After 6 mos of learning to wing foil, I decided to downsize and purchased a 5'6" 105 liter wing board. Today was the maiden voyage in 10 mph winds, with some 15 mph gusts. First off, for a 90 kg guy knee starts are now mandatory. I'm glad I didn't purchase the next size down. With my previous 6'0 120 liter F-one, you could get away with not doing knee starts. It felt more comfortable just popping up like on a surfboard. The first few tries today were not good as I kept stuffing the nose. I decided to try getting up on my back foot first, then bringing the front foot around. This worked fine in the light winds. Next , smaller board surface meant using a shorter stance. I noticed by offsetting the feet, I could bring them closer , keep weight closer to the center of lift, and stand more upright. This made for a more controlled and comfortable ride. Getting up on foil was also noticeably easier . With the Wing Drifter, it has a stepped tail and bottom contours. My previous board surface was flat and seemed to require more effort. I wasn't on foil very long due to the conditions, but I did observe turning upwind and controlling foil height felt easier on this smaller board. Thus far, I'm impressed with the design. Will update this post after more testing.
