Hi all,

I need some advice on foils for surfing. I've been riding for a couple of seasons on a mid-aspect carbon foil now and trying to get a bit more aggressive with carving in the surf. My current foil's wing tips curve down nicely, about 70-80mm, and I've always figured helps to stop the foil sliding sideways in the carves. I'm wondering if this true or whether flat wings can be carved just as hard without sliding?? Anyone had experience with both types in the surf?

Cheers
Matt

Mine don't slide and they are almost flat. I can lay some hard as carves on my set up.

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Plummet said..
Mine don't slide and they are almost flat. I can lay some hard as carves on my set up.

How about up on foil jibe?
What is your technique for good consistent jibes?

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Plummet said..
Mine don't slide and they are almost flat. I can lay some hard as carves on my set up.

What's your take on what anhedral does for handling?

Zeeko Carver wings are flat and it carves well.
Zeeko Spitfire wings are flat and it carves well.
Naish Surf Thrust has a decent anhedral on both front and rear wing and it carves well.

The above work well in the flat water and surf.

It helped me to try a range of different foils to see what I really preferred.

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bigtone667 said..
Zeeko Carver wings are flat and it carves well.
Zeeko Spitfire wings are flat and it carves well.
Naish Surf Thrust has a decent anhedral on both front and rear wing and it carves well.

The above work well in the flat water and surf.

It helped me to try a range of different foils to see what I really preferred.

Thanks!

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warwickl said..

Plummet said..
Mine don't slide and they are almost flat. I can lay some hard as carves on my set up.

How about up on foil jibe?
What is your technique for good consistent jibes?

The trick is a bit of speed. You need to have enough speed to keep the wing from stalling. Also start riding with your feet closer and closer together to feel where your true center of gravity is. Once you get a feel for that spot then practice pushing downward on the front foot and then move your feet closer to that center. Practice the switch from that position. Keep some speed up. I transition two different ways, on my natural side I switch after the gybe, on my goofy I switch before I turn and set the move up twoside. When I am switching either way I make sure I don't point too high up into the wind. Try your gybes with a small touchdown after you turn and try to switch quickly and then pop. Get faster and smoother with your small touchdown. Eventually the board will stop hitting the water. It also helps in a session to do short runs and practice over and over. We all get there in the end :)

What Dafish said will be very helpful.

as for Anhedral, this is something that increases stability, usually at speed. So Flat is least stable and more manoeuvrable.
adding Anhedral gives more stability but less manoeuvrability.
although I believe you'd have to be very advanced to tell.
the wing tips bending up or down make the wings more efficient at the tips in providing lift but about the same as if you straightened them out.
the real advantage is keeping width down. Aircraft like this so they can fit closer together at the Terminal.

As for better carving in Surf. I would say the best money you could spend on improving your carving abilities is more fuel in your car to drive to beach and practice.
stringing 3 days in a row still seems the best answer to most foiling technique questions.

Some very helpful comments on this thread. What about camber? Does it have same effect as anhedral tips?

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emmafoils said..
Some very helpful comments on this thread. What about camber? Does it have same effect as anhedral tips?

Anhedral is the angle of wing from the straight plane.
tips are their own thing.
so I'm guessing you're camber is the Anhedral angle

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RAL INN said..

emmafoils said..
Some very helpful comments on this thread. What about camber? Does it have same effect as anhedral tips?

Anhedral is the angle of wing from the straight plane.
tips are their own thing.
so I'm guessing you're camber is the Anhedral angle

Camber is the relative curvature of the top surface and bottom surface of wing. If you draw a line half way between top and bottom of the wing section and that line is convex then that is 'positive camber' is usually designed into foil sections to increase lift and reduce the stall speed.

Three things I found really helpful with gybes were:
i) switch your feet when the foil is rising up - just before I switch feet I pump the board and as its half way through coming back up to normal riding level switch then. There is something about the upward momentum you have that makes the move more balanced.
ii) Have the kite fairly high and sheet in hard for short burst. This lifts some of your weight of the board and seems to make it less sensitive to you not being perfectly balanced.
iii) Keep weight over the front foil wing through the whole move. I found that I tended to put my weights over the back of the board and so I deliberately leaned forward as I switched feet. I found that looking down at my feet as I switched them helped me keep my weight forward.

www.skybrary.aero/images/Camber.gif' />&imgrefurl=www.skybrary.aero/index.php/Camber&docid=LSH6qi_-wtI7pM&tbnid=6q-0_8ipqEE_uM:&vet=1&w=573&h=764&hl=en-au&source=sh/x/im

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mattma said..

Plummet said..
Mine don't slide and they are almost flat. I can lay some hard as carves on my set up.

What's your take on what anhedral does for handling?

Well i've only ridden mine and the spitfire which both are flat......

Should reduce wing breaches, maybe add some stability to the expense of maneuverability.

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warwickl said..

Plummet said..
Mine don't slide and they are almost flat. I can lay some hard as carves on my set up.

How about up on foil jibe?
What is your technique for good consistent jibes?

Are you talking direction change, Or foiling foot switch?

Direction changes are sweet. My foiling footswitch sucks balls. I put that down to my lumpy choppy location and lack of time to practice.

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dafish said..

warwickl said..

Plummet said..
Mine don't slide and they are almost flat. I can lay some hard as carves on my set up.

How about up on foil jibe?
What is your technique for good consistent jibes?

The trick is a bit of speed. You need to have enough speed to keep the wing from stalling. Also start riding with your feet closer and closer together to feel where your true center of gravity is. Once you get a feel for that spot then practice pushing downward on the front foot and then move your feet closer to that center. Practice the switch from that position. Keep some speed up. I transition two different ways, on my natural side I switch after the gybe, on my goofy I switch before I turn and set the move up twoside. When I am switching either way I make sure I don't point too high up into the wind. Try your gybes with a small touchdown after you turn and try to switch quickly and then pop. Get faster and smoother with your small touchdown. Eventually the board will stop hitting the water. It also helps in a session to do short runs and practice over and over. We all get there in the end :)

Thanks! I have printed this out and will read, re-read, and real again, until it's an annoying chime in my head.

The page may be laminated for longevity, although I could just grate it on my Weaties in a few days to make sure it's really digested .

I am at that stage where I am doing about a third to half of my turns without incident, mostly touchdowns but some 'complete sweeps' have appeared in the past two weeks.

However, the rate is inconsistent over sessions, unless water dead flat and howling, so a pattern to follow is good.

That said, when I was in glassed water on the 5m, I was a god! . But I'm not telling you where that was.

Sessions planned tonight until Sunday. We have a long weekend, so maybe Monday too.