You have been foiling for a while now and are you ready to push yourself to try something new? The foiling jibe may be the next step! Jibing (or gybing) is a very basic move in windsurfing.
However jibing with a windfoil is quite different and surprinsingly more difficult, as you need to deal with a whole new aspect: the height of your foil.
It’s a super cool feeling when you finally get your first foiling jibe all the way through, without touching down the water, but it’s definitely not easy.
We have previously written an article about foil jibing, based on Sebastian Kornum’s advice. Here comes a great new video of Wyatt Miller, Brand Manager at Slingshot, explaining in a very simple way the 5 keys to close your first foiling jibes:
Want to learn more?
Here is a summary of the 5 keys to make your first windfoil jibe:
1- Slow everything down:
At the beginning, you should also make a long turn and take your time. It doesn’t matter if you go very deep downwind as your foiling board is going upwind very well, you know you are going to get that back.
2- Back foot placement:
Take the back foot out of the footstrap, and place it as far back as possible, just in front of the back strap and in the middle of the board. This is important to keep the board level.
3- Low foiling height:
You want to lower your height on the foil because when you will shift the position of your feet, you will have all the weight on the back foot for a short moment, which may lift the foil. If you are too high on the foil, you will over-foil and crash.
4- Sail flip:
Release the backhand from the boom when you are completely downwind. The sail will flip gently around the nose of the board. You will then take the sail on the other side with your new backhand, with just enough pressure on the sail to close the jibe. Don’t sheet (i.e. close) your sail too much!
5- Foot switch
You don’t want to switch your feet until the very last possible moment. Instead, you should go in the new direction switched stance as far as you can, until you obtain a very stable, balanced flight in your new direction before you go for the foot switch.
Then go for a quick foot switch:
The key of the foot switch is to take the front foot out of the strap and place it in the middle of the board. If you put it on the rail, you will fall. The new front foot goes tightly back into the front footstrap (or in the center of the board).
Wyatt Miller recommends to flip the sail first and switch feet afterwards. This is his technique. Other will prefer to switch feet first and then flip the sail. Test both solutions, and find what works best for you!
As Wyatt says: “It’s not easy but it’s totally doable!”
Good luck!
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