You're using a harness right?

Grantmac said..
You're using a harness right?

Yep.

I'm no racer but upwind when a gust hits I heel the board over further so the extra lift is pushing me upwind instead of out of the water. Along with front foot pressure that is probably my most active control. Downwind you can usually turn down a little further but gusts already aren't as big a deal since the apparent wind is a lot lower.

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.

Stumbleweed said..
It gets pitchy/divy

Have you tried a longer fuse/bigger stab or shimming for more front foot?

winddoc said..
It's your wing. With some brand, the center of effort is super stable in gust, some not so much and moves
around pitchy/dive.

I'd be super happy if it's a gear issue and not a me issue. I use f-one strikes (various generations).

You take the gusts all in the legs.

There is almost no limit to the power you can hold via kite harness. If you've got the courage to hook in super powered.

Your hand wing will gain back hand pressure as power increases. You move harness lines back a bit to compensate for this shift. You cannot hold insane power with a simple belt loop and plastic buckle.

At some point, the legs will start to fatigue and collapse. Provided you are able to maintain back hand pressure. Once you loose it, you'll get backwinded and slammed to the water. Same as any windsurf sail.

Videos of kite foil racers show what is possible via legs, and harness. They hold near unlimited loads.

Have a look at some of Lachie White's videos. There's a few he talks about creating extra speed with gusts, generating greater apparent wind etc. www.youtube.com/@LachieWhite

kiwiupover said..
Have a look at some of Lachie White's videos. There's a few he talks about creating extra speed with gusts, generating greater apparent wind etc.

>

His content is excellent. I reviewed some of his material prior to posting this. Can you point me to a specific video with this content?