Pumping to launch

Description

To launch your Wing Foil and take off, you will need to pump with your Wing first to get a minimum of speed, then pump with your legs to get your Foil off and running.

Pumping to launch

• Have a large Foil. The bigger your front wing, the easier it will be. A few pumping strokes will be enough to make it take off. The goal is to ask a minimum of effort from your Wing, or to get the best out of it. The easiest way to do this is to oversize the Front Wing of your Foil, in XL for example. The XXL is really very (too) big for Winging. Don’t overdo it, except in marginal conditions.

• Strapless : Move the Foil forward all the way. By fixing your Foil this way, the Foil will be between your feet and will be less subject to the pressure you put on your front foot. It will therefore take off more easily.
  Strapped: Once you have the right Foil placement, do not change it. You will disturb your support so much that these variations of settings will be counterproductive.

• Strapless: place your feet on the Board correctly. in general over the center inserts for the front foot and over the front inserts of the rear strap for the rear foot.
  Strapped: It’s easy because the front foot is in the strap and the rear foot is just in front of the rear strap, a hair downwind to avoid a start with the luff when pumping.

• Hold the right handles to get all the power in your Wing. Don’t hesitate to move your back hand backwards. But if it is too far back, you will lose pumping amplitude and therefore efficiency.

• Create a low base speed, around 5/6 knots. The best technique is to pump with the Wing with a strong amplitude to launch your Foil flat for a few meters and then make it fly by pumping the legs. The idea is to row the Board with the Wing, as if when pumping the Wing didn’t move but your Board would catch up to it. It’s a mind’s eye view, but thinking like that you’re going to focus on accelerating the Foil, which is the only efficient way to fly.

• Keep the Wing at 45° with the back hand much lower than the top hand. The Wing will naturally lift you up.

• Move the Wing down 30° to accelerate and launch the Foil. If you go very far down, you will choke your Wing at take off by your acceleration.

• Gradually change from a wide pumping to a short and dry pumping. This is an acceleration, not a constant. You must always be ultra dynamic. The limit is not to pump so much that the Wing stalls out, and therefore loses traction, even for a short moment. The movement must be energetic but perfect.

• As soon as the Foil takes off, you have to try to give it speed, so put it back flat as soon as possible, but without touching the water. Everything is done with the placement of your waist. We move it backwards when pumping and we advance it as soon as we fly. The management of the angle of the Foil by a pressure of the legs is not the solution.

• Then you just have to dose the power generated by your Wing with your back hand.

Advisors: the Team GONG-GALAXY.