Key points summary
There are many techniques that work, but you can maximize your performance by using the simplest, easiest ones. The techniques described below build on my previous post on Basic winging posture.
- Each of your four limbs can be used to control only one degree of motion of your wing or foil:
- Your straight front arm controls only wing height and angle over the water by pivoting at the shoulder.
- Your bent back arm controls power only, by changing the distance from your hand to shoulder.
- Your back leg (with the foot positioned perpendicular to the centerline) senses and controls side to side banking and turning.
- Your front leg (with the foot parallel to the centerline) senses and controls your flight height by adjusting the forward and back angle of the board.
Meeting the wing foiling challenge
Let’s face it, wing foiling is very challenging. You can fall in any direction as you balance over the foil. The wing can be held at all angles by using many body postures, to keep the wind from blowing you right off your board. Plus, the only way to maintain a steady flight path is to use your weight to perfectly balance these two forces!
In my last post on basic winging posture, I touched on the control advantages of keeping your front arm straight and your front foot parallel to the center of the board. In this post, I’ll go into more detail on how the wing foiling challenge can be met with the simplest, most effective techniques.
The direction and strength of force generated by your wing can be controlled by two degrees of freedom: 1) The height of the wing above the water and 2) the “angle of attack” of the planar surface of the wing to the apparent wind. (Apparent wind is the wind you feel blowing over your shoulder as you cruise along.)
- The higher you hold your front hand to raise the wing, the more it tends to swing over head and pull upwards. This “dumps power” up, in a direction you can more easily control with your weight. The lower it is, the more it tends to stand vertically and provide horizontal power to drive you along the water.
- The greater the angle of attack, the greater the force it will generate, as long as you don’t over do it and stall the wing. (A wing or foil stalls when the flow over it becomes turbulent due to an excessive angle of attack. When it stalls, it suffers a dramatic decrease in lifting force and increase of drag.)
Controlling these two degrees of freedom are enough to position your wing exactly where it needs to be at any moment, while cruising straight or carving a turn.
Controlling the foil is similar. You need to control flight height by adjusting the angle of the front foil to the water flow (angle of attack again) and control the direction of the board through side to side angle adjustments, to carve around turns or just provide the horizontal force required to go upwind. Two degrees of freedom again: 1) forward and back and 2) side to side.
So now we just want the simplest, most efficient way to control these four degrees of freedom with our beautiful bodies! One of the most common complements I get when I come off the water is, “You make it look easy!” Sometimes I reply, “that’s because I use the easiest techniques!”
Four limbs are the perfect number
Luckily, we have two arms, one for each degree of wing freedom, and two legs, to control the foil. Perfect! You can keep things simple, by using each of your limbs to control only one of the four degrees of freedom.
When you keep your front arm straight, you can control the height of the front hand by pivoting from the shoulder. The amount of force required to shift the wing up and down this way is small, so only the forearm grip muscle is working hard. Your front bicep muscle should be taking a rest! Thus the front arms only job is to control the height of the wing, and therefore the angle of the force it generates, over the water. Don’t bend your front arm at all! (Other than some exceptions, as outlined below.) If you do, it will be taking over some of the back arms job of power control. This would complicate your technique and make everything more difficult!
Your back arms only job is to control power. You bend the elbow to reduce the distance between your hand and shoulder to increase power and vise versa. Your back shoulder muscles should be allowing the arm to pivot up and down in response to the height of the wing, as set by the front arm. Don’t use any downward or upward pressure with the back hand, or it will be taking over some of the front arms job of wing height control. Again, you don’t need this complication of your technique! If straightening out the back arm fully does not reduce power enough, (as in a big gust for example) the front arm can be raised somewhat to angle the wing up, effectively dumping power and reducing forward drive. This is just one example of how your limbs work in concert, while sticking to their primary, designated jobs.
If your straight front arm is working hard to keep its angle steady, it is a sign that your back arm is not simply pulling straight towards the shoulder! For example, sometimes when I pump the wing I hold both hands as high as I can with the fuselage fairly horizontal, to keep the wing tip out of the water. This is very tiring! Both arms are having to pull towards the back of the board by using the shoulder muscles as well as biceps. However if you are going along without pumping, be sure the front shoulder is relaxed. If not, relax your back shoulder muscles to stop pushing up or down on the back of the boom or handle!
Controlling the foil is similar. When you stand with your front foot parallel to the center line of the board, the action of the front ankle and knee gives accurate feedback and control of the forward and back angle of the board. Thus the front legs primary job is flight height control. When you stand with your back foot perpendicular to the center line of the board, the back ankle and knee has optimal feedback and control over side to side angle changes. Thus your back legs primary job is to help steer.
