Liquid Force Foil Fish Combo (Foilboard)
Rider: Weight 87 ,intermediate. 6 years kitesurfing
Style: Freeriding, Surf
Weather: 6-8 knots ?

Disclosure: Flysurfer dealer WA. Buy my own gear and will ride pretty much anything out of curiosity.

My Comments:

Had my maiden run on a foil board this afternoon - met up with one of the forum members (PilotPete) at Quinns Rocks around 2pm and spent a couple of hours on the new Liquid Force Foil Fish. This board belongs to Sonya and Jason from West Oz Kiteboarding and is available for demo up in Perth.

It was light.. really light, as in barely detectible puffs and the water was glassy. I'll try and copy the chart below but Ocean Reef reporting a few 6 knot periods, and Quinns is usually less. I wore the GPS and have posted my GPS data on the Garmin Connect site for anyone interested - link below. I covered over 13 km and missed the start, but i think that distance says a lot.

Like many of the forum members, Ive always been trying to chase light wind and have ended up with a garage full of gear as a result. My Speed 3 21 is a pretty reliable kite in this sort of wind, and I've been using everything from surfboards, Flydoor TT's (170x50) and more recently a Shinnster. Im pretty happy with the kite side of things but haven't quite nailed the board as yet.

In terms the equipment, the LF Foil Fish is a foil board that specifically aims to be easy to ride, affordable and upgrade-able.

The Mast is aluminium and foils are some kind of ABS plastic - easily repairable. The board is the same Kite Fish that LF have had on the market for a couple of years. Graphics look good, pads and straps all seem well made and good quality. Pete says the whole thing weighs 1.9kg more than his mega $ carbon fibre Spotz which is made in France. Having said that, 1.9kg isn't much when you think about the combined rider and board weight.

It's a low aspect foil (large) which generates lots of lift at slow speeds, and is stable. Liquid Force say that more high performance foils will be available in due course to allow owners to tap into the higher speeds available once the technique is established

The price is excellent at just under $2k, which is way cheaper than other currently available foil boards.

So as you'd expect I fell off a lot, banged myself a few times and spent far too much time in the water. Booties were a good call as you don't want to kick the blade under water. But after a couple of hours I managed to cover quite a bit of ground, and had a number of short periods up on the foil, mostly porpoising followed by a crash, but a couple of times i got the glide happening. Acceleration on the foil was like nothing I'd experienced before - smooth and fast (becoming scary).

For interest, I jumped on the FlyDoor to see whether I could have had the same session on that, and to be honest I struggled. I managed to get going after looping the 21 (need lots of space) but struggled to hold any ground. That really put into perspective who efficient the foils are - blew me away to be honest. These things are a game changer.

And so in summary, I'd have to say then that the LF foil is pretty true to label. With no previous experience I certainly walked away with the belief that I could definitely get the hang of it, and the LF Foil Fish is not horrifically expensive if you are serious about LW kiting. I reckon I'll be back.

GPS Plot : connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/689642778

Liquid Force posted this video a couple of days ago, I thought I'd add it here for anyone who's considering giving it a go.

They're describing it as a tutorial "from the parking lot to your first water starts". Apparently, it's the first in a series.

There's some good information, including safety tips, for your first attempts.

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Subculture said..
Liquid Force posted this video a couple of days ago, I thought I'd add it here for anyone who's considering giving it a go.

They're describing it as a tutorial "from the parking lot to your first water starts". Apparently, it's the first in a series.

There's some good information, including safety tips, for your first attempts.

That is a great intro tutorial. I hope they keep up the good work.

anyone know who, apart from kiterite in cairns, sells the LF in australia?

when browsing LF's website, there aren't any dealers showing in oz at all

Kiterdad,


We sell the Foil Fish here at Kitepower in Sydney. Please see the link here http://www.kitepower.com.au/liquid-force-foil-fish.html. We ship free Australia wide and have a great selection from LF. Let me know if you have any questions. I've ridden the Foil quite a bit and I absolutely love it. It's an easy foil to learn on, it's affordable, and durable!


