Amos Nano chop tail ride report

Foils and Boards - Gear Talk
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I’m an intermediate so this will be old news for many of you. I’m aiming this report at people like me, to encourage them to take the plunge and buy something like the Amos Nano. It’s 4’1” x 19”, 34 litres.

I’m a 10-second pump guy (ho ho!), 87kg, 65 years, riding consistently horrible conditions ie 20-30 knots onshore, 2-3 foot (front) windswell, often bigger but considerably uglier.
I’m comparing it to my Amos Sultan Prone mid-length, 5’ x 18” 55 litres, and my Amundson Supermodel 4’8” x 17”, 33 litres.
I’m using an F-One SK8 1150 with 200 Carve tail and a Gen1 FoilDrive with Magic Hub. The battery is on the deck next to my front foot.

The Nano was a real surprise in that I thought it would be an aspirational board that would be challenging to launch, and which I’d take out only now and again when we had decent waves (or more likely when I left town).

It was actually an easy takeoff on 2-3 foot-front windswell, much less demanding in terms of foot placement than the 2-inch narrower but 7-inches longer Amundson. It just wasn’t a problem. I got up on my first attempt on a 3-footer and then started playing with smaller ones to see where the lower limit was.

It’s so short that the dolphin kick works really well, whereas there was too much board behind me to make it work with the other two boards.

Once up on foil I was amazed. It was 10-25 knots, 3-6 foot-front, big chop everywhere and I have never had such an easy time threading my way through the nastiness. There just wasn’t that much board underneath for the chop to catch.
There was a much stronger sense of riding the foil rather than riding the board compared with my other boards, and much more intuitive when on the waves.

It turned what I expected to be a frustrating, wind-blasted slogging effort to try and learn something into a fun, wave-filled, leg-burning fiesta.
The mid-length is now relegated to pump practice and the Amundson, while great, is now looking for a home.

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Great review, I’d love to try one.

What is a dolphin kick? I’m not familiar with the term.

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It’s legs-together, slapping the water with your shins by bending at the knees.
It only works for me with boards below 4’6”.

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I’m also an intermediate 10 second pump guy. It’s definitely not fitness holding me back, but poor technique (ho ho!).

Sounds like we’re at a pretty similar place, though I’m riding (generally) good, south Oahu swell. I’ve been riding a 5’2" 45L Quiver Killer since the beginning. There’s been a few board styles I’ve been looking at for my first size down, but the Omen Flux 36L was on my radar. There’s a few things holding me back from seriously considering it.

  1. It’s an ugly shape and doesn’t look performant
  2. It’s more liters than I need
  3. I ride Lift with my mast all the way forward, and those boxes are way back (chopped tail)
  4. Not sure how that shape does in powerful Oahu surf.

I’m glad you brought up the dolphin kick. I wasn’t sure what size board allows it because it’s hard to do on my 5’2. I used to foil with a guy who rode a 3’6" 20L kite foil board for prone and got into waves easier on that than when he tried my 5’2" because of the dolphin kick. Keep in mind he also refused to paddle it any distance and would wait 15min inside to catch white water and pump 300 meters out. It’s definitely a technique I’d like to work on that I don’t hear talked about enough.

Other styles of board I’m seriously considering right now are:

  • Standard volume-forward prone board - Disco Butter or Amos Spitfire at 4’4" 32L
  • Smaller mid-length syle - Omen Emissary 4’10" 35L or Amos Kruzer 4’11 34L
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I ride the 36L. I set my Omen foil at 6 in the tracks. Which is just behind the halfway mark I’d say. They are 16" tracks. I am positive they have more than enough room for lift.

Having a board with a core that doesn’t take on water has been the biggest benefit for me. (I have the 60l wing board too, wingboards get hit by hard handles and bumped a lot) I’m not sure I can go back to a board with an EPS core.

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Agreed on this. I’m ready to ditch EPS. I had one FFB that pretty much fell apart at the tracks and got waterlogged. I’ve also gotten run into by dopes on longboards who send 12’ boards flying at you with no consideration for your safety. It’s gotten me weighing my board now periodically just in case I’m missing something.

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Are people actually paddling in these tiny boards or are they all getting towed in or using foil drives?

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Here you go, Adam Bennetts at Wategoes. It’s a national park so no motorised craft allowed .
25 litre board, I think

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That paddle in at 1:20 with barely any help from the wave - aspirations! :call_me_hand: :slight_smile:

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Refernce: 90kg, or 195lbs ish maybe 205lbs, 6ft tall.

I started on a 6ft fish foil Frankenstein

Progressed to a 4ft6 freedom foil board(the red one)

Bit the bullet and got the AMOS Nano 3ft10.
I was struggling for the first few sessions, really challenging and frustrating.

Im basically 6 months in and i really like this board. Im located in socal, so its an easy paddle into waves after you learn to take off super late. Pumps really easily which could be entirely foilsetup dependant, but for sure turns better than all other boards(maybe because its smaller).

With this board i started on the sk8 950
Then ive now progressed to a sk8 850 xxxs160 carving tail.

I still feel like i could go smaller. Maybe not board but Stabilizer wise. I can easily pump it around if the peroid swells are higher than 10seconds.

Its a great board and excellent for durability. I have some indents in the board after daily use and abuse

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The traction pad is wonderful as well. Kudos to the team. Some slight peeling after solid useage.

I would buy another nano board. Maybe even smaller if this one was beyond repair

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That’s the dolphin kick we were talking about. The guy I talked to about it made it sound like a bigger board just gets in the way of him doing it. I can somewhat get it going on my 5’2" and occasionally it works and I get really mushy, unbreaking waves, but he told me I needed to completely lift my hips off the back of the board on the kick and that’s hard to do on longer boards. I hope the 4’4 I’m getting soon will work better for this.

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Yes, the hip lift and thrrrust is a bit startling for people watching from the beach but it unweights the board and really gets it moving.

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These boards seem to have more volume than the average prone board so that must not affect the dolphin kick as much as length. I dont see most people using it to get in. I wonder if thats because you dont require it as much on a 4’4 30L or it becomes more difficult to perform the further you get over 4’. From watching it a lot first hand, it seems much more efficient paddling in, even on <20L boards that are completely underwater.