My First Time on a Slingshot Hydrofoil

My First Time

My parents always told me not to kiss and tell, and to be fair, I didn't actually kiss my Hydrofoil, but regardless, here is the tale of 'my first time'.

I bought a "2018 Slingshot Hover Glide Windsurf Foil 2" for about $1700 delivered via SlingShot Australia. slingshotaustralia.com.au/collections/windsurfing-foils/products/2017-slingshot-hover-glide-wsf2-foil


The blurb says:
Built for freestyle foiling and speed, the 2018 Slingshot Hover Glide Windsurf Foil 2 is set up with our H5 Wing. The wings are smaller in size, and provide a smaller "foil footprint." This will benefit lighter-weight riders looking for control stability and early take-off. Advanced riders will love the performance the H5 wing delivers. It excels at all points of sail, turns like crazy and is awesome for jumping, front loops, back loops and all other freestyle riding types. ?
2018 Slingshot Hover Glide Windsurf Foil 2 PACKAGE INCLUDES:
- MAST, DEEP TUTTLE CONNECTION and FUSELAGE ?- FRONT and REAR WINGS?- ALL HARDWARE?- CUSTOM TRAVEL BAG?
HEIGHT OF MAST AND FUSELAGE:?LENGTH = 35.5" (93cm)?
2018 Slingshot Hover Glide Windsurf Foil 2 FEATURES:
+ 100% SOLID CARBON CONSTRUCTION H5 WINGS
+ SANDED SPEED FINISH
+ ADVANCED AIRCRAFT ALUMINUM CONSTRUCTION
+ PATENT PENDING SWITCH FUSELAGE
+ FLAT LOC FUSE-TO-WING CONNECTION
+ PROVEN HIGH PERFORMANCE INDUSTRY LEADING DESIGN
+ DURABLE
+ AFFORDABLE
+ FOIL FLIGHT SCHOOL COMPATIBLE (Slingshot Exclusive Three Mast Learning System)
+ FULLY SUPPORTED BY FOIL-ACADEMY.COM
+ MODULAR (BUY ONCE, BUILD ON FOREVER FOR ALL SPORTS)
+ TIME TESTED TOUGH
+ UNCONDITIONAL 30 DAY PERFORMANCE GUARANTEE



I feel I'm a quick learner, and with over 30 years windsurfing experience, thought I might skip the whole 3x Mast Package and go straight to the full 93cm high mast.

But if you are concerned about catapults, falling on your sail, mast, boom, face, etc, then they can be a good idea as staying close to the water turns out to be harder than I expected.

The 2018 SLINGSHOT FLIGHT SCHOOL MAST PACKAGE is actually reasonably priced at under $300... https://slingshotaustralia.com.au/collections/windsurfing-foils/products/2016-slingshot-flight-school-mast-package.

When the package arrived, it felt like Christmas... such a big box, what could it be...?

Cat Not Included.

The foil was a little bigger than I expected, with a front wing width of 560 x 140mm and rear stabiliser at 420 x 85mm. When assembled the front wing tip to rear trailing edge is 860mm. The whole kit, aluminium mast, Tuttle base, 'switch fuse' fuselage and foils weighted in at 5.5kg. I can see the interest in full carbon for professionals!


The manual said to lubricate everything with grease, which I later found out at the foil-academy (www.foil-academy.com) means something like lanolin oil or marine grease. Apparently titanium bolts and aluminium masts or stainless steel nuts can have galvanic reactions in salt water, and seize. For now I've just disassembled everything, with a good intention of acquiring some suitable oil/grease later. I made do with some spray oil from the kitchen to help the bolts mate with the mast threads.



Fully assembled the foil is big. I set the fuselage with the front wing in the forward position. While it might be harder to get it up in this position, apparently it is best for planing gybes. As I want to get to this goal sooner rather than later, I figured I would begin in the target position, rather than starting in the easiest setting. (Well don't do that. I think this position doesn't suite my board.)




For the all important board, I simply use my ageing iSonic 121L. The paddle pop stick has a deep Tuttle box, outboard front straps that I relocated all the way forward, and rear straps that I also moved forward, and inboard. But there was a problem... the standard fin screw holes are small relative to the MASSIVE 10mm bolts used to hold everything together. A 12mm bit made light work of the plastic cap over the holes, which thankfully are actually larger inside the board, so no damage to epoxy/carbon needed!



Check your own board carefully, and in advance of sailing, you may need to drill and re-water proof the bolt holes. This step is not in any manual :)


The first sailing day, and everything was fitted together perfectly, and re-tightened just to make sure! No loose wobbly bits please. If anything, the main bolts only had about 8mm of purchase, but I forgot to stop by the screw shop on the way to the water, perhaps I was too excited...


For my first sail I selected an old Naish RAF 5.5 free race style with 'low down power' as recommended.



But after half time I ended up switching to my favoured fully cam'ed race sails as I find the feeling more familiar, and less distraction is a good thing. Also the wind dropped a bit and the Maui Sails TRXI 6.3 gave me a bit more get-up-and-go.

(Photo of Maui Sails TRX sail on another day...)



