My first post on this forum! I've just taken up windfoiling and have a few hours practice time. Lots of horrendous crashes. Not really sure if I like it yet - there are rare moments when it feels good, but a lot of swearing in between.

I've bought a high quality used freeride foil with a large front wing - and am pairing it with a loan board of the same brand that is a good few years old.

I've seen a good deal on a used freeride foil board, but it is a different brand to my existing foil. Is it advisable to mix and match foil and board brands - or is it always best stick to one brand for the whole foil and board setup?

It looks like the relationship between foil / fin box postion, footstraps position and mast base position could be slightly different between these two brands - studying various photos online. Is this likely to be the case?

Cheers!

Both boards are deep tuttle.

The foil is GA Mach One carbon, currently on a brand-matching Tabou board.

The used board for sale is a Starboard Freeride 150.

Are we to assume you are in NZ?

However just in case - if in WA and u were ringing shops today give me a PM

I have happily combined Starboard tuttle foils with Fanatic boards for years
play with mast base position - small changes make big differences

BSN101 said..

AoetearoaSailor said..
My first post on this forum! I've just taken up windfoiling and have a few hours practice time. Lots of horrendous crashes. Not really sure if I like it yet - there are rare moments when it feels good, but a lot of swearing in between.

I've bought a high quality used freeride foil with a large front wing - and am pairing it with a loan board of the same brand that is a good few years old.

I've seen a good deal on a used freeride foil board, but it is a different brand to my existing foil. Is it advisable to mix and match foil and board brands - or is it always best stick to one brand for the whole foil and board setup?

It looks like the relationship between foil / fin box postion, footstraps position and mast base position could be slightly different between these two brands - studying various photos online. Is this likely to be the case?

Cheers!

Stop the crashes. First 20 min just slap on the kit, when it comes up to fly put it straight back on the water. Next 20min ALLOW board to come up then put it back down on the water. Learn how to fly then slap at your choice not the kit dictating. Then increase your fly distance but always going down by your choice(not breach) before you get unstable. After 40-60 min you should be able to fly consistently and confidently and touch down before things go crazy. Continue to increase distance while being in control. I do this when I go out just to remember who's in control.

Brilliant advice - what I would say. A few things to add: The important thing to learn as he suggests is not so much how to fly but how to get the kit back on the water. It's easy to make it go up. The challenge is, especially when powered, making it go back down. You also may find more success without the back straps. Ten centimeters out of the water is out of the water. You don't get bonus points for having 70cm of mast showing. It looks good on youtube but you aren't there yet and neither are most of us. Lastly, try for a stance over the board. Foils are more reactive than a big, wide windsurfer. They can be turny like a sub 100 l. board. Be mindful of putting a lot of pressure on your heels until you are well comfortable on the foil. Yes, there is a time to do that but not when you are starting out.

I got this tip from Andy Brandt and it really seems to help beginners.

1) slog up wind
2) bear off to start to get speed and lift off
3) immediately head back up wind to kill off power

This allows individuals that haven't quite mastered the sail pumping needed to get up with smaller sails to still fly and not end up reaching and breach.

The only downside is that they may get stuck up wind and need to slog downwind

he describes it here

Thanks ALL! Great to have some encouragement and useful advice here. I've gone for the Starboard freeride foil board, which I think will make things a little easier when I am able to pick it up in a few weeks. The current loan board I'm using seems to be more of a 'freerace' style board, which I think is a little tricky, but not impossible to use intially. The from foot strap feels too far outboard and slightly too far back, meaning I find I'm sometimes adopting this 'stilletto' front foot position to compensate. I even tried avoiding the troublesome front footstrap entirely and riding with both feet out the footstraps and placed more inboard, which seemed to work once I got used to the 'balancing-on-a-wet-wobbly-table' feeling.

I am improving with each session - I managed over 1km of sustained flight yesterday in ideal conditions. Weirdly, I find everything so much easier on starboard tack, which I find I'm doing longer more controlled flights on, rather than port tack, which I tend to wobble about and do massive crashes on. It must be something to do with dominant hand / foot, etc. When on the slapper, I absolutely hate chop-hopping on port tack, but love jumping on starboard, so there seems to be a bit of a theme here!

Advice about learning to come down under control is a good one. The inevitably competitive side of me means I have been focussing on reaching ever longer flights to exhaustion, so I really must work on finesse things more, rather than just heading for the horizon