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kobo said..
Great info JB thanks, Any advantages in using 75 mast instead of 85 ?
Do you find better wind swell further out ( 2-3 k instead of 0.2k - 1k )
Is the HA better to learn DW or big surf foil.
If you lose a wave do you always look behind for next one , or sometimes try to pump over the one in front to keep going ? Sorry for all questions,I'm only one in my area DW atm so lots to learn but having a ball !
Hey Kobo,
All good.
75cm (and smaller) have a lessor trajectory swing, meaning you can change angles faster and with more ease (the longer the mast the further you are travelling from side to side as is your foil when you change sides). Also there comes a point depending on your skills where the advantage over the lift of your foil can favour your foil. This generally doesn't happen much with short masts, but as you go longer, when you power up it will become harder to keep the foil down relative to a shorter mast. In many ways a shorter mast is actually better, but the key thing is clearance! Hull tapping and glancing is not ideal and either is breeching. And the only way round these is with a longer mast a lot of the time. As you start riding faster, it will become near impossible to navigate big swells and drops without a longer mast. In saying this, 85cm is a long as I will go with Surf foils, I actually love 81cm through trial and error. 90cm is overpowering and difficult to manage lift. 85cm is a good go to size with heaps of power, but still manoeuvrable as you could see in my video.
Swell and wind chops all get better further out. They become much more groomed and the pattern is cleaner and clearer. But they can also be faster (so experience is recommended before going too far out). The swell is much bigger, especially when you get a good 4-5kms out. In closer the chops can be confused, but this also means more pyramids and apexes which can be very helpful for getting up on the foil, they can also be fun for cutting in and out (like a foil park), but they will generally be a little less powerful and a bit messier.
Riding HA vs LA is all down to what you want the foil to do. HA foils are very efficient but need to be ridden fast, and they are a little more twitchy and potentially unpredictable compared to a LA foil in the hands of a novice. A LA or surf foil can handle being ridden at much slower speeds with heaps of stability and power, they are more predictable and intuitive and more manoeuvrable. For learning a big LA/Surf foil will really help as you'll stay up on foil longer when you miss gates and make mistakes and the stability helps with quick direction changes. Once you find yourself hungry for more speed and find you never come off the foil, then HA's will become very inviting and you will work out how to turn them harder as you use them.
Generally don't look back! everything you need to read the ocean is in front of you. Without going into too much detail, the back of the chop/swell infront of you will replicate the front of the swell behind you. So as you're riding you are always looking across and infront as to what is going to happen next. Also swells are a transfer of energy and when you see a chop/swell up ahead cap and "break" so will the next one and the one after in that same/similar place. As you get better, you will read the backs of the chops like a road map as to where you need to go. It is generally a bit of a pattern and one you get in the groove it all makes sense. This said a bad day is like driving blind LOL.
Basically the more you do the more you learn. It does take time and patience. but it is so much fun.
Enjoy the journey, I hope this helps a little. There is so much more to it, but it would be pages and pages.
Ride safe,
JB