The Wing Foil Switch to Tack

In this tutorial we’ll cover the Switch to Tack, the second Wing Foil tack variant.

Introduction

Tacking is the opposite to jibing, involving the nose of the board travelling upwind through the eye of the wind to turn. Basically, there are two kind of Wing Foiling tacks: Tack to Switch (that we covered here) and Switch to Tack. In this tutorial we’ll cover the latter.

Before trying your first flying tacks you must be able to ride comfortably downwind, upwind, toe-side and jibe on both tacks.

The Switch to Tack. The basics and training on land

In a Switch to Tack, while riding toe-side, you switch the front hand, depower the wing by moving it over your head carve, expose the wing to the wind and ride away on the new tack.

Before heading into the water, you may want to visualize and practice the transition on land, specifically moving the wing from one tack, then over your head and on the new tack. Like the tack to switch, the switch to tack requires timing and quickness with only a small window of time for completion.

Time to hit the water!

Once practicing the wing movement on land, it’s time to hit the water. Unfortunately, we do mean that, as you will fall every which way in your first attempts even though practicing tacks is less scary than learning to jibe.