Who's stoked about foiling?
Super interested to hear what gets you frothing

I've got a long list but I'll start with one

Variety !!

Saturday - Swan River, early morning easterly 12-25 knots.
Super-fun cruise, downwind carve/boat wake rides with Jesper - Wizard 105, Infinity 65, Simmer Tricera 5m

Thursday - ocean at Cottesloe, early afternoon nuclear sea breeze, SSW 20-28 knots.
Full-power downwind blasting with Simon - SS Freestyle 87, Infinity 65, Simmer Blacktip 3.7m

In no particular order:

-Travelling upwind with total ease. (something I find a challenge on slalom gear) Being able to explore my lake instead of just reaching over the same patch of water for 2 hrs.
-The fact that you are mostly flying all the time. Many (quite good) slalom gear sessions are blighted by periods of non-planing if the wind drops under 15kts. Once you are in possession of a foil these periods are hard to take.
- Wind range - Being challenged in 10kts of breeze! I have had some of my most satisfying foil sessions in these conditions. Being on the edge and doing 25kts board speed or so in these conditions is a massive buzz. (Ok, big sail, race foil, 8.4 but light and much easier on a foil).
- Efficiency? - For me, slapper sailing, as thrilling as it is at times, can't match the clean efficiency of a foil. It has changed things for me. My slappers just feel draggy and difficult now. (in saying that, I'm not that good and I am probably just not doing it right)
- The buzz! - It's definitely got the wider windsurfing community buzzing again(at least in my area!) People are coming out of the woodwork to give it a go. Many a "lapsed" sailor has approached me on the beach asking about them. Can't be a bad thing. It may be a fad but time will tell.

Fad - possibly but I don't think so. Foiling is the future in so many forms of sailing. I can't bear the thought of going out on a slapper.

Ease in gusts. Windfoiling you can have great fun in 8-25 knots and don't even feel its gusty, while the normal windsurfers are fed up because its so gusty and they are either standing still or overpowered. A windfoil doesn't only widen your windrange downward, also upward, and seems to smoothen the gusts.


And flatwater backloops, I shouldn't forget those.

small sails, freedom etc. But that's been named above ;).

I'm addicted! Why? The initial lift-off is a whole different feeling, a quiet, flying sensation. Not being pounded by the chop -- it's smooth and almost effortless. Small sails (five or six metre) rather than massive 12.0 metre ones when the wind is 10 knots or less. It's the same but soooo different from traditional windsurfing. It has grot me excited again. Lastly, it's a new challenge and it's fun, really fun!

I'm going to try a wind wing and if it works out I'll use either a sail or the wing depending on conditions.

I don't expect to do much traditional windsurfing again.

Ease of upwind
Ability to do surfy S turns in completely flat water
Extension of wind season

What whiteofheart said mihnus the back loops: the foil makes **** up and down conditions ok, you can ride through lulls, you can shlog back easily and uphaul easily when the wind dies

So basically foiling allows you to have fun with a big, floaty, wide board.

Everything!

I don't think foiling is a fad either. The Mothies are mostly responsible for the foiling revolution and I don't see them dropping their foils anytime soon. Foiling took the moths from an amusing side note for sailing masochists to a proving ground for entry into the professional arena.

Foiling has since flowed on into every aspect of water sports. Volvo 60 ocean racers, AC72's, F50's are the high profile examples but it is also having a dramatic effect at the other end. Optimist prams, lasers, surfing and stand up paddle. I doubt the Windwing would have happened without foiling and those look awesome for riding ocean swells. Our local shop guru was out yesterday on a Windwing catching 2 foot windblown rollers in a 15 knot southerly.

