Hi I'm new to sport, had 3 goes in mixed conditions.
in light winds what is correct board pumping technique. watched a few vids saying push board forward (D Leroy)
read should push down like Ollie a skate board. advice appreciated, thanks.
There's heaps of YouTube videos on this, I'd suggest watching as many as possible.
It's more about getting the timing right with the wing and pump to un-weight the board and propel forward to gather enough speed to engage the foil.
That Damo video is a good one. Like wicka is saying, you're using both the hand wing and shifting weight and pressure to both feet to create lift. But you need some acceleration other wise the foil will stall and drop. I find some foils (1250) need much more speed, others (1850) need very little.
If you're using a mid to higher aspect smaller foil it most likely has less drag than a low aspect large foil, thus allowing you to accelerate quicker and come up on foil with only concentrating on pumping the wind wing (when you pump the wind wing you also, to a lesser extent, pump the board without trying to since the arm motion [bringing the arm back and down] automatically moves through your body to your back leg and into the board). I also try to use the arm pump to push the board forward with my front foot off the back foot to help gain speed. In low wind situations, if you continue to do short fast pumps of the wind wing as you come up on foil, you will avoid stalling the foil allowing for a smooth fast transition onto foil. In higher winds a couple of arm pumps is all it takes (maybe no pumping is necessary). As I start to pump I head off the wind and pump with a large circular motion forward, which I bring back towards my hips (sort of like grabbing the wind out front and pulling back really hard at first and as I quickly gain speed and start to rise the pumps become faster and shorter). Once on foil I quickly head the board upwind a little or a lot depending where I need to go. It's important to learn to recognize a gust that is strong enough to make it worthwhile to start your pump -- if you pump in the lulls you may be just wasting your time and energy -- I've done lots of that! You will quickly learn what a worthwhile gust looks like and wait for it to arrive before starting your pump.
I find that with the large low aspect foils I have to pump like crazy (both the board and wind wing) to get on foil in low to medium winds = more effort to get over the hump to avoid stalling. I prefer the higher aspect low drag foils for this reason -- they may not have nearly the same area but I find they're easier (less effort) to get on foil in the same or even lighter winds.
