I've always been a wave sailor....and always will be. As long as I can Shlog out and turn around and catch some waves...I'm a happy camper. And I love high wind windsurfing....nothing compares. But where I was just not feeling it anymore was rigging up a 6.8 to get planing on summer sea breezes on a larger Freeride board. Don't get me wrong, I still love the pedal to the metal feeling, but the borderline planing with a big fin, big sail and pumping my arse off. Nope !!!
6 months ago I jumped into foiling. It is a game changer. Now I rig a 5.3, I'm riding the JP' 7 Foil Sup board and my go to foil is the Naish XXL. I can get up easily in 11-12 knots. Yes...the whole ride is slower than regular windsurfing and slower than guys on bigger sails and smaller foils, but easily jumping up on foil in 11-12 knots. Come On ! Never dreamed that!!! I stand over the foil SUP style and start looking for anything that looks like a bump to glide on.
Two weeks ago there was some strong SW's, 15-22 kts, as if that's really strong, right? I rigged a flat 4.5, took out the XXL and found some non-breaking swells 3-4 feet in the ship channel and proceeding to get the longest downwind glides of my life. 4-500 meters will little to almost no sail input (sometimes holding the mast with just one hand) that moment changed my perspective forever. On top of it...didn't have to take 1000 SUP stroke back up to where I started. Two tacks relaxed in the harness lines and off we go again. Ok, it's not side-off wave sailing a perfect point break but damn.....it's still so good.
If your a surfer, the idea of looking out at chop and micro swell and now being able to say "I can surf that" is priceless.
Nothing to add to this words.
It really is that good.
If you don't live nearby a regular wavespot, the foil brings us waveriding feelings to our homespots.
I've always been a wave sailor....and always will be. As long as I can Shlog out and turn around and catch some waves...I'm a happy camper. And I love high wind windsurfing....nothing compares. But where I was just not feeling it anymore was rigging up a 6.8 to get planing on summer sea breezes on a larger Freeride board. Don't get me wrong, I still love the pedal to the metal feeling, but the borderline planing with a big fin, big sail and pumping my arse off. Nope !!!
6 months ago I jumped into foiling. It is a game changer. Now I rig a 5.3, I'm riding the JP' 7 Foil Sup board and my go to foil is the Naish XXL. I can get up easily in 11-12 knots. Yes...the whole ride is slower than regular windsurfing and slower than guys on bigger sails and smaller foils, but easily jumping up on foil in 11-12 knots. Come On ! Never dreamed that!!! I stand over the foil SUP style and start looking for anything that looks like a bump to glide on.
Two weeks ago there was some strong SW's, 15-22 kts, as if that's really strong, right? I rigged a flat 4.5, took out the XXL and found some non-breaking swells 3-4 feet in the ship channel and proceeding to get the longest downwind glides of my life. 4-500 meters will little to almost no sail input (sometimes holding the mast with just one hand) that moment changed my perspective forever. On top of it...didn't have to take 1000 SUP stroke back up to where I started. Two tacks relaxed in the harness lines and off we go again. Ok, it's not side-off wave sailing a perfect point break but damn.....it's still so good.
If your a surfer, the idea of looking out at chop and micro swell and now being able to say "I can surf that" is priceless.
Nothing to add to this words.
It really is that good.
If you don't live nearby a regular wavespot, the foil brings us waveriding feelings to our homespots.
Agree with Alex and Shlogger - biggest buzz is carving downwind in 20-30 knots, bigger the chop the better ![]()
Perfect when you don't have great waveriding waves but you have awesome windswells.
As far as I can tell it might be the one discipline of foiling where we go better than the kites ![]()
I agree with the above. From my experience kitefoiling, windfoiling has a key advantage. When you get on a swell you can sheet out a kite, that kite will drift downwind, chances are you'll catch it and pass it. To prevent this you bring the kite down in the wind window, but then it's pulling again. It's a constant power on/power off situation. While it's super fun riding a lunch tray sized board with no swing weight, shutting off the wind to ride only the swell is difficult. It's the same reason kiters always look like they are surfing in front of a wave instead of in the pocket. With windfoiling there are no lines to keep taut so I can shut the power off my sail and just ride the swell. It is magic.