Exceptions to the rule
Certain maneuvers, such as the tack, will require the front arm to bend (briefly) and/or the back arm to be used to rotate the wing around its axis. The dynamics of real world winging over various types of waves means that situations will arise where one limb ends up doing a bit of the job of another! It’s all good, as they say. However, if you mainly keep each limb to it’s proper primary job, you will fall less and learn new techniques more quickly. You will expand your horizons of peak potential in your sport. Give it a try, and once you master this simplified technique, you will see!
The switch foot advantage
Most people are more comfortable with one foot forward than the other. The “regular stance” with the left foot forward is most commonly preferred, because most people are right handed / footed. Their left brain, which controls the right side of their body, is “smarter!” For board sports, having a coordinated back foot is more important than the front, because it has the most control over side to side banking and turning, a key skill. With foiling, the forward and back pitch angle of the board is very important too!
By dividing up the foil control jobs between your two legs / ankles, both sides of your brain are being used. Same for the wing control jobs being divided between the two arms. Going either direction, the “dumber” side of your brain is getting practice at winging, helping the “smarter” side succeed! The “dumb” side has less to learn and manage though. In contrast, people that control wing height and power with the back hand will be much better with their preferred foot forward. If they also use their back leg more than their front to control pitch, keeping their front leg in a similar posture most of the time, their preference for their favored foot will be all the more pronounced! I believe the people who rarely switch their feet, riding toe side a lot with their preferred foot forward, do most of their control movements with their back arm and leg.
I always learn everything (jibes, tacks, etc.) in both directions with either foot forward and in both stances, toe side and heel side. I’m almost as comfortable goofy foot as regular foot. Thus it takes me longer to master a maneuver, because both sides of my brain have to learn it before I consider it “done!” I think my goal of symmetry is much more possible than usual because of the way I’ve divided up the control jobs. I am actually better at goofy foot heel side tacks, even though I’m usually more comfortable regular foot. I think that’s because the pitch angle of the board and the role of the front arm in switching the wing overhead are so important in the tack, so my smart side in front works better!
Intellectual Understanding is Just the First Step
Congratulations, you made it to the end of the post! In less time than watching most technique videos, you have started to learn a lot of things that will help you improve. Now you need to keep them in mind and use your powers of self awareness to put them into effect. To implement them on the water fast, hire me to coach you through the process! If I’m not nearby, see if you can find a buddy that also wants to learn these techniques. Then you can coach each other. Sometimes it’s easier to see where someone else is going wrong and catch things that the other did not realize they were doing.
David is great coach! I wanted to work on jibing and made great progress with his help. He has really figured out how to break things down – and then help you pull them all together. Having him winging right along with you on the water is really invaluable. He has a great eye for identifying what is going wrong, and what you need to do in order to correct it. He is also extremely patient and supportive – I am so glad I found him! If you are considering lessons, you will not find anyone better than David.
David, first of all, is an amazing human! We need more people like him on this planet. 🙂 He tells you exactly what to do and not to do, and he watches you while you practice so he points out your issues and bad habits. I had to unlearn some of the bad habits that were preventing me from progressing. Wing foiling requires a lot of small techniques and David is really good at explaining them.
I was visiting Florida in January for a Foiling trip when I ran into David. I’m always open to learn new techniques so when David mentioned he was a coach I decided to check out a lesson. With only 6 mo’s experience, I was having a lot of issues getting up in light wind. He taught me step by step techniques on the shore to correct my pumping method on a day with maybe 11-12mph winds. It took a little practice, but now I am getting up in 11mph winds No Problem! He also corrected my posture so now my back doesn’t hurt at all while riding for several hours. Very happy I gave him a chance. You won’t be disappointed as he has years of wind experience. 5 ⭐️ for sure!!
Before today I’d taken a two hour Wing foil lesson and then went to Cabarete for a week and took lessons there as well. Today I learned more in the hour with David than I did with the other lessons I’ve taken thus far. He stays with you out on the water and goes step by step with the skills. So helpful. Looking forward to more sessions with him as I continue to learn!
Thanks so much Jenny! You were a great student. It's a pleasure to work with someone that can follow instructions so quickly and well!
David is a very patient and insightful teacher, somehow able to break down a complicated skill into smaller more digestible parts. I came to him a rank beginner (and still am) but his suggestions were enormously helpful. I can’t wait to get back on the water next summer. David inspired me to windsurf many decades ago, and now inspires me to wing!
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