Balz going nuts

That is pretty incredible. Wow!

I think he has an electric foil under that board

Opening move is a foiling no-handed up-wind 360? Nuts. Oh, and he does all this without an uphaul.

....& on a 4.4 in light wind...

in the duck tacks:

Do you think he is ducking the sail before or after passing through the eye of the wind?

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thedoor said..
in the duck tacks:

Do you think he is ducking the sail before or after passing through the eye of the wind?

You can see he initiates throwing the sail forward basically as he passed through the eye of the wind but doesn't complete the transfer till probably close hauled angle on the new tack. Makes sense if you think about it and have done any simple freestyle, IE heli tacks, upwind 360's etc.

Select to expand quote

thedoor said..

CJW said..

thedoor said..
in the duck tacks:

Do you think he is ducking the sail before or after passing through the eye of the wind?

You can see he initiates throwing the sail forward basically as he passed through the eye of the wind but doesn't complete the transfer till probably close hauled angle on the new tack. Makes sense if you think about it and have done any simple freestyle, IE heli tacks, upwind 360's etc.

The reason I ask is that Andy Brandt describes two methods of duck tack in trictionary. I can not do either on the fin, I have been attempting the duck at or after passing through the eye of the wind and I seem a long way off from. Therefore was wondering if I should try this "new school version" instead.

I only ever tried new school on fin, its quite easy if you can do upwind 360's and duck the sail from backwinded back to regular. Its only an upwind 180 followed by a duck, or half a helitack followed by a duck, thats all the same thing. I think that is the easiest way to learn it on foil, but I cant do either yet on the foil (never really tried either).

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thedoor said..

WhiteofHeart said..

thedoor said..

CJW said..

thedoor said..
in the duck tacks:

Do you think he is ducking the sail before or after passing through the eye of the wind?

You can see he initiates throwing the sail forward basically as he passed through the eye of the wind but doesn't complete the transfer till probably close hauled angle on the new tack. Makes sense if you think about it and have done any simple freestyle, IE heli tacks, upwind 360's etc.

The reason I ask is that Andy Brandt describes two methods of duck tack in trictionary. I can not do either on the fin, I have been attempting the duck at or after passing through the eye of the wind and I seem a long way off from. Therefore was wondering if I should try this "new school version" instead.

I only ever tried new school on fin, its quite easy if you can do upwind 360's and duck the sail from backwinded back to regular. Its only an upwind 180 followed by a duck, or half a helitack followed by a duck, thats all the same thing. I think that is the easiest way to learn it on foil, but I cant do either yet on the foil (never really tried either).

Maybe I need to try upwind 360. It can't be much worse than my duck tack attempts

Yeah I think it's probably important to be able to do upwind 360's and proper technique heli tacks as they teach you lots of skills regarding blading the sail into the wind an sail control etc. They are 'gateway' techniques. The 'new school' duck tack isn't really a duck tack per-say rather ducking the sail then sailing switch on opposite side....of course then you can turn into a 'tack' but it's mostly used for other freestyle moves. Personally I think this is way harder to learn than the head to wind method on the foil as it requires very very good sail control...which of course you may have, but it's compounded in difficulty by the foil imo.

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thedoor said..

CJW said..

The reason I ask is that Andy Brandt describes two methods of duck tack in trictionary. I can not do either on the fin, I have been attempting the duck at or after passing through the eye of the wind and I seem a long way off from. Therefore was wondering if I should try this "new school version" instead.

In his foil clinics, Andy says "The old school duck tack works really well on the foil, but the new school duck tack is a lot harder on the foil."

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lwalker said..

thedoor said..

CJW said..

The reason I ask is that Andy Brandt describes two methods of duck tack in trictionary. I can not do either on the fin, I have been attempting the duck at or after passing through the eye of the wind and I seem a long way off from. Therefore was wondering if I should try this "new school version" instead.

In his foil clinics, Andy says "The old school duck tack works really well on the foil, but the new school duck tack is a lot harder on the foil."

I think I have my duck tacks mixed up, what I found really easy to do on fin is do an upwind 180 (eg carve into wind and come out switch / backwinded), and then duck the sail back to regular. Like I said, haven't really given it a try on foil though.

Tried to translate the non planning new school duck tack to the foil. Rip

I think we all need to start eating duck for dinner.

This is really amazing and does look like a lot of fun.

I was thinking of what attracted may to Wingfoiling a couple years ago was seeing Windfoilers perform slow speed tricks and swell riding on large foils while the Windfoilers were screaming into big crashing when jibing on small wings.
Balz's session shows that those fun tricks at slow speed can also be accomplished Windfoiling now that many have moved to larger more stable foils.

My option is that learning to fly on a foil is easiest Windfoiling on a big stable foil and big board (without foot straps ) especially if you have windsurfed before. Jibing and doing those slow transition tricks on a similar sized foil is easier on a Wingfoil mostly because when Wingfoiling you don't have to switch your feet. But Balz shows that you can perform a lot of fun transition tricks without switching your feet, maybe even jibing.

Balz continues to go nuts