Cheers
Elliot

Try West Oz Kite Boarding they stock the LF foil in WA www.westozkiteboarding.com.au/

got mine for sale at surf fx on the goldy, used a few times, but it's not me, good luck with it

I had a go on the LF foil I borrowed from a friend. I'd say my level is sort of beginner/intermediate, I've had about 20 sessions on my personal full carbon construction one.

This was the first time trying a different foil so I am not sure how hard it is to adapt your ride to a new rig.

It is heavy so not the easiest to carry around.
The board is not very buoyant so I wouldn't call it easy for a beginner.
It doesn't have any positive lift and it takes more input to go up
Pitch control was horrible (maybe due to the wing being very close to each other?)
Soooooo slow.

Due to its weight and general performances I would definitely put a kite at least one size bigger than what I am using with my current rig.

I can see the attraction due to the RRP being a lot more affordable than the high ends carbon fibre but unless your kite skills are very limited, you are very likely to get bored very quickly.

Other brands are coming up very soon on the market with affordable products that look a lot more elaborated than this one so I would suggest people that are on the market for a foil either to wait for those products to be released or to chase a good second hand one.

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Livit said..

Pitch control was horrible (maybe due to the wing being very close to each other?)

I have no experience in other product and I do bunny hop all over the place on this thing. So you are suggesting that extending the distance between the front and rear wings may help?

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bigtone667 said..

Livit said..

Pitch control was horrible (maybe due to the wing being very close to each other?)

I have no experience in other product and I do bunny hop all over the place on this thing. So you are suggesting that extending the distance between the front and rear wings may help?

Apart from mine, the LF is the only other one I have tried so far. Mine has quite a long fuselage so it makes me think that it could be a reason why it is a lot more stable. Yet, I am not an expert so I could be totally wrong.
If you get a chance, try another one so you can compare how it rides.

ok short update for everyone.

10-12 sessions in, the LF is proving stable and a rock solid platform to learn foiling. I'm starting to ride toeside and nail some heel-to-toe and toe-to-heel turns. It's all good.

But...

the LF is a little slow - top speed recorded is 29 kmh or 15 knots, and I'm not getting the glide or efficiency I expected. Im pretty much riding the same size kite as on a TT.

Enter local foil fettler and master craftsmen Pilot Pete. Behold, the LF Race.

Full photo gallery on www.facebook.com/specialistkiteboarding

** Not Pimping - 16 images and would be OTT to upload here **

And did you get improved performance? Less stability?

Thanks to JamesPerth I had my very first go on the Liquid Force hydrofoil (with the default set of wings) yesterday.

I was amazed how easy it was to ride. So far I used only high performance foils (Sword, Spotz, etc.) and the liquid force was by far the easiest one to ride. That foil is soooo forgiving and very beginner friendly.

I previously tried to ride my foil board toe side and do some heel side to toe side jibes without putting the board down in the water. I've had no success with those whatsoever and was giving myself at least 2 years before I could do those comfortably.
I managed to foil toe side for 200m on the LF one in my very first attempt. Also managed to jibe toe side to heelside and heelside to toeside with downloops without putting the board down on my first attempts and a dozens of times without crashing! I was completely amazed as I thought these skills were completely out of reach for me at the moment. Now I have to try it on more high performance foils, but I know it's gonna hurt!

In summary, my opinion about the LF board:

Pro's:

-very easy to ride and learn on
-very forgiving
-very stable
-Easy to learn more advanced tricks
-Easy to control your Speed
-Upwind performance is just as good as any other foils I've tried
-A lot of fun


Con's

-Not a very efficient foil, you need a lot power to get going, hence why I understand they recommend to use the same kite size you would use on a twin tip.
-Slow...feels like a lot of drag and even trying to pick up more speed seems impossible.
-Heavy, hard to carry around and slow to move around in the water and on the board.
-The board is very small and doesn't offer much (if any) buoyancy. It would be hard for a beginner to learn on in lighter winds. I reckon if they had a bigger board with more buoyancy it would be the perfect beginner setup.
-Would be harder to get going in marginal winds.

