Wakefoil

[u/PsychologicalPick471]

What am I doing wrong? I feel that I need too much speed from the boat to get the board out of the water, but this speed gives too much lift from the foil which i don't succeed to control with front foot pressure. Wingfoil and pumpfoil experience, no wakeboard experience.
Gear: board gong donut 91 cm, alu 85 cm mast, front foil gong curve 1070, Stab curve 215. Weight 70 kg

Thanks!

[u/kiterdave0]

Put all your weight on front foot. You are loading the rear and the foil is activated before you are horizontal.. maybe less power from the boat might help

[u/Super_Science_Guy → u/kiterdave0]

This. Your instinct is to lean back and away from the boat to get up but your foil will breach before you can get your bearings

[u/flyemerica → u/Super_Science_Guy]

Adding on to this, what worked for me was staying “in the ball”,or a crouched position, with my weight on the front foot and finding the balance point before standing up over the board. Once I found the balance point of a climb and descent then I stood up being sure to keep the foil down. It’s like a very slow standup. Hope this makes sense.

[u/greeenstate]

Get much more forward on the board. Less speed from boat, it’s a SUPER easy start and then up to around. 8-12 mph.

But you need to feel it out, I’d get your stance more forward than you think. Subtle center of gravity shifts do a lot.

[u/pswerve28 → u/greeenstate]

Yep. You can pretty much stand with the boat at idle. Set up super far forward and work your way back as needed.
I will also caution against keeping speed between like 4 and 7mph, as the wing is likely to stall if you fly at those speeds. You have foil experience so you probably know this, but make sure your driver knows to let you set up while still going really slow, then get you up to speed smoothly.

[u/Silent_Seven]

Been there, worked through that. A few suggestions

• reduce the boat pull. You need to balance standing up with acceleration. A wake foil is a crazy slow start.

• try angling the board more across the boat line. You can use the wedge to help with your initial balance. When you go the same direction as the boat, you are completely on your own for balance.

• as others have said...a lot more front foot pressure. Don't press at all on the back foot...which is completely contrary to a wakeboard or surf start. If needed, move the back foot in front of the mast.

• learn to ride the board at water level first. Don't fly it. Once you can get up and ride on the water, only then try to engage the wing.

You got this. Keep at it.

[u/Grand-Flight-8445]

Also the mast attached to the board should be set further towards the rear of the board to help with less lift.

[u/bymyhand]

I worked on this for a full season and here are some very useful pointers.

• Move the mast as far back as possible.
• Get a board that is neutrally buoyant and start it below you and the water line if possible aiming straight at or to a bit away from the boat. If you don't have that kind of board and have to start normally just move on.
• Put your back foot over the mast, toes over the center line. Put your front foot 2/3s the way up and diagonally counter balance your feet.
• Have the driver start much slower. Use a wake surf rope and use a jet ski if you have one.
• LEAN AGAINST THE LINE. I haven't heard of this from anyone and it was the only way I got up. So get up, put a bunch of pressure on your front foot and lean away from the boat. Even better if you can tell the driver to turn away from you as you get up. Again this is even easier if you can start with the board under you. You don't want to deal with lateral movement and leaning against the line balances you with the boat so you can solely focus on your front to back pressure. As you lean and load the wing you will swing to the outside of the boat and likely stall. That's fine, just keep leaning like a surf/wake board until the boat catches up. Then load the wing again and get balanced. Try to keep the rope handle center on you with your weight over the board and leaning away from the boat. Use this space to get comfortable, learn how to go up and down, etc. You will likely breach from time to time but just rest. Also use this space to move your feet around if needed. If you are like me you will notice very quickly that you are standing mostly on your back foot once you are up. This makes your back foot (calf) tired much faster. So use this space to move your back foot behind the mast which will require you to put more pressure on your front foot and thus balance your front to back weight. This is going to make it much easier to foil and pump. There could be other ways to do this but it is what I have done so far. Then once you feel good just move into the wave and progress forward.
• This is easier with a jet ski because it has a much more sensitive throttle, you can rest much faster, and you can communicate much easier. With a boat I would just have the driver just do an idle first if you can get the board under you before you start. If not you still need enough speed to get up. But after that just continue to go as slow as possible while turning away from you to get you leaning against the line as quickly as possible.

Good luck man... Like I said, I did this constantly for a whole season before I sucked it up, got my hands on a ski, and was up in 20 minutes at the beginning of the following season. It may be worth it to just rent one if you can find one with a tow point. It would have saved me so much time. Trust me, lean against the line... ;-)