Kitefoiling Gybes – Advanced Tip – Push Down on the Bar
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Finding stability on your board and foil in the foiling gybe is vital. There are many ways to achieve this, but in Rob Claisse’s latest tutorial, he shares a great technique you can use – pushing the bar into the depower line. Watch this.
Why? Two reasons that work together:
It gives you something to lend on for balance and transfer some of your weight further forward and inboard. This improves your balance over the foil as your center of mass is not simply falling back into the turn.
Your kite is high, not something you can really sit back against in your harness but the act of pushing the bar down and away from you, locks the depower line and changes the angle of pull that you can put against your chicken loop. Now you can counterbalance your body against the pushing action of your shoulders and arms.
This is one of those techniques that you may not realise you are doing but once you do, you can exaggerate it to greater effect. Here in the gybe I’m proactively using it to improve my carve but I also use it a lot in a variety of areas to maintain balance when things start going a little wrong!
If you want to understand the Foiling Gybe, check out the Foiling Gybe Collection.