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aeroegnr said..
Finally had some completely clean and dry foil jibes, and a bunch of jibes just touching after the sail flip.

Foilx 145, ptm 926, FG 7.0.

Only thing I changed was AGGRESSIVELY and EARLY, more so than seemed reasonable, going for the new front strap. Was going into it somewhere before dead downwind and I felt it stabilize everything, making the carve and flip much much easier before turning back hard upwind. The flip felt a lot more like a slogging jibe flip, except totally free of the water. I had much much better height control instead of waiting longer in the old front. Saved some ugly flips and kept going. Kept up with a couple of the better freeride foilers here, timing my jibes with them and staying upwind so wouldn't crash into them.

Felt soooo good to have a few reaches of clean jibes before eventually biffing one. Took a screen capture of the gps track in one case, where I jibed to stay with someone downwind of me (I think? it's hard to tell without onboard video).

GulfWinds set up a camera on a pole in the water and got the pic below. I only got a couple of jibes around it as I had been on the water about 3 hours before then and I was cramping up bad. You can see my feet in mid shuffle to get to the new strap. Some jibes I went straight in, others I shuffled like this. Once I get more practice I can tell I could probably get straight in without looking. I wasn't looking at my feet a lot. I did miss a few times, and get hung up on the centerline with an awkward sail position.

Looking forward to a race foil session as I find the jibes on that more stable and easier, and more consistent.

Congrats!. It's a great feeling to get all the way around without touching down.

Had 2 sessions on two consecutive days that made me try something.

Went out on a 5.6 freek and felt like my jibes were trash. I could ride but something felt off, as my last foiling sessions were on race gear.

The next day I decided to move the front straps from the center position to the back position. Foil glide 6.0 and 7.0.

Perfect! Best foiling session I've ever had! Just moving the straps back made a huge difference. Pumping onto foil felt so much easier, and jibes felt more balanced. I'm amazed at how much the mattered. It felt off a bit before doing that, like I had to get my front further back at entry to keep the board from diving.

Had a few of us mowing the lawn in a small fleet, about 6 windfoilers, and I could mostly hang with them!

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aeroegnr said..
Had 2 sessions on two consecutive days that made me try something.

Went out on a 5.6 freek and felt like my jibes were trash. I could ride but something felt off, as my last foiling sessions were on race gear.

The next day I decided to move the front straps from the center position to the back position. Foil glide 6.0 and 7.0.

Perfect! Best foiling session I've ever had! Just moving the straps back made a huge difference. Pumping onto foil felt so much easier, and jibes felt more balanced. I'm amazed at how much the mattered. It felt off a bit before doing that, like I had to get my front further back at entry to keep the board from diving.

Had a few of us mowing the lawn in a small fleet, about 6 windfoilers, and I could mostly hang with them!

Front foot bias is definitely the way to go

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John340 said..

aeroegnr said..
Had 2 sessions on two consecutive days that made me try something.

Went out on a 5.6 freek and felt like my jibes were trash. I could ride but something felt off, as my last foiling sessions were on race gear.

The next day I decided to move the front straps from the center position to the back position. Foil glide 6.0 and 7.0.

Perfect! Best foiling session I've ever had! Just moving the straps back made a huge difference. Pumping onto foil felt so much easier, and jibes felt more balanced. I'm amazed at how much the mattered. It felt off a bit before doing that, like I had to get my front further back at entry to keep the board from diving.

Had a few of us mowing the lawn in a small fleet, about 6 windfoilers, and I could mostly hang with them!

Front foot bias is definitely the way to go

Yeah it was weird. I felt like I wasn't quite pumping as well as I could on that board, before. It was a break from that gear while riding the other stuff that made me really recognize the difference and what I thought needed changing. It could probably still go a little forward. I have one more notch of adjustment on the foil forward I could go.

With slingshot dumping their windfoil boards in a sweet sale that lands you a foil as well, I grabbed the freestyle 115 v3.

Tried to set up the straps and foil position to be similar to the foilx 145, set the foil at 7cm from the back. Think I could go further to about 8-9 judging by how I felt in the jibes I tried.

Was a gusty spot with wind ramping down, but I really liked this board. Rode it with my 6.3 freek until I blew out the bottom panel biffing a tack, then the foil glide 7.0. I was worried about uphauling it but I had no problems, just slow, with me weighong about 207lbs plus wet suit. Seems like it may totally replace the foilx for me.

A lot lighter, felt more playful, love the center strap and the slot mounts.

Felt good enough in the first 10 minutes of riding it to try a little hop. I'm not sure I fully cleared the foil but I tried.

