I've read many comments in various posts however, it would help me to summarize a consensus.
Trend seems to favour very low aspect SUP foils, I am partly convinenced but do not have one.
If a SUP foil is the consensus then which?

I have been interested in a big SUP wing for kitefoiling, however I am concerned that they might be limiting as far as feeling draggy or having too much lift for high performance (eventually) foiling.

I think you should get a foil for the type of riding you want to do, not a specific maneuver. You will get the maneuvers with enough practice with almost any foil.

I've enjoyed learning to gybe on my SS Hover Glide. I find it carves smoothly through a turn and is nice and stable. However, it's the only foil I've ever ridden so I have nothing to compare it against. The guys who use the big surf wings seem to like their carving abilities.

My Zeeko Spitfire with xlw wings is incredibly forgiving for jibes. Cruises super slow and can still go decently fast to catch main break waves at Margs :)

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Bletti said..
My Zeeko Spitfire with xlw wings is incredibly forgiving for jibes. Cruises super slow and can still go decently fast to catch main break waves at Margs :)

Can you compare the Spitfire with XLW wings to other foils you might have tried?

The XLW wings are more forgiving for carving and gybing at lower speed and as you lose speed during the turn.
The Spitfire in general is more back foot turn focused. So closer to the natural Surfboard turn weight bias.
it is more forgiving of breach's and you don't lose the speed you want when needing to out run a breaking wave.
all our Spitfire sales are with both or XLW only wing sets nowadays.
the new SUP/Surf Spitfire has just finished R&D.

i learnt on the ride engine surf foil (same as the SS H2). made learning so incredibly easy. i would say it cut my learning time in half. i learnt my first jib in 4 hours after my first time jumping on a foil.

HOWEVER , once you get overpowered, you get pumped. the lift is too much and you get forced to breach.

i imagine a sup foil would have much more lift then a surf foil. in my experience i wouldn't go bigger then a surf foil.

if you have the funds, get a second surf foil, you wont regret it.

edit: i gave the foil to a mate to use, first time ever on a foil. he did his first jibe in about 15min of first using it. he is a freak but still. the progression on the ride engine foil is outrageous

I am very happy with my J Shapes Cruzer foil. It's a big, low speed foil but it goes quite fast. Possibly best of all is that most of the time when it breaches the surface it just slides along on top, makes a bit of noise then continues foiling. It's a great foil for carving in the waves.

On the other hand, gybing is really easy and you should be able to carve heel and toeside gybes on anything. The hard part is swapping the feet before, after and during the transition. There are two things you need to practice.

One is to swap your feet really fast. This is the best way to do it, although the failure rate is high.

The other is to find the balance point of your foil and ride with both feet together(ish) around that point. It's kind of fun to ride along in "ski" stance. With a little practice you can ride in that position for ages and churn out foot swaps with a fair bit of ease.

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Gorgo said..


One is to swap your feet really fast. This is the best way to do it, although the failure rate is high.

The other is to find the balance point of your foil and ride with both feet together(ish) around that point. It's kind of fun to ride along in "ski" stance. With a little practice you can ride in that position for ages and churn out foot swaps with a fair bit of ease.

I suffer the high failure rate as you explained in the first option. hopeless at toe side for any distance, just can't keep the speed up.
My normal jibe is touch down / change feet after the jibe. (short mast doesn't help)

Would like to be able to fly the jibe / transition. Might try the last method.

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RAL INN said..
The XLW wings are more forgiving for carving and gybing at lower speed and as you lose speed during the turn.
The Spitfire in general is more back foot turn focused. So closer to the natural Surfboard turn weight bias.
it is more forgiving of breach's and you don't lose the speed you want when needing to out run a breaking wave.
all our Spitfire sales are with both or XLW only wing sets nowadays.
the new SUP/Surf Spitfire has just finished R&D.

Be interesting to see how much larger the SUP wings are.

On my list but need more specs.

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warwickl said..
I've read many comments in various posts however, it would help me to summarize a consensus.
Trend seems to favour very low aspect SUP foils, I am partly convinenced but do not have one.
If a SUP foil is the consensus then which?

You mean changing feet on the foil, or just getting around to the other tack on the foil?

Don't need a very low AR foil, just a properly designed one.

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emmafoils said..

Bletti said..
My Zeeko Spitfire with xlw wings is incredibly forgiving for jibes. Cruises super slow and can still go decently fast to catch main break waves at Margs :)

Can you compare the Spitfire with XLW wings to other foils you might have tried?

You can'tthey're a whole other thing. People have said you need several sessions to adapt, which puts me off but everyone you talk to swears by them. Ididn't have a great time in the 20 minutes I tried to ride it . . . FWIW which is not much

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emmafoils said..
I have been interested in a big SUP wing for kitefoiling, however I am concerned that they might be limiting as far as feeling draggy or having too much lift for high performance (eventually) foiling.

Power suck and radical changes in trim with speed was my major concern too when I tried out the Axis SUP foils with a kite this summer.

My goal was to use even smaller kites and ride the board more than relying on power from the kite . . . which is exactly what I got.

For me, the 920mm wide wing was too lifty in the surf with a kite; getting on the wave was perfect but then the kite became a nuisance -- was tempted once to just ditch the kite just foilRiding with a 7m when everyone else foiling was on 9 or 12m and still hauling upwind was madness.

But the 720mm wide wing was perfect for me.

Speed range is lower of course, so you cruise at a more relaxed pace -- VERY relaxed in the case of the 920 LOL -- and you don't need high board speed or power from the kite to gybe/transition heel to toe etc. They're more stable (IMO because of the wider wings) so changing feet is a doddle.

Really, going back to a kite foil, the things you notice are how much faster you HAVE to ride and how more you have to think about riding the board, rather than just riding.

That's what I wanted though, maybe some people like big kites or going as fast as possible

If you mean just regular jibing then I'd say any of the non-racing foils will do. Found the J Shapes Freeride perfect, turning on the dime with the slowest possible speed (I am talking almost coming to a stop but not touching down). Now I am on an old Freeride Manta alu foil mounted on a relatively short Alpine Carbon composite board and it seems as easy, and still jibing at very low speed without touch down is easy.
Foil tacks whereas I still find difficult, but that's a technique thing and not really a matter of which foil is mounted i.m.o.

Having learned how to do jybes, carves, and ride with a Stringfellow foil I found that when I jumped on the Spitfire it did take about two hours to dial it in. As mentioned above, it's a great foil for washing off speed before a carve or jybe, and mast up transitions are pretty easy with this foil, easier than the Stringfellow. I made a huge mistake when I shaped my first Paipo by not having any rocker in it and I payed for even the smallest mistake when learning to jybe. However it made me very precise. When I shaped a new one with rocker everything was pretty easy. As mentioned above, switching feet quickly is the best way to get around, but learning the feet swap is best learned by moving feet closer together to find the cog and riding at a slower pace but not too slow to stall and gradually swapping. You should also be well versed in downlooping the kite as you come around as it keeps your pace nice and smooth. Foiling is so much fun....and though at times it looks boring to bystanders, there really there is a lot to the micro movements of your body that keep you on your toes....