Are you winging the R in areas with large period ocean swells passing under. As much as I love R I find it tricky to stand up and get my balance if I have multiple long period swells that are passing under. Sometimes the swell gets large enough that it breaks and I also tow these same swells on the R foils.
Just to clarify ā I donāt wing with these foils, I only use them for SUP downwind.
I donāt get any long-period swell where I ride, it is rarely more than 10s. But conditions are very fast, sub 2 minutes is easy, and pros go as fast as 1:3x 1:4x.
When I struggle with balance, I tend to blame my board rather than the foil.
where is this? Need to visit
French Mediterranean Sea.
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I didnāt see a distinctly review oriented / usefully standalone thread, so here is my impression across Surf foils, Race foils in progress.
Overall, Iād call these foils extremely consistent, neutral, and very good for surf foiling. There are almost no bad behaviours, and Iām pretty amazed that this was the first production series v1 run of foils. Everything is solid.
What is pretty cool is how consistent they are across the sizes and models. They all look and feel consistent along the same relatively neutral theme.
The one standout is the breaching. I had a few experiences across all of them where I was often surprised how predictable and recoverable it was. Almost so much so that you start expecting deep stall breaches to recover, and the only consistent niggle was when your heelside tip stays ventilated and you canāt get it to roll over on your toes.
The tails and fuses are all great and behave predictably. I played around with a few of them.
850S - probably the ideal downwind foil for me. Super easy. Stable, predictable, huge range, super intuitive. The first time I rode this in the surf after riding the Silk 850 I felt like the 850S felt like it would go well downwind, and it does. Iād happily have it as a one foil quiver.
1130S - excellent, very fun for the size. I rode this with NLv2 78cm funnily enough and it was super fun, whippy and turny. In the pocket. Iāll probably not get one, and get a 980S instead as itās a bit big for regular use. Tbc.
1075R - big, slow, easy. Great ultra-light option. Probably wouldnāt own one and would rather ride the 1130S, but very easy to recover from extremely slow speed.
My only drawback is that they are all rather neutral, and I absolutely miss something pushy in the MA line. My first run on the 850S was a 20km surfy downwinder and it felt like that was what it was made for. In the actual surf it handles super well, but I woudnāt be happy with that alone in the surf if I had alternatives.
Iāll try the 615S, and 980S as a ābigā foil as I donāt really need much bigger. I am also hoping to try the 680S soon as that will be the main downwind foil. I think 850S+680R+980S would be the mix Iād aim for, but will likely rather have a mix across AFS and Code.
Weight 70kg 2-5 sessions on each in mix of summer surf and downwind.
Comparisons:
Axis - these foils are the opposite of Axis in their essence: they want to turn. Otherwise quite similar solid build and big designs
AFS - I like the Silk 850 more than any so will keep that, the Ultra 750 likely to be replaced by the 680R, and not sure about Enduro1300
Armstrong - Code feels closer to what Iām used to than the brief times Iāve ridden Armstrong. Not certain on that.
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Just rode the 615S in medium small surf. Super interesting, it needs to be kept going fast which isnāt really that possible at the spot I was riding, but a nice challenge and super agile. Not really my domain so I canāt really compare, but given the speed it wasnāt confidence inspiring in the whitewater at all, but I think in big rolling swell it will be amazing
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Maybe the 720S or the new 800ish surf wing are what youāre looking for. Theās a lot of guys by me that only prone the 720S. I demoed the 850S extensively, and while it could definately be a one foil quiver, I think Iād rather have the 980S and an even surfier wing than the 850S.
Is any one out there using a frank board for DW, if so where are you setting you code mast?