The board felt much more slippery than the foilx getting going, and the narrow tail let me pump the rear more and feel the foil working. When I get the motion down I may be able to downsize a sail vs the foilx but we will see.

Much better experience than the wizard 114, and I'm heavier now, but I struggled to uphaul a 5.8 and 6.6 on that. I'm a better sailor now so maybe the wizard would be different, but I'm happy with this instead so far.

?si=xzD_lfNqPdfWJzcp

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aeroegnr said..
With slingshot dumping their windfoil boards in a sweet sale that lands you a foil as well, I grabbed the freestyle 115 v3.

Tried to set up the straps and foil position to be similar to the foilx 145, set the foil at 7cm from the back. Think I could go further to about 8-9 judging by how I felt in the jibes I tried.

Was a gusty spot with wind ramping down, but I really liked this board. Rode it with my 6.3 freek until I blew out the bottom panel biffing a tack, then the foil glide 7.0. I was worried about uphauling it but I had no problems, just slow, with me weighong about 207lbs plus wet suit. Seems like it may totally replace the foilx for me.

A lot lighter, felt more playful, love the center strap and the slot mounts.

Felt good enough in the first 10 minutes of riding it to try a little hop. I'm not sure I fully cleared the foil but I tried.

The board felt much more slippery than the foilx getting going, and the narrow tail let me pump the rear more and feel the foil working. When I get the motion down I may be able to downsize a sail vs the foilx but we will see.

Much better experience than the wizard 114, and I'm heavier now, but I struggled to uphaul a 5.8 and 6.6 on that. I'm a better sailor now so maybe the wizard would be different, but I'm happy with this instead so far.

?si=xzD_lfNqPdfWJzcp

Such a great board

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thedoor said..

aeroegnr said..
With slingshot dumping their windfoil boards in a sweet sale that lands you a foil as well, I grabbed the freestyle 115 v3.

Tried to set up the straps and foil position to be similar to the foilx 145, set the foil at 7cm from the back. Think I could go further to about 8-9 judging by how I felt in the jibes I tried.

Was a gusty spot with wind ramping down, but I really liked this board. Rode it with my 6.3 freek until I blew out the bottom panel biffing a tack, then the foil glide 7.0. I was worried about uphauling it but I had no problems, just slow, with me weighong about 207lbs plus wet suit. Seems like it may totally replace the foilx for me.

A lot lighter, felt more playful, love the center strap and the slot mounts.

Felt good enough in the first 10 minutes of riding it to try a little hop. I'm not sure I fully cleared the foil but I tried.

The board felt much more slippery than the foilx getting going, and the narrow tail let me pump the rear more and feel the foil working. When I get the motion down I may be able to downsize a sail vs the foilx but we will see.

Much better experience than the wizard 114, and I'm heavier now, but I struggled to uphaul a 5.8 and 6.6 on that. I'm a better sailor now so maybe the wizard would be different, but I'm happy with this instead so far.

?si=xzD_lfNqPdfWJzcp

Such a great board

It really seems so. I wonder why there aren't more here. Maybe people are put off by the volume?

Realized that Balz shows a different setup for this board at 5min in

Much more forward front straps, foil close to the front of the box, rear strap all the way back, mast base almost all the way back. Wow.

Blaz is making a windfoil board which has almost no effect from changes in mast base pressure.

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aeroegnr said..
Realized that Balz shows a different setup for this board at 5min in

Much more forward front straps, foil close to the front of the box, rear strap all the way back, mast base almost all the way back. Wow.

first session on my new board the foilstyler I tried pushing the foil all the way forward and I could barely gybe. Rode it next session with my normal 12/24/36 set up and it was great. I got enough courage to try a jump and don't think the foil broke the surface. Made respect to those who are jumping

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Grantmac said..
Blaz is making a windfoil board which has almost no effect from changes in mast base pressure.

That's the best way to windfoil - mast base very close to the front straps.

^Yeah I'm wondering about setting it up a lot more foil-forward with the straps moved close and the mast base back.

I'll play around with moving the foil more forward a bit and see if that helps earlier flight. If it does, I'll probably start changing the rest. What I'm not sure of is if I can keep it set up like that and also use a 7.0, due to how cramped it will be with that sail so close to the footstraps. If it gets me up early enough with a smaller freek or my blades then I won't care as much.

It really seemed like the lower end would be better with the ease of pumping the rear and the more slippery feel of the board compared to the foilx. Part of that is the hull shape, maybe part of that was also the jack plate and its tendency to collect weeds in the gap at the front. The board with slots was not picking up weeds in that area and also felt way lighter (and connection felt stiffer too).

