This tutorial explains the foiling 360 in detail.
Let’s begin with the kite control.
The steering is done primarily with the original back hand.
Steer back. Enough that the kite would drift over 12.
Carve upwind and start pushing the bar away.
With the kite depowered, you are free to foil fully upwind and around.
As your board turns to the new direction you’ll be loosing speed.
Bring in the bar and dive the kite a little to keep riding in the new direction.
This will give you time to carve downwind.
As you ride downwind, apparent wind drops and you can loop with less kick.
Steer as much as possible for a tight loop.
Don’t release the loop while the kite aims at the high power zone.
Keep steering until the kite aims up towards the top of the window and then depower.
Foil downwind while the kite pulls.
Carve crosswind as the kite looses power.
Let’s review that riding the other way.
You can see that this kite control prevents the kite from flying into high power.
If you released the loop early the kite would fly low through the high power zone.
Or, if you used weaker steering the kite would fly low through the high power zone.
This would force you further downwind, or make you crash at speed.
Let’s look a bit closer.
You can see that you use a heelside lean throughout.
You need to ride in with medium speed, or more, if you’re going to foil all the way around a cricle.
Place your back hand on the bar, near the center, then steer with the back hand.
Lean over your heelside to carve upwind.
As you turn further upwind you must push the bar out, otherwise the kite will resist your movement.
As the board turns to the new direction, the kite should’ve drifted to 12 or slightly beyond.
So you can then dive the kite down, in the new direction, to keep foiling around the circle.
Your heelside lean will naturally turn you downwind.
As you turn downwind line tension drops.
You can now loop with less kick.
Pull your original steering hand in, so the bar end moves towards you.
To turn the kite faster push away with the other hand.
Keep steering until the kite climbs, and then depower.
Ride downwind with plenty of front foot pressure while you feel the kite pulling.
Carve crosswind as the pull dissipates.
Let’s look at that riding the other way.
The following skills will prepare you for the foiling 360.
The kite control should be easy, so practice with a twintip or directional first.
The kite control is similar on a non-foil board.
You just have to turn these boards much more aggressively,
leaning hard and throwing your upper body into the turn.
With a foil you must not rush the turn like this.
You should also have kite foil looping experience.
This could be downwind riding.
Or downloop jibes.
This experience will teach you how your riding direction
on a foil hugely controls the pull during a loop.
It is safest to build this experience in wind where you can only just foil.
This will probably be about 8 to 15 knots depending on your set up.
Light wind reduces the risks when learning downloops or 360s.
Let’s look at some mistakes that could spoil your 360.
An easy mistake to make is to rush around the circle.
If you lean hard, or pressure the back foot, you can spoil the smooth turn.
You will loose speed or cause the wings to breach.
Use a moderate lean and keep plenty of front foot pressure to stay low and level over the water.
This will give you a smooth carve and help retain foiling speed.
If your initial steering is too weak the kite will not drift to 12 as you turn around.
The kite will then not be waiting on the new side as you change direction.
If your initial steering is too strong the kite will shoot past 12 and probably lift you.
Also this doesn’t leave much space to dive the kite and keep your foiling speed.
Ideally you should steer enough initially that the kite
just about drifts to 12, or very slightly past.
If the bar is in as you try to turn fully upwind the kite will resist your movement.
You cannot ride fully upwind with the kite pulling.
If you loop the kite, before riding downwind,
you will experience sudden acceleration, as you haven’t reduced the apparent wind.
To avoid this you need to be moving downwind with enough speed.
Exactly how much downwind speed you require, depends on the wind speed itself.
In light wind, you don’t need to foil downwind much to soften the kite loop.
In stronger the wind, you need to foil downwind further and faster to soften the kite loop.
Access the kite foil playlist for all tutorials.
Thanks for watching and safe kite foiling.