Stumbleweed said..
Badass wingfoil racers look like they never change their sail angles. How do they absorb the power when a gust hits? Certainly part of it is being willing to go faster -something I'm loathe to do over 17 or so kts.
I know I 'need' to learn to be stable on foil at higher speeds. But I intuit that a component of this is having more stillness in the upper body causing less instability translated to the foil. I'm constantly adjusting the sail angles to account for wind strength. So what's the secret -just lean back and let the whole gust get translated into velocity?
Basically you are on the right track, what sort of foil instability are you feeling as you approach 20 knots? Pitchy/diving? overpowered front foot pressure? Both of those will make you back off, so gear can come into it. gear wise a well tuned foil that remains stable and doesn't overpower the front foot is important as is a stiff wing that provides enough support to lean against. I feel like 4.0 to 5.5 is the sweet spot for that type of riding on non-race gear, smaller wings get twitchy and bigger tend to catch the wingtips. You want the wing as upright and sheeted in as possible.
Needless to say came in and put on a brand new coiled leggie which got immediately caught in the lines 
Got to love the Para. I've overcome this now by using and older coiled leggie which is a bit stretched and the lines don't hook on it , works perfect. 
