Beginner foiling behind a boat

I am about to attempt foiling behind a small tinny.
Anyone done this and if so any advice eg tow rope length, speed, with or without harness etc
I'll be on Slingshot Alien with 15in mast
Thanks

cbulota was talking about this on (about page 3?) of the beginning hydrofoiling thread.

From memory he said it works well as you have less wake in a smaller boat and that most people crack it within an hour or two.

(I'm assuming your'e learning to foil and not learning to wave ride on a foil).
I'd have thought a longer mast would be better. Short mast helps to learn the initial waterstart but doesn't teach you how to fly. On an 80cm mast (for example) you have a foot either way safety margin from your middle point which gives you a reasonable chance to correct things. For a 15" mast you get about 10cm of safe travel (less if the water isn't glassy clear) which wouldn't seem to be enough to develop the muscle memory you want.

Best sending a message to Christian. He's taught people like this. I'm just guessing.

Assume too you mean to learn foiling. I learned behind a boat, lots of people say it isn't a good idea, but I think it can work well. Especially if you don't have consistent wind, so the alternative is doing nothing. One advantage is you're being pulled "downwind", so you are forced to deal with going downwind right away, which most beginners foilers find more challenging than powering upwind.

-- go slow. Way slower than you'd expect, like walking speed. Just tow with foil on the water. (for first 5-10 minutes, you can even take off wings and just feel what mast below board feels like, turn back and forth to get a feel for the resistance)

-- You can try pumping the board to get foil up, then drop back down. This will help you learn the weight changes that make the foil work.

-- as you start to go slightly across wake rather than same direction as boat, concentrate on leaning back, keeping mast/foil leaning towards boat...if it gets behind you, chaos and wipeouts.

-- You may find that the slight added speed in turning heelside to toeside is where you first consistently get up on foil. This will help you lots when kiting.

-- if you end up doing it lots and have time and inclination....practice riding wrong foot forward. This step sucks as it's like learning over again....but need to do it unless you want to ride toeside half the time

--wear a helmet and wear some neoprene....that foil is sharp! And keep your straps very loose so you come out easy.

Short rope + outboard is obviously a bad idea

What is mentioned above about a short rope and letting go to use the wake is for an inboard.

Thanks for the replies as just what I wanted to know.

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snalberski said..
It all sounds good in theory but my feeling is that if your end point is foiling with a kite, then you should be using a kite from day one. Even if you manage to learn how to foil without a kite you will possibly have to re learn most if not all because the kite plays such a pivotal role in the equation.

Any new skill you learn can be broken down to smaller pieces. This is the preferred approach and mentality of any cautious learner or instructor. Not everyone is willing to spend an entire year learning to foil with all the pain associated with an unstructured full-on approach like yours.

For most, learning to foil is a difficult task that seems out of reach, especially if kite control isn't perfect.

If you can easily foil behind a boat without having to worry about kite control then you will inevitably have to worry less about controlling the foil when you end up using it with a kite.

With a more structured and progressive approach, you could've taken less than half the time to learn to foil, with far less pain and without picking up bad habits along the way.

I've been able to teach people how to foil in less than half the time it took me to self-learn it, even if they were less experienced kiters with poorer kite control. Also, the more I teach it, the more I figure out ways to elimitate the pain and the gnarly dangerous crashes.

Christian

I can only speak to my experience. Maybe 6 or 7 sessions behind boat ... then easy transfer to kite. First session with kite was up and riding but ended up downwind. 2nd session good to go.

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snalberski said..

juandesooka said..
I can only speak to my experience. Maybe 6 or 7 sessions behind boat ... then easy transfer to kite. First session with kite was up and riding but ended up downwind. 2nd session good to go.

It sounds like you definitely got something good from learning behind a boat. 9 sessions to be foiling and going upwind is below the mostly indicated average of 10 or so sessions, which is what it took me and a lot of posters from other threads.
Having said that a mate down at my local who is a very experienced kiter learnt at the beginning of this season and was up and going behind a kite after 2 sessions, no boat.
I gave him some very basic advice on his first couple of sessions which he took to heart and he told me helped a lot, but he clearly benefited largely from from his previous kiting experience

yeah, decent progression, probably helped to have the slowest and lowest aspect foil in existence (original carafino) ;-)

I advise the boat route mainly for situations where you wouldn't be kiting anyway ... for me, stuck at the lake with the family, no kiting but had my boat ... perfect, the kids can laugh at dad crashing over and over and over.

Re: your mate....doncha just hate people like that! I have a friend here who will probably eventually try, and he'll be better than me in a few sessions I bet. Natural athletes.