What could possibly go wrong?!!, and... how hard can it be?

I'm contemplating bolting a LF foil to a 2011 12'6" Fanatic Falcon.
All views, ideas, opinions, advice, suggestions welcome, including the smirks

Other useful information like how far back to mount the foil and should I lop the last 2'6" off the blunt end of the board could be valuable.

Who else has had a DIY experiment? what happened?

Just brought a second hand 10ft x29 sup to attach a LF foil to it just got to work out the best way to mount it.
Foil has a plate mount I figure 4 oversize holes and glass and sleeve them ?sup weighs in at 10ks.
Did a test ride with my 8ft 2in sup taped it on not enough glide and not enough swell on the day.
Going to tape my foil on the 10 footer for another test paddle got some super strong tape for it
and a small leash so I don't lose it. Tape holds it on pretty firm though.
Pretty confidant it'll work.

Thanks for the info davnom, please keep me posted on your progress.
What's the tape called and where do you get it? That sounds like a good way to work out where to put the holes.

A friend has put a kitefoil on a SUP some days ago (see the French thread here: www.gong-galaxy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=8195

He has first tried it yersterday towed by a boat. The foil he used was the one he uses for kitefoiling.

What he found so far:
- he needs to go very fast for the foil to lift the board. Much faster than with a kite. It seems the kite wing pulls a lot of your weight, making you lighter and needing less lift from the foil, hence less speed to take off.
- for him, the speed needed to take off was unrealistic: much faster that what could be achieved by paddling, and quite dangerous on wipeouts.
- the foil does not have enough lift to pump on it: when you push on it it sinks. he managed to feel the pump working while kiting though.

So, I would say what will go wrong is:
- your board is too big to manage in the air
- you will need a specific foil designed for low speeds. something having at least 3 times more lift than kite foils.

By looking around, I guess there are 2 foils that could work:
- the future Naish:
- liquid force foil fish: liquidforcekites.com/product/foils/foil-fish/

Both are very low aspect wings designed to work at low speeds. The foil fish seems both very affordable (can be found at US$ 599), and easy to fix on a board: just sandwich the board between two slates.

A blind man on a galloping horse could easy mistake the pictures of the 'new' Naish foil for a brand engineered FL Foil Fish. I can't pick the foil profiles apart.
just sayin'

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kitefree said..
A blind man on a galloping horse could easy mistake the pictures of the 'new' Naish foil for a brand engineered FL Foil Fish. I can't pick the foil profiles apart.
just sayin'

Yeh,pretty much the same shape.

Kevin Langerree, a Naish rider, is apparently using a proto of the Naish one for freestyle kiting (Which I guess is done at lower speeds than regular kiting

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kitefree said..
Thanks for the info davnom, please keep me posted on your progress.
What's the tape called and where do you get it? That sounds like a good way to work out where to put the holes.

3M from Bunnings
the tape will stick better if the underside of ur board is glossy. And leash it

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colas said..
A friend has put a kitefoil on a SUP some days ago (see the French thread here: www.gong-galaxy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=8195

He has first tried it yersterday towed by a boat. The foil he used was the one he uses for kitefoiling.

What he found so far:
- he needs to go very fast for the foil to lift the board. Much faster than with a kite. It seems the kite wing pulls a lot of your weight, making you lighter and needing less lift from the foil, hence less speed to take off.
- for him, the speed needed to take off was unrealistic: much faster that what could be achieved by paddling, and quite dangerous on wipeouts.
- the foil does not have enough lift to pump on it: when you push on it it sinks. he managed to feel the pump working while kiting though.

So, I would say what will go wrong is:
- your board is too big to manage in the air
- you will need a specific foil designed for low speeds. something having at least 3 times more lift than kite foils.

By looking around, I guess there are 2 foils that could work:
- the future Naish:
- liquid force foil fish: liquidforcekites.com/product/foils/foil-fish/

Both are very low aspect wings designed to work at low speeds. The foil fish seems both very affordable (can be found at US$ 599), and easy to fix on a board: just sandwich the board between two slates.

Your right just paddling won't get it on foil you need a wave or swell to get on foil.Doesnt take much under a kite to get a foil up on foil.

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colas said..
Kevin Langerree, a Naish rider, is apparently using a proto of the Naish one for freestyle kiting (Which I guess is done at lower speeds than regular kiting

Looks to me like a LF foil.

I allso tried a kite foil and found the same no were near enough lift. It was actually some foils that a company found were to large for kiteing.

Some French guy (Gurval Lego) tries to SUP foil the rocky basque spots, but hit the rocks and lost his foil... expensive sport!







I dont think he managed a take off yet, even at Parlementia. His foil is (was?) a regular kitefoil and didnt have enough lift.

I managed a few semi glides, I then thought I would try one of the tiney sets waves that were actually shaping up and I got lift but wasn't quite ready!

Well, if you are finding it tricky, then it must be pretty hard.

You blokes are dreamin'...

This is what years of expert foil development and 30k+ of carbon foiling Moth will get you.

The shortboarders and mal riders are just gunna LOVE us when we start turning up with this sort of stuff in the line up

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Helmy said..
You blokes are dreamin'...

I dont think so: the real breakthrough is having foils designed for very low speeds, and not seeking max speed, but smooth carving, tapping the underwater juice of non-breaking swells. Plus pumping.

I think Jamie Mitchell has said what everyone is thinking about foils on Facebook today.

Worth a read.

https://www.facebook.com/jjamie2/posts/10153532962697131?pnref=story.unseen-section

Jamie should Google: "surf reef head gash" and see what comes up.....

Reminds me of when the SUP killer machines were introduced to the line-up - untold carnage followed....not.

Treat foils with respect, yes. Warn other people that it is a potential killing machine - maybe not neccesary.

It's pretty obvious you don't want to tangle with the thing and you want to keep it away from other beach users.

Let's warn people of big wave surfing - you could get killed and someone needs to tell people before it happens...oh, it already has.

Not sure if you read his post properly.... He said it's great but not for crowded line ups as it's dangerous ... I'd say that's pretty correct and to be blunt kind of logical.

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CMC said..
Not sure if you read his post properly.... He said it's great but not for crowded line ups as it's dangerous ... I'd say that's pretty correct and to be blunt kind of logical.

Exactly - it's so obvious it doesn't need to be said...

In the comments the guy with the scar (Yu Tonbi Sumitomo) says:

HI Jamie Mitchell san. this was my bad. waves are waist to chest. no one around except me and my father. had struggle first 30 min. then I start figure. had such fun time. then see what you see what happen. I been surfing since I was 8. 36 year experience. your friend Sean O. is my best friend we made SUP 11 year ago. I thought foiling is easy. it is easy but easy to turn very dangerous. what I learn from this is have to be careful. surfing. or sup. or foiling. thank you for the comment and hope no one get's hurt like I did. sure foiling is amazing.

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PeterP said..

CMC said..
Not sure if you read his post properly.... He said it's great but not for crowded line ups as it's dangerous ... I'd say that's pretty correct and to be blunt kind of logical.

Exactly - it's so obvious it doesn't need to be said...

kinda like buying a SUP and heading out in to the line up (paddling on knees) to start catching waves, with little or no experience?


Yep!!!!! , but plenty still do it. Morons will be morons, and worse are the ones that think they are better than they are.