Let's start a subject to collect the interesting SUP / Surf foil videos.

I'll start with Alex Aguera I find this video really interesting because it shows having smooth arcs in crappy onshore waves, and even zips along broken sections (which is definitely not easy).

On the bad points, his footstraps placement seems bad: the longitudinally aligned front one is awkward, you can see is foot at a 45 degree angle, and the rear one is so open that his foot is fully engaged, which can be quite dangerous, I guess because the strap is not enough close to the rail...

He looks a bit underpowered but he is surfing a wave that could not reasonably be surfed in any other way.

Yes, this video of Kaehi (already posted) is also one of my favorite of "flying" on unbroken waves.
Plus the guy is insanely gifted and makes it look so natural

Already posted (I see this thread as a way to centralize all the SUP/surf foil vids), 2 videos to show to different directions in SUP foiling:

"shortboard" foiling on a 7'11" with pulled in extremities:



"longboard" foiling where the foil can help noseriding even when not flying on a 9'6 pure noserider:
(Patrice says he wont have this kind of boards in the production line, as he sees walking on a foil too hard for most people)

Another one of my favorites (already posted), showing the "leg pumping in sync with the paddle" that is actually much easier than the regular "Kai" pumping, as it does not require to be timed agianst the underwater wave.

Testing a new foil prototype on a dedicated foil board (cut down from 7'6 to 6'8" length)

Quite interesting!
I was thinking the othe day that pumping the foil is something specific to SUP and Surf foiling, not present in kite and wind foiling, and that we will surely see advances in foil on board design to enhance pumping... at least for the mere mortals, the likes of Kai can pump on anything.

As a side note, the drag of the coiled leash seems huge when it touches the water. I guess some foil-specific leash could be interesting... maybe a waist leash, or a better the ones designed for kiteboarding, either a reel leash, or a coiled leash inside a cloth tubing to avoid knots...

Nice Robert and looking at that video you have moved the mast point further back ,we have done the same on the shorter boards to 15 inches from the tail ,what distance is that one. I haven't seen that foil before is that one your own proto ? A bit of feedback on that board shape I know you need that big square tail for stability but I would round those back corners off, it will catch in low turns in a pump. Nice set up though.

I agree with Colas I think we need to design a new leg rope set up....

No one who ride a foil with a kite would ever consider wearing a leash it would be deadly!!

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Surfrod66 said..
No one who ride a foil with a kite would ever consider wearing a leash it would be deadly!!

... but I assure you that not wearing a leash on a SUP / Surf foil board will be quite harmful to others!
You just need to see your board foiling happily away after a fall to be convinced that leashes are very important. And even more dangerous, a foil board caught in whitewater... totally unpredictable trajectories.

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Piros said..
Nice Robert and looking at that video you have moved the mast point further back [...] I haven't seen that foil before is that one your own proto ?

Yup, Robert gave more details in the Zone:

www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php/topic,31853.msg355096.html

"The foil is mounted 20" from the tail and it seems like the last part of the tail was not doing any good, so I decided to experiment and cut 10" off the tail to make the board 6'8 long, making the distance from the tail to the foil 10"."

"I have been working on a new foil design and recently tested the first prototype which was CNC'd from a solid piece of G10 fiberglass. Since the foil is quite thick, it weighs a TON, so I was doubtful that it would work at all, especially with the smaller board. Just getting the board with the super heavy foil to the water was a pain. Surprisingly, once on the water, the weight was not a big deal. The heavy Foil wing actually acts like the lead keel on a sailboat and makes the board more stable when paddling. Since the wing is submerged, the weight is not that noticeable. Flying it also felt stable and easy to control although I'm thinking that once we make the mold so we can build lighter composite construction foil wings for production, they will fly more quickly and longer and certainly be easier to transport."

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colas said..

Piros said..
Nice Robert and looking at that video you have moved the mast point further back [...] I haven't seen that foil before is that one your own proto ?

Yup, Robert gave more details in the Zone:

www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php/topic,31853.msg355096.html

"The foil is mounted 20" from the tail and it seems like the last part of the tail was not doing any good, so I decided to experiment and cut 10" off the tail to make the board 6'8 long, making the distance from the tail to the foil 10"."

"I have been working on a new foil design and recently tested the first prototype which was CNC'd from a solid piece of G10 fiberglass. Since the foil is quite thick, it weighs a TON, so I was doubtful that it would work at all, especially with the smaller board. Just getting the board with the super heavy foil to the water was a pain. Surprisingly, once on the water, the weight was not a big deal. The heavy Foil wing actually acts like the lead keel on a sailboat and makes the board more stable when paddling. Since the wing is submerged, the weight is not that noticeable. Flying it also felt stable and easy to control although I'm thinking that once we make the mold so we can build lighter composite construction foil wings for production, they will fly more quickly and longer and certainly be easier to transport."

Thank you Colas. There are also some photos of how I cut off the tail in the standup zone forum post. 10" from the tail seems to work great.
www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php/topic,31853.msg355096.html

I agree that the coil leash touching the water is annoying. I think I will try a coil leash with waist strap next and maybe one of those retractable reel leashes you mentioned would work well.

