Hi all.

General enquiry. I'm looking for an all-around wingfoil board. Would you say the Armstrong midlength 85L a good board for someone who can get up and foil, but still on learning to jibe stage...

Many thanks all ??

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GinoVino said..
Hi all.

General enquiry. I'm looking for an all-around wingfoil board. Would you say the Armstrong midlength 85L a good board for someone who can get up and foil, but still on learning to jibe stage...

Many thanks all ??

Depends how heavy you are. Less than 80kg no problem.

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hilly said..

GinoVino said..
Hi all.

General enquiry. I'm looking for an all-around wingfoil board. Would you say the Armstrong midlength 85L a good board for someone who can get up and foil, but still on learning to jibe stage...

Many thanks all ??

Depends how heavy you are. Less than 80kg no problem.

Agree w above. I have the ML85 and it's my light to med wind board. I'm 85 kg's. It's a great board and comes up easy. It also skips off the water on low jibes. However, if you're used to a wider board, you'll need a couple of sessions to adjust to the width. Mostly a more centered foot stance. If your 80 kg or more, constant restarts learning to jibe might be a bit much for you. I always advise people in that phase to get a board their super comfortable on so they can crash 20-30 times a sesh and quickly get thru the learning curve of jibes and tacks.

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Shlogger said..

hilly said..

GinoVino said..
Hi all.

General enquiry. I'm looking for an all-around wingfoil board. Would you say the Armstrong midlength 85L a good board for someone who can get up and foil, but still on learning to jibe stage...

Many thanks all ??

Depends how heavy you are. Less than 80kg no problem.

Agree w above. I have the ML85 and it's my light to med wind board. I'm 85 kg's. It's a great board and comes up easy. It also skips off the water on low jibes. However, if you're used to a wider board, you'll need a couple of sessions to adjust to the width. Mostly a more centered foot stance. If your 80 kg or more, constant restarts learning to jibe might be a bit much for you. I always advise people in that phase to get a board their super comfortable on so they can crash 20-30 times a sesh and quickly get thru the learning curve of jibes and tacks.

Great. So if I'm still learning to jibe, maybe midlength not best.... I'm 75kg. So the new fg may be better as it has wider deck?

New FG board will be more versatile and easier for you to use at this stage, especially if you're going into rough or
choppy water. Even the 90l FG board is reasonably narrow and will get going pretty quickly.

Sorry to disagree here, I've got the ML75 and I'm 78kgs, and I think that the ML85 will help you get up on the foil easy everytime you fail a jibe, turn the board and also will help you with the feet change (that it is the most critical part of the jibe) because there is less real state to place your feet, so less chances to place them in a wrong position.

It depends a lot on your conditions, and on how you learn. On flat water, a narrower board that gets going easily can help. But if you're usually in heavy chop, you might find starting a wider board a lot easier.
The "how you learn" part is a different story. There are definitely wingers who had much more jibe success when switching to smaller boards that turn better. But there are also wingers who learn better on larger boards. I'm in the second category, and still have much better success jibing and switching feet on wider boards. For me, it really helped that I was often able to rescue a jibe when the board touched down, while on smaller/narrower boards, touch downs in jibe attempts usually lead to crashes. There is only so many starts I can do in a session before I get too tired.
A narrower/smaller board will force you to be more precise with your foot work. That may mean more crashes initially, but it also means you cannot develop bad habits as easily as on a wider/bigger, more forgiving board.

I've got the ML75 and I weight 74Kg. I think it'd be a great board for learning. Super easy lift off, slippery on touch-downs, low aero drag when up on foil. It's very difficult to fault for neutral buoyancy board option. I recommend the more forward front footstrap position, to avoid sinking the tail too much. It is also great for learner prone-foil in small gentle waves, since it can be paddled amazingly fast.

