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kitebored said..

felix1111 said..
What wing is best for jibes learning? Now there are wings for freefly, freestyle, wave .... and it is too confusing to choose.

I'd say try a few, they are so different.. For me the board and the foil made most difference, not the wing. A long handle/boom may help with hand transitions when learning.

Smaller wings are definitely easier to gybe, learning in light wind is harder when using a bigger wing and also staying on foil in the very light conditions, also wind chop/waves makes it harder.

I wouldn't pick a wing purely for it's gybing characteristics, I'd pick one that matches your style of riding and feels good, I have not had any issue gybing a variety of wings (I found tacking can be harder on some wings, but not so much gybing). Try some demo's / friends wings and see what feels good.

Thank pal

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Andrzej said..
Hi all, i am 95kg and learning gybe using 140l board. Do you think it would be time to downsize to 110l for example or I am better off staying with the current board until I learn the gybe. Is smaller narrower board easier to learn the gybe on?

As soon as you can use your sail to generate just 2 kts of forward foil speed, then you will get great fun from a much narrower board of "mid length" and just above neutral buoyancy for you. The bigger + wider boards are harder to stand on in the water since they get bumped around by the waves. Once you can do 2 kts thru the water, then the foils generate more than enough roll stability. But there is more ... the bigger boards are stickier to the water for take-offs and upon accidental touch-downs. In two words, they totally suck.

Assuming you got the above covered when in the water, then as soon as you can consistently foil in a straight line for more than 10 secs, then: 1. A big board makes everything more difficult, especially gybes! It's the swing and pitch weight problem. 2. You can also sell the big learner foils, and get some foils which roll-turn better. Combined with a lighter+smaller board, the gybes will be 10x easier. You will also learn to carve gybes much sooner. Some riders will yaw turn for years because of bad habits learned on the monster boards and horribly roll-stable learner foils.

The big boards and wide foils are also far more dangerous because they do not respond to your inputs and so you easily fall on them. The cost of board and foil upgrades can be cheap compared to many body injuries.

When it's really windy, the big boards blow around badly when walking in/out of the water. Also when going upwind. Especially the old style wide boards. The big foils and boards can also blow around when in the water after a crash, and put holes in your sail or you.

I'm probably in the top 1% of lazy riders, and I can assure you that the big kit is just hard work. The foil drag also means that you get your arms ripped out when it's windy and when it's light you never get a rest because all they want to do is stop.

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Andrzej said..
Hi all, i am 95kg and learning gybe using 140l board. Do you think it would be time to downsize to 110l for example or I am better off staying with the current board until I learn the gybe. Is smaller narrower board easier to learn the gybe on?

Everyone is different of course, but I would keep going with the board you have. Do not waste money on another board until you can jibe 10 times in a row (both jibes) without falling as well as comfortably riding switch. You need a big platform to get up as you are falling a lot. For jibes, large board is usually not a problem. If you feel that you have difficulty turning, try a smaller foil. Downsize your board once you get into tacking.

I just down sized in length & a bit in width & volume. From a JP 6ft x 26inch x 95 volume to a Sunova 5ft 3inch x 25inch x 92 volume.
I chose shorter for when I do more wave riding with the wing. And my bigger board to do paddle board foil surfing which replaces my older bigger, heavier paddleboard foil.
I still don't knee start. Might be due to back injury or my foot being bitten by a shark around the ankle. But have pretty good movement. Or probably not enough practice. I just cannot get my foot forward without it going off the side rail, under the water & back up.
So I still do the typical paddleboard mount by standing from all fours to then raise the wind wing. And that's why I chose not to reduce much in width & volume.
I found it not much different mounting on still water. But oh my god! So frustrating on ocean chop & swell! More falling than riding!
I found the smaller board basically the same on jibes except if I lose that speed & drop back onto the water, I lose balance & fall in. The larger board I could balance & pick up the wind & get going again. So challenges ahead for me again.
If I could knee start then I would have had far less frustrations going to this smaller board.
So if you can balance fairly easy on your knees & do knee starts affectively then I believe you would have no problems going to a smaller board.
I have just recently been able to complete my jibes about 50% of the time. Easier in stronger winds and when riding the wind swell which makes me carve left & right giving me a better feel in my turns.
When up on foil the smaller board initially it made me more tentative on my balance.
And I get less board speed on the smaller board, less pointing upwind when off the foil because of its braking effect due to it being short & wide compared to the longer & narrower Down wind type boards. But still find it's just as easy, if not better to get up on foil compared to my bigger board by less pumps needed if I keep the board flat.

