to keep weight even as not built symmetric.

I had the same struggle for a long time. I can windsurf gybe without even thinking but unlocking the muscle memory has been a challenge. I used to regularly find I was(and still do when it goes wrong) leaning too much to the inside, even getting the rail down lol. I would go into gybes with all the right intent and then find old habits would take over.

All good tips above. Key for me was under arm grip on front hand (found it helped with staying neutral and I didn't hang off the boom so much) and learning to ride the foil in a neutral position (I.e. not relying on the wing for balance and leveraging the mast). Finding that neutral spot for general riding made that mid point of the gybe feel a lot more normal. Also find some flat water if you can, being able to focus on the foil without waves helps. Good luck

Fly out of a gybe on a broad reach and stay switch stance for as long as you can.

Qtwind said..
You mean toe side ;-) I've had very confusing conversations with foilers who have only ever snowboarded. To them switch stance was switching your feet round.

But the OP is a windsurfer. In windsurfing, toe side carries no meaning, the term used 100% of the time is "switch".

Some drills to work up to it and encourage good technique:

1. Going downwind - put slight toe pressure on (you want the carve to be very gradual), lift the wing up above your head with both arms as you go downwind, then once pointing almost dead downwind weight your heels to carve back to your original course across the wind. You will need to enter with some speed to avoid coming off the foil - this is made less scary by the fact you have both hands on the wing. Once comfortable, move to 2). If the wind is light you may need to actively push the back hand upward to keep the wing in the air.

2. Gliding downwind - as 1) with the same wing position, but now you want to take your back hand off the wing once 30 degrees off the wind. Carry on gliding to near downwind. Once you can comfortably glide for 3-4 secs like this move to step 3).

3. Now, as per 2) but carry on through downwind. Keep your weight forward as you come off the foil (once though the wind). Once off the foil change the hands, then change feet and sail off. When changing the feet, do it the opposite way to when windsurfing. i.e. old back foot comes forward as the first movement, then the old front foot goes back.

4. With more practice you can start coming out of the turn on the foil, switch stance. Make sure you come out on a broad reach as this is easier when starting to learn to sail switch.

5. Try and sail switch stance further and further. Your first few attempts may be 5metres, then 10, then further. After a while you'll be able to sail long distances switch.

6. Once comfortable sailing switch, it's time to learn the foiling foot change. To do this, whilst sailing switch stance practice moving the old back foot gradually further forward. Once it gets far forward enough, the nose of the board will drop, and you'll touch down on the water. At this point use your foot switch that you practiced in 3). It is much much easier to change the feet with the old back foot far forward.

7. As you get better, you can make the switch whilst touching down but still foiling, then whilst still up in the air.

Two things I remind myself while winging:
1) it's a wing, not a sail.
2) concentrate on glide / the foil. What helped me with gybes is to hold the wing up pretty high and flat and with a slight reach to the front. Then carve through the turn (try not to pivot to much).


With snowboarding your feet are fixes to your board in a stance (either regular or goofy). Your turns are frontside (toeside rail in the snow) or backside (heelside rail in the snow). And you can ride normal (strong foot in front) or - if you got the skills - switch (strong foot in back, because your stance is fixed you actually ride backwards).
For winging I use the term "switch" when I ride with my toes on the wind-side, whereas in the regular stance your heels are on the wind-side. I believe that's the same for windsuring and kitesurfing. Maybe "twisted" is more appropriate.

Also an old time windsurfer that used to swap my feet half way through my windsurfing gybe.
Couldn't get used to the idea of riding toe side after gybing, so learnt to swap my feet right before gybing, going in both directions.
It was not easy, but now I am realising well worth the effort.
I can, but hate riding toe side, it's uncomfortable and not as efficient in going up wind.

I spent last summer wing foiling exclusively. MAYBE made 4 wobbly, but foiling gybes from March to September. Basically got out once a week. Gave up the wing and went back to wind foiling. Love the feeling of wind foiling and I definitely don't miss the swim back when the wind drops.Ordered a custom Reef Warrior from Casey Treichler for wind foiling. The board should work well for winging too, if I ever decide to try it again.

40+ sessions in and still struggling to jibe. During today's session I had an ah-ha moment: my 40+ years of windsurfing are not helping. The good advice in this thread is to RIDE THE FOIL! I can ride in a straight line and do S-turns wonderfully. Well, today, kept trying to practice luffing the wing in my front hand and riding the glide and pumping the foil. But when I did this I found myself falling back to the heel side. I could only luff for short moments and had to quickly re-grab with the back hand before I fell backward. That's from all those years leaning back against the pull of the sail. My feet are somewhat offset. Should they both be directly over the centerline?

So please offer me some tips on how to get comfortable at luffing the wing and riding the foil.

Thanks!

Tip from me is to be looking where you want to go, not at the board, the wing or where you are.

I was telling my 9 year old grandson the same in our last surf session, now that he is starting to cut across the face.

Regular stance toes point at wing
Switch stance, toes point away from wing

There are many other valid descriptions depending on which branch of the sliding sports people graduated in.

^. Yes, guilty

I Started winging in December and progress has been a series of steps as different mental blocks are overcome.
carving the gybe on the foil is pretty simple provided you ride the board and don't lean into or out of the turn. I quickly got to making 50% of my gybes, with the other 50% being falls due to balance issues. But then at the end of each gybe was a crash because I couldn't get my head around switch/toeside stance. What got me past that was 1/ focus on maintaining front foot pressure as I completed the gybe and 2/ exiting on a broad reach as the stance is easier to maintain. One issue solved, but I still hadn't dealt with my inconsistent balance issue. I now focus my attention entire forwards to the front of the board, and this seems to have made a big difference. For the last few sessions I've been making 90%+ of my gybes with falls mostly related to trying to switch my feet.. The next challenge!