I’m buying a beginner surf foil set up for my son, 185 lbs (85 kg) 16 years shortboard experience, no foil experience. It will be used in small waves east coast Florida. What board / foil size is recommended? I’m buying from Gong, they recommend 5’3 /45 liter board, which sounds right. The foil they recommend is either 1600 or 2000, AR 5.4. Are these too big?
I’m similar weight to him, with not as much shortboard experience. I started on a 34L 4’6 and found it was fine to learn on. With the popularity of longer boards and more liters now - it seems like that 40-50L is a good idea for smaller weaker Florida waves.
Foil seems too big for surf. I wouldn’t go larger than ~1400 for a small wave prone setup. I would also try to get something higher aspect. I also wouldn’t go with Gong given their reputation for quality…
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Keep in mind that all gear is location dependent for foiling. We have more powerful surf on Oahu and I would probably be fighting to keep those wings in the water. They’re massive. I think something between 1100 and 1300 would be more appropriate for his weight, but not sure if that applies as much for east coast surf.
There’s lots of good options, but a Progression 170 or 200 might be a good first wing to get him going all the way to intermediate for prone. I’ve ridden the 170 a lot and it was one of the easier wings I tried starting out. They were designed for Florida waves, so should be a good match for your area.
I’m 41 with lots of shortboarding experience. I’m on a 5’2" 45L mid-length that I like a lot. it made the learning process much easier, but current mid-lengths aren’t sold used very often yet it seems. I think a lot of people would steer you to a decent used 4’6-4’10" 35-40L board to save some money. New boards get expensive. If I was recommending new, maybe the 4’10" or 5’4" Amos Kruzer would be a good fit for your son. That’s probably a solid board to grow into, but like I said, expensive.
i had gong recommandation before too , wasnt good at all on the foil exept the board.
We have same weight and they recommanded me 2 year before a 1900xover which was way too much volume.
Get yourself something around 7 ratio and 1400 -1300 , if it gong it will be either a curve v2 , or a curve h but keep in mind they have the V3 now so used marked are gonna be flooded.
The other issue with gong is crap alu alloy mast, and unscrewing ( it’s with the v2) .
The brand i like a lot for their board is duotone, as for duotone surf foil they have plenty of volume for guy like us and they have the whizz foil ( duotone foil were hight ranking in gwa surf foil comp in dhakla ).
i strongly recommend you to get the same brand board than your foil, if you dont want to spend countless hours of tuning or printing top plate shim ( that my issue with gong board neutral rake and fone foil 1deg) .
Thanks so much guys, after asking around it seems 1100-1400 cm is the way to go. I started winging on a bigger wing, F-One Phantom 1780, big wings were recommended for us bigger guys (90 kgs) but prone surf is a different animal. The Progression 170 looks like a winner , maybe I’ll check out the 200 also. Thanks again