Complete beginner to foil, with lots of SUP experience. I'm going to be spending 4 months with my family on windy freshwater lake, near surf, next summer. Like to play around with wing, sup surf, being towed behind boat, and some pumping from dock outside cabin. I'm leaning towards at fairly long, high volume board (7'+, 140l) for learning wing, sup and boat tow. (Should mention I'm 200lbs) But from reading, I think I'll need a different board for dock starts/pumping . I'm wondering what factors I should consider in board to try and make that steep learning curve as painless as possible? Length? Weight? Volume? What are trade offs?
(If anyone is familiar with Starboard lineup, I was thinking of their 5'6 prone foil board with the 2000 or 2400 ocean foil for pumping on lake.)
Thx
If the board is only for dock starts and pumping get the smallest possible. I'd go sub 4'. I'd also go with the 2400 foil to learn.
Boat tow you can go tiny (actually it's easier), just need to use a wakeboard start.
For foil pumping a huge wing is by far necessarily the best wing. Mind you I'm a mediocre dockstarter, often fall off when I put my feet on the board, but can pump for days (figure of speech) if I let go from behind the boat or take the wing on the depowerhandle.
For foilpumping having a foil which glides is paramount. For me (95kgs / +/- 200lbs) the perfect size is a phantom 1480 or 1280, my lighter mates use 1280 and even 1080 (in sqcm surface area). A very large wing with very flat profile might work as well or even better, but I've not had the opportunity to try. That seems to be what Balz M?ller is using though.
For pumping swing weight is also a big issue, I use a 5'4 for winging currently, but have had the most success foilpumping on a kitefoil board with near 0 volume.
Looks like 2 different t boards needed...one you can stand and paddle, one that floats the foil.
Thanks so much all for the feedback. Much appreciated. I'll let you know how it goes--in about six months!!
