Hi!
I got my new Superflyer and I tried for the first time yesterday.
I had a Supercruiser before and I wanted something a little more faster but not really like race foil.
My impression after 1 hour foiling was that Superflyer are much faster then Supercruiser and get lyft easy in super light wind like Supercruiser do, even if front wing are1300.
Another thing was that I could push more with back legs, but I never tried to put back fot in to the strap. I never use both straps but I will try for the first time with Superflyer. I still have the same board, freerace foil ready Goya Bolt 127 and worked well with SC and feel ok with new SF. Wich board do you use with Superflyer? I know that Starboard Freeride will work perfectly, but I'm curious to know about dirrefent boards brand. Mast fot was in the middle position yesterday (before with SC was back position) and feels OK, but I need to try different position. Back wing spacer was 0? and I will use few time like this before I start to use the other spacers. Do you have Superflyer? How is your impression and what did you think about that? My weight are 93 kg and I use most of the time 6.3 or 6.9(super light wind) sail.
Thanks in advance

Had the Supercruiser then superflyer but have since moved to other brand. Found the Supercruiser to be pedestrian. Superflyer was a great foil to progress through foiling gybes and enjoying open water swell rides. Had mast track all the way back and -.5 shim on the stab. Board was FoilX125. Enjoy

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Mr Keen said..
Had the Supercruiser then superflyer but have since moved to other brand. Found the Supercruiser to be pedestrian. Superflyer was a great foil to progress through foiling gybes and enjoying open water swell rides. Had mast track all the way back and -.5 shim on the stab. Board was FoilX125. Enjoy

Thank you for answer.
Do you think SB Freeride board will work good with this foil? The X foil board is really nice board but I'm thinking that the freeride 150 can be used in the feature with other foil lika GT or race.
The mast track is more in the front in the freeride board but I think that will work anyway.
I start to think buy a real foil board thats why I ask.

Go with the freeride, would be more suitable to racier foils in the future. I have the FoilX as I am chasing swell and like the inboard strap positions.

First, thanks for all the helpful info on this forum. I had a long winter enjoying reading it, with a view to buying a foil and board. I had a go on my cousin's Sealion with an AFS low aspect foil (orange thing?), which was enough to convince me that foiling was worth a shot (from the base of being a greying returning windsurfer, like a few on here!).

After all that reading I bought a Starboard Foil Freeride 150 and a Superflyer foil. Intended use is lighter wind lake sailing on Windermere, UK, in place of my old Equipe longboard (but it will be used again, occasionally!). Weight 85kg or so.

After 3 sessions, I think it was a good choice. The board is big and floaty enough to make slogging very comfortable. The foil seems to come up easily, even with little technique, given the usual not-quite-planing conditions I've bought it for. It's stable enough that I've made it most of the way around a gybe, before touching down to settle the rig flip. Tacking on the water is fine, so long as you wait for the thing to slow down a bit - it's easy to stand on the nose and discover you were still moving fast, followed by a sudden backwards dismount!

I've been using it with 5.5 and 6.5 sails (old Tushingham Storm and Thunderbird). First session was set up 0 degrees on tail shim, 5.5 sail, not too much wind, good gentle start to get some wobbly flights. Second session had plenty of wind, couldn't avoid breaching until I tried the -1 shim to reduce the lift. This worked well, along with some increasing skills for turning upwind. And far off the wind was surprisingly effective in calming things down too. Got used to the view of the nose diving underwater from a metre up. It does stop it and keep it all well clear whilst I fly over the front! Might buy an impact vest and helmet next, although so far so good, other than feeling like I've been beaten up.

Third session early on was 5.5 again, got to 19kts, but then wind dropped away and used 6.5, felt comfortable in straps and harness for first time, but also noticed that everything was raked back to keep flying, should have swapped back to the 0 degree shim. The bag of shims needs to be viewed like the sail size, choose wisely but keep the others handy (i.e. take everything you own to the lake, as usual!). Pumping it onto the foil by pointing downwind and sort of bouncing the tail seemed to work well to get going. Getting better at controlling the ride height.

Observations: glad I didn't buy the 125, the nose is already small enough to require some attention compared to a windsurf board; slogging should be done standing back around the straps, not with a foot against the mastfoot; once I braved the straps I found them to be just right (forward front, inner forward rear for now).

All in all, I love it (foiling and the SB FF 150 with Superflyer). Eventually I suspect a 7m foil sail will be spot on for my use.

Sorry if its a mixed board/foil review and learner foil experience, but its all wrapped together for me at this point.

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SBGroupie said..
....Might buy an impact vest and helmet next, although so far so good, other than feeling like I've been beaten up...
... Eventually I suspect a 7m foil sail will be spot on for my use.

