HOW TO : SWITCH TO DUCK JIBE !!!

The Duck Jibe in Wing foil is very similar to that in Windsurfing.

There are two main ways to jibe in Wing depending on whether you jibe before or after passing through the wind axis.

The simplest is to jibe on your natural stance, goofy or regular. Depending on the edge you are on, you will either do a duck jibe to switch (this is the simplest because you attack from the front), or a switch to duck jibe on the other side. While knowing that becoming symmetrical will be a long and complicated exercise.

But soon you will know how to do all four jibes perfectly by working on symmetry.

The first thing to do is to look around to avoid an accident either by looking out of the window, or by moving the Wing backwards to see the trajectory in front of the leading edge, or by putting the Wing up like an umbrella.

You should also check the wind strength and wind axis before entering the maneuver.

It is fundamental to help each other to maximize success: waiting for the slack if you are overpowered, or the opposite, can change everything compared to a blind engagement. A little wave or chop that pushes you into the turn will be a big help.

To switch on a Foil, you have to do a little pumping (an impulse) that will make the Foil go up while you have both feet in front. This will prevent you from touching the water again.

The most natural way is probably to switch at the end of the maneuver and to attack facing the turn.

The passage of the Wing is very natural, your hands go up the handles smoothly and the Wing pivots by itself. The only thing to avoid is to pass the Wing under the Board by deflecting it. So, don’t make the turn too long, tighten it up at the end of the move. The downwind passage should be as short as possible, except the beginners’ fault is to block the downwind passage due to lack of speed and engagement. Your turn should look more like a rounded L than a C. And attack with the Wing, then umbrella it before the downwind.

The keys to the Wing Foil Duck Jibe are:

• Check before the maneuver that your trajectory does not cause a collision.
• Have speed to get solid support, which will make your jibe easier.
• Before starting your turn, you must straighten up to go from a counter-jibe to a jibe.
• To switch your feet with as much balance as possible, lay the Board as flat as possible and use the kite like an umbrella.
• Begin your turn by leaning lightly on the Wing with your back hand.
• Half way through the turn, let go of the front hand and place it behind the back hand.   The Wing will pivot naturally and position itself on the opposite side.
• As the tail wind passes, grab the front handle with your old rear hand.

Tip: Pass the Wing just before reaching the downwind to boost the tilt of your Wing and send it towards the new tack before it goes against it. This is very true with big Wings in light wind.

Switch to Duck Jibe

It’s a more complicated duck jibe because you turn your back to the Wing to exit from the front, and because you risk falling before the turn, which is always more frustrating than exiting a turn.

To do a switch to duck jibe you have to arrive with speed; this is the unconditional pre-requisite to get out of the move in flight.

In the crosswind, we’ll start to switch the feet. We take the foot out of the back strap to place it just in front. We straighten up and slow down a bit by raising the Wing at 45°. We put a little pumping with this foot. We can help ourselves by tucking the Wing into the umbrella position. As soon as you feel the lightness: throw the back foot in the front leeward strap. The big toe of the back foot should aim at the big toe of the front foot from the inside of the strap. This is the trick to avoid hurting your toes when shooting for the strap. When the big toe of the back foot touches the big toe of the front foot, it gives the big toe of the back foot the heads upt to go where the back foot was: just in front of the back strap but slightly upwind (both feet on both sides of the central axis of the Board). Your new rear foot corrects all the balance problems of the Board, laterally and longitudinally to avoid touching the water.

Strapless, we will place the foot 10cm further forward than the ideal placement on an edge; and shift it to windward on the toe side by 5 to 10cm depending on the radicality of the turn you are considering. The placement of the back foot influences the radicality and stability of your turn.

The farther back the back foot is moved, the shorter and stronger you turn, and the same goes for the center of the Board when you switch. Find your personal balance.

Here you are in switch with the Wing behind you and your chest turned 90° forward. Your back arm is very bent to keep the planking in the initial angle. You have to keep a good speed and accelerate again if necessary before the turn.

