The heelside to toeside tack is the least difficult tack for most kite foilers but it’s
still very challenging.
We start with an overview, examine the challenges and provide training steps.
Let’s take a quick look at the kite control for the heel toe tack.
The basic idea is that your initial steering with the back hand is sufficient for the kite
to cross 12.
Then, once the kite is climbing, you can depower and leave the kite to drift to the new side.
Having the kite depowered is essential as this is what allows you to foil fully upwind
without being restricted by the kite.
You foil fully upwind and around towards the new direction.
At this point, you’ll be loosing speed, so you need to start diving the kite towards
the new direction.
Let’s look at that riding the other way.
You can see that the kite control is mostly completed with the initial back hand.
You should practice this kite control in isolation.
You can practice by doing tacks on a twintip or directional board.
This will allow you to focus on the kite control without worrying about a hydrofoil.
Now let’s look more closely.
It’s important to note that you initiate this tack with a strong heelside lean, but
you must then shift to a toeside lean as you exit the transition.
Begin by riding upwind, with medium speed.
Steer with the original back hand.
Steer firmly enough that the kite would drift over 12.
Once the kite is climbing, push the bar away to depower the kite.
Without the kite pulling, your heelside lean will turn you fully upwind.
Once you turn fully upwind, you will start loosing speed.
So you need to start diving the kite in the new direction, using the original back hand.
At the same time, you need to start getting out of your strong heelside lean.
To reduce your heelside lean, lunge your hips forwards towards the toeside rail.
As you lunge, you should also retract your front foot and push it behind you.
This will help you shift into toeside as the kite dives and pulls you in the new direction.
Let’s look at that riding the other way.
Any mistake with the basic kite control can easily spoil the tack.
If the bar is in as you ride fully upwind, the kite will resist your movement.
If your initial steering with the back hand is too gentle the kite will not drift over
12.
If your initial steering is too strong, you may be overpowered when riding upwind.
If your initial steering is too early, or your foil carve is too late, the kite can
pass too far beyond 12, leaving little space to dive the kite and regain speed.
If you are late diving the kite in the new direction, you soon loose the speed required
to foil.
This is a common issue because you typically loose speed just after turning upwind and
at that point you can’t see the kite.
If you don’t feel confident, it’s best not to dive the kite in the new direction
and simply let yourself loose speed.
It takes skill and confidence to dive the kite at the right moment without a visual
on the kite.
Shifting from a heelside lean into a toeside lean is a big challenge as it relies on different
types of foil control.
Let’s look at what happens if you simply try banking heelside.
You carve around easily enough, but you finish with a heelside lean.
This then turns you fully downwind and you loose line tension.
Let’s look at how to avoid getting stuck in a heelside lean like this.
To reduce your heelside lean you want to lunge your hips forwards, towards the toeside rail,
at about the point you’ve turned fully upwind and while you still have some speed.
You probably need to start this lunge earlier than you might think as takes a while to tilt
the foil, and the lunge is only effective while you still have speed.
Just as important as this early lunge, is how you guide the foil with your feet.
As you lunge, you should also start pushing your leading foot behind you.
You could also push your trailing foot in front of you.
This yaw force twists the board into a sharper turn.
This sharper turn guides the board behind you, which naturally shifts your weight to
toeside.
Let’s simplify that complex technique:
Lean heelside until you ride upwind.
Lunge forward to reduce lean.
Retract the front foot to tighten the turn.
Let’s look at that riding the other way.
Lean heelside.
Lunge forward.
Retract the front foot.
Any mistake with this board control can easily spoil your tack.
If you lean too much initially you get stuck in heelside every time.
Conversely, if you don’t lean heelside enough you can actually fly out over the toeside
rail.
If you lunge too early, you can also fly out over the toeside rail.
If you lunge too late, once you’ve lost speed, you’ll get stuck in heelside.
Another issue is rushing around the tack.
This is where you use twintip-style board control, with a hard lean and back foot pressure.
If you do this the foil won’t glide smoothly and you will breach.
During the tack the foil is generating lots of force, plus the kite is lifting a little,
so you need to keep lots of front foot pressure for a smooth and level tack.
You can use the following steps to build up to the heel toe tack.
STEP 1:
Practice the kite control using a non-foil board.
The kite control is similar.
The main differences are that on a non-foil board you rotate more aggressively, throwing
your upper body into the turn, and then you dive the kite much harder after it drifts
across 12.
You don’t want to be this aggressive on a hydrofoil.
STEP 2:
The next step is to see if you can simply foil upwind and around to the new direction.
Ride in low and slow for safety.
Lean heelside.
Send the kite back.
Depower.
You should be free to ride around before sinking.
Note, you don’t need to dive the kite down to regain speed.
Just let yourself sink.
If you can get the board around to the new side, as the kite drifts to the new side,
you’ve done well.
At this stage you will likely sink with a heelside lean.
STEP 3:
The next step is try and not get stuck with a heelside lean.
As you turn around lunge forward and retract the front foot.
Note, at this stage we’re still not diving the kite in the new direction.
STEP 4:
The next step is to use a weak dive in the new direction, after turning.
We are aiming to do a foil to taxi tack.
You ride around heelside.
As you loose foiling speed, use a weak dive in the new direction and see if you can taxi
away.
STEP 5:
Once you can do the foil to taxi tack, you can gradually add more riding speed and dive
the kite more firmly in the new direction after turning.
You will find that you taxi or touch down for less time.
Eventually you should be able to complete the heel toe tack foiling the entire way.
The better your technique, the earlier you will shift into a toeside lean.
At first, however, you will probably not get into a toeside lean very quickly.
You will probably have too much heelside lean after the tack and start turning downwind.
If you use some yaw steering, however, you can save this situation.
You can see here the rider keeps twisting the board.
Pushing the leading foot behind, and the trailing foot forwards.
This directs the foil behind the rider, which shifts them into a toeside lean.
You can see how yaw steering can save the situation with a sub-par tack.
Good luck learning tacks.
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