Here is the new Konrad surf foil. It is a whole new platform that will have more wing options in the near future. The wing profile is fast and loose allowing it to be ridden on prone, SUP and kite.

Wing size 1330cm2.
Hydrodynamically correct fuse.
Solid insert style fuse to wing mount for torsional stiffness.
Carbon composite lightweight wings.
Alloy base mount, mast and fuse.
Slotted base mount for quick foil from board removal.
Strong and light construction (4.2kg with 60cm mast).
Mast size 60cm.
Optional extra mast sizes available 70cm, 80cm and 90cm.
Torx head screws.
Loose turns for true surf feel.

This will be available in the next month!

Nice foil James.

Need someone's help here.

Okay second foiling session in, on the older freeride foik with 60cm mast on a very large estuary with decent chop in the middle.

Got a few 2-300m runs today ... Fckn weird ass feeling. Basically through out 18 years of kiteboarding and start again Ffs ....

Anyhway my question is ... I'm finding the 60cm mast is just a tad too short in that I'm ventilating really fast ... or it gives stuff all margin for adjustment of back and forward foot pressure.

Is is this just because I'm a relative kook or should I try and borrow a slightly taller mast ... like 70/75. Can't be much bigger as the estuary is bloody shallow.

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eppo said..
Need someone's help here.

Okay second foiling session in, on the older freeride foik with 60cm mast on a very large estuary with decent chop in the middle.

Got a few 2-300m runs today ... Fckn weird ass feeling. Basically through out 18 years of kiteboarding and start again Ffs ....

Anyhway my question is ... I'm finding the 60cm mast is just a tad too short in that I'm ventilating really fast ... or it gives stuff all margin for adjustment of back and forward foot pressure.

Is is this just because I'm a relative kook or should I try and borrow a slightly taller mast ... like 70/75. Can't be much bigger as the estuary is bloody shallow.

I found 55/60 to small, 70/75 just right, 90+ felt slow.

Yeh man I'm thinking that ... it's like it just catches me out .. I'm on my way down the mast, with a slight adjustment and the chop etc... I ventalate. I'm sure I will get better at it of course. Thanks man.

It's just time.... you will understand the relationship between front foot drive and rolling your hips and mast size won't matter. You just need time on the water. It's all weird til it's not. I have no doubt you will crack it quickly. Armour up early if you can. The first 10 hours has a few sketchy moments

Rolling your hips ?

Gotta track the surface of the water, over the chop -- without adjusting your body position, unweight your front foot to go up then the rear to go down.

First ten hours suck, but if you've a nice estuary and are already getting runs in, a reasonable feeling of competence is that much closer

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eppo said..
Yeh man I'm thinking that ... it's like it just catches me out .. I'm on my way down the mast, with a slight adjustment and the chop etc... I ventalate. I'm sure I will get better at it of course. Thanks man.

2-300 runs is good! Once you are proficient , If it's choppy it's easier on a longer mast because you have more room for error.

But as it is , and if depth is a problem , then as you already said and as above you need to keep the board close to,the surface and follow the ups and owns of the water by adjusting front and back foot pressure.
Pity you can't find some deeper water although if you learn in tricky conditions it will help later. You will become boss of the estuary at least.

The,longer mast will will help though, if you can manage it.

And the rest is time on the water learning bit by bit ...after 25 years windsurfing and 9 years kiting. . Man , I've had some crashes....

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eppo said..
Rolling your hips ?

Rolling your hips forward and back helps drive the front foot. It's a constant micro adjustment especially if you have chop to deal with.

Man sorry to keep asking ... I still don't get this rolling of the hips.. on what axis? How does one "roll " their hips?

the Big K mentioned yoga lunges to me privately ...is this what you guys mean by that ?

also ... both my quads are burning today ... I thought this foil thing was meant to be easy on your body !!! Lol.

Man total respect for you foilers... Fck it's hard .. it's doing my head in!!

Hey Eppo - learning to foil is a very humbling experience !! Im about 15 hrs in and its starting to click - finally. As mentioned above it just time on the water with a lot of crashes to learn what works - and doesnt work!
Im riding a Zeeko bullet and found it to be a good foil to learn on and have ridden a few other foils now and can immediately feel the difference.
The Konrad foil looks interesting but I wonder how slow it is ? I know that at first - the speed of my foil scared the ****e out of me but now its nice - my mate has bought the slingy H4 and it is slow - to the point that in light winds I reckon its hard to get enough speed to create apparent wind and hence have to use a bigger kite? Pro Merc - would the Konrad foil be the same ??

The only thing I have to compare it to was a happy foil such was a medium aspect foil I think. Got a long term groin injury so sold it after one crash and burn session.

Thus foil lifts pretty early, but you have to have some speed or it does stall.

id say you may call it an all rounder ? I could very well be wrong.

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eppo said..
The only thing I have to compare it to was a happy foil such was a medium aspect foil I think. Got a long term groin injury so sold it after one crash and burn session.

Thus foil lifts pretty early, but you have to have some speed or it does stall.

id say you may call it an all rounder ? I could very well be wrong.

When I say yoga lunges, keep your torso upright and perpendicular to the board, and move your hips forward and aft by bending and extending your legs.

Your torso moves in a straight line nose to tail, no bending at the waist. It's all done by your legs, so if your thighs burn you might be doing it right :D

When riding the insteps of my feet get sore, I guess I do a lot of board trim with toes and heel. Different muscles to regular riding, but my knees hurt the next day if it's been a good gliding session...

