So good

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Paducah said..

Great to see.

Sailor at 1.30 ish seems to hit a fish or weed, and board drops off the foil. No cartwheeling sailor, just sits down. Good save!

I think he just breaches

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oscardog said..

Paducah said..

Great to see.

Sailor at 1.30 ish seems to hit a fish or weed, and board drops off the foil. No cartwheeling sailor, just sits down. Good save!

Just foils out, he doesnt hit anything, good save nonetheless haha.

When you are only 50 kg, you come down a lot softer. My lard a$$ would have punched a hole in the water. He's a wee one. He was most of his crouched height out of the water. All the same, solid skills for his or any age/weight.

My 15 year old daughter did the UK version of this try out a few weeks ago. Anyone who has raced Techno at national standard (even at the back) finds the transition pretty smooth and fun. They can jump straight on the 115+ fuselage as beginners if they dont mind a slightly steeper learning curve (my daughter is borrowing my slingshot). Finding the cash for the gear is another matter.

Daughter wasnt blown away by the fancy iqfoil kit though compared to my ebay junk board, old blade and slingshot.

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WillyWind said..

Nice^2

damn, willywind beat me to it. Just came here to post the same vid.

Having talked around this topic a bit with parents in the UK who have had several kids come up through techno and foiling and beyond at high level, I think the ability of kids who are competent, confident fin windsurfers (fully planing, probably gybing or not far off) to foil is a no brainer. What we are seeing is that average kids in their last year or so of Techno (i.e. 15) can easily transition to foil, and the elite kids (not many) can do that a couple of years younger, no problem at all. There will be a handful who can do it even earlier if they try.

The thing that I, and others, see as a problem for kids without a Techno background, is learning about racing, start lines, gybe marks, rules, etiquette, and what can go wrong. For that I just cant imagine ever letting a kid of mine enter a foil race when he and half the fleet have never properly raced before, are pumped up with adrenalin, and are going to pile up like bodies at the Somme at the first gybe mark or the start line - or just imagine a busy upwind leg with kids on opposing tacks. A helmet and a bouyancy aid aint much comfort when you go down and several massive carbon blades are coming for you at 20kts piloted by not especially capable kids. But if they have done a couple of serious Techno race competitions and have the situational awareness and anticipation you need for racing without colliding then they will be fine.

So seems to me that if you are a little kid who wants to do foil racing then the logical pathway is to start on Techno as young as you can (huge benefit of loads of cheap second hand gear everywhere), get good enough to know what you are doing and be vaguely competent around a race course, then move to iqfoil somewhere between 13 and 15, or earlier if you are truly gifted. And if you want to start foiling earlier on your parents gear then go for it, but dont skip the Techno stuff entirely. Given that, its hard to see how iqfoil one design racing is going to hit critical mass for the younger kids (eg 14 and below), especially given the vast cost and limited upward compatibility of sails and wings - but it doesnt really need to for the pathway to work.

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Smidgeuk said..
Having talked around this topic a bit with parents in the UK who have had several kids come up through techno and foiling and beyond at high level, I think the ability of kids who are competent, confident fin windsurfers (fully planing, probably gybing or not far off) to foil is a no brainer. What we are seeing is that average kids in their last year or so of Techno (i.e. 15) can easily transition to foil, and the elite kids (not many) can do that a couple of years younger, no problem at all. There will be a handful who can do it even earlier if they try.

The thing that I, and others, see as a problem for kids without a Techno background, is learning about racing, start lines, gybe marks, rules, etiquette, and what can go wrong. For that I just cant imagine ever letting a kid of mine enter a foil race when he and half the fleet have never properly raced before, are pumped up with adrenalin, and are going to pile up like bodies at the Somme at the first gybe mark or the start line - or just imagine a busy upwind leg with kids on opposing tacks. A helmet and a bouyancy aid aint much comfort when you go down and several massive carbon blades are coming for you at 20kts piloted by not especially capable kids. But if they have done a couple of serious Techno race competitions and have the situational awareness and anticipation you need for racing without colliding then they will be fine.

So seems to me that if you are a little kid who wants to do foil racing then the logical pathway is to start on Techno as young as you can (huge benefit of loads of cheap second hand gear everywhere), get good enough to know what you are doing and be vaguely competent around a race course, then move to iqfoil somewhere between 13 and 15, or earlier if you are truly gifted. And if you want to start foiling earlier on your parents gear then go for it, but dont skip the Techno stuff entirely. Given that, its hard to see how iqfoil one design racing is going to hit critical mass for the younger kids (eg 14 and below), especially given the vast cost and limited upward compatibility of sails and wings - but it doesnt really need to for the pathway to work.

To his point: www.windsurf.co.uk/golds-garda-young-guns-watson-hawkins/

"Rising stars Islay Watson and Finn Hawkins have made history becoming the first under 21 and under 19 world champions in the iQFOiL windsurfing class, Olympic sailing's newest discipline. "