Hi all!My first post here.I have an Airush Sector V3 60 and thinking to put my wing on it for learning and light wind days?
With a tuttle box converter I can mount my Zeeko Bullet on it but I'm think it will be too far back. Or Foilmount is a better option?Thanks for any advice!

My rear foot nearly always ends up being on top of the mast. So I would think the mast is too far back personally. But it would make a great light wind foil board if you could move the tuttle box forward to around the front fin position.

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bigtone667 said..
My rear foot nearly always ends up being on top of the mast. So I would think the mast is too far back personally. But it would make a great light wind foil board if you could move the tuttle box forward to around the front fin position.

Thanks bigtone!It seems the foilmount or a rail system built in is the answer.

A local at mine has done exactly that.... had rails installed on a sector to take a Zeeko foil. He's a pretty big fella and whilst learning to foilboard the sector will work fine. I suspect however that once he's up and flying the sector will quickly prove to be too big and he may want a smaller more nimble board . Dont discount the importance of the board.

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snalberski said..
A local at mine has done exactly that.... had rails installed on a sector to take a Zeeko foil. He's a pretty big fella and whilst learning to foilboard the sector will work fine. I suspect however that once he's up and flying the sector will quickly prove to be too big and he may want a smaller more nimble board . Dont discount the importance of the board.

I have a smaller board which is great, but to learn how the wing behaving the Sector would be better. I say this after 4 sessions with the small one How much was the conversion snalberski and who did it? Thanks!

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Szabi said..

snalberski said..
A local at mine has done exactly that.... had rails installed on a sector to take a Zeeko foil. He's a pretty big fella and whilst learning to foilboard the sector will work fine. I suspect however that once he's up and flying the sector will quickly prove to be too big and he may want a smaller more nimble board . Dont discount the importance of the board.

I have a smaller board which is great, but to learn how the wing behaving the Sector would be better. I say this after 4 sessions with the small one How much was the conversion snalberski and who did it? Thanks!

A conversion will cost you around $200. Pretty straight forward if you have a router. Happy to do it if you can't find anyone (I've done 6 so far and all going strong).

You don't say what your smaller board is. It's impossible to know if it's worth spending time and money modifying the Sector when we don't know what the alternative is.

You also need to tell us your height and weight.

My instinctive reaction is that the Sector 60 would work, but would be too big and heavy to be a good platform for a foil. Your biggest risk as a noobie is getting clobbered and having a Sector 60 bolted onto an alloy foil sounds extremely scary to me.

My advice to everybody taking up foiling is "more riding, less thinking". After 4 sessions you have barely started to learn to foil. Unless your gear is total crap then there is no need to change anything.

One caveat to that is that Zeeko describe the Bullet as the "...the fastest aluminium hydrofoil on the market." You might have started at the wrong end of the performance tree. Big, slow wings are generally more forgiving and a heap more fun for freeriding than fast ones.

Thank you for the advice Livit and Gorgo!Yes, I think I have to keep doing it. It's just so frustrating, but I guess this is part of the fun :)Here is the two boards side by side. I haven't measured the Flysurfer board. It's approximately 125cm long.

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Szabi said..
Thank you for the advice Livit and Gorgo!Yes, I think I have to keep doing it. It's just so frustrating, but I guess this is part of the fun :)Here is the two boards side by side. I haven't measured the Flysurfer board. It's approximately 125cm long.

Hey Szabi
The guy I know paid $250 to have rails installed so $200 sounds a good deal. The 2 boards you have are very different in terms of use as foilboarding boards. Boards with volume will assist for touchdowns. Boards with no volume will more easily nose dive and stop dead but will sink when trying to water start which some may find useful. Boards with no volume also offer extra hard edges to come to grief against . Both seem to work ok.

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snalberski said..
A local at mine has done exactly that.... had rails installed on a sector to take a Zeeko foil. He's a pretty big fella and whilst learning to foilboard the sector will work fine. I suspect however that once he's up and flying the sector will quickly prove to be too big and he may want a smaller more nimble board . Dont discount the importance of the board.

That's me.

I used the Sector because a) I already had it and b) I'd been riding it for about two years previously. Gorgo, you're right, it does have some weight behind it with the Zeeko, it so Szabi, if you do this be aware of that and be careful. It'll help a lot if you've been riding the Sector previously. Wear a helmet and an impact vest - and take it easy for your first couple of sessions.

The critical measurement (which I got from James at Specialised and backed up by Christian at KiteBud) is that the foil is at least 370mm behind the front foot strap (that's 370mm from the rear strap screw to the front mast plate bolt) - for learning, you may even go as far back as 410mm, get used to it and start to move it forward. If you modify the Sector, make absolutely sure that the track installed will give you this range of movement.

I can't really comment on rear foot position, I'm very early into this, but I'm finding it reasonably comfortable with my rear foot over the mast. Again, take that with a grain of salt, it's probably fair to say I don't really know what I'm doing just yet.

As far as the long term viability of using a big board like the Sector - well, I suspect Snalberski is right, but we'll wait and see. At this point in the learning curve, the Sector is certainly an advantage for me; the floatation makes it easier to get up and get going before the foil starts to rise. Disclaimer - I'm 6'6" and around 113kg.

Wings - I've got the Carver front wing on my Zeeko, but I'm trying a short mast SUP front wing setup that Christian is letting me use for a couple of sessions. No idea how the Bullet will work, but what Gorgo says sounds correct. I wouldn't want a fast front wing at this stage of the learning curve, there's enough going on as it is.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

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snalberski said..

