Ewan Jaspan's Learning to Tack

As you likely know, a foiling tack is the version of a turn where we turn into the wind and turn upwind and then go back the other way - as opposed to a jibe where you turn downwind. You're going to want to be edging hard upwind and also looking upwind where we're going to turn. Make sure you're clear in the opposite direction of course and then start edging harder and harder into the wind. Bring the kite up to 12 o'clock slowly. When you bring the kite up, you're going to be slowing your board speed. Stay conscious of keeping your feet on your board and then as the kite gets to 12, you want to pull the bar in slightly. This will give you a little feeling of weightlessness on the board. As you do this, you're going to want to be turning into the wind and carving the board around to face the other way. The moment you do this is when you get that weightlessness and that's when you start to change your feet. 

It's really important that you change your feet during that period of weightlessness. If you don’t, you've still got a lot of weight on the board that you're going to push into the foil and it's going to send you off balance so the whole idea is to move your feet when there's not much pressure on the board. Again, you do this by pulling in with the kite at 12. That’s when you’re weightless and you can turn around quite easily and change your feet. 

To swap your feet, bring your back foot to the front of the board with your other front foot and then once you get there, move your previous front foot to the back. Then, you'll be facing the other way and you’re ready to go. You’re going to want to pull down to send the kite back the opposite direction to where you were going now. This will give you the propulsion to keep going and stay on the foil.

A few common mistakes people have when learning to tack: They'll turn the kite up to 12 but keep the bar in too much and have too much power the whole time. This will just pull you off your board. To counteract this, you really want to have the bar out as you're going up through the tack and then you just pull the bar in enough so you've got enough power to get that feeling of weightlessness so you can change your feet without coming off the board. Another common error is not sending the kite the other way soon enough. This stops your momentum and you’ll sort of stall mid-tack.

As with everything in foiling, this is all about just time in the water and time practicing your tacks. A lot of people, including myself, just go through this movement hundreds of times until it becomes kind of natural. At first, it feels like you'll just never get it then you'll start getting some on the water where you touch back down. It can feel like an eternity until you can actually get the movement smooth and consistent, so be patient and keep at it, and know that it’s not an easy maneuver.

It’s all about getting the whole movement right in your head and nailing your timing. Get out there and practice this movement over and over. Find a spot that really allows you to do lots and lots of tacks over and over and in time, it will just become better and smoother, until eventually, you’re nailing every single one!