Intro on Learning How To Foil

Learning how to foil is a lot like learning to ride a bike.

You can make it easier on yourself by putting on training wheels, or you can do what I did, which I do not recommend, and eat shit a few hundred times by just sending it. Either way, if you stick to it you’ll eventually figure it out. 

Personally, I found using a foil with a larger wing, getting towed behind a boat, having a competent boat driver, and tons of practice helped me figure it out the quickest.

I’m going to walk you through my experience and provide a few tips that would’ve saved me from eating shit a few more times.

Disclaimer: I highly recommend having mastered this on a small surfboard before trying it with the foil. And make sure to wear a helmet and lifejacket.

How I Learned How to Hydrofoil

I grew up surfing on the Jersey shore in the summer and the Gulf of Mexico in the winter. Safe to say I’ve been a small wave surfer most my life with a burning desire for that little bit of extra power. 

Many years later – multiple winter stints in Jersey, some hurricane/cold front strike missions to the East Coast of FL, and a couple of epic surf trips with the boys later and I’d say I’m comfortable in everything from 2-15 feet – East coast wave sizes (not you psycho Hawaiians that call a 30 foot wave a 5 footer). 

Since there usually wasn’t much for surfing, I got pretty into sailboat racing. I’ve sailed competitively for Saint Mary’s, raced from California to Hawaii, and jobs moving boats up and down the west coast.

The long and the short of it is that I eventually melded these two passions and got into kiteboarding, which made me want to learn how to foil. 

Start On A Beginner Foil

Choosing your first foil can make or break foiling for you.

Choose the wrong foil and it’s an uphill battle, the whole time. If you’re smart, the training wheels will help. But if you skip all the steps it’s going to be more difficult.

After doing it the wrong way, which I’ll get into soon. I went back to square one and used a demo board for beginners.

It had a huge wing and took one try to get up and ride super easily. Night and day how much easier it was. After an hour went back to the old foil and got up the first try.

The jump from beginner to a race foil is big and complex, less surface area. Small margin for error and less forgiving.

Now I’m going to save you the headache and illustrate on how (not) to learn how to foil:

How to Foil: Step by Step

STEP 1: Training wheels

When I started out there wasn’t a whole lot of information on best ways to start, foil sizes, types of foiling, etc. (or at least I was a cheap ignorant bastard that wasn’t going to do the research). 

I went to the store, bought something that looked sick and didn’t break the bank, and went out to the beach to go try it out. That first day I made it up less than 5 times each for no more than 2 seconds. 

Shit was hard. Granted I was trying to kitefoil without ever having foiled before. Trying to figure out weight placement on the board while a big ass kite was dragging me every which way just wasn’t working. I had to find an easier way. 

STEP 2: Trial and Error

That night I watched videos for hours.

The next day I called my buddy who had a little center console to hit the water to figure the f*cking thing out. We towed around for hours. Getting it up more and more each time just to faceplant again and again. We’d try gunning it on the throttle, we tried easing into it. 

Water starts, belly starts, you name it. We tried it all. What ended up finally getting us up and going was a perfect combination – a culmination of hours of eating it.

Can you see me shrieking into the sky “I should have gotten a demo board!”.

Towing your Foil Behind a Boat

The water start – similar to a wake board or skurfing water start, you lie in the water with your feet on the board and the tow rope up over the middle of the board between your two feet.

As the driver hits the throttle, the rope gets taught and begins to pull you. Keep your knees bent, then slowly ease your front foot forward as you stand up. 

The main difference in this initial starting motion is that when you’re skurfing, you typically keep most of your weight on your back foot to keep the nose of the board out of the water. 

When foiling, it’s a tricky balance between using enough back weight to get yourself standing and the board pointing in the right direction, and enough forward weight to keep the board from immediately lifting out of the water. 

Learning to Foil and Your Boat Driver

The driver – requires a bit of skill and experience.

 The driver of the boat should definitely be used to driving and towing on that particular boat. Too fast out the starting blocks and even if the foiler manages to stand up, the board will just launch out of the water. 

When learning to foil it’s critical to have a spotter to cross-check for other boats and shallow areas.

Finding the Right Speed For Foiling

Too slow and the foiler won’t be able to stand up, but too fast and the board can air out of the water.

It’s about finding the slot speed. The driver should be experienced enough to get people up skurfing from a water start. 

The one trick we found that actually worked was that once the foiler is up and standing, decrease the throttle relative to what you’d normally do when towing someone skurfing. 

This allows the person being towed some time to find their footing, and get their weight balanced on the board.**

 **Side note – this is what worked for my size foil and wings, bigger wings require less speed to generate lift, smaller wings require more speed to lift.

Why I Wanted to Learn How to Foil

Like many of us, the first time I watched foiling was as a kid when Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama sawed the seat off an air-char, slapped snowboard boots to the board and were RIPPING some of the biggest waves I’ve ever seen on a screen. 

Now we see foiling all throughout our Instagram feeds, TV ads, maybe even in your buddy’s canal while holding a fishing rod and crushing a few brews. It’s crazy, even eFoils are slowly becoming mainstream without the manual effort needed!

It’s cool to be able to write this and share with other people who are keen on learning how to foil too!

Conclusion on Learning how to Foil

Learning how to foil is difficult to say the least, but not impossible.

It’s certainly not for everyone but if you practice the right way by beginning with a demo board first while getting towed behind a boat with an experienced driver, you can learn to foil.

Once you get the reps at the right speed you’ll be able to crush it! Don’t be a fool and  try to start with a kite foil like I did.

For more information check out our other posts on all things foils!