So I'm still not hitting my jybes after the third month. I'm trying to go down wind, focus on the board not the wing and find that after I've flipped the wing, the board stalls and I fall backwards (never forwards). I know I need to practice switch stance more on windier days but I'm looking to see if anyone could share their breakthrough moment/trick?

DC

would be good to see your stance. i was helping a guy out w/ his jibes and he had his front foot very biased toward the heel side rail and counterbalanced that w/ the back foot on the leeward rail, so he was always really turning w/ his back foot only instead of surfing the foil. also, like a windsurfing jibe it can help to go off the wind first to pick up speed and shorten the carve... esp if you end on a downwind course... your an do a 90-110 degree turn instead of a full 180. as you turn downwind, make sure you have feedback/pressure on your front foot. more speed you'll get more glide. finally when trying to sail switch most people have the wing very overhead at first... the wing needs to go forward to generate forward drive.

MidAtlanticFoil said..
If you have any surfing or foil surfing experience, I like to pretend I'm high lining down a wave backside and then do a cutback to the power source of the wave. This sort of visualization can help breakthrough that wall of turning downwind through to the other side of the wind window. Helps commit to the turn/carve. Dealing with the wing is the other half of the equation haha

To add to the Gold advice above. Come in with controlled speed, lift the wing above you and ride the foil as though you don't even have a wing. Concentrate riding the foil, forget about the wing.

even if you spend a session riding the foil around on the gybe, with wing held horizontally above your head but sink and fall down before your engage the wing - eventually you will add the wing reengagement part and the timing required.


Even try the above and add a slight pump as you travel around this can eventually give you that extra glide needed to then reengage the wing power.



A lot of times now I actually flag the wing completely and pump around the gybe. Good practise for entering waves and also if winging in moderate wind conditions.


but yeh get that wing above you and ride the foil only around the gybe, is the key because that is what we forget to do - worried about that damn wing. Wing is only there as a means to generate enough power to foil!

Mine are still hit and miss but I would like to add, tighter arc when the wind is light so that you get power in your wing quicker i.e. before losing speed and stall; wider arc in stronger wind. Constant arc in both cases.

Lots of good advice here and interesting to hear some different techniques.

For myself a breakthrough when learning was actually delaying the hand switch and holding more power into the jybe. I like to enter with good speed and keep plenty of back hand pressure and power in the wing until I am well into the turn. Then release backhand and carve through the turn. The hand switch is then easier as I am already heading in the other direction.
As I have progressed this technique has been good to get more power and speed in my jybes.

As far as general jybing tips I think the 3 most obvious ones are-
Dont forget to drive the foil through the turn focus on keeping it flying actively. Throw in a few pumps if necessary.

Catch a wave/bump and surf it around. Not always possible if conditions are really flat but even a tiny bump can be helpful.

Don't get lost downwind in your jybe. If you do too loose of an arc you will lose power and drop off the foil. Especially bad if the wind is light. When learning its important to focus on getting momentum in the other direction. Sometimes a lot of pumping of wing and foil is needed to save the jybe as you start in the other direction.

Thank you all, this is very helpful. If I could summarize:

1) Watch foot placement on the board, make sure my feet aren't too off center
2) Keep up the front foot pressure and ensure I have speed going into the turn
3) Don't drag out the turn too much in lighter wind situations as you lose power
4) Look where you are going, not at feet or wing (big help in windsurfing too)
5) Focus on foil first, then wing, pump foil if losing speed and keep the front foot pressure
6) Wing in front not over the head to keep power going
7) Use chop/swell where possible to push into the turn
8) Mast placement (unfortunately, I already have the mast all the way back, seems to work best with Axis foil and Quatro Board.

Thanks again, all, really appreciate your insights.

DC

Additional tip that worked for me: really finish the turn. First few times I tried to jibe (especially going from heelside to toeside) I wasn't finishing my jibes properly. I would initiate the turn, switch my hands, and then would lose power in the wing and not be able to keep flying the foil bc of a stall. Turns out that the reason I was losing power is because I was going straight downwind, and unless it's nuking, it's easy to travel at the same speed of the wind so that it feels like there's no power in the wing and you lose your speed.

What I learned is that at that point you have to keep turning until you're properly going toeside into the wind again, to build up apparent wind and not stall.

So for me, learning to properly go upwind toeside massively helped with my jibes (from heelside to toeside). I wear a GPS watch and would always analyze my upwind angles after each session, and turns out that initially even though I thought I was going upwind toeside, I was really only going on a beam reach. I tweaked my technique, opened up my shoulders, and now I'm able to get better upwind angles toeside than twintip kitesurfers heelside.

And then another trick that really helps me is hand positioning when switching hands. What I now do is: once I've let go of the back hand and grabbed the front handle, i bring the front handle up to my ear so that the back handle is easier to grab with my new back hand. So for example if I'm doing a heelside to toeside jibe: (1) I will let go of the back handle with my right hand, then (2) grab the front handle with my right hand, (3) let go of the front handle with my left hand, and then the "trick" (4) bring the front handle which is now held by my right hand close to my right ear, so that the back handle is now (5) easier to grab with my left hand.

I find that this "trick" of bringing the handle to my ear makes everything much more "balanced" as I don't have to reach and go search for that back handle.

Hope this explanation above makes sense at all and it's useful.

Been reading this thread the last few days, went out and nailed my first 3 jibes today! For me the trick was to look where I want to go and to turn more of then I think I need. Now got to learn to ride toe-side