At your stage of the game, I'd suggest both a helmet and impact vest. You might only need them once every 10-20 sessions but when you need them, you need them. The impact vest also helps you minimize kicking as you swim about and that's a super handy thing to avoid kicking the foil. Also, every once in an odd while while learning to jibe, you'll come off the back of the board while it merrily foils away. It makes for a long swim.

Do think about a 7ish or even a bit bigger especially if you are wanting to foil on days you've might have been on an Equipe (I have an E II so I'm not trashing longboards saying this). You'll find yourself flying on days when there are hardly any whitecaps and that really is a lot of fun. In the 6.5-7.5 range, if you can't afford a foil sail, a 2 cam freeride sail, even one 15-20 yrs old, will do. Older sails have the advantage of having shorter boom lengths and shaped more akin to modern foil sails. Modern foils sails, though, are very nice if the budget allows.

^I usually wear a helmet when foiling, only sometimes on a fin.

The other day while foiling, I biffed a jibe in the dead downwind portion and managed to tumble forward and my helmet made contact with the boom. Not a hard hit, but it would've been on my head otherwise.

I think in the 3 years I've been foiling I've had that happen a couple of times with helmet into the boom.

I got a foil in the helmet last week. Tip of the front wing , the board rolled and hit me while it was upside down on the beach. I was picking it up to go out. Would have opened me up I thinks. Be careful everyone.

I did notice that's when the foil is closest to my head. Foiler's Ear sounds potentially painful!

Any views on the Forward Wip impact vest? The tough looking one, supposed to be OK with a harness. I quite like the idea of a pocket.

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SBGroupie said..
First, thanks for all the helpful info on this forum. I had a long winter enjoying reading it, with a view to buying a foil and board. I had a go on my cousin's Sealion with an AFS low aspect foil (orange thing?), which was enough to convince me that foiling was worth a shot (from the base of being a greying returning windsurfer, like a few on here!).

After all that reading I bought a Starboard Foil Freeride 150 and a Superflyer foil. Intended use is lighter wind lake sailing on Windermere, UK, in place of my old Equipe longboard (but it will be used again, occasionally!). Weight 85kg or so.

After 3 sessions, I think it was a good choice. The board is big and floaty enough to make slogging very comfortable. The foil seems to come up easily, even with little technique, given the usual not-quite-planing conditions I've bought it for. It's stable enough that I've made it most of the way around a gybe, before touching down to settle the rig flip. Tacking on the water is fine, so long as you wait for the thing to slow down a bit - it's easy to stand on the nose and discover you were still moving fast, followed by a sudden backwards dismount!

I've been using it with 5.5 and 6.5 sails (old Tushingham Storm and Thunderbird). First session was set up 0 degrees on tail shim, 5.5 sail, not too much wind, good gentle start to get some wobbly flights. Second session had plenty of wind, couldn't avoid breaching until I tried the -1 shim to reduce the lift. This worked well, along with some increasing skills for turning upwind. And far off the wind was surprisingly effective in calming things down too. Got used to the view of the nose diving underwater from a metre up. It does stop it and keep it all well clear whilst I fly over the front! Might buy an impact vest and helmet next, although so far so good, other than feeling like I've been beaten up.

Third session early on was 5.5 again, got to 19kts, but then wind dropped away and used 6.5, felt comfortable in straps and harness for first time, but also noticed that everything was raked back to keep flying, should have swapped back to the 0 degree shim. The bag of shims needs to be viewed like the sail size, choose wisely but keep the others handy (i.e. take everything you own to the lake, as usual!). Pumping it onto the foil by pointing downwind and sort of bouncing the tail seemed to work well to get going. Getting better at controlling the ride height.

Observations: glad I didn't buy the 125, the nose is already small enough to require some attention compared to a windsurf board; slogging should be done standing back around the straps, not with a foot against the mastfoot; once I braved the straps I found them to be just right (forward front, inner forward rear for now).

All in all, I love it (foiling and the SB FF 150 with Superflyer). Eventually I suspect a 7m foil sail will be spot on for my use.

Sorry if its a mixed board/foil review and learner foil experience, but its all wrapped together for me at this point.

Hi,
Nice to here you experience.
I bought in the end a SB FF 150 and I'm really glad because it work good like you also say with Superflyer. I have tested the new board 2 times 1 day with 6.3 and 4.6, the wind gusts was around 22 kts in the end so even 4.6 foil sails workshop good (Challenger Sails Bad0). I was overpowered, so I decided to change from 0? to -1? the tail shims and was very good to do that. The second time was out with 6.9 and a 95cm mast(I love that). The wind was super light 8 knots and after one hours pumping the gusts start to be 12 kts and than could I fly. Really excited because the flight was really stable even when the wind drops to 8/10 knots again. The second time I removed back straps and I will leave like this for few time then when I can jibe properly I will put the strap back again. The top speed of day one was 17.53 Kts (Coros Vertix 2).
I hope to fly again soon and I want to try one time even 7.7 sail in super light wind conditions.

