Good morning everyone,I'm facing a dilemma and I hope you experts can enlighten me!

I currently weigh 85 kg and practice wing foiling with a 77-liter Ensis Rock'n Roll board and a RRD Blaze 950 front wing. I usually go out in winds from 17 to 27 knots, when conditions allow.
Lately, I've been focusing more and more on freestyle and am starting to jump more frequently, landing some frontside 360s and trying more complex maneuvers.
I feel like I could use a bit more "air" under my feet to progress, but I have two potential issues to address (the first one is a certainty!):

Ability: I'm aware that I'm still a beginner in freestyle, so I know I'll need to dedicate a lot of time to improving my technique and gaining confidence.
Equipment: I currently use a 77-liter board with an aluminum mast. In your experience, could reducing the board volume and perhaps switching to a carbon mast make a difference? If changing boards could help me, what volumes would you recommend?

Not being a freestyle expert, I don't know whether to go down to 70, 65, 60, or even 55 liters. I wouldn't want to risk spending more time swimming than foiling!

What do you all think?
Any advice is welcome!Thank you all very much!

I cannot fully answer your question, but I was doing freestyle in windsurfing and there has always been a trade-off until you nail fully a move, I wasn't a pro BTW, more a try hard many reps until I had small result. From my background, you need to be able to recover when you not fully land your move and for that you need enough volume to play with your sail/wing until you align your board in the proper direction and go. If your board is too small you are not going to recover any landing that is not near where you need to be. Of course, smaller, more compact board, less weight will spin faster...when I was nailing my moves...and was trying a smaller board it was spinning a lot faster and it was easier with the smaller board...while to go there the bigger board was easier.I know I do not answered your question, but my feeling is you should be around .75-8 your body weight in volume unless you are very used to sink up to the waist and schlog out...but I could be wrong, wait for a real "freestyler".

I was in the same boat with 85kg. I can do 360's pretty consistent and some toeside 360's also. I tried with a smaller board (62L) and quickly went back to an 78L as smallest for now. Its not worth the struggle to everytime start that small board. That is also very exhausting. Also learning a new tricks is much easier on a board with a bit more float. So my advice, stick with your 77L for now.

Im 67kgs ,( not really a freestyler ) but do some bigs airs and just started some 360s. I've found 4,8" x 52L a good board size for me to get going again after crashing or just sinking on landings and still small enough to be playful.
Also I've bent a couple of Alu masts and well defo get a carbon one next.

And just to add to this I found the Ensis rock and roll board really sticky to get going compared to other boards of the same size.

A bigger board is better for learning freestyle moves. A 77L is not going to limit your progression. However I do appreciate that you do hit a wall of progress sometimes and out of desperation think that maybe an equipment change will solve it. It won't.
Ally mast is generally no problem either, but I don't know anything about RRD foils.

As you've already realised, a smaller board will mean that you'll spend more time in the water, instead of foiling. A smaller board also means that you'll need to use a larger hand wing, which makes learning rotations more difficult.

Slightly longer and narrower boards like the Appleslice need less volume to get going in the same wind, but feel less stable on landing.

If by air under board you mean more height then it's nothing to do with the board. get a new foil with better pop and a carbon mast for light weight. don't think there's anyone on world tour with rrd and Ali mast

Thanks everyone for the detailed replies!

It seems the consensus is pretty clear: a 60L board for an 83kg rider trying to progress in freestyle is likely more of a hindrance than a help at this stage.

@larsdegroot, your experience at 85kg going back to a 78L board really resonates with me. The struggle and exhaustion of a smaller board is definitely something I want to avoid while trying to nail new moves.

@Nikita, I appreciate the reminder that a 77L board isn't limiting progression and that a smaller board often necessitates a larger wing, complicating rotations.

Given all this feedback, I'm going to hold off on the 60L F-One Rocket Wing offer for now. Maybe I'll try a smaller board in the future, but not yet.

My plan now is to focus on changing just the mast first, as @leepasty suggested a carbon mast for better pop.

I'll keep you all updated on the forum if I notice any significant differences.

Thanks again for steering me in the right direction !!

Another thing to note is footstrap safety, I broke my foot recently on a larger board. Smaller boards seem to have a lot less leverage, so if my foot gets stuck in when crashing it's less likely to cause injury.

I'm 80kg and around 55-60L seems perfect, it's not to hard to get those boards up if you have some wind imo.

Learning to get a full sinker (30-40L) up is super helpful and makes starting less sinky boards seem easy.