I just got a dock start set up to start learning dock starts. I currently have a slingshot WF1-v1 that i am using. People are saying that it will certainly break if i use it for dock starts. I am wondering if i have to get a true dock starts set up (Puddle pumper v2 or gong) or if i could get away with something like the unifoil disco butter or apple tree apple skipper. Would like something that if i do wake thief and crash far from a dock it doesn’t suck to paddle and that people can still get up behind the boat for wake foiling. Let me know your thoughts.
You want to be able to pinch grab the rail. The 27L disco butter is 2.6" thick, that’s probably about as thick as you would want to go. No idea how well it holds up to pump foiling.
With boards below 10L you’re swimming and trying to keep the board beneath you, ~10L-20L you’re swimming and the board stays put. ~20L-30L you’re paddling.
I have a dedicated dock start board (Liquid Force Nebula) that I learned to dock start on. I initially started learning on my Disco Butter 32L, but got a specific board because I was worried about breaking it. I’m 77kg for reference.
I’ve found there’s good and bad that came from this. The smaller board definitely makes learning to dock start easier. It’s easier to hold. It’s more reactive to inputs. It gives clearer feedback from the foil. It’s helped me learn a lot about controlling trim and “getting to know” my individual foils. I can also have a much easier time starting small foils on the dock start board, which is important if you’re a prone foiler.
Ok, the bad. I’ve been told by others that dock-starting big foils will ruin your pump with small foils. This 100% happened to me. My trim improved, my efficiency and sensitivity improved, but if I went under 1000cm2 foil, I suddenly could not pump it because I took a break from prone to learn dock starts. I started working my way down in sizes to fix this, and it did, but it wasn’t the whole problem.
I realized using my pump board all the time was creating a disconnect from my prone boards. I recently started dock starting my Disco Butter 4’4 32L and my Quiver Killer 5’2 45L. It’s had a lot of effect on my prone. All that pump work is really being carried over into prone now. I feel like I’ve really gotten to know those boards because I pump them on flat water. I went from regularly linking 1-2 waves (long pumps here on Oahu), to regularly linking 3-4. If you’re looking to apply your dock starts to your other disciplines, use your regular boards at least part of the time.
Yes, also one of the benefits if paddling back. I did a 2 minute pump out on my Quiver Killer and had a 10 minute paddle back. The wind was 20+ knots that day. There was no way I was pumping back. It was long, but painless on the QK.
It was me. I said I wasn’t sure about the durability of the WF v1 …but I do know that durability wasn’t great on all of the slingshot dwarfcrafts and the liquid force nebulas. At 200lbs it takes one or two sessions to break or buckle both. Our group has run through a handful
PS- the puddle pumper has been bombproof. Weighs a million pounds, but bombproof.
Very nice! Ya I got mine last year and have been abusing it and it’s holding up. The foot grip on the back is coming off from what looks to be the adhesive failing but other than that all good. I was able to dock start today with it for about 30 seconds a run. And didint see any negative issues with it so far. I’m 185lbs