Had another good day with the SB FF 150 and Superflyer. Most of the day was using a 4.7 wave sail, as the gusts were harsh. It worked OK, with -1 shim and mastfoot towards the front (I think the small light rigs benefit from that, as they don't provide much nose-down push)
As the day went on the wind dropped away. Interestingly there didn't seem to be much difference in getting onto the foil versus my mate on a 6.1 sail and big orange AFS foil.

At the end of the day, the gusts needed to pump onto the foil dropped away even more, so I decided to try out my biggest sail, a Tushingham Lightning 7.8 twin cam sail from 2008. I rigged it with reasonable leech tension and moderate depth, sort of like a raceboard sail set for upwind speed (which is what it is, really).

This worked really well, the power drove the foil up at the first hint of a gust, and despite my concerns that I'd then breach, the weight of the rig and extra power pinned the front of the board down really well. I'd centred the mast track, and left the -1 shim in place, but I think I could have gone back to 0 shim.

The sail brought lots of stability to the whole setup, making it the easiest sail to use. Not what I expected! It is a big heavy rig to manhandle, but the stability meant I didn't drop it once in the half hour or so I got to use it before the wind dropped completely. Dedicated foil sail of 7 to 8m will be on next year's shopping list, I reckon!

Speeds on gps were around 15kts 5 x 10, 16kts 2s, and 18kts peak. Limited more by me sheeting out whilst dealing with the gusts than anything else I think. Plenty fast enough to be exciting for now, but 20kts can't be far away. Great game to revitalise an old windsurfer!

I've had my Superflyer for about 18 months. Really like it - reasonably quick and plenty of lift and good glide at slower speeds, so has been quite forgiving when learning to gybe. I also got the 800/255 evolution with 105 fuse which is a lot faster and seems to be a good step up in progression. On a recent session the wind dropped and I tried switching just the front wing to the 1300 Superflyer on the 105 fuse with the 255 stabilizer. First impression is that it worked very well - a bit more speed than with the 330 stab and felt a little looser. Will have to try in different conditions, but makes it easier with the option of changing just the front wing!

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GulfWinds said..
I've had my Superflyer for about 18 months. Really like it - reasonably quick and plenty of lift and good glide at slower speeds, so has been quite forgiving when learning to gybe. I also got the 800/255 evolution with 105 fuse which is a lot faster and seems to be a good step up in progression. On a recent session the wind dropped and I tried switching just the front wing to the 1300 Superflyer on the 105 fuse with the 255 stabilizer. First impression is that it worked very well - a bit more speed than with the 330 stab and felt a little looser. Will have to try in different conditions, but makes it easier with the option of changing just the front wing!

That's exactly what I'm doing with my freeride frontwing 1100. I switch from 1100/105+/255 to 800/105+/255 when the wind picks up!
It works very well.

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GulfWinds said..
I've had my Superflyer for about 18 months. Really like it - reasonably quick and plenty of lift and good glide at slower speeds, so has been quite forgiving when learning to gybe. I also got the 800/255 evolution with 105 fuse which is a lot faster and seems to be a good step up in progression. On a recent session the wind dropped and I tried switching just the front wing to the 1300 Superflyer on the 105 fuse with the 255 stabilizer. First impression is that it worked very well - a bit more speed than with the 330 stab and felt a little looser. Will have to try in different conditions, but makes it easier with the option of changing just the front wing!

Did you try chance in the Supercruiser just stab from 330 to 255? That should be faster but less control right?

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Ventomax said..

GulfWinds said..
I've had my Superflyer for about 18 months. Really like it - reasonably quick and plenty of lift and good glide at slower speeds, so has been quite forgiving when learning to gybe. I also got the 800/255 evolution with 105 fuse which is a lot faster and seems to be a good step up in progression. On a recent session the wind dropped and I tried switching just the front wing to the 1300 Superflyer on the 105 fuse with the 255 stabilizer. First impression is that it worked very well - a bit more speed than with the 330 stab and felt a little looser. Will have to try in different conditions, but makes it easier with the option of changing just the front wing!

Did you try chance in the Supercruiser just stab from 330 to 255? That should be faster but less control right?

Yes, I tried replacing just the 330 stab with 255. It felt a bit faster and more lively.