Seeing people DW on 85cm masts - could I use my 93cm mast? Would a longer mast not be more comfortable in big bumps i.e. no breaching when going a steepndownhill
It's all about the drag.. Longer masts are much more draggy making paddle ups harder.. It seems like a lot of DW foilers are using 75cm masts to make paddle ups easier..
75cm is probably the fastest mast with least drag when flying. Doesn't leave much room for error though. I ride 80cm, as I find I'm less likely to break paddles, also a nice size for all round sup surf and winging. Longest I have used is 85cm. The new longer boards and efficient foils make paddle up much much easier. If 93cm is all you have then it is worth a try, but if you are serious about downwind sup then 75-80cm is better.
I have a 60cm for flatwater paddleups or shallow surf break. Easy to get up and like Baldy says easy to smash paddle into front wing. I tried my 90cm on a dw run and it wasn't really harder to get up but harder to get it up high and stay there. I like it when bumps are good and I can keep it out of the water. I am going to try a 82 next time. Seems like a 70-80cm is good for most conditions.
Taking out the paddle up (using FoilDrive) is the only downside to using a 93cm mast the need to ride 10 to 20cm higher to keep the foil in the sweet spot on bumps?
I ride 80cm(some might call it 84cm and it works fine for DW.
Alot of people say go shorter but one thing to keep in mind if riding shorter and learning is you will also more than likely be riding bigger wings and the shorter mast plus bigger wing plus learning usually means breaking paddle blades so something to keep in mind.
I'm sure someone will say they can feel the difference in glide between a 75 an 80cm mast but for me its pretty minimal if anything so anything around this size will be sweet.
90cm plus might be a different story but I have never used a mast that long DW so cant really give advice if it will work that great or no sorry.
Great input folks - keen to start the journey
Have a gen1 72 mast and a HM 93 - will start 72
