Accidental Foil Training

So today started fairly normally, wind strength below forecast and Remi shaking his head at my rig combination.




Apparently 52cm is too large for a 75wide iSonic 121...





So off I went, in the cool 4 to 14kt breeze, and for some unknown reason my board started railing up at an extreme angle.
But, rather than try to avoid it, I started to embrace it, railing the board up at every opportunity.

At the most extreme I got the board to about 30 degrees, and only the last few cm from the back strap of the leeward rail in the water. It felt really high, say 10cm above the waters surface.

Balance was tricky but after a few runs I started getting the feel for it. From reading other peoples descriptions of what foiling feels like, it seemed similar.

The similarity also extends to the extremes... rising over chop isn't so bad, no need to fear getting airborne, but after one chop hop the leeward rail came down and dug into the water, hard, stopping instantly! I fell safely to windward, but the board was trying to flip over.


All in all, an interesting experiment. If you are keen to try foiling, try an oversized fin first and see if you can balance on it railing up (in smooth water!). Doing this might help you decide if foiling is (or isn't) for you!?!

I think you're onto something, but don't be a wuss ! I'll lend you my 70 cm formula fin until you can hover over Botany Bay