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thedoor said..

aeroegnr said..
Realized that Balz shows a different setup for this board at 5min in

Much more forward front straps, foil close to the front of the box, rear strap all the way back, mast base almost all the way back. Wow.

first session on my new board the foilstyler I tried pushing the foil all the way forward and I could barely gybe. Rode it next session with my normal 12/24/36 set up and it was great. I got enough courage to try a jump and don't think the foil broke the surface. Made respect to those who are jumping

Yeah it's a mental hurdle it seems to overcome. I did a few more attempts but it seems like I chickened out at the upward swing of the motion as I found myself increasing front foot pressure automatically when it got close to the top of the foil height.

The mental challenge was partially overcome by using my new 87cm mast instead of the 103cm. It really seems to feel like I'm way too high on the 103, and harder to clear it when I'm already a bit timid with just going for it.

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Yeah it's a mental hurdle it seems to overcome. I did a few more attempts but it seems like I chickened out at the upward swing of the motion as I found myself increasing front foot pressure automatically when it got close to the top of the foil height.

The mental challenge was partially overcome by using my new 87cm mast instead of the 103cm. It really seems to feel like I'm way too high on the 103, and harder to clear it when I'm already a bit timid with just going for it.

Crashes due to breaching cause PTSD like catapults do and our lizard brains do everything they can to avoid them. I guess this is why most non-Neanderthals never get the stones to learn the forward loop

I went out for the second time on the freestyle 115 and got some video. I also tweaked a few things:
Moved the back hole of the front straps one hole back, which opened them up as they were pinching my feet.
Moved the front hole of the back strap one hole back as it was too wide originally.
Went from the 7cm back to 8cm first part of the session, then came back and re-set to 9cm from the back. At this point, I started coming through jibes with some speed.
I think I will push it further forward at 10cm as I think it will help my jibes even more.

I also got an uphaul video of what it's like to pull up the 7.0 foil glide on this board at my weight. I came in at 208lbs/94kg this morning and was wearing a 2mm shortie. The water was protected so also little bit flatter than the other day so it didn't feel as difficult. You can see that I get about mid-calf deep. I ended up waterstarting it some as well, as the wind kept ramping up, even a couple times while in both straps during a gust because it was quite powered.

Still think that this thing is way more slippery than the foilx.

The wind kept ramping so I downsized to a 5.6, then it really ramped harder and I should have been on my 4.4 as it was getting sketchy to control. I went back and then the rain really came, so I stopped.

About 3hrs total. Rode roughly 20miles, after trimming and everything it looks like 11 of my 58 jibes had a speed close to fast enough to keep going. Funnily enough my best jibe was on my "bad" side, but I kept the most speed.

I think the foil even further forward will keep my nose from diving as much. I had a little bit of room to go further on the foilx but the jack plate was starting to annoy me. I have tons of more adjustment room on the freestyle. Not sure if I'm ready for a Balz style way forward setup but I will keep tweaking. Just those 2cm already made a big difference in how easy the board was to jibe.

Third sesh.

Moved foil forward 1cm more up to 10, which is the end of the marks. Was on 7.0. Felt like a lot better lift in jibes amd easier to stay flying. Ended the session though as the wind was a shifty basket case and couldn't figure out how hard or which direction it wanted to blow. Was trying to manage it in jibes by staying more broad and clew first after the foot change to make sure I had enough speed to fly through but the shifts and gusts kept me dropping off. Will be a lot better on a more steady day.

Was falling in less this sesh than a similar recent sesh I had on the foilx. I think it's because on average I'm carrying more speed and ending a lot more non flying jibes on the new side. The more central fronts make the steps smaller and a bit easier than the much wider foilx.
I was flying upwind almost strapless. Feet laterally outboard from the straps so I could sheet in more with the 7.0. Not a lot of room on the tail to do this but plenty.
Considering measuring and shifting the foil and straps forward as I think it'll help earlier pop out for foiling. It was rising a little quicker still with the 10cm position, 3cm forward of where I started on the first session.

Tried out the slingshot vee tail.

Was powered on 5.6 and 4.4, able to waterstart in gusts and there were some decent lulls, fairly gusty.

Got used to the tail in a couple runs, but really felt different on riding bumps. Felt nicer and less touchy, but they were small windswells and boat swells that I could pretty much sheet out on and ride.
The release felt a bit different, and it felt like you really needed just a bit more speed to keep it from dropping. Hoping to get another sesh soon.

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aeroegnr said..
Tried out the slingshot vee tail.

Was powered on 5.6 and 4.4, able to waterstart in gusts and there were some decent lulls, fairly gusty.

