Kite Foiling - Air Jibe Transition w/Foot Change & Downloop (Intermediate)

This episode is going to address the development of the foil air jibe with a foot change and a downloop transition on a hydrofoil. My goal this week was to be able to successfully perform this transition in the warm beautiful waters of the Cayman Islands. And even though I'm far from 100% success in each direction with this maneuver, I did accomplish this task due to the perfect riding conditions of the Cayman Islands as well as some expert instruction from Vadim with Green Hat and George of Delta Hydrofoils. This is one of those moves though that sharing with non foiling friends and family is less than impressive. But when sharing with the developing hydrofoiler it is much more impressive. Okay, semi-substantially more impressive. Never mind. Hopefully someone out there will understand. Let's go through all the steps to successfully perform this transition and a few additional tips along the way. Remember this is what I was facing to develop this skill set. Your experiences may vary slightly. So let's get started. To begin what I have noticed as being a huge advantage in the beginning stages of air transitions on a hydrofoil is with the 633 wing. A front wing that's very large that is super stable at slow speeds which creates a lot of lift is a priceless asset. Also having a performance level foil setup where you can interchange the front wing only for riding preference is big for the progressing hydrofoiler. Currently I'm training with the Delta Carbon Hydrofoil setup and it's interchangeable front wing system. Sometimes you want all that stability at low end speeds for transitions but other times you want to be able to go faster than 15 miles per hour and you want to be able to dig in more on the foil. I would think that more manufacturers will start going this direction to reduce cost for the developing hydrofoiler. Now that you have good lift on the foil and you're ready to go into your transition, start bringing the kite up to 12 o'clock heading in a slightly downwind position. Pull in on the bar to reduce your weight through the board and then give a quick compression bump with your back foot through the board. The bump at this point will create additional lift through the foil allowing you to change your foot position to the front of the board. After bringing your rear foot to the front strap, switch your feet attempting to keep your center of gravity as constant as possible. The next step is to start the down loop on your kite. Crank it and I mean crank the bar to the same side of travel to initiate the down loop. Make sure that you have sufficient tension in your lines or the loop will be much larger and much more powerful. Feel yourself being pulled in the opposite direction downwind but not so downwind to lose line tension. Now about halfway through the loop keep your bar angle of pull but sheet out on the bar while holding this position and after going through the loop now follow the kite downwind. If you ride upwind too sharp directly following the loop you will create too much speed and lift especially on a large wing like the 633. It will actually give you a feeling of this and eventually just cause you to pull it on the bar and eject. To get out of the way of this off-rail train make sure and follow the kite downwind to reduce speed and lift. Unwind the lines and then carve back upwind. This was my first session as well using the seat harness and I would say it took me about 15 minutes to get used to but already at that point I would say I would not go back to a waist harness when riding a hydrofoil for a few reasons. Number one because of its position of pull, secondly because it's able to give me more leverage and ride and fly the kite much lower in the wind window and be able to dig in on the foil and also just because of overall comfort except when I eject. So practice these steps don't get frustrated there are a lot of moving parts. Expect a lot of failure early on but don't be satisfied with the failure. Muscle memory and neuroplasticity are real things and it's amazing the way that our bodies adapt to training. Now it's on to tack training maybe by next year. Reach out to Green Hat for all your kiteboarding gear needs. Subscribe, like and comment if you find this material beneficial and also please reach out to me. There's no way for me to know which direction to take this channel without valued feedback from you. A big thanks to John Mora owner of Kitesurf Cayman for his hospitality, local knowledge and generous servings of consistent daily wind. Reach out to him if Grand Cayman is one of your imminent kite destinations. Thanks and we'll see you next time. I thought that I thought that just automatically transitioned YouTube scenes but I guess not. We'll see you next time on the OK Kiteboarder.