Last year, I officially declared success with learning the wingfoil tack—from port to starboard, at least. That achievement lulled me into thinking that starboard to port tacks would come far more easily . . . because I conveniently forgot about an inconvenient personal imbalance.
Body Asymmetry
One cool aspect of wingfoiling is that we can continue to do it into our less agile years. But it does show up any physical limitations: a left shoulder that doesn’t rotate as well as the right (which doesn’t rotate as well as it did 20 years ago), and hips that much prefer a left-foot-forward stance. From top to bottom, I’ve learned to favor my more flexible side.
So when I first set up to try a tack from starboard to port, both feet and brain froze: “I can’t do this.” It felt all wrong, and none of what I’d already learned seemed to apply. But not-trying would definitely not move me up the learning curve, so I kept at it: Trying new foot positions. Pestering friends who made it look easy for tips. Falling a lot, and trying again.
Baby steps to breakthrough
As the water warmed up to summer temps, I began to make a few “dry” tacks: coming off the foil, but not falling. That’s a bigger step than it sounds like, because not-falling = much less fatigue. But progress soon stalled again.
A few weeks ago, I was mentally composing a post entitled “Wingfoiling Progress: Slower than I’d Like” when I “suddenly” foiled right through four tacks from starboard to port. Each one felt easy!
What was I doing differently? Well, nothing really… it was just all the practice finally paying off, combined with a perfect day for foiling: flat water, consistent breeze, and a small wing that was a lot easier to pass overhead. (Thanks to Paul, there’s even video proof.)
Any long-term goal requires patience
Just like learning to foil, learning to jibe, and of course learning the port to starboard tack, learning to tack from starboard to port required many more failed attempts than I expected. And even though breakthrough days are far more fun to write about, I need to remember the cumulative value of those failures. As I put it in 2022, “all that effort is what eventually makes the rare breakthrough days happen.”
Got a new skill that’s taking more time to learn than you expected—or better yet, a breakthrough day? Share it in the comments below. I read every single one, with gratitude. See you next Thursday!