Foilsport in Melbourne gave me the opportunity to demo both 57L 4'4 and 77L 5'0 new wing boards by ensis. At first glance I was expecting quiet a heavy board being a production board and the website stating the 57L being 6.3kgs and the 77L being 6.9kgs. I was pleasantly surprised when I weighed them as they were much much lighter!! 57L was only 4.6kgs and the 77L was only 5.4kgs, strange that they have them listed so much heavier, maybe they include the weight of the bag it comes with. Construction looks quiet solid being full carbon and the finish is quite nice. Nice selection of foot strap configurations and the deckgrip seems grippy and covers the complete area your situated. I was keen to get them in the water to test!
For a bit of perspective, I would say I'm an intermediate rider and weigh around 80kgs. Currently I've been riding an 80L board for light wind and a 40L prone board for over 17knots. My daily driver foil is the Armstrong 1125 with a chopped vtail running 0deg shim.
I started out on the 57L board and found I had to completely change my method getting started as this volume was too buoyant to sink like my prone and too unstable to regular knee start like an equal volume board. After the first session I got the starts nailed by just having one knee on the board and the other dangling down the mast to provide stability, once I had the wing overhead I was up and away within seconds. Although I still needed about 15 knots to get going on my 5m wing. Anything less and I would sink to my knees and there was too much drag to get myself going. I could have got going in lighter wind with a larger foil or larger wing but neither interest me.
Once up and foiling it was great! Volume is balanced, the concave deck really connects you to the foil. I could carve on wave faces almost as well as my prone, jumping was really good as that extra bit of volume really helped to get going when you land as I find when I jump my prone if I stall in the air you sink too much when you land and can't pop back up on foil as easily. You really need to keep that forward momentum on the prone board. Overall I was really impressed I would have liked to be able to get up in lighter winds but for my skill level this wasn't possible unless I changed my foil and wing size choice.
Next up I tried the 77L board and tried this in all conditions. This board is very similar to my 80L board dimensions wise but completely different to ride! It feels much smaller under foot and like the 57L the volume is displaced really well. Super easy to balance on your knees, a few quick pumps and I'm up and away in as little as 10-12 knots on the 1125. The board felt a bit floaty once on foil compared to the prone but that's to be expected from the extra thickness and footprint. Jumping was easy and touchdowns you just popped back up. This would make a really good freestyle board. I can see why balz and Michael Nar rip on these. (I believe these boards are almost the same as the mb)I rode this in up to 35knots on a 2.8m wing and it didn't disappoint at all! I still prefer to use my prone board in anything over 20 knots but for anything less this will be my go to as I decided to purchase this after riding. The only thing would change on the board is to have longer mast tracks as I like to have the foil all the way forward for less swing weight.