Then we’re going to come up to leeward angle by pressing on the heels. Take it easy on the angle because your weight will be pulled by the Wing’s traction and will make you start the turn.

Once you have started to lean towards the wind axis you will try to hold the Foil in the water with a pressure on the front foot while keeping the angle of heel with the back foot. We will progressively transfer the pressure from a lift on the Wing to a pressure on the Foil even if it is already the case in general when switching. This means that you will carry yourself less with your arms and more with your legs. But as you get closer to the wind axis, you lose traction and you will have to lighten the Board by sliding the Foil as much as possible. You have to be gentle so as not to create breaks and firm to accentuate the angle grip.

Arrived close to the wind axis, you have to continue the curve and prepare the change of hands. During this change, you will not have any traction from the Wing. So, all your weight will be on the Foil. If you are at this moment of the move without speed, it’s game over: you reposition and you have a good chance to lose your balance. So, the solution is to tighten up the turn more and more as you get closer to the wind axis. And as soon as you let go of the Wing to change hands, you slide the Foil, mainly by dosing the supports; the time it takes to pick up the Wing again. Beginners will put too much back foot in this phase, often due to lack of speed and engagement. The other solution is to close up the turn violently but it is more complicated.

So, the higher your base speed, the easier it is.

And the tighter your turn, the easier it is.

When you understand this, you can see that you have plenty of time to change hands on the Wing.

It’s time to change hands:

• My front hand lets go of the handle and comes to grab the handle behind the back hand or the back of the handle where your back hand is. For a clean swing of the Wing, the front hand always goes behind the back hand.
• 2) The front hand releases the handle and the Wing falls. Its leading edge is heavy enough to make the tilt very natural.
• 3) My ex back hand slides along the center strut to naturally catch the front full power handle. Usually you can take your hand off the strut, but at the beginning the ideal is really to slide your hand over the big section of the strut.
• 4) As soon as the new front hand holds the handle, it will mount this handle above the back hand to put the Wing in the correct angle and not let it go under the Board. For a smoother movement, it is even the back hand that will go down rather than the front hand that will go up. This new rear hand will describe a 180° arc upwards to accompany the tilt of the Wing in its new ideal position.

During this hand change phase, you will rotate your chest facing your toes, the body will return to its normal axis, to accompany the passage of the front hand, then the back hand. This will move the Wing slightly backwards from the vertical of the nose to the new leeward rail (toe side).

The next step is to continue the curve by luffing with heavy heel support once you have passed the wind axis and thus re-launch the Foil. This is when we will start to hang on the Wing again. The hands are well in place, the curve is over, we can prepare to tuck in.

This phase is much simpler when you can regain traction with the Wing or when you still have speed, but you can also use the Foil and its lift with a few pumping strokes.

The key to the relaunch is to lower the front hand to put the Wing back in front of you as quickly as possible. So, the more you reduce the delta height between your arms after the wind has passed, the quicker you’ll go back.

And if you had moved the Wing backwards just before, you can move it forward to give it some apparent wind and restore a laminar flow on the profile, which will give you a healthy and clean pull.

The last phase consists of tucking and tilting the Foil into the wind to regain heel support to counter the traction of the Wing. We will lean on the heels and fix the new trajectory, taking care not to touch the water. The body will lean more and more into the wind as you tuck in. Remember to manage the power of the Wing because often you will reach the end of your initial speed and you will have to re-launch the Wing.

Key points:

• Having speed.
• Use the swell and chop to maintain speed.
• Manage your weight transfer well.
• Have an automated and clean hand movement.

Focus:

• Speed.
• Switch.
• Curve.
• Switch hands.
• Drag.
• Tighten the curve.
• Restart.
• Oppose.

Wing Foiler : l’Ours on GONG SUP Lemon FSP PRO and GONG Wing Pulse and Superpower.