Szabi said..
Thank you for the advice Livit and Gorgo!Yes, I think I have to keep doing it. It's just so frustrating, but I guess this is part of the fun :)Here is the two boards side by side. I haven't measured the Flysurfer board. It's approximately 125cm long.

Hey Szabi
The guy I know paid $250 to have rails installed so $200 sounds a good deal. The 2 boards you have are very different in terms of use as foilboarding boards. Boards with volume will assist for touchdowns. Boards with no volume will more easily nose dive and stop dead but will sink when trying to water start which some may find useful. Boards with no volume also offer extra hard edges to come to grief against . Both seem to work ok.

Thanks for your opinion snalberski! I think I'll do few more sessions with the small board as I had progressed, even if it's really small :)

Thank you GeoffD as well! I'm in the same situation as you. I have the Sector already, love it and thought the buoyancy could help to start slow and get a feeling of the wing underneath. Also could work in really light wind conditions as I'm only 65-67kg.

As I said I'll do more sessions with the small one and will decide if convert the Sector to a foil board.

Thank you GeoffD for the position guide as well!

Couple of good days on the trot with the modified sector; had a couple of wins so here's a few thoughts.

I got rid of the back foot strap, and having the ability to move my back foot around to fine tune the COG has made a huge difference. With my back foot strapped in, it was a struggle. Having the back foot free to find the sweet spot, I'm now getting 400 metre runs on the foil. Front strap is as loose as I can get it, you need to be able to eject quickly if you have to.

Don't go over the front of the board. And wear a helmet and impact vest. The reasons why should be obvious without me having to spell it out. This is especially important if you're so stoked about being up and you forget about things like water depth.

I had the use of a short mast foil with a SUP front wing for a couple of days - this accelerated the process quite remarkably. It's not essential, but it certainly helped.

Gorgo and snalberski are quite correct, the Sector is a big board, but I'm finding that the floatation and stability on the water for starts makes up for it. Again, is it a long term situation? Possibly not, but we'll see.

Smaller kites are better than larger ones. I'm usually on a 12 (being a BFB). It looks like that on a foil, in normal Perth conditions, a 9 is going to be the go to kite which is great - they respond better, they're quicker in turns and smaller kites certainly focus your kite control.

Once you get up and start having some semblance of control on longer runs - it's brilliant. Go through the pain, it's totally worth it.

The bullet comes Std. With a Race type wing and currently the is a Zeeko deal that lets you get the choice of an extra wing either Carver Freeride or Speed.
you can also choose mast length and add KF box or Tuttle adaptor.
it is taking over from the Green&white foil and soon there will be a price point Zeeko foil for entry level foiling but this will only have the one wing set.
Th Bullet is fast if you use Speed wing but takes on the character of whichever wing you use.
the low drag features including short fuselage makes it that way plus quicker turns if you like.
So you can put on the Carver wing which is becoming quite the legend for slower stuff and waves, or learning. Then progress via wings to the fastest alloy foil on the market.

Update:
I finally decided to use the Foilmount to mount my Zekko bullet with a race wing. Long wait until it arrived but following the guidance of positioning, I finally stuck onto the Sector. One surprise that the bottom of the Sector is not completely flat. Hopefully it will stay there for long!
So, after seven session struggle with the small board, the first with the Sector was amazing! Used only front straps, no back strap. Wind was around 11-15kts on the river, bit gusty as usual. I used my 11m Bandit.
It was nice and smooth. Waterstart was quite easy with the front starps. I slowly built up the speed, kept flat on the water and when everything was nice and controlled I started to shift my weight and/or moved my back foot further back. The foil slowly starts working and the lift was nice and controlled.No big wipe-outs or nosedives luckily :)
I could go extreme upwind even when the board was flat on the water.
I took a 3 hours foil lesson last year with a Slingshot hover foil, but that was more difficult than with the Sector/Zeeko now.
I think this is a great combo for learning and in light wind condition. I'm sure later a smaller board will be better, but at the moment I really enjoy it.
Next time I will move the foil a bit forward in the rail as I had to put my back foot too far back.

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Szabi said..
Update:
I finally decided to use the Foilmount to mount my Zekko bullet with a race wing. Long wait until it arrived but following the guidance of positioning, I finally stuck onto the Sector. One surprise that the bottom of the Sector is not completely flat. Hopefully it will stay there for long!
So, after seven session struggle with the small board, the first with the Sector was amazing! Used only front straps, no back strap. Wind was around 11-15kts on the river, bit gusty as usual. I used my 11m Bandit.
It was nice and smooth. Waterstart was quite easy with the front starps. I slowly built up the speed, kept flat on the water and when everything was nice and controlled I started to shift my weight and/or moved my back foot further back. The foil slowly starts working and the lift was nice and controlled.No big wipe-outs or nosedives luckily :)
I could go extreme upwind even when the board was flat on the water.
I took a 3 hours foil lesson last year with a Slingshot hover foil, but that was more difficult than with the Sector/Zeeko now.
I think this is a great combo for learning and in light wind condition. I'm sure later a smaller board will be better, but at the moment I really enjoy it.
Next time I will move the foil a bit forward in the rail as I had to put my back foot too far back.

A light wind monster!!!

Good stuff. I'm sure that set up will be great for leaning. I think you're right about the foil position too. Looks a bit far back for a board that length.

Maybe someone can explain but I really don't get the point of that foil mount thingy. It cost more than adding tracks onto a board and make your board unusable for anything else....
The way I see it is that in the event you'd crash it hard (sandbar), the shear force of the impact will be transferred onto the skin of the board. Isn't that a perfect recipe for delamination ?