If you are looking to progress in surf foil or free fly, when you are wing foiling it is important to master pumping.
The dock start is one of the keys to learning faster. The amount of repetition is much greater and as a result, your learning time will be less compared to surf foiling. However, you won’t cut it. You will need patience and motivation. The main interest: you only need a foil, a board and a pontoon to get started.
To pump efficiently and for a long time, there are many parameters that come into play, so the choice of foil. To fly for a long time, we advise you to go for foils with high aspect ratios which will give you ease and glide.
Indeed, a board that is too soft, too long or too bulky will be less effective when you go pumping. Depending on the level, the board will be different:
If you don’t want to have a specific board you can use a foil surfboard to start with, this will allow you to progress before choosing a smaller board.
Some build their own floors. They are mostly made of wood. It works, however, it will be heavier and you won’t be able to put a rocker on your board. This will cause the board to crash in the water with each touch.
The smaller the board, the more options you will have to choose an unlikely place to go: ladder, rock, behind a boat…
We have two types of boards, the pocket 4’0 which is a perfect board to start and improve. It will also allow you to do other activities such as wakefoil, kitefoil or tow-in.
To start with, if you take a board that is around 1m20, it’s perfect. This will give you some room to position the feet even if you’re not precise.
If you know how to pump a little, we advise you to take the mini pocket 3’3 which is 97 cm long, it will bring lightness, pumping efficiency and rigidity. She’ll be a little less forgiving of touching.
A board around 15 L is very good for pumping lightly. It is quite possible to use a 4″2 Superfly type foil surfboard with 32 l, but pumping will be a little less efficient. The less volume there is, the more compact and light the board is.
To start pumping, you need to find a pontoon that is not very high with few obstacles in order to run safely without getting your foot caught in a cleat for example. The pontoons of the oars are very low on the water and really allow a great ease in taking off. If you don’t have this type of pontoon, depart from a pontoon in a port. If the pontoon is very high, choose a longer mast, if the pontoon is short, choose a shorter mast which will generate less drag.
If you are comfortable you can start from the beach or even from a ladder to have more depths, you will have to adapt your technique, because you will not be able to run, you will have to launch the foil with a single push on your feet so that it can generate lift.
SROKA SHOP
62 rue de Penhoat – 29850 Gouesnou, France
Timetables
Monday to Friday
9:15 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.