Got used to the tail in a couple runs, but really felt different on riding bumps. Felt nicer and less touchy, but they were small windswells and boat swells that I could pretty much sheet out on and ride.
The release felt a bit different, and it felt like you really needed just a bit more speed to keep it from dropping. Hoping to get another sesh soon.

Love the ps360 v-tail. Huge improvement over the ps400 !

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jdfoils said..

aeroegnr said..
Tried out the slingshot vee tail.

Was powered on 5.6 and 4.4, able to waterstart in gusts and there were some decent lulls, fairly gusty.

Got used to the tail in a couple runs, but really felt different on riding bumps. Felt nicer and less touchy, but they were small windswells and boat swells that I could pretty much sheet out on and ride.
The release felt a bit different, and it felt like you really needed just a bit more speed to keep it from dropping. Hoping to get another sesh soon.

Love the ps360 v-tail. Huge improvement over the ps400 !

Yes it feels really good! It changed the jibes enough for me though that I'm realizing I have to be more steady and really crank the carve harder to keep from dropping off the foil. The 400 tail lets me be more sloppy.

Also tried the pfi730 today because it came with the freestyle. Rigged a 5.6 and moved it forward 1cm to about 11cm from the rear, maybe a little more. I think it was a little backfooted for me so it probably needs 2cm more than the ptm926.
Compared to the ptm926 I was reminded of how forgiving the 76 was. Very familiar feeling. But also I noticed how much more movement you had to give the 730 to control it. The whole board looked more active with that shovel shape. Nose moving all up and down for a little tweak of control. It also was super forgiving in the jibes, in the sense you could really be stomping on the board and it didn't upset it too much. But it doesn't glide nearly as well.

However, it was really gusty and I didn't like the bottom end on the 730 so I went back to the 926 and vee. Big difference on the bottom end. And the board looked like it moved a whole lot less for little adjustments. When I switched back I kept the foil at the same spot, around 11cm. That forward position took some getting used to but finally got used to it and had a few decent carves in the jibes with it, but the chop and gustiness was really a challenge. Hoping to see what it is like in more flat water.

I think all this switching highlighted some more jibe skill issues more than anything. To me, the carve and getting that step early without upsetting the board trim is really the main thing I want to focus on.

I also timidly tried jumping the 926 but I really wasn't giving it enough of a stomp on the rear.

Forgot to add. With that setup more front footed and the vee tail, it felt a lot easier to get in and out of the rear strap on foil. It felt a lot more sensitive on the foilx with the outboard position compared to the center position on the freestyle. I almost never used the rear straps on the foilx. It's been giving me a lot more practice with the rear strap in the jibe entry without upsetting the board too much.

And for jumping I have the motion just wrong I think. I am giving it more of a hard pump instead of a down and then really leaning back hard. I will need to exaggerate that backwards movement next time and clear the foil.

I went ahead and moved the straps further forward (only 1 notch, or 3cm) and marked the underside past the 10cm markings. Rode it like this with the mast base back and foil at 13cm for a short session and liked it. Think on my third jibe attempt I had a good jibe, but then the gusts started getting insane and the 5.6 was hilariously overpowered. Switched to a fin and had to downsize to a 4.4 just to keep from being too wound up. But, this setup that is more "Balzy" seems to have good potential and wasn't too crazy to ride for me. There were a lot of swells and I noticed I felt them more this way and I was able to react to them and it seems like the sail affected it less, but it was pretty intense conditions for a bit.

Biggest downside was before getting going I did stuff the nose a few times in the windswell.

May have had one of my last sessions for a while as the wind season appears to be dropping off and I am likely going to need to use my big IQFoil board and bigger sails to get moving in the light seabreezes here.

But, some thoughts on the freestyle board vs. foilx and others:
*I can waterstart the board easier than the foilx and iqfoil because it sinks enough that by the time the sail is levered up, I am at least ankle deep and it helps me do a one legged squat up onto the board. The spot I've mostly been sailing in with the direction is very gusty and often I can waterstart then wait for another gust to get foiling. I don't like uphauling it that much as I have to be very careful about getting back on the pad of the board vs. the rough textured front.
*Jibing this board with the vee tail makes my jibes on the iqfoil setup much easier, as the vee tail makes it more reactive, and the smaller back of the board makes me a little more accurate with the footwork
*I'm still finding optimum pump technique between this setup vs. the racefoil setup a bit elusive and have to re-learn a bit after I switch. Seems like I have to be careful with the angle to the wind and the whole motion changes quite a bit, so I still have to recalibrate every time.
*Still like how light this setup is compared to the other ones. If given the choice I'd rather throw my 7.0 and smaller sails in the car with this single board and foil as it's so easy to load/unload compared to everything else I've got other than a single fin board.