Christian

I've got one of these in Noosa, me and a few of the locals have been out having fun on it, but at first we kept bottoming out so i had to shorten the mast as it was to long for where we kite.(700ml now )
I found once you learnt to crash with out landing on it ,my riding improved dramatically (and with less bruises ). I haven't ridden many other foils yet ,so i cant give a comparison and I've only had it out in lighter winds so I'm no expert on this one , but on a whole once i got used to riding with only the front strap or no straps I've found it great fun and not that hard,
I was suprised how far forward of the mast plate you can stand when riding it, and we've all found that standing further forward seems to help to minimise the porpoising , has any one else found that?

Have fun George

I found the hard way on my first day out that when Pete said don't lift it out of the water he meant ride it on the water. in hind sight learning that was the key to learning control could have saved me a lot of effort.

Next lesson learned the hard way is it is best to keep your feet on the board when falling. I found a videoclip showing the right way to fall, apparently a giant stride. Doesn't work for me - usually by the time I realise I'm falling i'm already face planting. Also when I did step off the board, it bucked and kicked me in the shins the first time and the second time I think it aimed for my head!

Make sure your footstraps are loose,that was my first tip,and l know what u mean by not realising when a crash is going to happen
l found just try to control ur speed a bit and u will get to know when u need to eject from ur straps.
Front foot pressure for me was the key tip once l got that in my head l started to ride above the water longer then started to get up on the foil
a little bit higher each session.

I've found that once i stopped edging and learnt to ride it fairly flat i could cruise around up on the foil reasonably easily and when i crash, the board is no longer between me and the kite and i don't land on it.

Hey George,sounds like your starting to crack the foiling case and having fun.You mentioned shortening the mast to suit your kiting spot.Just wondering what if any advantages or dissadvantages apart from the main reason you did it for.So maybe a Question for the makers of foils why not make an adjustable foil mast for varying kiting locations with shallow water.Or can you only shorten the mast a certain amount before it defeats the purpose.Just a thought.Am keen to have a crack at some stage before the body where's out.Regards Leigh

Great pic !! Nice one. I'm about to attempt my first downwinder in the surf on mine. Will try and get the GoPro working but I'm sure it will be totally embarrassing.

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jamesperth said..
ok short update for everyone.

10-12 sessions in, the LF is proving stable and a rock solid platform to learn foiling. I'm starting to ride toeside and nail some heel-to-toe and toe-to-heel turns. It's all good.

But...

the LF is a little slow - top speed recorded is 29 kmh or 15 knots, and I'm not getting the glide or efficiency I expected. Im pretty much riding the same size kite as on a TT.

Enter local foil fettler and master craftsmen Pilot Pete. Behold, the LF Race.

Full photo gallery on www.facebook.com/specialistkiteboarding

** Not Pimping - 16 images and would be OTT to upload here **

I want one ! - looks like just the job for keeping up with the others as they fly around the river.
make that 2 as I'm sure to break one.
how much Pilot Pete ?

I could use a set of faster wings too please.



The LF is sweet for learning, but I'm ready to go faster now.

Or maybe I need to upgrade to a full carbon setup.

3D printed vertical stabiliser for Liquid Force Foil Fish.

I like that !! How does it ride ?

It feels better on the straight but needs a little more effort on turning. When putting on, I find less twitchy (yaw) on straight run at higher speed.

Brilliant use of 3D printing .....

If anyone interested in my prototype foil stabiliser let me know I can make one for you. Unfortunately I can only make it in white or red colour, sorry I ran out of blue filament.

PM sent.

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daddycool said..

jamesperth said..
ok short update for everyone.

10-12 sessions in, the LF is proving stable and a rock solid platform to learn foiling. I'm starting to ride toeside and nail some heel-to-toe and toe-to-heel turns. It's all good.

But...

the LF is a little slow - top speed recorded is 29 kmh or 15 knots, and I'm not getting the glide or efficiency I expected. Im pretty much riding the same size kite as on a TT.

Enter local foil fettler and master craftsmen Pilot Pete. Behold, the LF Race.

Full photo gallery on www.facebook.com/specialistkiteboarding

** Not Pimping - 16 images and would be OTT to upload here **

I want one ! - looks like just the job for keeping up with the others as they fly around the river.
make that 2 as I'm sure to break one.
how much Pilot Pete ?

Daddycool your wings ready when you are!

Ok Boys (Daddy/Pete), what difference have you noticed with the locally grown wings?