1/2 mast, or 7'.

azymuth said..
The foil tends to track the swell height so goes up and down a certain amount seemingly without rider input - so you only occasionally slap the bigger wave tops. I've never had any of the 3 wings breach while upwinding.
I think most mental effort is spent on identifying a path down or over the swells and dealing with acceleration - very little on controlling ride height.

There's a huge difference between ocean swell and wind chop. The swell where you sail is lovely and spaced well apart, so the foil can actually track it well. Where I foil most of the time, it's mostly wind chop that ramps up as it gets shallower. The chop waves may be 2-3 ft high, but they are not much further apart, and they are often quite steep. Without actively managing height, when going out against a wave the wave will push you up, and the foil will be in the air after the wave passes. Going in with the waves coming from the back is harder, since you don't see the waves. It does not help that the wind chop is usually at a 45-60 degree angle to the swell coming in.

We had a rare day where things were different yesterday. The wind was straight onshore and light, so it was mostly swell coming in straight onshore. It was as high as on usual (~ 2 ft), less steep, spaced further apart, and less chaotic. All that made for things a lot easier.

The last time I went slapping was spring last year. It was 15-30 rigged a 5.0 and FWS, launched from the beach straight into a wind hole (thought my arms would blow out) finally got going in a gust and had a tomahawk wipeout dented the nose on the board...made one gybe and went straight back to the beach!!


spent the next 2 hours on a 4.1 and time code 68 absolute frothing! Unless it's down the line wave sailing my slapping days maybe over.

Subsonic and I went for a slapper sesh this weekend in conditions we would normally foil in, but we were on the coast and worried about the weed, so we dragged our big slalom race boards out and went for a blast. it was fun, but we very rarely use that big gear now because we are always on foils. Once it gets over 18 knots we tend to go back to the slapper gear and don't find the transition too difficult, but that's coz we swap regularly. The first time I did slapper gear after foiling for months it was a strange sensation and took a bit to get settled, so I think the key is to swap regularly if you don't want to lose it. :)

Stretchy said..
Hmm, I've still got a lot to learn. I'm finding when the gusts hit I open up the sail and try to weight the front foot. Staying sheeted in is Russian roulette, if the gust doesn't get too strong I might be able to muscle it out, but if it builds too much, eventually there is a skywards explosion! I should probably get my back foot out of the strap earlier I guess, but when the wrestle is on my focus is elsewhere. Beginner issues

I agree with you, even though I don't use straps, so I can move my feet. It is quite possible to open up the sail a bit in gusts. The key is to not open it all the way, and to compensate for reduced mast foot pressure if necessary. I do what you describe (put weight on the front foot) only in the strongest gusts, when I get close to the "skyward explosion". In smaller gusts, moving the rig a bit forward is often enough. This can be a bit tough when starting to foil, but after > 80 sessions now, it happens automatically. But I am using freestyle or wave sails that handle anything between 10% and 100% power quite well; I'm not sure that would work with cambered sails.

I still have to work on going upwind in strong gusts to gain control. That's easy to do if you see a gust coming and control is not an issue, but not something I think of often when I am fighting a sudden strong gust. Not sure how well it works then, either, since the first thing you notice is an increase in apparent wind, while board speed remains pretty much the same.

I sheet out just a little then head upwind and slowly add the sheeting pressure back in. Heading upwind is easy to maintain/add front foot pressure.

All great points, still a lot too learn
very true Paducah, what you say about slapper instincts.
sorry for the hijack. Re getting out of touch with slapper? No problem whatsoever for me, I guess if it gets to that point, I'll know I've become proficient at foiling

Paducah said..

Stretchy said..

Hmm, I've still got a lot to learn. I'm finding when the gusts hit I open up the sail and try to weight the front foot. Staying sheeted in is Russian roulette, if the gust doesn't get too strong I might be able to muscle it out, but if it builds too much, eventually there is a skywards explosion! I should probably get my back foot out of the strap earlier I guess, but when the wrestle is on my focus is elsewhere. Beginner issues

For a lot of people (not necessarily you), they move their harness lines up when they start and then never really move them back as they begin to foil with more power in the sail. So, when they get hit by a gust, they have more back hand pressure than normal. Back hand pressure -> pressure on the back foot -> board rises when you don't want it to. For me it was an adjustment to even sheet out in a gust since the flapper response is stay sheeted in and just go faster.

Yes, exactly. Moving the harness line forward was probably the worst advise I had in my still pretty much failing adventure with foiling. It made for a completely unbalanced ride in which on top of having to balance the foil I had to balance the sail with my arms. Nowadays I leave the harness lines where they should be to have a neutral asset with no pressure from front or back.

Opening up I think depends on the sail? My Severne 4.8 Free is very neutral, no real need or tendency of opening up the boom. The Point-7 ACX opens up naturally when it starts to get powered but retains a constant forward pull and just accelerates. But the main difference from the slapper is the regimen I use the sails in. I am 72 Kg, and where I used to be on my switchblade 7.3 when few where around, and the ACX 6.5 when B&J sailors are on a 4.7, 15-22 knots or so I now never use the 7.3 (never put it on the foil), and the 6.5 is for 10 knots ... it feels like a completely different sail.

Seems the key....much more outhaul so
the sail only rotates around 9" total with a light hand push.
Just depowers controllably when I oversheet to keep the board down. Actually was able to foil with a 5.0 in gusts well into the mid 20's, about 4-6 mph more than before.
Naturally, gusts came up to 29 yesterday, so switched to 92 liter Firewave and same setting sail.
Still a bit too much, but it started to back off a lot going back to foil weather in 45 minutes.

Just had 4 days in a row of epic sailing. Every other day was on foil and the other 2 days were on the slapper. This time it only took about 10 minutes to get dialed back into the slapper from off foil the previous day. Things are better. I gps myself on the i84 foil and my max speed that day was 18.2 mph. Wind was 10-15 mph and I was on a 6.0 sail. Felt nicely powered. On the gusts I just unhooked, sheeted out the sail and just cruised. I have noticed when I unhook, I need to shift my weight forward, sometimes even slide my feet forward some so I don't over foil. Good times

I dislike the name slapper it feels like a put down.

cammd said..
I dislike the name slapper it feels like a put down.

It certainly is. Human nature, people always want to imply what they do and what they have, is superior to others.
i don't care, slapping rocks and is still a major adrenaline rush that I don't think I'll ever get bored with windfoiling rocks too so does wingfoiling so does kiting ...