Hello everyone. Im looking for some feedback on board size for a pure freeride foil board. I can get a good deal on a Tabou Air ride 2022 and am deciding on which size to chose. The 87 is probably the best option for lighter winds that we have on our lake, but maybe the 81 would also work well? Im 100kg with the wetsuit and planing to use sails from 6m2 up. The foil i curently have is a rrd WH-Flight Alu 85. Im still mostly a begginer coming from longboard racing, and am curently using a friend old JP light wind 168l but want to get my own purpose foil board. Any feedback would be great.

If your surfing mainly low wind conditions i would also go with the 87. Im 78kg and foil on a 140L freeride board. Especially in low wind the extra Liters are really nice. I foiled on 120 a few times also in light wind but I preferred the 140 because it was easier to take off.

If you are always gonna go for sail of 6m or more, particularly if you use 8m or more than for sure go with the 87. The extra float under the mast for the sail weight and the extra width for sail carrying power are really going to help.

Yeah light wind I prefer a wider board (I use 95cm/9.0 but less than that might be easier to ride due to how far out the rear straps area and it's not a freeride setup). 95cm is awkward below 7m2 though.

I do ride a 71cm wide foil board in more wind (prefer at least 12kts). I have used an 8m2 with it but it feels cramped and not as much fun, and prefer to at most use a 7m2 with the 71cm wide.

Haven't tried something in the 80something range with enough TOW though. I did foil with 77cm wide for a bit and it was better for 8m2 but could've used more width for lighter winds. I'm 90kg. I think there are others here that ride from 6-8 on an 85cm board regularly and love it, but haven't ridden their setup. They are similar weights.

I have had the '22 AirRide 87 since last year and used it with sails from 4.2 to 8.4. I am 90 kg. No problem with small sails on this board. Did my first fully foiling jibes with a 4.2. Nice stable board and more freerace than maneuver oriented. In big swell a smaller/narrower board feels better, but in absence of swell it works very well in both light and high winds.

Thank you all for the feedback. Yes i was also leaning to the 87 size board, mainly as we get realy gusty and not that windy conditions on our lake. Im also looking for a more frerace oriented settup for the long run so this sounds perfect.

Ideally you'd get to try both. I have the Severne Alien 155 which is similar in some ways to the 87 you're considering. It holds a big sail really well, and can be ridden in strong winds also (I've had it out on a 4.2). However, for pure early liftoff I actually think the Alien 145 lifts sooner, and that's 81 wide. Basically you put your front foot in the strap, hook in and lean back and you're up. Less competent upwind with big sails but for reaching it was fine on 8.5.

Make sure to check the range of setup distances available between foilmast and sailmast-foot. Some of these boards max out at less than 109cm which means you're limited in how long a fuse you can easily use.

I only windsurf not foil and found in light winds above 135l for my 90kg the bigger boards had more drag so harder to get going. Is it different in foiling?

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patronus said..
I only windsurf not foil and found in light winds above 135l for my 90kg the bigger boards had more drag so harder to get going. Is it different in foiling?

Haven't ridden a 135L fin board in a long time but any extra litres on a foil board seem to help to get flying. Also, tail width is real important to be able to hold down big sails.

From personal experience, fins:
115 dyno: takes the most wind and effort
135 kode with almost same outline as dyno, larger fin, more width at center: pops onto plane very quickly with 1-2 pumps on fin with the same size sail as the dyno, especially when in the straps subplaning
145 Blast: Planes earlier than either
11'6" Exocet Link: Takes more effort to get going than the blast with the same size sail (but glides subplaning at higher speed...)
95cm ~200l IQfoil with 68cm fin: planes and stays planing at very low speed compared to blast but is not fun to ride above 15kts wind or so, and foiling it is more fun even up to 20kts

Foils:
71cm 145l foilx: has to be actively pumped, min around 10-12kts, probably more on the higher end, with 6.3, maybe a little less with 7m cammed foil sail
95cm iqfoil: minimum flight around 8kts with lots of work, may be as low as 7kts with +1 shim, mast all the way back, lots of pumping, but my min seems to be realistically 8kts until I demonstrate otherwise

Aero outlines it well. Also, the wider the board (length matters much less in a foiling context) the bigger the sail it can carry and also the bigger the sail it NEEDS to carry for a given windstrength. My 85cm board feels fine under an 8.5 in 16-18kt - scary fast but fine. A 77 in the same wind could easily fly under a 5.0 and wouldn't tolerate the 8.5. On the other hand the 85cm board need some pumping or it wouldn't readily push up over its own bow wave under the 5.0.

So, to the OP's question, it seems to me that if the priority is flying as often as possible under as small a rig as possible, the 81 is a better call. If the question is purely about foiling up, and big sails aren't a detriment, then the 87 will work better.