DIARY OF A HESITANT FIRST TIME FOILER

WHY HAVEN’T I TRIED BEFORE NOW?

First of all, I’ve been fully focused on getting better at wave riding for the last few years and didn’t feel that I had enough rounded skills to try foiling. Plus, I’m a very accident-prone person and already have enough battle scars, so I’ve always shelved the idea. I’m also very competitive with myself and didn’t want to be a crap beginner again.

I guess I finally gave in because the Cape Town season was coming to an end, so if I got injured I wouldn’t ruin my whole season. There’s also less wind at that time, so being able to get out in lighter winds would ensure that I’d get my water time and be able to better fit it around work. The waters were also much less crowded, but ultimately, I would be silly to keep refusing Rob’s offer to be my foil guru.

PREPARATION

I watched the first few Progression videos to pick up the terminology and concepts. Rob drove us both to Langebaan lagoon for the sessions I’d take. The journey is about 90 minutes and I’d learn a lot of valuable theory on these road trips by picking his brain. Rob firstly explained how the physics of a foil works and how it behaves.

We went over some basics at the beach, like how to carry the foil (that thing is awkward and gets heavy after a while!) and the best way to pick it up and head into the water (keeping the board on the upwind side of you so there’s no risk of falling on it when you enter the water).

Rob put me on the Shinn Jackson and P wing, which is a large wing that’s apparently easy to control with the shorter mast of 60cm. He said he was positioning the mast