I enjoy freeride foiling with a small wavesail just for the relaxing sensation of floating around but I also like the awesome power upwind when I jump on the ifoil. Foiling will never replace windsurfing for me, it will only continue to compliment it magnificently.

two more things i love about foiling

i foil through at least twice the amount of gybes I plane through when windsurfing

I no longer second guess my decision to quit kitesurfing

It feels fantastic, floating above the waves.
Every day is a foiling day - you need so little wind to have fun.
It's great for your old back, no more uphauling huge sails.
If the wind does turn off, You can still get home easily.
If the wind picks up it is still easy, no more getting over powered.
The process of learning is very rewarding, you can feel the improvements every session.
You can use all those tiny old wave sails sitting in the back corner of your shed, The other day I was out on a 2000 model Revolution 4.6m

One more little bonus, it is hard not to feel just a little bit supercilious as you cruise past a slapper who can't get planing or even better some old dude on an LT.

Nothing beats an 85 liter board in 22-30 mpg winds.
But foiling makes a sub 16 day feel like a full on windsurfing day.
Today, 6-17, 6.0 and foil made a nice cruising day.

It's when you get the Pinkie humming. Does anyone still sail the much-maligned Pinkie? To make it easier for an old dog to learn a new trick I'd had the NP glide medium kit, (blue) on the pink mast for a dozen or so sessions. It's certainly easier to get going and keep level but I had difficulty getting the mast to hum. I'm sure it's possible, just that as I get up a bit more speed I get the impression that I'm losing touch with what might happen next. Anyway it's hard to get a car park at Sth Beach on Sunday so I went to Melville and, just for kicks, put the Pinkie back together again. (5.0) Took a while to dial in, to settle the porpoising, but don't knock the Pinkie, once you get it humming you'll be frothing (Have I used the term correctly?)

Because of our local inland/gusty conditions my windsurfing had stagnated. If I was working on something different just as I would get close the wind would buggar off for weeks, even months so I was always restarting.
Big formulas boards and sails was the call here but that wasn't for me and stayed with a 7.8 and smaller for windsurfing so TOW was limited.

Foiling is like starting again with a clean slate! I rig different (little down haul, shorter lines, higher boom), use super short boards and can foil in sub 10 with a 5.8. And pull off fulling planing gybes.
in 2019 I foiled more times in one year than 3 years of windsurfing, that's amazing!

Windsurfers love taking about kit and foiling has taken that to a whole new level. Locally it's stoked everyone to get out on crappy days and still come in with huge grins, even the beach "banter" is back again...just fantastic :)

Speaking of the foil "Humming". I remember when I used to sail Lasers, the rudder and dagger board would start to hum when the boat would start planing. So do the foils do that too?

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MagicRide said..
Speaking of the foil "Humming". I remember when I used to sail Lasers, the rudder and dagger board would start to hum when the boat would start planing. So do the foils do that too?

I wouldn't say that. It's just some aluminium masts sing at speed. We use it for a speedometer.

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MagicRide said..
Speaking of the foil "Humming". I remember when I used to sail Lasers, the rudder and dagger board would start to hum when the boat would start planing. So do the foils do that too?

This has worked on my foils



As for what's awesome about foils? Bear off and head downwind. Start a long reducing radius carving turn and feel the speed build and build and build of to warp speed. Do a fast bear off and repeat. Pure joy!

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Gorgo said.As for what's awesome about foils? Bear off and head downwind. Start a long reducing radius carving turn and feel the speed build and build and build of to warp speed. Do a fast bear off and repeat. Pure joy!

Doing the above on 2m windswells in 20-25 knots is as epic for me as wavesailing good waves. I have to drive for hours to wavesail 10 waves - yet at my local beach I can do 100's of downwind carves on each run.

Love the inclusiveness of foiling - at Dutchies we get prone, SUP, kite and wind-wingers foiling with us, all sharing the stoke.
I'm hoping it won't change as foiling gets more popular. There's endless windswells going un-ridden out the back so I don't think we'll run into the tribalism that occurs in fin world over access to limited waves.

How lucky are we all (including foilers currently learning) to be at the forefront of a new sport.
We might only have scratched the surface - the equivalent of early windsurfers on Wallys (I was lucky enough to be back there too ).

My guess is that there's still huge innovation and technique breakthroughs coming. How many other sports can you say that about?
Frothing

What makes foiling so much fun.!!

