When I tried to get other people into pumpfoiling in 2020, I would always show them the steps and hold them the board. They would run and crash, if they were lucky, they did not hurt themselves. The early adopters are mostly hardcore.

These days after teaching a lot of adults and children I am evolving my teaching technique, last but least to avoid injuries on yourself, on other people and your equipment.

These days I start with all my beginners, no matter the age, size, weight or talent on the belly. Try to glide as long as possible. If you reach 15 m on your belly, then you get the glide feeling, then you understand the gilde feeling on the foil, because you glided on the foil and your body was as close to the foil as possible.

Being on the belly you are closer to the center of gravity of the foil, the focal point (Schwerpunkt). What matters is that you experience the feeling of the glide.

You can do this a 100 times or more, till you consistently glide more than 10 meters. Till you manage to glide 10 meters or more 90% of your tries.

After that go onto the knees.

Push off with your jump leg (Sprungbein). Place the other knee first on the board and then get the second knee on the board. Try to pump the board. Zoe shows this very well in the short videos.

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Once you manage to glide on your knees for more then 10 meters consistently, try to stand up. Sophie is showing this nicely as well in the 3rd video. When you crash, always hold on to the board. This is important for your own safety, for the safety of your surroundings. It is also good for your equipment. Learn slow, baby steps, no ambition, no expectations.

Do at least 100 knee starts and then move on to jump directly to your feet. Do this only after you manged to get up a couple of times after doing the knee start, like Sophie and Zoe show.

Happy Pumping!

ONIX 2025 catalogue.