Danielle carving it up on her first fliteboard session. Wow! She made this turn and others like it - Go gal!
Your OzFoiling teacher is with you riding on another board nearby to watch how you are going and to provide helpful tips where needed.
We start by going through how the Fliteboard works, the safety & river protocols and the way we combine use of different gears with feet positioning on the board, to determine whether you stay planing on the water, or you come out of the water foiling.
First step is to get used to the Flite controller whilst lying on one’s belly. Within a short time you realise you are in control, and can go as slow as you like. You will quickly realise it’s not hard to plane around at various speeds and turn and stop where you want. Next step on your knees is an easy transition and we have you positioned so you stay on the water and get used to having fun surfing around on the water. The transition to standing and surfing is also quick for most. Generally within 10- 15 minutes most are surfing around.
We then take you through how to have control over the flying part and we show you how to come up/foil and then return to the surface. From there the fun continues and everyone flys, some with more control than others but everyone with a big smile at the end.
It’s so much fun to share this experience. Having your partner, a friend, your daughter or son to share this with is super special and a life memory that will always bring back smiles. Over the lesson you get a high degree of support and you have your partner to bounce off as well.
As a group you get the benefit of lower cost and the fun that comes with sharing with family or friends. Most like to organise the outing as a picnic and to make it a river or ocean play day.
The ozfoiling club is about sharing the joy with a big fun group (6-8 participants) and seeing more people realise how easy and fun Fliteboarding is. With 4 boards to use, you can come as a group of up to 8 and everyone takes turns with 4 in the water at a time. The battery time gives approximately 40 minutes of ride time each. In truth it ends up feeling like an hour and with breaks and swaps the ozfoiling club allows for a 2.5 hour window to have fun on the boards, and at up to half the normal outlay this is a great way to explore Fliteboarding.
If the group books in for a 2nd time, the organiser/one person is free or effectively 15% off Or if the group prepays for 4 sessions then you get 15% off all sessions.
Also, to further share the joy, if you have already attended a lesson with Oz foiling, whether a big group or not, you as organiser of a group of 6-8 get your first organised Ozfoiling club event you created free. e.g. your portion of the group payment.
When able to foil and control the height of board, whilst dealing with currents and speed fluctuations without losing control, you’re then ready to try the ocean. Having someone to guide you through the experience is wise and helpful. Surf efoil lessons are the same cost as for the river, however there can be a wait to get the right conditions.
Learning to take off on an unpowered pronefoil board, when the wave take off speed plus angle of entry and front back foot weight distribution is changing radically moment to moment, is the perfect storm to make it difficult to learn. Alternatively if you have a few efoil lessons and and at least one efoil session in the ocean, you will understand how foiling works before hitting the ocean on your new prone foil board. We will explore what are good and bad conditions, focus wave selection and take off, and explain how to allow for the differences between an efoil and an unpowered prone foil.
As a total beginner learning to surf on a normal surfboard, you probably get a total of 2- 3 minutes stand up time in an hour surf. In a 1 hour efoil lesson you will get about 40 minutes of stand up time, at least. That’s one efoil session for 13-15 surfs. This fast tracks your learning and confidence. If we do 1 or 2 efoil sessions plus 1 or 2 surfboard sessions, you can be a confident beginner surfer quickly. On these efoil sessions we will spend most of the time focusing on quick pop ups and banking turns frontside and backside with the board on the water not foiling. If booking one efoil and one surf lessons, then normal prices apply. If booking 4 sessions combined or more, then a 15% discount applies. As a private lesson with even only 1 efoil & one surf lesson, you will have the basics to see you surfing so much quicker. The big take away is skill felt, but even more so, its confidence.
Mark on his 2nd efoil session and already out in the ocean. Perfect conditions for learning in the ocean.
Here is Mark’s friend Ben, nicknamed Maddog, an accomplished foiler who loves tackling the big waves. Here Ben, on his Fliteboard Ultra tackles a sizeable drop at Gallows Coffs Harbour.
Foiling breaks through stereotypes associated with surfing and gender assumptions.
There’s so much fun to be had for gals or guys, and it’s much easier and safer than anyone realises. With Fliteboarding on flat water, with controllable power, anyone can have tons of fun simply on one’s belly scoobing around, or on knees and only standing when ready. And with reasonable balance, that’s all is needed to stand and move around like a river surfer.
Locally Fliteboarding we’ve have had so many gals getting into it and more repeat foiler’s who are gals than guys.
It’s helpful to reflect on what stops us trying something new, or what gets us over the line in trying something new.
Another example is, many people might see someone surfing/efoiling around a river and think, I couldn’t do that! Maybe it’s the power of the ocean association, or the thought that it looks like it might take too much balance, when in truth if one has the balance to ride a bike there’s the same balance to be able to efoil.
One memorable day which was a nice reminder of breaking pre conceived ideas as the doer or the one watching from the side lines, was a family with surfer Dad, and sideliner Mum and their 3 kids aged 7-12. Mum sort of didn’t want a go, and the kids and Dad were having a ball. At the last opportunity, she decided to have a go. Although nervous, she realised quickly the control and balance she had on the board, and was standing up within minutes! Never having been a surfer, she still had great balance, and was able to go as fast or as slow as she wanted, and had an absolute ball of a time!
This picture gives a picture of the fun to be had going on a tour. Imagine an hour cruising 16km’s around an island. As long as you have been to 1 or 2 efoil sessions and have enough confidence to go on a tour, then it can be booked as per a normal session booking note, for a tour. Ist tour recommended is this one at Newry Island. Others include, Bellingen river, Nambucca River & Scotts Head/ Warrell creek. Ocean tours await those rare super calm days and are decided based upon a wait list, and the preferred choice the day prior.