Place your feet in flight

Proper foot placement in flight will help you to better control your trajectory and your foil. So in this How To we will look at the different ways to place your feet.

   

The first thing to know about your foot placement is that the front foot should always be in the front strap. If you don’t put it in its strap properly, let’s say in front or behind the strap, you won’t have any control. Now that this is clear we will look at where to put your back foot depending on the conditions.

Condition: light wind

Your back foot will move on the board in two ways : windward/leeward and forward/backward.

Firstly, if you are not going very fast or the wind is light, it is best to place the back foot just in front of the back strap. This way you will have an easier time pumping the foil and getting it to accelerate. If the wind is a bit light, having the back foot in the strap will make it difficult to get the foil down and therefore gain speed, you will be sailing with the board pitching up slightly and that is not good. In addition, the strap always off-centre the rear foot on the heel side, which requires you to compensate with your toes, which is uncomfortable in light winds, as long as the wing does not exert a strong pull that does the job of compensating in your place.

Now, if you want to pump through a wind hole, keep your back foot in front of the strap and well in the middle of the board. If you put it too far to the side, you will lose your balance and miss your pumping.

Well powered ride

Now let’s take the case of a well powered ride. In this case, try to put your back foot in the strap. You will have more control over the foil, as you can pull on the strap to recover from a slight stall or mistake. You will also have a larger stance, which will allow you to flex better, lower your centre of gravity and therefore have more control at high speed.

On the other hand, if you go fast but don’t put your foot in the strap, you will be forced to move it forward on the board and place it a bit more leeward. Indeed, moving the foot forward will help you to counter the rise of the foil. And moreover, by going fast you will lean backwards. So you will have to counter the angle you are going to put on the foil by placing your foot leeward. The combo of going forward and shifting your foot will give you more control and kind of replace the strap. But try to get used to sailing in the strap anyway, it’s better. Note that you can move the back strap forward into the inserts to gain comfort at first.   Now you know how to place your feet in flight !     Malo Guénolé