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Seajuice said..
I just down sized in length & a bit in width & volume. From a JP 6ft x 26inch x 95 volume to a Sunova 5ft 3inch x 25inch x 92 volume.
I chose shorter for when I do more wave riding with the wing. And my bigger board to do paddle board foil surfing which replaces my older bigger, heavier paddleboard foil.
I still don't knee start. Might be due to back injury or my foot being bitten by a shark around the ankle. But have pretty good movement. Or probably not enough practice. I just cannot get my foot forward without it going off the side rail, under the water & back up.
So I still do the typical paddleboard mount by standing from all fours to then raise the wind wing. And that's why I chose not to reduce much in width & volume.
I found it not much different mounting on still water. But oh my god! So frustrating on ocean chop & swell! More falling than riding!
I found the smaller board basically the same on jibes except if I lose that speed & drop back onto the water, I lose balance & fall in. The larger board I could balance & pick up the wind & get going again. So challenges ahead for me again.
If I could knee start then I would have had far less frustrations going to this smaller board.
So if you can balance fairly easy on your knees & do knee starts affectively then I believe you would have no problems going to a smaller board.
I have just recently been able to complete my jibes about 50% of the time. Easier in stronger winds and when riding the wind swell which makes me carve left & right giving me a better feel in my turns.
When up on foil the smaller board initially it made me more tentative on my balance.
And I get less board speed on the smaller board, less pointing upwind when off the foil because of its braking effect due to it being short & wide compared to the longer & narrower Down wind type boards. But still find it's just as easy, if not better to get up on foil compared to my bigger board by less pumps needed if I keep the board flat.

I have the 6ft 8in x 26in x 96l JP similar to yours and its a very under rated board. I suspect it better than the later versions as it has the best of many performance charistics that work for me for Windwing and FDA.
I lent it to a friend who had been struggling to find a board that suited him and he bought one immediately.

140 liters is a little more than what you need. You could loose 20 liters and be fine. The key to really progressing w jibes, tacks and foot switches switches is gettin the TOW (Time On Water) and rep's.
Having a board you can literally standup on quickly and continue the (attempt, crash, evaluate, repeat) is critical. When you're learning a new move, the mindset has to be I'm going to take a dozen or more falls today. Sometimes it clicks early, sometimes..it clicks after 50-100. I see so many people struggle w downsizing due to peer pressure and advancing painfully slow or stuck in the same rut. However !!! Is your 140 liter board and foil setup balanced? Have someone who's more advanced take a spin on your rig. I've jumped on a couple of older boards where the foot balance was insanely uneven. And because of box placement impossible to balance.

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warwickl said..

Seajuice said..
I just down sized in length & a bit in width & volume. From a JP 6ft x 26inch x 95 volume to a Sunova 5ft 3inch x 25inch x 92 volume.
I chose shorter for when I do more wave riding with the wing. And my bigger board to do paddle board foil surfing which replaces my older bigger, heavier paddleboard foil.
I still don't knee start. Might be due to back injury or my foot being bitten by a shark around the ankle. But have pretty good movement. Or probably not enough practice. I just cannot get my foot forward without it going off the side rail, under the water & back up.
So I still do the typical paddleboard mount by standing from all fours to then raise the wind wing. And that's why I chose not to reduce much in width & volume.
I found it not much different mounting on still water. But oh my god! So frustrating on ocean chop & swell! More falling than riding!
I found the smaller board basically the same on jibes except if I lose that speed & drop back onto the water, I lose balance & fall in. The larger board I could balance & pick up the wind & get going again. So challenges ahead for me again.
If I could knee start then I would have had far less frustrations going to this smaller board.
So if you can balance fairly easy on your knees & do knee starts affectively then I believe you would have no problems going to a smaller board.
I have just recently been able to complete my jibes about 50% of the time. Easier in stronger winds and when riding the wind swell which makes me carve left & right giving me a better feel in my turns.
When up on foil the smaller board initially it made me more tentative on my balance.
And I get less board speed on the smaller board, less pointing upwind when off the foil because of its braking effect due to it being short & wide compared to the longer & narrower Down wind type boards. But still find it's just as easy, if not better to get up on foil compared to my bigger board by less pumps needed if I keep the board flat.

I have the 6ft 8in x 26in x 96l JP similar to yours and its a very under rated board. I suspect it better than the later versions as it has the best of many performance charistics that work for me for Windwing and FDA.
I lent it to a friend who had been struggling to find a board that suited him and he bought one immediately.

Yes. I noticed that you have mentioned the JP to be the all round comfortable board. I struggled a bit with it for SUP foiling in water that started getting choppy. I actually bought it to try prone foiling but when Wind Wings came out I used it for that & my balance improved. And loved it when surfing wind swell in my lake. It was also stable enough for me to remount in large wind swell. Which is virtually impossible for me on my 5ft 3" board. But I will persevere using the 6ft 8" for SUP foiling as it is heaps lighter than my previous 7 foot barge SUP that I converted for foiling.
And persevere with my 5ft 3" to keep my anger & frustrations going through the roof! ??????