Wake Foiling | How to Pump Your Foil

Pumping is one of the coolest things you can do in wake foil. In this tutorial, Cole breaks down the technique of pumping on a wake foil and what you need to know before you try this trick.

Prerequisites to Pumping

• Able to comfortably carve on your hydrofoil
• Can surf the second wake comfortably

Technique of Pumping

Start by riding about three-quarters or halfway out of the water with your mast. Drive your front foot down towards the water and ride that foil down to generate speed. When the board gets close to touching the water, shift your weight to your back foot to kick the foil back up again, with the mast half to three-quarters of the way out of the water. Push down with your front foot to start the process over again.

You're using your front foot to generate speed as you kick the foil back down, and you're using your back foot to kick the board back up to start the process again.

One thing I want to point out is that pumping is not bouncing on the board. If you just bounce, all you're going to do is push the foil down and back up. You won't actually create that scooping motion that is needed to generate speed.

Practice Your Technique

One drill I like to recommend for new riders is to surf on the first or second wake, bring the board close to the water, and then stomp on the back foot to kick the board back up. Use that front foot to drive the board back down, kick with the back foot, and repeat this process over and over again.

With this drill, you can start slow. You can slowly bring the board back to the water and slowly bring it back up. As you increase the rhythm, doing this motion faster and faster, you're going to feel that the foil accelerates when you kick with your back foot and you're going to feel that acceleration as you drive forward on your glide. Once you feel this acceleration, you'll know that you're generating speed by pumping.

Now that you've mastered this skill on a steeper part of the wake, it's time to move to a less powerful part of the wake, like the edge of the wake close to the flat water. You can still use the wake as training wheels, but the only way you'll actually stay on the wake is if you are pumping and generating your own speed. Try it out on the weaker part of the wake and see how you do.

Once you figure out how to ride on the weaker part of the wake while pumping, then you can slowly move yourself out into the flat water. If you're actually generating your own speed when you get to the flat water, you should be able to keep up with the wake.

I love using this drill to teach new riders how to pump because they can learn the technique of pumping and they can use the wake as training wheels before they just throw themselves off a dock or in the flat water before they really know the technique of pumping.

Gear

Gear does matter when it comes to pumping. Some foils are going to pump better than others, and it's really important that you don't let your gear hold you back from learning how to pump. If you have any questions about which gear is suitable for pumping or just want to double check with us to make sure that your setup is okay for you, feel free to contact us.

At the end of the day, learning how to pump is way more attainable than most people think. If you can surf the second wake and carve around on your hydrofoil, you have plenty of skills to try pumping out for yourself, so next time you're on the water, give it a shot. Until next time, happy shredding, and I look forward to seeing you guys on the water.

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