5.6 and 4.4 session today.

Kept the phantasm foil with vee tail at the 13cm setting and forward straps with sail mast about half a cm from touching the square opening. Had some clean jibes even though it was on the "bad" side.
My first jibe was even good but I'm having a hard time in some of them depending on the sea state and gusts. The foil position made it really easy to stay flying in strap or a step jibe, especially when overpowered enough to get a little boost downwind.

The tide was pretty high so I flew over the sandbar into the waves and caught a few rides on some small 1-3 ft rollers. Bailed out on one 4ft wave that spooked me a bit. The only time I crashed while wave riding was when the wave I was on ended up getting pretty big and powerful a lot faster than I was expecting, and I didn't get forward and low enough, and just foiled out. Otherwise I was practicing pretty small wiggles which weren't quite top and bottom turns. The wingers on the same waves were getting a lot more body language into them. I think I need to practice more aggressively carving in flatter water. I've done it some but not a lot. It was pretty gusty so I had to really sheet out far sometimes during the carve.

It was much easier to ride in swell than the foilx 145, especially with center rear strap and vee tail. On the foilx I never got used to how much the tail power would almost immediately send me skyward.
Haven't tried the 103 mast yet just the 85 with this board as I'd have to get out much deeper to launch due to how much the board sinks before I get going. Still really easy to water start.

The only downside to this board is the short nose will pearl pretty quickly if you get too forward. When I was slogging on the outside in waves and waiting for a gust, I caught a few on the nose and took a spill. It took some more concentration and balancing reward as much as I could without causing the board to plow.

Since Slingshot is moving towards another lower end setup, I looked for deals and saw that their older PTMs are on sale for half the price. Grabbed a PTM 930 front wing for a couple hundred. Just got it in and put it on the fuse with the vee tail I've been using.

You can see how short chord it is compared to the 926, at almost 300cm2 smaller in area. It looks a touch higher aspect than the starboard 900 I've ridden so much, with totally different PTM style anhedral and wingtips though. Wouldn't surprise me if I can quickly break 20kts on it.

Haven't ridden it yet, hoping for the weather to cooperate soon. It's been a miserable summer here for wind sports.

Ptm 930 is a fun foil; very free in roll and great glide. Only problem is that it needs to be sailed fast- wide open throttle all the time. If you slow down to play in the swell it gets really sloppy handling.

Ptm 899 and 799 are the real winners in the line. Fast, free, and still handle well at low speed playing in the swell.

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jdfoils said..
Ptm 930 is a fun foil; very free in roll and great glide. Only problem is that it needs to be sailed fast- wide open throttle all the time. If you slow down to play in the swell it gets really sloppy handling.

Ptm 899 and 799 are the real winners in the line. Fast, free, and still handle well at low speed playing in the swell.

Thank you, what tail did you ride it with?

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aeroegnr said..

jdfoils said..
Ptm 930 is a fun foil; very free in roll and great glide. Only problem is that it needs to be sailed fast- wide open throttle all the time. If you slow down to play in the swell it gets really sloppy handling.

Ptm 899 and 799 are the real winners in the line. Fast, free, and still handle well at low speed playing in the swell.

Thank you, what tail did you ride it with?

Mostly with the ps325 or a chopped and shimmed ps400. ( this was before the 360 and 340, both of which would be a better match)

Ahh ok. I'm wondering what it'll be like. I got used to the 360 tail really quick and it made a big difference on swells to me. But, if it wallows at low speed that'll be a change. The 926 just seemed to drop, but it got to where it was predictable.

I was hoping today would work but it was about 6knots vs. the higher forecast so I just longboarded a bit to get some time on the water. Soon...soon I hope.

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jdfoils said..

aeroegnr said..

jdfoils said..
Ptm 930 is a fun foil; very free in roll and great glide. Only problem is that it needs to be sailed fast- wide open throttle all the time. If you slow down to play in the swell it gets really sloppy handling.

Ptm 899 and 799 are the real winners in the line. Fast, free, and still handle well at low speed playing in the swell.

Thank you, what tail did you ride it with?

Mostly with the ps325 or a chopped and shimmed ps400. ( this was before the 360 and 340, both of which would be a better match)

What did you chop and how much (+ve or -ve) did you shim?

Removed upturned tips from stabilizer
Shim +1 or +1.5

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jdfoils said..
Removed upturned tips from stabilizer
Shim +1 or +1.5

What is the apparent difference in performance with the unaltered 400. Have you been able to also compare with the 360 or 340