My aim is to surf small waves on the foil. The biggest issue I have had is normal kitesurfing foils are generally too fast once you are on the wave to easily execute turns.

I have previously tested the hoverglide (not the largest wing), zeeko carver, zeeko spitfire XLW. Great foils but too easy to get to 20 knots going down the face of the wave as you pull into it.

Enter the Naish Surf Thruster and Fanatic Flow Foil S1.

These are two monster foils from Naish and Fanatic. The Naish foil is super low aspect and 1237cm2. The Fanatic is high aspect and 1024cm2.

THE NAISH.

Super easy to assemble, but easy to have the rear wing upside down. It works well which ever way you place the rear wing (skews better upside down!).

Attached the foil to the Hover 155 and went out on the 10.4m (blowing around 10 knots). The foil came up very easily but it was easy to get too much lift. You end up being up on the foil at 45 degrees applying heaps of front foot to get it down (not a big deal, but you will be surprised by the amount of lift you can generate at the starts). Pretty sure you could just attach a four by two to foil and get up just by diving the kite!!

Once up and running, this thing just locks in. Definitely the steadiest foil I have ridden. Perfect foil to learn on!!

It does feel slow compared to the Zeeko's (average speed was about 10 to 11 knots, top speed was 15 knots, stall speed around 5 knots). Perfect for waves!!!.

I started on the standard 55cm mast and it is too small. You breach all the time. So I purchased the 70cm and 90cm, attached the 70cm and have stuck with it. Have not needed the 90 yet.

The Naish is a turning machine. Big long carves, short little carves, long slow turns, tight little turns. Just amazing. It feels like you are surfing one foot waves all the time on a 10 knot day on a flat lake.

I have done two downwinders and wave riding at my local on this thing so far, and my control in the wave is much better than my previous test subjects. It is the winner in the waves so far.

FANATIC S1

I have not tried this puppy in the surf yet, only flat water.

Super easy to assemble and almost impossible to get anything wrong. Took me less than ten minutes to assemble and attach to the board. Much lighter than the Naish!! Somewhere between aluminium and carbon fibre.

Attached the foil to the Hover 155 and went out on the 10.4m (blowing around 10 knots). The foil came up very easily and smoothly and felt solid for about the first ten minutes.

It does not carve as well as the Naish but I think that is due to longer fuselage, but the carving feels more locked in. Probably due to winglets.

After ten minutes, the entire foil started to skew side to side (thought I had weed, but found front wing was not quite sitting straight). So I headed back in and tightened everything up. Went back out and could immediately feel foil felt right again.

The fanatic goes upwind better than the Naish, and I expected a high aspect wing to do just that.

The stall speed is under 8 knots (I didn't think to find it, but it is low ).

I did about twenty klicks on it and it was good, but I think Fanatic is a little twitchier than the Naish (I wonder if this due to the composite fuselage and torsional flex) . And I worry about over tightening the screws and ripping them out.

I then swapped over to naish for a direct comparison and did another twenty klicks.

They both support you super well.
They both start early, but the fanatic is smoother (no excessive over lift).
They both carve well, but the naish looser and curvier (so to speak).
They both have super low stall speeds (naish is around 5 knots).
The fanatic is twitchier, the naish is rock solid bullet proof.
Both have roughly the same top speed on the Cloud 10.4m.

These are my impressions.

That wing is SOOOOO big it needs it's own trailer.

Reminds me bit of the pectoral fins of a White Pointer.

Might be another wing I need to look at.

surffoils said..
When you say you want to surf small waves , you mean beach waves not down wind waves ?
Where are you in NSW ?

Surf waves.... my local is Umina, and the DW is Birdie Beach to Norah Head.

Wind waves can be fun as well.

jamesperth said..
Great write up BigTone. Im loving my takuma clone. For comparison my front wing is 59 x 26 so around 1500cm2

I'm trying to borrow a foil sup board and give that a crack now.

That size sounds perfect for mid size wave riding.

Definitely the most fun I have had on a foil.