Any board and any foil can be made to work. The challenge is how to start.
If the board is big enough you can start on your belly, go slow and work your way up to your feet. Once on your feet slowly accelerate up to foiling speed. This is a great way to start new foilers out.
If the board is too small for that you have to deep water start (wakeboard style). This is a lot harder to do. Start with the board laid over on its side and perpendicular to the tow rope. You can hold the board with your front hand and place your front foot on the board. Back hand holds the rope and back foot dangles until the rope starts to pull, at that point you quickly get your back foot on and grab rope with both hands. This requires a fast powerful take off and works better with really low volume boards (10 liters) so that it is easeir to get the board on it's side. Purpose built boards with straps are ideal for this but I have managed to tow foil a broad array of strapless boards with one or the other of these techniques.
Here is a example of the method for bigger boards at :50 seconds
Doing this behind the boat absolutely launched me up the learning curve, it is a great way to go foiling when there is not enough wind to sail. Breaking it down into parts really helps learning so by just focusing on the foiling part your sailing will improve.
