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myusernam said..Youngbreezy said..
Myusernam can you confirm (honestly) that you have ridden a modern foil either powered by kite or surf/sup and your not just basing your opinions on your weirdo foilchair from 15 years ago?????
Yes there are limitations but there are also massive advantages that you seem to be overlooking
Speed, upwind, mobility, effortless flight, efficiency, floating above the chop, riding waves that you can't ride on a conventional board, pumping out and linking up waves and overall making a lot more fun out of average conditions
Sure foiling isn't the be all and end all of everything and it's not as extreme as other forms of riding but it can certainly be a great addition to the roster and massively extend the fun time!
No never ridden with kite. Never said I did. Don't doubt what you are using it for (mowing the grass in light wind, getting out I'm marginal conditions.). It's ok. What I'm trying to expose is that to try and emulate wakestyle, big air or waveriding on them is crap, because they are not suited. And the skyski analogy isn't outdated. I rode them to a much higher level than any of the kite pros with combined inverts etc. We had stand up foils back then. They were shxt. There's a misconception amongst kitefoilers they are on the cusp of something and foils will be the best and soon they will be doing all their twin tip tricks. Not so. The companies put out these videos to sell foils but they're being deliberatley misleading. All I'm trying to say. If you are willing to spend the coin or you live in a light wind area or are old and just want to cruize the go for it. Just saying don't expect twin tip style tricks or versatility.
Part of the point I was making is that foiling doesn't have to emulate other riding styles to still be fun, foiling is it's own thing. It will probably be a long time before we see anyone competing in king of the air or pulling in at Teahupoo on a foil but that doesn't mean the guys hammering around in light wind, carving 360 transitions, gliding along otherwise unridable rollers aren't having a ball!!
Also if you have only ever ridden a foil being towed behind a boat you are missing a lot of the things that make foiling better so alluring. Your not experiencing the speed, efficiency or mobility that foiling brings. Essentially the boat is doing the same thing it always does and your just putting a foil behind it. If you had only ever ridden a surfboard behind a boat you would probably say " this surfing thing will never take off you can't do all the tricks you can with a wakeboard"
If you're only experience of foiling is being towed behind a boat trying to emulate the tricks you do wakeboarding then you have completely missed the point of foiling.
And I agree the riding in the original vid is a bit naff (although way beyond my skill level) but then wakeboarding is mostly just bogans+water anyway