Yesterday arvo there was no swell and it was blowing 15-20knts wsw so pretty crappy and onshore and crap for wave sailing slappa style..
So instead I was Fully powered up on 4m wave sail/ Infinity76 foil combo. 1.5hrs and 34kms later.
Spent the whole time on foil carving and gybing. Long upwind runs then surfing/ carving the small wind waves back downhill

Ok, it is Kai and it is prone - but the sentiment's true for all foiling, I reckon

Foiled again!

Here's what's awesome about foiling.

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azymuth said..

Love the inclusiveness of foiling - at Dutchies we get prone, SUP, kite and wind-wingers foiling with us, all sharing the stoke.

My guess is that there's still huge innovation and technique breakthroughs coming. How many other sports can you say that about?
Frothing

This. So much this. I found it out about 9 months ago excitedly talking with my kitefoil buddies. Unlike twenty years ago when all the whinging was about the power source (sail vs kite), we now find ourselves sharing the common thread - the foil. We use the means of power familiar to us but the feelings, exhilaration and learning curves are so similar. And, sharing it on those days that have our conventional friends sitting in the grass or just giving up and going home.

Some people have been concerned that youth don't have a way to get into foiling.

This young foiler didn't get the memo

With youth, comes parents.

One of my Seattle friends has a young teen daughter who has taken to foiling in a way she never would have with most light wind gear (Seattle is almost windless).
The lighter sails and lower rig pressure works just fine for young people. My kids are just starting on a board but I'm tempted to skip straps and have them go right for the foil once they understand the harness (I'm a believer in maximizing harness use).

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Grantmac said..
One of my Seattle friends has a young teen daughter who has taken to foiling in a way she never would have with most light wind gear (Seattle is almost windless).
The lighter sails and lower rig pressure works just fine for young people. My kids are just starting on a board but I'm tempted to skip straps and have them go right for the foil once they understand the harness (I'm a believer in maximizing harness use).

With Seattle being almost windless what kind of kit Is used in those conditions?

The silence is awesome! I never realized my windsurfer made a racket, until I started foiling.

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fanatic1982 said..

Grantmac said..
One of my Seattle friends has a young teen daughter who has taken to foiling in a way she never would have with most light wind gear (Seattle is almost windless).
The lighter sails and lower rig pressure works just fine for young people. My kids are just starting on a board but I'm tempted to skip straps and have them go right for the foil once they understand the harness (I'm a believer in maximizing harness use).

With Seattle being almost windless what kind of kit Is used in those conditions?

Starboard 1100 or Infinity 84 and 8.0-9.5m sails, a few guys have the 8.2 Flyer and 9.6 Phantom. Usually on Formula boards.

I teach windsurfing to kids, the youngest kids i've had planing in the straps were 12-13, its just too heavy for most younger kids. The youngest kid I've had up on the foil was 9. After they get the basics and you hand them a helmet they can learn to foil, its amazing!

What's awesome about foiling?

Being able to windsurf almost as often as you like!
68 sessions in the last 3 months - about 30km a session.

Crazy fun in just 10-12 knots and epic in 25-30 knots

Slingshot 105L & 87L boards, Infinity 76 & 65 wings, Simmer 5.9 - 3.7

Frothing to get back out there tomorrow

Here I have another one!

During a marathon race last year, I was on the foil (top track) and my friend on a slalomboard! Wind was coming from the Lower half of the right side of the picture, and I suppose you can very clearly see where the marks were on my track hahaha. For me it was downwind from the start/ first mark(left mark) to the second mark (right), then one upwind leg, tack, another upwind leg to the third mark and reach/broad reach back to the start/first mark. The guys on slalom couldnt make the first mark in 1 go and had to jibe at least twice. The upwind was a huge struggle ofcourse, and appearantly my reach wasnt really a reach either, for they had to do a tack in it somewhere!

I completed 35km in just over an hour, my mate did 75km in about 3,5 hours. It wasnt even close to being a fair competition. The first person not on a foil was in about an hour after the last foil. (Luckily the results were split into foiling, raceboard and shortboard class)