Boom! All the Big Wave jockeys are catching on:

Kai has to be by far the best foil surfer on the planet.
That or it's clever editing never seeing him fall

Another real quick one of my second run on the 2018 Naish Foiling HOVER 120 Crossover. Super small waves, but lots of fun.



Enjoy,

Ride safe,

JB

gurval said..
Salut colas.
T'as vu, j'ai coup? mon tail. Je doit avouer que vachement mieux.

Yep, cool!
Du coup on dirait que ta planche se rapproche de la mienne? / Your board now looks like mine?
(the rightmost at www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Stand-Up-Paddle/SUP/Holes-in-your-quiver?page=2#2147379 )

Also, I guess your lateral struts seem to provide some vertical stabilizing surfaces. I think SUP foils benefit a lot from some vertical rudder when I try to tighten my turns on the wave face: I am no Kai Lenny, so when I push on my legs in turns, it can be a bit clumsy :-) and I often induce some involuntarily yaw, which is not an issue when foiling straight, but can spell disaster when happening when the foil is titled on the side. After trying various shapes and position for the rudder, I think I have a found the best compromise: a small, "thumb fin" 6cm depth x 5cm chord in front of the stabilizer: the tests with one bigger or farther aft on the stab made the foil too stiff in turns.

This helps a lot getting back some surfing feeling where you leverage on your fins in turns to convert your leg push to forward drive, you are less "walking on a tightrope" in turns. Using a rudderless foil afterwards feels kind of surfing finless.


Compared to a FCS knubster for scale:


I will probably try also canted wings/stabs/fins for the foil in the future, but I must say I am not convinced by canted surfaces for airplane wings or fins, due to their often weird behavior. Just combining vertical and horizontal surfaces feel more predictable. For instance, I tried the FC Bonzer fins as "big knubsters" - but with tons of cant - on the board itself and it was horrible, the tail was engaging sideways in unpredictable ways on paddling and takeoff. I shaped the black ones on the picture out of cheap plastic keels with no cant and they work flawlessly.

By the way, adding shallow keels on the tail is great as it allows to shorten the board for easier air handling, but still be able to paddle it efficiently. If you shape them thin enough, there is no drag when the tail hits the water, and they also prevent the tendency of these wide tails to squirt to one side when touching the water in turns.

Nice video of Eric Terrien tail tapping on a Go Foil with forward mast mount. Don't see any extra fins on that board. Nice strapless riding

Piros said..
Nice video of Eric Terrien

He enjoys more and more flat water pumpfoiling :-)

DavidJohn said..

colas said..

He enjoys more and more flat water pumpfoiling :-)

It's hard to see where the fun is in doing that.

Dj, it's fun, fun is not something you can always see, it's something you experience, I know you know it, because you have been an early adopter of stand up paddling, and back in the days, most of us had a hard time to make it look fun, but we were all experiencing the fun of it!

As I work in the city, and have very limited time to go to the ocean, I like to go for a quick flight on my Lake when I feel the need for an outdoor activity (I no longer live close to the beach!)
Also, flatwater skills are very helpful for Downwind and supfoil in waves. The ability to take off anywhere you want and whenever you want opens a lot of possibilities for new spots, far from the crowd, connecting all the waves I want, and not having to wait for better conditions.
I wish I could make cool videos with professional editing, cool landscapes, perfect conditions etc... But I've never been good at it!

All the best!
(ps : I created a new account as I didn't manage to login with my old one, that I didn't use for nearly 10 years! New sport, new account, we are just 10 years older!)

colas said..
Alterning sessions with and without fin the difference was impressive. Without the foil fin, you are "walking on eggs" as we got used to when foiling up to now. With a foil fin, you can actually push on the legs in your turns, to bring back the feeling of true surfing turns, .......

Colas,

I own the Gong surf foil and the Naish surf foil.

I think I know why you and Piros disagree. Neither of you have ridden each other's foils. You guys are both right. Here is why....

The Naish front wing, with its extreme bent down wing tips, is key to that foil carving and carrying speed through a turn, much, much better than the Gong. The Naish feels like real surfing compared to the Gong. It's awesome to know you've solved the only minor weak point in the Gong surf foil design in my view.

It's not a guess on my part as to why the Naish wing carries so much speed through a turn. I met Kai Lenny at surf expo and he told me about the wing design. It's like the difference between a windsurf wave fin and a slalom fin.

I am stoked about Naish, and now about Gong getting the same feeling via a fin addition

DavidJohn said..

colas said..

He enjoys more and more flat water pumpfoiling :-)

.....

It's hard to see where the fun is in doing that.

Seems to me the big killer for the uptake of SUP foiling is having somewhere to use the thing. You can't go down the surf every day. Not all surf breaks are going to be suitable, or working on a given day.

If you can get out on your 6-7' SUP foil board and have a little flat water fun and exercise that's got to be a good thing.

supSURFmachines said..
I own the Gong surf foil and the Naish surf foil.

Thanks supSURFmachines, great experience sharing!

colas said..

Piros said..
Nice video of Eric Terrien

He enjoys more and more flat water pumpfoiling :-)

Ha ha that's too funny. Agree with AA ridiculass

And now, totally self-reliant! I think it is a first for surf foiling...



Most Horue movie are worth watching, btw. Warning: they hire some professional female models for some of them, not safe for viewing at work in bigot countries such as the US. :-)

That's a nice video Colas , doesn't seem to have the flow of the Naish or Go Foil but the best Gong foil video to date. It works

Vision shows and tells a story but I'm always one for show me how it works and not tell me how it works.

Jamie Mitchell and Konrad Bright foiling on some nice North Shore walls: