Stop at the beach

To finish your session you have to come back to the beach at some point ;). Let’s see the safe way to do so in this How To.

   

To make a clean and safe arrival, you have three options: the ejection, fall on your back or land with one foot on the board. We will see these three techniques, from the simplest to the hardest. But first of all, if there are waves, you need to choose your timing well. Indeed, do not stop right in front of a big set of waves in which case you could get hammered and destroy everything. So the ideal is to arrive on the back of a small wave. This way, you will have more water to fall off and you will not risk hurting yourself.

Fall on your back

First, let’s see how to stop by falling on your back. To do this, you will simulate a fall by letting yourself fall backwards. You will only have to go upwind by putting your foil at an angle with a heel support. As you go upwind you will lose speed. This is when you are going to lower your pelvis and drop onto your back. Keep the wing in tension by pulling on your back hand otherwise you could fall violently on the water. But don’t worry, if you’ve got upwind enough you should hardly have any speed left and the impact will not be severe at all. Once you’ve fallen, all you have to do is get up, grab your gear and get out of the water.

The ejection

Now let’s see a second technique. This involves throwing yourself off the board and landing upright in the water. To do this, you are going to move the board slightly upwind. As soon as it faces the wind, you will push on your legs to jump off, leeward of the board. A little advice not to get stuck in the straps, you can take off your heels first. This way the tops of your feet will slide off the straps. Once you are off the board, find support with the wing to land smoothly in the water. If you feel that there is really no water, be careful to cushion the landing well or you could hurt your ankles. You could also choose to land on your belly. This way you do not sink into the water and you do not risk anything. So throw the board windward and fly leeward like a feather.

Land with one foot on the board

The final technique involves getting as close to the beach as possible and landing with one foot on the board and the other on the bottom of the water. You will therefore have to get as close as possible to the beach by flying high enough not to scrape the bottom. Once you’re close enough, go upwind a bit, angle the board. After getting upwind a bit, take your back foot out of the strap (if you have one) and shift it off the board. You will then drop onto your back leg, wing support to avoid landing too hard. Once all of that is done, you should end up with your back foot on the ground and your front foot on the board. The foil will lie on the bottom with the leading edge of the front wing on the sand, and the nose of the board in the water. Then you just have to remove your front foot from the strap and get out of the water. There you have it, now you know how to stop safely at the beach.  

Malo Guénolé