The foil jibe is usually the first manoeuvre for most wing beginners (HERE there's a tutorial), which needs to be learnt. But what comes next? One thing is certain: thanks to countless new manoeuvres, it never gets boring, with new manoeuvre creations emerging almost daily. One of the simplest and most stylish jibing variations is the duck jibe, a manoeuvre that has found its way from windsurfing to wingfoiling. After initiating the turn, the front hand is released from the wing and the front tube of the wing rotates downwards in a sweeping motion.
The Duckjibe - easy especially in light winds
Foiling the duck jibe is even easier compared to the normal jibe - once you have understood the change of grip. Generally speaking, once you've mastered the normal jibe, you're ready to go. The best practice conditions are clearly in light winds, because then the wind and the headwind actually cancel each other out at the peak of the manoeuvre (downwind). The wing can therefore be easily rotated without developing a disturbing pull. Conversely, the duck jibe becomes increasingly cumbersome in strong winds, in which case the normal jibe is the safer option for turning the board round. Like all jibe variations, the duck jibe is possible both in the normal foot position and from an approach in switch stance. As always: Before initiating the jibe, you should check the free space downwind!
We have summarised all the steps of the Duckjibe in the picture gallery at the beginning of the article - click through! The move is also available as a video tutorial on our YouTube channel.
You can find many more tutorials on our magazine's YouTube channel, from the basics to jibes, tacking and first jumps. Feel free to click in and subscribe to the channel now so that you never miss a clip again!
