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Microsurfer said..
I'd appreciate a bit of feedback from you more experienced foilers. I'm a novice/ slow learner foiler still trying to nail down my gybes. On a good day with flat water & consistent wind I can get most of them, foot swap & ride toeside.
In the chop & swell though I'm all over the place. I'm not after gybing advice but wondering if there is anything I can do with the foil or my setup to minimise the lifting effect I had yesterday. Yesterday it was blowing about 15-20+ knots with tide against wind creating thigh high waves. I was overpowered & found it really hard sometimes to keep the foil in the water. It would climb up a wave & I'd be riding right at the end of mast. It would mostly stay there & not breach but I found it hard to get it back down & control over it.
The foil is great & forgiving in most situations so not sure if it is my limited foiling ability, my setup or just par for the course with those conditions? Watching other foilers they all seemed to glide more evenly than what I felt I was. I also wonder if I'm getting blown upwards & can't apply front foot pressure?
Do you guys run your masts more forward for rougher conditions? Do you guys shim your stabs? I've heard shimming the front is good for lessening the lift effect. If you have, how many bread tags would you recommend?
I run a LX970 on a crazyshort with 50 skinny, 800 mast. I have tried an ultrashort however I found I crash more with it - I feel more locked into the foils trajectory & can't level it out as much. The crazyshort seems to me to give a more intuitive feeling where I can quickly level out the foil.
It'd be great to have some advice so I can try to progress.
I have taken this foil in a variety of conditions and found it pretty user friendly and forgiving. I'm using the crazyshort advance with 45 skinny and 750 or 820 mast, so not too different, no shimming or anything. I'm inclined to try a bit of negative shim at some point.
Of course managing ocean conditions and doing stuff in them is a step up in relative difficulty vs flat water whatever foil you're on. This comes with practice and time on the water.
There's a bunch of other variables that you haven't mentioned that might make a difference, such as what size wing you were using to feel overpowered, your body weight, what board you're riding, where you're putting the mast, whether you're riding with straps etc. The LX970 does have a lot of lift but it seems to be able to hold down a fair amount of power (wind or wave) without getting overwhelmed. I find the center of lift slightly back, maybe a cm or 2, from e.g. the art pro or I imagine art v2 or spitfire.