With how many different foil kits there were for a while, and many different hybrid/dedicated boards, seems like there have been a lot of different setups that work.
Here's something that seemed really silly to me and I almost didn't try. I had my 8.0 cheetah rigged because it was windy enough to fin, and I wanted to try using my select carbon slalom fin instead of a weed fin, as the weeds were actually tame. The difference was amazing, and I forgot what a real upright fin felt like on my Blast. The wind dropped off after an hour, and I had my freestyle 115 with me (and ptm 926), so I figured I would try it.
An 8.0 seems ridiculous. Normally I limit myself to the 7.0 foil glide, which is a bit difficult to uphaul on this board at my weight (over 95kg at the moment...), but very nice for light wind freeride. I have tried the 7.5 gator on it, but never the 8.0. It just seemed to big. But, it was rigged, I didn't have my foil glides (I mistakenly thought it would be windy enough for my freeks...yet again), and I didn't want to unrig just to rerig my 6.7 blade.
Well, it turns out it worked. I put it well forward of where I put the foil glide 7 or the freeks, because it's got a center of effort further back. I uphauled it once, sinking like crazy, but other than that just waterstarted when I fell in. It felt a bit awkward to pump, but it didn't need a whole lot of pumping. I think it would gust sometimes up to 15kts and I didn't feel like it was too out of hand, but I definitely felt the mast flex and the sail twist a lot compared to the foil glides. To sheet in I ha to move right out on the rail on both feet, which really put me outside of the straps. Jibing felt a bit awkward but it was sorta doable for my skill level.
Figured I would share it because it was kind of funny and a moment of desperation when I didn't have the ideal gear with me. A buddy got a video of me doing a side by side and jibe that I had a big touchdown on but kept going:
I, too, have been accused of trying to keep my foil mast from getting too much UV exposure. 
Good on you for throwing stuff together and having a go. Better than sitting on the beach overthinking it. 
Select to expand quotePaducah said..
I, too, have been accused of trying to keep my foil mast from getting too much UV exposure.
Good on you for throwing stuff together and having a go. Better than sitting on the beach overthinking it.
Yeah with that one I tend to ride low as it's the 87cm. I want to try jumping it but every time I've gone out lately it's big sail weather and jumping feels awkward.
One of these days I'll swap the longer mast out again (now I can't remember if it's the 103w or 125w). With that board, the long mast is kind of a weird setup. It sinks so much that I can walk out where it's deep enough and if I'm underpowered and not waterstarting, I'm basically standing on the board, which has a foil bottomed out on the ground. When the tide is low or the spot isn't as deep I run into that issue far less, as that extra 6" or so of sink really can stop things.
Select to expand quoteaeroegnr said..Paducah said..
I, too, have been accused of trying to keep my foil mast from getting too much UV exposure.
Good on you for throwing stuff together and having a go. Better than sitting on the beach overthinking it.
Yeah with that one I tend to ride low as it's the 87cm. I want to try jumping it but every time I've gone out lately it's big sail weather and jumping feels awkward.
One of these days I'll swap the longer mast out again (now I can't remember if it's the 103w or 125w). With that board, the long mast is kind of a weird setup. It sinks so much that I can walk out where it's deep enough and if I'm underpowered and not waterstarting, I'm basically standing on the board, which has a foil bottomed out on the ground. When the tide is low or the spot isn't as deep I run into that issue far less, as that extra 6" or so of sink really can stop things.
I hear ya. Recently been spending time on an 85cm mast and the first day out was... entertaining after so much time on 95s (25kt gusts). When I get tired, I start riding lower for some reason. The other day I went into a jibe in pretty rough water, kind of low and halfway through could tell if I continued it would end badly. Bailed on the jibe by swinging back to the original direction and tried it again.
However, I've often been accused of riding low. This may or may not have been posted about me.
