Hi All,
I had my second session two days ago with new 6m wing and happy to be getting up on the foil with some gusts. Found it very loose, like riding on a bar of soap though. My Naish foil rig came with Jet MA 2000cm front wing and I noticed when washing my gear the rear wing is an HA 280. Their smallest highest aspect rear wing. At purchase I was focused on everything else I'd missed that detail. I'm thinking I'd be better of with the Jet 320 or 450 to start with, is that correct? Another $200 outlay.

Cheers
OJ

yes, bigger tails for learning help a lot. Adds stability. Keeps you flying with less speed. A tiny tail with huge front wing is a mismatch of forces.

Agree with DWF. Tons of stability and user friendly benefits from a big stab. A small stab can be fun, but when it gets mismatched enough it becomes too loose for most riders.
But! Now you know you will have two setups soon. A stable one with your new stab and a crazy one for when you're feeling frisky!

As a Naish user, I'd stick with the 280, but be aware of how slippery it is. If you drop more money on the bigger stabiliser, it will be gathering dust in 2 or 3 months time after you progress and go back to the 280.

I'm using the 180 in my set up.

Stabs don't get enough appreciation. Everybody is looking to the bigger frontwings while those little buggers in the back can make an huge impact on the performance of the whole set up.
I would get the bigger one. At some point you might outgrow it, but when you later on try to supfoil or DW you need it again/happy that you still have it.

I'm not on Naish but GF and the difference between the FTS14.5 and the FTL12.5 is small but phenomenal, in that those small changes make so many things possible and a lot less frustrating and a lot more fun. I agree with Jeroen, I think if you purchase one front foil, you need at least 2 stabs to find out what that front foil is capable of doing (that and a mast plate shim)

Thanks guys for confirming my suspicions. Appreciate your wisdom. I had a much better session on Sunday arvo Southerly. Got on the foil for a few good 15-20 metres sprints. Getting the wing/foil pump technique together and using chop/swell to surf up. Tried gybing a couple of times but came unstuck. I recon a bigger stab will help me work on nailing gybe and tack transitions.

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Odgeau said..
I recon a bigger stab will help me work on nailing gybe and tack transitions.

Getting the biggest stab I could made all the differences for me in learning to jibe. A small drawback was that I had to adjust the takeoff technique. At first, I thought I could not get the board to foil at all anymore, but I sorted out how to adjust within one session (pick up more speed before trying to get the board of the water).