How I Teach Pumpfoiling

No ambitions, no expectations. — This is the guide to how I teach pumpfoiling, compiled from my interviews, videos and posts. Read it once — then go watch the videos and pump. You can also download it as a PDF (always the latest version, on GitHub).

1. The Three Things I Always Say

“First: no expectations. Second: no ambition. And third — this one is for the adults — it’s like matrimonial therapy. You can’t tell your wife or your husband what to do. You can only work on yourself. So you can’t tell the board what the board should do.”
— Up On Foil, Ep. 11 (podcast, 03.12.2024)

Pumpfoiling takes several hundred starts — 300 to 600 for most people. If no start counts as a failure, you cannot fail: every jump is simply the next repetition, and the repetitions are the sport. Everybody learns at their own speed, so the first thing I ask a new student is: what sports did you do as a kid? Skateboarding, gymnastics, dancing — any balance sport? Your background, height, weight and resilience shape your personal curve. Comparing yourself to anybody else is exactly the expectation we left at home.

2. Why This Sport

No engine — only your body. No wind, no waves, no boat needed: Switzerland has 1,500 lakes, and all you need is a board, a foil and a dock. Rain, snow, sunshine — there is no excuse. And it is a therapeutic sport, like a natural ADHD treatment:

“You have a problem in your marriage, with your kids, with some teachers — or you are just stressed out about your job. When you jump on the board, those three, four seconds, you need an autistic hyperfocus. It focuses you on the moment, on the instant you land on the board. You forget everything else. You completely reset your main brain.”
— Pump Tsüri by Boardtales (video interview)

Once you touch the board, there is no more thinking — only muscle memory. The hyperfocus that is a burden in a classroom is a superpower on a foil: educate your autistic hyperfocus. Ambition lives in the future; the dockstart only accepts people who are fully in the present.

“In Zürich, when it rains, people are in a bad mood. It’s like they are made of sugar or something. You go and pump, your bad mood disappears instantly.”
— TotalSUP interview, 27.04.2023

I have two predictions: pump foiling will turn into the new national sport of Switzerland, and soon we will have more pump foilers in Switzerland than surfers in Hawaii.

3. The Progression: Belly, Knee, Feet

This approach is meant for the broad mass of beginners — the exceptions come at the end. I start with all my beginners on the belly, no matter their age, size, weight or talent. Watch the videos (section 7) — they show this better than any text.

  1. Belly — about 20 to 100 tries. On your belly you are as close as possible to the foil’s centre of gravity, so you experience the pure glide feeling with zero risk.
  2. Knee — again 20 to 100 tries. Push off with your jump leg, place the other knee on the board first, then bring the second knee up — and pump the board on your knees.
  3. The glide feeling. The student has to get the glide into their senses. Age plays a decisive role: you teach a 62-year-old differently than a 5-year-old — kids stand up from the knees much earlier.
  4. Ready. When the student glides more than 2 to 5 metres on the belly and on the knees, they have the glide feeling at a low centre of gravity. They are ready for the next step.
  5. Feet. When the student is ready for the feet, go to the feet — but the student must want it. When a kid says by herself or himself “I want to go on my feet”, then she is mentally ready; then I hold the board. The hardest part of teaching is holding people back — they are like horses before the start. A detail that does half the work: teach on a board that is not too large. A smaller board disciplines the student — the feet have to go where they belong, otherwise you step off. If somebody insists on standing right away and then crashes and crashes, I say: go one step back, onto the belly, until you feel safe. The ones who understand stand up sooner.

Exceptions always exist. With Andri Ragettli and David Hablützel, 3 belly tries and 3 knee tries were enough — then straight to the feet. And with impatient young students (16 to 25) you can go to the feet earlier, if they have good balance and they want it.

4. Rules at the Dock

  1. Count starts, not sessions — plan for 300 to 600. Say it out loud on day one.
  2. Same spot, same board, same foil. A familiar setup removes variables; gear-hopping and spot-hopping reset your progress.
  3. Stabilizer in the most forward position on the fuselage. You want to get into the pump movement — steep down and up again — not just glide.
  4. Energy is not the answer. About 12 to 15 things have to be right at the same time — foot position, weight, body position. The ambitious ones cramp up, put too much energy in, and crash.
  5. Let your pulse come down between tries. From high pulse to high pulse there is no concentration.
  6. Silence during a start. Never talk to somebody who is starting — not even to cheer. Feedback waits until the person returns to the dock.
  7. Break the vicious cycle. Fail, get angry, curse, kick the board — and your temperament takes over and nothing works anymore. Stop, swim, breathe, reset.

And once you can pump: I do a regular pump (left foot front), then a goofy pump (right foot front). What comes next is up to the rider — practice your own favourite tricks.

5. Safety

Of the hundreds of people I have taught, I have had one or two cutting accidents — both adults with too much ambition and too much energy in the start (one of them had a couple of beers first). “No ambitions, no expectations” is also the safety rule. With kids it is absolute: a kid who gets hurt once will not come back. And the beginner setup must float nose-up after a crash, so the board is easy to grab and easy on your back.

6. The Gear

I taught for years on the INDIANA 1100 P — a simple, sturdy, decently priced complete setup — and later on the 1190 and the 1396 (see Patrick’s kneestart video below). Today I teach with the ONIX Pump Starter Pack: front wing 1850 cm² if you weigh up to 75 kg, 2250 cm² above that. Whatever you choose, choose once and stick with it. A starter set should not cost more than 1,500 francs, and you do not have to buy at all in the beginning: rent, or start together — two people, one board. If you both get addicted, you both buy your own. And the very first step costs nothing: speak to anybody who is out there trying it — walk up, ask where they rented the equipment and whether you could try once or twice. That is how this community works.

7. Watch, do not think before you start — Videos & Sources

Videos teach this sport better than text. Start here:

Remember: when you learn pumpfoiling — no ambitions, no expectations.

Leave a Reply