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blueplanetsurf said..
I agree that the coil leash touching the water is annoying. I think I will try a coil leash with waist strap next and maybe one of those retractable reel leashes you mentioned would work well.

A trick that I used (to paddle the distance to go to outer reefs) and is working well is to just putting a loop of it inside the belt of your trunks. Be careful that the leash cannot loop around your b*lls, however :-) (I wear boxers under my trunks).
I was thinking of just using some bungee cord at my waist over my wetsuit for this, when I am good enough so that the leash is a nuisance (for now the drag of a regular knee leash is negligible compared to the drag induced by my non-perfect technique)

You can see Laird putting its leash inside his rolled-down wetsuit in this video:



I saw that Dave Kalama loops the leash and somehow tie it to the knee (velcro?), but could not find any info on how he does it



Video:

Yeah looping would work but I'm still faling off too much for that Don't like a waste idea , probably a calf leash and use a coil legrope.

Incredible "flight" by Austin Kalama

Note that he uses straps and a very centered position on the board...

www.facebook.com/alex.aguera.1/videos/1502948983109414/

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colas said..
Incredible "flight" by Austin Kalama

Note that he uses straps and a very centered position on the board...

www.facebook.com/alex.aguera.1/videos/1502948983109414/

That is particularly ugly to watch

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colas said..

A trick that I used (to paddle the distance to go to outer reefs) and is working well is to just putting a loop of it inside the belt of your trunks. Be careful that the leash cannot loop around your b*lls, however :-) (I wear boxers under my trunks).
I was thinking of just using some bungee cord at my waist over my wetsuit for this, when I am good enough so that the leash is a nuisance (for now the drag of a regular knee leash is negligible compared to the drag induced by my non-perfect technique)


I saw that Dave Kalama loops the leash and somehow tie it to the knee (velcro?), but could not find any info on how he does it

Haha, leash looping around b*lls in a wipeout does not sound pleasant!
To me it looks like Dave just slides the excess leash under the leash strap so it can slide out if the board pulls on it.

Stick on Foil mount lets you convert anything pretty easy...disclaimer I'm nothing to do with these guys..

Another fun day testing all the new foils on different boards.

What's the Land Rover like to paddle?:-)

Bit hard to get going...... They are also using the mounts in back of Utes to transport the foils . I might stick one on the bonnet for a bit of fun. They have a removal tool now so they can be taken off without damaging the paint.

Be careful with stick on mounts: the angle of the foil relative to the water surface when paddling the board is extremely important. Just a bit of negative angle (pointed downwards) will make paddling horrible, like dragging a boat anchor. A bit of positive angle is not as bad as it drags but also lifts the board.

So, if your board has tail rocker and you stick the mount close to the tail, the rocker will tilt the mast backwards and the results will be catastrophic. You should place it forward enough so that the wings are horizontal when paddling. The position will depend of the foil, as the mast angle to the base depends on each foil.

For the anecdote, the French foil pionneer, Bruno Andre, never realized this 10 years ago. He said in his interviews "well paddling with a foil is a chore but that's life". And when up on the foil, the board was thus tilted upwards, and the apparent wind would get under the hull and tend to raise the nose even more... and, instead of just adjusting the foil angle he... cut a hole through the board nose to let the wind pass through! This is to say that the foil angle is critical in many ways, but it is not obvious to realize this fact.

You could gaffer the mast into various positions to trial the paddling position. Presumably the wrong positions would be blindingly obvious even to a beginner.

No not really Colas Lift foils come with a 2 degree offset in the SUP Foil mounting plate and from my testing minor tail rocker doesn't upset the foil. Plus you are mounting 21" from the tail so that misses most of the rocker. You also can angle the board same as in the Americas cup boats riding slightly nose down. Plus there is nothing stopping you from putting a wedge or small packer between the stick on mount and the mast plate . Again this is something I have tried and tested and works.

Piros, yes, but my message was "Be careful", not "It won't work".

When people ask my advice, I just tell them to check the resulting foil angle, not to avoid buying the stick-on mount. And the advice is also true for installing a tuttle box, btw... But generally, if you are going to do resin work to install the thing, you tend to be cautious and look at all the issues. Whereas people attracted to the stick mount just want to glue it without too much thinking. Just a bit of "measure twice, glue once" can save a lot of trouble ahead.

A very interesting video, kind of "A day at the beach". We can see all levels of foiling, and also the dynamics of the relaxed coexistence of foilers and surfers of all levels on a "family" spot.

Note the various solutions for the leashes, and the new design of boards by Kalama with the upturned rails, designed not to "stick" to the water when touching it, unlike traditional boards.

Foot straps look very stink bug

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colas said..
A very interesting video, kind of "A day at the beach".

The edited version:

Here is a glimpse of what is possible DW. This was about 15 to 20knot but with a good swell running and Jake Jensen riding.

He could have gone the whole 8km if we were not swapping over.