Awalkspoiled forum posts in last 60 days

bajafoilguy said..

Awalkspoiled said..
I'm shorter but at 105kg of similar weight. I'd suggest that, if you mostly ride the board flat, before investing in a lot of foils you work on how readily you can heel to windward. It reduces the lift of any foil you are using and will probably add 7-8kt to the top of the range of any foil. It works better on higher aspect foils but will work even with the Balz you have. I'm using a Patrik AIO setup now, and don't need to change off my HA 1120 front wing until it's blowing close to 20, although from 16kt up a 900 is less work.

I’m not sure what you mean when you say, “if you mostly ride the board flat”. Do you mean mostly ride flat water? I do spend my winters in Baja, riding ocean swell. I suspect that adding the swell to the mix will push me towards a smaller front wing.

No - I was wondering whether you ride with the board mostly horizontal (free-foil style) as opposed to heeled over (racing-style). Horizontal is efficient as far as getting flying but if you're even a little overpowered you can foil out. If you look at the IQ guys they're all on 900 wings with enormous sails and nevertheless go buzzing around in 20kt because they've go the board heeled way over to windward which keeps the thing from flying out of the water.

I'm the same size as you are and for a while used the IQFoil with an 85cm board and an 8.5. I needed 12kt to get the thing up with that setup but on a borrowed IQ board could fly in 10, rising when the board speed reached just over 5mph - so just before planing. I mostly used a Taaroa setup which flew earlier - right at 4mph board speed but became a handful in stronger wind. The IQ will handle a lot of speed which is about the only thing I liked about it.

However, lots of the olympic hopefuls as well as the US olympian Noah Lyons often sail on the same water (Tampa Bay) and they all seem to be able to pump up in 7kt, using a lot of back-foot to rock the board into the air. They're starting in the front strap and move into the back strap just as soon as the board shows any signs of life. They also foil-tack as a matter of routine.

FWIW I eventually sold the IQ stuff and replaced it with the Patrik AIO. That 900 cm wing rises much, much earlier than the IQ did,