And unfortunately that is the end of the photos... I had a GoPro strapped to my boom, getting some great images of my crazy excited face, until it went to join Jonny Depp in Davy Jones Locker.

On The Water
Rigged up and ready to go, I walked down the beach at Tarren Point, on the Georges river around the southern end of Botany Bay (Sydney Airport). There was a 10-20kts S/SW wind blowing that dropped back to 5-15kts by the time I was on the water.

Carrying the weight, bulk and leverage of the foil is a bit of an issue. Seperate from the sail is definitely easier.

First up, you will need a good wetsuit, because instead of only needing to wade out to knee deep water, you have to almost swim out to waist deep, 1M water. Obviously I started by up-hauling, but after an hour or so I felt confident enough to water start, when the wind was strong enough. Little tip with water starting, get your back foot on the board and bend the knee, a lot, and only kick with your front foot to avoid kicking the foil.

First run, and the iSonic felt like it got onto the plane easier than normal! But it just kept planing like regular... until I stepped on the back foot a little harder and then the nose popped up, and straight back down. Too tentative.

Next time the board started to rise, and immediately rolled to windward and I fell in. Being used to fighting the fin's windward rail lift, I had my back foot right on the rail. But you don't need to do that, actually can't do that with a foil! I found the best rear foot placement was almost in the middle of the 4 straps, back foot toes on or over centre line heel to windward. For now. Ultimately I'll have to get to stand in both footstraps. Maybe for my second foiling session.

Of course the third time, I over compensated and rotated to leeward falling on the sail. Always learning.

And then it happened, nailed it, and the board rose evenly out of the water, 5cm and back down, 5cm, 10cm, 30cm, gust, 60cm, 80cm aghhhh, 90cm,... 0cm SPLAT. All the way from a metre up to catapult facing backwards buried under my sail.

I moved the mast base further and further forward over the day (I started from slightly in front of half way, usually when slalom sailing I have it 1cm from the back - I sail very back foot heavy), but could NOT get the control required. Next time I'll reset the "Patent Pending Switch Fuselage" in the rear slot, moving the balance point rearwards. Despite the foil-academy suggesting forward is required for gybing, on my iSonic, I simply couldn't get the nose down with my back foot anywhere past half way between the straps. Even then not sailing fast. The lift is too great. At one point I unweighted BOTH feet and hung all my weight off the front hand and still the foil kept rising until it breached.

But when it worked, WOW, what a feeling... as shown in all the other video's peppering seabreeze and Facebook, the feeling is surreal. You probably don't notice how noisy windsurfing is, with every micro-wave slapping the hard boards and transmitting the sound through all the hard components of the rig. But when you get airborne, all that noise goes away and you can hear the wind rushing across the rig, the water stirring beneath you, and it is smooooooth! Such a smooth ride, it's as if you sail through the chop rather than getting bounced off it like normal.

Until I picked up speed, and then the nose rose, and I twisted my hips, and pulled on the boom and and and and rose higher and higher until I made like a whale and breached.

After innumerable wipeouts, catapults, sail landings etc. I managed a few "tap and go's", breaching, bouncing off the water and rising again. When you get too high, apart from the panic, the board sometimes gets squirrelly, almost like a spin out, sliding sideways. I suppose this makes sense as I've just gone from having a 60cm odd fin to just a few cm's. It's probably best to control pitch and altitude rather than yaw.

When on the foil, the board picks up speed quickly. Unfortunately I didn't get to keep the nose down long-enough to enjoy it, but I remember one run feeling out-of control but importantly while level, thinking wow this is faster than I want to be right now... then the nose went up... and you know what happened then. I launched into a back loop, landing perfectly on the foil and kept going. Either that or a swim.

Lessons from day 1
So what did I learn after 1 sail? Nose control is CRITICAL, more important than anything else. I guess this is where the shorter foil masts come in handy, being able to takeoff without getting the 1m altitude and oversized wipeouts.

Don't use the rear foot straps, I thought 'lifting' my back foot might help control the nose.. No it didn't.

Don't be stubborn, and spend time changing settings more. I was keen to keep the front foil position forward for later progression, but it seems this setting is perhaps best for foil boards, but perhaps not the iSonic. Remember this is my 1st time, so take my advice with a sip of sea-salt. I had plenty.

The iSonic 121L I have used allowed me to move the front strap position forward, but not inboard. I loosened the straps to give me more room to weight the toes inboard. I kept my back foot in between the straps, only slightly to windward. I'll need more experience before I can ride on the rail.

Re-Learn to pump. I haven't pumped so much in years... because I usually sail over powered. Front foot in the strap, bareoff, pump, pump, bounce the board, feel the lift kick in, lean forward (don't push the back foot down anymore for fear of your dear life), and if you get it right, glide about 30cm above the water in surreal silence on a cloud.

Great fun, I'll be doing that again!

That is the exact transcript of my first time with a foil

One thing I would like to try. However at my skill level (absolute ****), and age, this is always going to be a pipe dream for me. But your post was rather informative. Plus I am a typical plug and go type windsurfer. Needing to faff about like when racing Go-Karts, and setting changes, is something I quickly got the tom tits with