What to supplement or after armstrong foil ?

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MidAtlanticFoil said..
Patronus - re: front foot pressure:

I think additional front foot pressure comes into play in two main scenarios here:

1: Board with limited tracks too far aft. If you have your mast all the way forward in the tracks and are still feeling the back leg burn, negative shimming the tail or adding a tail with more negative lift (MA / 180HA tail), can help with that and level out the imbalance. A few years ago, riding the same foils as Youdigsurf, with board with foil tracks too short and far back (zero rocker), I tried mast shimming and didn't like it at all. I sold the board for an FG board.

2. Front foot pressure for speed. Some riders like to feel some front foot pressure when pushing speeds, as opposed to a balanced or rear foot bias. This allows you to lean a bit into the speed for a more stable ride overall, less teetering or 'manual skateboard' feel.

3. The other scenario is that some people just prefer to have a front foot bias at almost all speeds. I personally prefer balanced with a slight front foot bias up near top speed. I feel like the MAs or HAs w/ 180 tail have achieved that for me.


Youdigsurf - Are you using foot straps? If so, try to take them off and see what happens to your stance when it's free to find the sweet spot.

yep i agree a friend that did the defi wing told me exactly what you mentioning in .2 .
I do have loose footstrap, using front strap all the time , you are probably right changing mast position change the sweet spot and therefore foot placement .
How was the change going from a regular board to a fg board , can you give me more detail on that ?
I wonder too about the performance mast giving more front foot than regular a+ mast.

ps : pricing wise tho it's still for the board or for the performance mast a used foil setup too and for some brand even a new foil setup .
if i can get my hand on a ma flow 235 or surf205 stab could be good to start.

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youdigsurf said..
Thanks to all, what i feel mostly is im still backfooted, moving the foil forward solve some backfoot issue but create other, like unability to pump the foil to start the fly and board nose diving mostly meaning it's harder to make it fly.

I know exactly what you are talking about. I moved my foil forward just a centimeter on a board that similar in size to yours, and was "rewarded" with lots of problems - much more than I expected.

My wife's first comment about your problem was "needs more speed". She's a very good winger, so she may be onto something. More speed means more lift and thus requires more front foot pressure, and also more stability. If you are coming from a slower foil, there is a good chance that you keep sailing your Armstrong foil at the same speed. I know this happens to me all the time when I get back onto my faster foils after spending a lot of time on slower front wings - I stay quite close to the minimum speed, and far away from the "typical" speed for the wing. That makes foiling through turns hard to impossible.

I very much appreciate the discussion here, and everyone's insights. I'm working on learning jibes on a similar board, so some of the issues discussed probably apply to me. The "feet to far to the side" is one issue. On the huge 2000 front wing, I tend to move the carving foot far to the outside to turn faster; but that makes sailing switch and foot switches on the new side very unstable.
I usually sail in a balanced stance, and know that I pick up speed going into jibes; but once downwind, I often need to shift my weight to the back leg to keep flying. With the weight to the back, switching feet by stepping forward with the back foot first seems almost impossible. But switching by stepping back with the front foot is a sure-fire recipe to overfoiling and/or falling off the back.
I probably need to work on carving turns better; I have my best tries after doing some S-turns first.

The same issues matter when trying to switch feet before the jibe. The natural tendency is to go a bit slower before the switch, but that puts weight on the back foot, making it harder to move the back foot. My wife just verified that recently when she worked on switching feet before the jibes on the "bad" side, where she usually switched after the jibe. She says she needs at least regular speed, and then also uses flying high before the step, and a times pump with the hand wing, to step to switch. Too complicated for me right now, but I'll see if I can work on getting more weight on the front foot so the back foot can step.

try a MA235 flow rear stabiliser, probably cheapest solution to balance out the foot pressure. I would suggest go to a longer mast also, just for performance. I found I had rear foot pressure with the 232 rear stabiliser and the HS1550. I have since swapped to performance 935 mast, MA1000, MA1225 front foils and MA235 rear stabiliser and now have a balanced front and rear foot pressure.

The HS1550 was a sweet ride though, but the new MA's are better imho.

For me north MA series is the foil to improve your riding style. For me it was a game changer. Lot of options with north sonar system. Great quality. I learned jibes on ma 1350 and ma 1200. 72kg 61yr. And highly recommended to try foot straps and then improve strapless. It's like Dancing on the board you stay at centerline and and make surf style jibes and learn how to ride switch and change stance.