I had the most bizarre experience on the silk 850. Monday, felt super dialled, very happy. Wednesday, new spot, felt completely foreign, really struggling to link waves, stalling etc.
The difference, moving to a ~10°C colder spot. 22°C to 13°C. Spring-suit to 4/3mm.
The feeling was as if there was less lift, but also more drag! Turns felt fine, maybe smoother, but needed more power in the waves. Could partially put this down to the extra neoprene, but it felt radically different, as if I had put on a big, flat non-lifty but very draggy stab.
I had another session in glassy conditions at the colder spot, and even with the glassy clear water, the change was remarkable.
Now entirely convinced of the very negative impact of colder water (thread)
That’s really interesting. Where were the two different spots? 10°C is a good swing. The gorge shifts by about 20°C from summer to winter but it’s hard to compare drag/speed because we ride into the current in the summer and with the current in winter creating very different foil speeds in the water. vs rider speeds in the air. I wonder how the salinity and ocean currents may have also played into that experience?
It seems like the above cold water impact has just made it more important to ride high on the mast. Once I got back into the habit of riding high, things felt more comfortable and normal, but going onto a HA tail helped too.
A very positive finding - on a 10km sup downwinder in 20kn on the silk 850 yesterday, and in bigger messy conditions it was epic, it was pretty effortless to stay in control. The paddle ups required quite a nice bump to get going, but once up and moving I was very happy. Possibly the most comfortable I’ve been in bumps, where I have been able to cruise, do turns and flow with the bumps and not worry about crashing.
Also, and this was a first for me on any foil, as you go faster, the flow gets better! Super fun.
Pretty impressive that you are downwinding that foil! Agree with your findings, but low end efficiency isn’t really that foil’s strong suit and paddling it up has to be a chore. Assume you are working with some good power in the water.
My most epic downwind wing sessions in some of the bigger conditions I’ve been in have been on that foil and if the swell is powered enough it is so much surfy fun.
Just had maybe my best session ever on the Silk 1050, 132 rail, 75cm uhm mast. We got a rarish cold water west wind day 6c vs our 22c summer water but the swell was really pushy today. Seemed like there was a lot of energy in the water and the 1050 was doing 1 mile dw laps without issue. Not sure if it was a funky one off weird water day or what, but the glide was through the roof today.
Following.. ive ridden all three. Not back to back and not all with the same tail….but my guess is the 1095 is harder to turn because my fuse was longer so it could actually be the same or acceptable (esp with a smaller tail) if you dont want to spend money. (The enduro 900/ha135) is way for performance carving wise fyi)
Kinda third party to get the notes but a buddy of mine rode the Takuma 1095 until he tried my Cloud IX fs1150 and then he switched brands because he said the C9 was much better in the turns. I ended up switching from C9 to Silks because the 1050 was even better than Cloud IX.
Here’s a clip of the Silk 650 in pumping river conditions. It’s more technical when headed downwind than the enduro 700 or ultra 750 but the turns are worth it and the speed will allow you link swell as desired. This session made me wonder how a parawing assisted DW run would be with the 650…
Looks like it’s juicing! Cool to note your foot position/stance. Looks very offset. Not critiquing at all, just curious–what gains and drawbacks you experience with that stance? Thanks!
Stance… I don’t have any promotion or defense of my stance so anyone is welcome to chime in with their experiences but here’s my reflections on it:
Living in the Gorge I ride on a lot of days with very small swell. That stance reflects my local conditions, common foil choices, and riding style. On the Silk 1050 or Ultra 750 I choose to push those foils hard to get rail to rail as quickly as I’d like so you see a stance here that is reflective of thousands of miles of foiling on the Silk 1050 and Ultra 750. Standing close to the edges of the deck for leverage. So, those are the pros for that stance with those wider span foils.
Cons would be:
On the Carver my stance is now outside of the deck concavity which is a little more centralized on that board so I’m losing some command. If you look at this clip of the Silk 850 with the same stance but on the Pilot which is a board with stretched concavity closer to the rails you see that the 850 is a little snappier rail to rail which I would attribute to the better foot placement in relation to deck concavity:
I could argue that I was also at the end of my session on the 850 where I was tired but loose and going way slower which made those turns easier vs the 650 clip where I was going nearly 20mph and in the first few minutes of my day so I was quite stiff. I’ll try to get a 1050 clip one of these days to show that as well.
I’ve learned a lot from having a quiver of foils, boards, stabs about how nuanced I think each session can and should be. So much so that I’d theorize that my stance probably should be changed based on the foil and board I am riding. I think that’s true because I actually love riding the 650 on my 18" wide board that alters my stance naturally. BUT, that’s something I haven’t started to work on yet because the number of days where I really get to have a blast on the 650 in great swell is quite limited.
