The Wing Foil Tack to Switch Tutorial

In this tutorial we’ll cover the most elegant and possibly difficult Wing Foil transition: the Tack to Switch.

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: switch to tack and tack to switch. In this tutorial we’ll cover the technique of 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 tack to switch. The basics and training on land

In a tack to switch you point the board upwind, de-power the wing by moving it over your head, switch hands and then, after the turn, expose the wing to the wind and ride away toe-side 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, after switching hands, on the new tack. The tack to switch 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. As usual, we strongly recommend to wear a helmet and an impact vest trying your first tacks.

Without further ado, let’s break down the maneuver into a few steps. Firstly, let’s take a look at the following video tutorial, then, in the next page, we’ll delve into the details of the maneuver.