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Lambie said..
mate has bought the slingy H4 and it is slow - to the point that in light winds I reckon its hard to get enough speed to create apparent wind and hence have to use a bigger kite? Pro Merc - would the Konrad foil be the same ??

Hi Lambie,

My experience so far, is going bigger on the wing generally means I have gone smaller on the kite. Mainly because I only need a grunty kite to start and then not much after that on a big lifting wing.

On smaller wings (? 800cm2 ), I needed more kite to get enough planing speed to get up.

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Kamikuza said..

eppo said..
The only thing I have to compare it to was a happy foil such was a medium aspect foil I think. Got a long term groin injury so sold it after one crash and burn session.

Thus foil lifts pretty early, but you have to have some speed or it does stall.

id say you may call it an all rounder ? I could very well be wrong.

When I say yoga lunges, keep your torso upright and perpendicular to the board, and move your hips forward and aft by bending and extending your legs.

Your torso moves in a straight line nose to tail, no bending at the waist. It's all done by your legs, so if your thighs burn you might be doing it right :D

When riding the insteps of my feet get sore, I guess I do a lot of board trim with toes and heel. Different muscles to regular riding, but my knees hurt the next day if it's been a good gliding session...

Agree with Kami here . More of a sliding forward and aft through a straight line , but still making the micro adjustments with your feet .

Gotta love the foil crew ... always ready to help a fellow foiler who is finding the initial start up a struggle with advice.
They all know the struggle involved and know that even highly skilled kiters like Eppo will find it a challenge .
Then the learning curve ... bit by bit as though you are a complete newbie .

Let's not forget the stoke of Sir V and the caning he got as an early foiler in this forum . He gave me some really good advice about gear when I PMd him too .

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bigtone667 said..

Lambie said..
mate has bought the slingy H4 and it is slow - to the point that in light winds I reckon its hard to get enough speed to create apparent wind and hence have to use a bigger kite? Pro Merc - would the Konrad foil be the same ??

Hi Lambie,

My experience so far, is going bigger on the wing generally means I have gone smaller on the kite. Mainly because I only need a grunty kite to start and then not much after that on a big lifting wing.

On smaller wings (? 800cm2 ), I needed more kite to get enough planing speed to get up.

I still prefer going smaller to get a faster kite -- I can get up on the foil in a couple of strokes versus fighting to get up in a single stroke and then waiting for the kite to get back up... 10m is my light wind kite :o

Used to go with the 21 from 5 knots but it sucked if you dropped the kite and you were only straight lining back n' forth, so it sucked. 10 knots up, I can switch straight to the 10m and have fun. YMMV

Yep appreciate all the advice here and privately. Funny didn't go out today. Sure my quads were sore but I think I couldn't face the mental concentration again and of course spending more Fckn time in the water than on it !!!

Very humbling indeed... but highly addictive to. Can't stop bloody thinking about it. Was with family at a friends place tonight and there's dikhead eppo doing Fckn lunges in the loungeroom and talking to himself like a god damn insane man.

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Can't stop bloody thinking about it. Was with family at a friends place tonight and there's dikhead eppo doing Fckn lunges in the loungeroom and talking to himself like a god damn insane man.

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eppo said..
Yep appreciate all the advice here and privately. Funny didn't go out today. Sure my quads were sore but I think I couldn't face the mental concentration again and of course spending more Fckn time in the water than on it !!!

Very humbling indeed... but highly addictive to. Can't stop bloody thinking about it. Was with family at a friends place tonight and there's dikhead eppo doing Fckn lunges in the loungeroom and talking to himself like a god damn insane man.

Yeah that's it. Just like when we first got wind fever back in the day. I still remember the moment I first planed on a windsurfer and had trouble repeating it because I didn't know how. It was like , ***k , what was that! ! Gotta do it again.

With the foil it was just utter surprise and happiness I was in the air and then splat ! And repeat....
Initially it takes a lot of concentration but after a while ... was it 6 months ? .... I could relax and feel it more. I learnt on an intermediate foil , so it might have taken longer to get there than if I had learnt on a surf sup foil.
oh yeah , and completely different kite management.
A Longer learning curve than windsurfing ??

I have gone gone through phases , when I got better, thinking sometimes I was just mowing the lawn but then I found to get a bit of zen happening if it's flat and light wind. I can't find that mood with tt or sb and come back to to beach in a really light mood. Ommmm

Yeh I can't wait to be lost offshore somewhere tacking miles upwind looking for a swell wave or two.

Gotta get the big fella onto it Eddie. He would love the long cruises on them.

@Eppo, stick with the short mast to start. The most common mistake when learning to foil is rushing to the flying stage. The name of the game is keeping the board in the water as long as possible with weight over the front foot. Once you are comfortable with that you can bring the foil up and then re adjust your weight to touch the board down again. The short mast will minimise bad crashes. Go through this drill constantly to get comfortable with it and then the flights will become longer as you set the balance point.
If possible loose the back strap and stick with one front strap so you can limit the lift of the foil by moving the back foot forward.

Learning on a surf foil is much easier than a kite foil.

The FLYR foil gets up early like a typical surf foil and can be ridden fairly slow. There are guys towing with this wing into 6ft waves and it can go fast as well!
There will be more wing sizes coming later in the season.

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eppo said..
Yeh I can't wait to be lost offshore somewhere tacking miles upwind looking for a swell wave or two.

Gotta get the big fella onto it Eddie. He would love the long cruises on them.

I'm working on him ! He's a bit big to shift by myself though ...