To cope with a narrow board, I can recommend two simple tips. 1. Don't try balance on it when it's not moving forward. It only needs about 1/2 a knot in water speed then your foils will give you heaps of roll stability. So use your sail more often. 2. If you think you need more deck width to control your foil, then that's probably telling you that your foil is poor in roll turn response, so fix the foils.

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GinoVino said..

Shlogger said..

hilly said..

GinoVino said..
Hi all.

General enquiry. I'm looking for an all-around wingfoil board. Would you say the Armstrong midlength 85L a good board for someone who can get up and foil, but still on learning to jibe stage...

Many thanks all ??

Depends how heavy you are. Less than 80kg no problem.

Agree w above. I have the ML85 and it's my light to med wind board. I'm 85 kg's. It's a great board and comes up easy. It also skips off the water on low jibes. However, if you're used to a wider board, you'll need a couple of sessions to adjust to the width. Mostly a more centered foot stance. If your 80 kg or more, constant restarts learning to jibe might be a bit much for you. I always advise people in that phase to get a board their super comfortable on so they can crash 20-30 times a sesh and quickly get thru the learning curve of jibes and tacks.

Great. So if I'm still learning to jibe, maybe midlength not best.... I'm 75kg. So the new fg may be better as it has wider deck?

I don't know what your current board is but a board that you're super comfortable just popping back up on makes getting those hundreds/thousands of falls out of the way. It really helped me years ago to tell myself I'm going out and trying 20 tacks today. Too often I see people go down in size, too small, too quick and then they start playing it safe, staying w what they know.

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Migkite said..
Sorry to disagree here, I've got the ML75 and I'm 78kgs, and I think that the ML85 will help you get up on the foil easy everytime you fail a jibe, turn the board and also will help you with the feet change (that it is the most critical part of the jibe) because there is less real state to place your feet, so less chances to place them in a wrong position.

I can agree w this also, at 75 kg's you'll have enough extra float, you ll get comfortable pretty quick.

Yeh i was thinking the same thing to. Just being able get going on a boat that builds speed quickly to get on the foil will be a bonus. i just got my 45L - really nice looking board hey. A lot going on with the design.

Sweet thanks guys. Our conditions pre funny. Definitely 1 of a kind. 3-4m tides. Light wind . Very gusty, and can go between rough and flat. In 1 session wind can go to 7knt to 15-20 or even just die, so can be exhausting to near impossible. So was hoping for a do all board for all conditions.

Just noticed the ML has now a 100L may go for that!

Narrow boards keep less skilled riders from developing poor foot placement discipline. Like wide sloppy foot stagger, creating a less stable platform to advance into flying foot switches.

I think it can be yes and no.We did some test with longer boards, a 7' X 19 for 104 on super flat water. So for a beginner it was MUCH easier to stand on that board longer and narrower board and gain speed vs his 5'6 X 27 for 105L.Then in choppier condition...the narrower shape of the dw board was a nightmare for the same rider. So I think you can deduct relatively the same thing with a ML, but he wasn't at the stage of jibing yet.
Also, if you have smaller foil and carve for jibing, a narrower longer board carves better then a short and wide board for same volume.However, if you have a big slow foil and not really carve but more jibing flat...on the yaw axis, more length will provide a bit of heaviness and more pitch sensitive vs a shorter wider board.For me, for jibing the key is the speed and keep that speed...so sometimes, a faster smaller foil help. When I learned, I jibed my 1350 way before my 1800cm2.Hope it helps.

Pretty simple answer.

If you are able (or going to put the work to learn) to stinkbug start, as easy as Wing FG.

If, for any reason, you stuck with traditional kneeling start, then I'd advise against.

I have bought the ML100 (92 kg). You should be able to stay on a normal board and take off. It's a perfekt board for light wind, strong wind and is with the new HA V2 supporting your learning progress learning jibes, tacks etc. because of the reduced stance! Your feet are automatically in the right position, not offset . A restart is not exhausting
It's for me personally the perfect board for freeride and waves!