I'm about to buy windfoil gear . Lotta questions.
Does salt water vs fresh water affect your choice of foil and gear to use ?

TIA I'm near Toronto - will be vacationing on east coast soon

you are best to split that into two questions.

Is the freshwater sailing in more gusty winds? if so then just like normal kit you are probably better on the board size up

Does corrosive saltwater effect your choice of foil? If you don't mind washing everything and storing the foil disassembled it makes no difference. I sail in salt water and leave everything bolted together and never wash it so for me personally it is important that I have a full carbon foil. I have seen people end up with a one piece foil after just a week having used a aluminium foil and not taken care of it. While I realised I had not taken the wings off my foil for a year so I was very relieved when they cam off without a problem.

Like Sails and boards, most people upgrade their gear when they think they can get an advantage, a few use each piece until end of life

I sail in salt water and never really rinsed my first aluminum gear, it definitely corroded in places. Now I have carbon and I am rinsing it, maybe because of the additional cost I am taking better care of it.

Seems to me that most people gravitate towards carbon eventually irrespective of the type of water they sail in, but it's hard for some people to drop 2k just on a foil when they have never tried foiling.

It may make sense to pick up some used aluminum system and use that until you get a feel for foiling, and then make a bigger investment a year or so down the road. A more important issue is deciding if you want to do more freeride or freerace foiling and purchase a foil that is consistent with what you see yourself doing down the road. Then you have the whole type of attachment to board style to consider (twin tracks versus tuttle)

So salt water is denser ..... Is there more foil lift ? Higher speed than fresh water ?

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SparkEV said..
So salt water is denser ..... Is there more foil lift ? Higher speed than fresh water ?

Salt water creates more lift than fresh. You can get away with foiling on smaller gear in the ocean. This doesn't always mean you will / might use smaller gear in the ocean. For example, if conditions are patchy in the ocean you might still want to use the same size gear as you would for the same wind strength on fresh water, if you need to stay as powered up as possible all or most of the time. This might result in having to foil overpowered at times, but it's better than having to walk all you gear up the beach back to where your cars parked if you get stuck downwind. If the wind is pretty consistent, ie a sea breeze or consistent frontal wind (winter), then you can definitely use smaller gear in the ocean compared to fresh water for the same wind strength. If i'm going to use smaller gear in the ocean it will normally be smaller sail. A smaller sail makes things easier too. Less weight and sail area to manage. I don't know about the extra lift from salt water resulting in increased speed. For me if i rig smaller sail in the ocean, as mentioned above, this will obviously result in slower foiling in comparison to using a bigger sail. When your learning you just have to try things, sensibly. You'll learn what works and what doesn't, and what you like / prefer and don't like.

Go all carbon, AFS has a 85 cm foil in all carbon for a little over $1k, remember their website prices include VAT which will come off in the shopping cart once you put in Canadian shipping address.

For your desired sailing location, the answer is no. Just look what Silentsports is selling. Very little carbon is used in your lakes. Just wash your gear every time and you should not have any issues. Although you don't pay VAT taxes for export, there are HST, PST and or GST taxes in Canada (normally 5-13% depending on Province) with brokerage fees. Same applies in the USA ($800 exemption if below / no taxes) or at a rate of 15% from France above USD 800. If you buy from the EU, you are better sending it to Canada vs. USA. One option if you desire to purchase a pure carbon foil is LP foils. I am not saying that the are on par with AFS; they are not. But you didn't disclose what type of foiling you will be doing and the board of choice. If you are going on vacation to the USA soon (not certain what the east coast for you means; could be Nova Scotia or any Maritimes prov. too) is to order a foil from another state and many don't charge state sales taxes. On top you get the 800 CAD per person exemption when returning to Canada. Good luck.