After you master the sup foil dw, usually on nice “bay run type” conditions, you think you did the hard part. Guess what, it is not over yet, now you have to lear to dw in open ocean water with cross swell, fast moving water, etc… And I’m telling you it is not easy but the feeling you get is another level. It is more challenging so when you make no mistake you are so stoked.
I guess it has a lot to do with the ground swell ; the direction, the size, the period.
Usually those tricky runs are along the coast, the ground swell arrives side ways which make super technical.
Getting up can be hard as the swell is moving fast and make the wind chop going flat, so it is hard to find those nice small steep bump (this is where I can see a big advantage having a longer board, but I haven’t tried yet).
Then when you fly, at some point you are between two big swell, it is hard to keep your speed up, so the foil choice is hard because you want to go as fast as possible but you need some forgivness in case.
Please, tell us about your experience in those tricky situation. I wonder if if get tricky like this is Hawaii ? Maliko run looks fun and easy but Molokai crossing looks way more challenging and hard to manage.
That looks tough, keep us posted. Any tips? Guessing you deal with strong tidal movements in your area, interested to know how that impacts the decisions. Relatively unique perspective currently
Today I had a super fun dw run. It was from a point to a big bay open to ground swell, this is what you want, it is way easier than having the ground swell coming from the side.
I also tried my new 7’6 x 18, it was definetly a big help to get up my art999 as it wasn’t super windy, which means no small steep bumps but instead it was bigger longer bumps.
Great feedback! I always thought the development of the Barracuda type boards was something more for Hawai’i perfect conditions but wondered how do they work on the rest of the world choppy short period conditions, now that you have done both kind of boards, what can you say? Is there a downside for the 7’6x18" for high wind short period waves? Will there be 2 types of DW Boards offerings according on the conditions of people around the world as standard? Or will the future be everyone in the market choosing that ease of get up on foil with longer narrower boards? So many questions
Does the 7’6" affect your swing weight when carving too much vs the 6ish’ boards?
Thanks in advanced!!
Hi OmarFoilCol, I’m still in the testing mode, I have no straight answer right now but I can already give some feedback.
With the 7’6 I can get up quickly on a 1000 cm2 foil (usually art 999 and I will try smaller foil next time) and super tricky conditions. Getting up when the bumps are steep is no problem for me even with a 6’0 but when it comes to open ocean water with lots of fast moving water, current, cross swell, it can be very hard (at least for me). The longer board allows me to get up way easier so I feel very confident. When flying in those conditions, you don’t need to pump, it is more about driving fast, keeping the control and having the best lines, so the longer board doesn’t bother much, actually it feels like it gives extra drive and control.
Now for the “bay run” type, I haven’t tried enought especially with a bigger foil. What I can say is if there is too much pumping the longer board is not great, too much swing weigt. But once again, remember that dw foiling, you don’t need to pump, only couple speedy pump but that is it. So I think the longer board might be not as good as a shorter one but not that much. As I said i need to do more dw like this with it.
Next step is trying board around 6’4 to 6’8, to see if you have the best of both.
One thing for sure is my goal is to do bigger and bigger open ocean swell so the 7’6 is going to help me with that.
The down side of the 7’6 ; not so pretty looking when flying, looks weird but who cares, haha, doesn’t fit on my car anymore, not good for pumping and connecting waves.
Thank you so much @gregclosier for your feedback!!
Will test my 6’2"x22" in our conditions this winter, it’s open ocean and can get up to 2-2.5M with 8-9 seconds period on the best days. Agree with you that maybe I can go a further longer with 6’6" and 19"-20" keeping same volume (86-88Lts) for me and try that possible sweet spot you mention depending on conditions. I’m only 70kgs, so it’ll be fine with higher speed swells.
Got a better understanding thanks to your feedback.
Have a great one!! Keep on posting !!
Another try on tricky conditions. It is definetly so easy to get up on foil. I was with a Axis art 999/325 (ultrashort fus which I don’t like much, I prefer the short fus). With my 6’0 I would have got up but it would have taken much more time, probably few minutes, but with this board it took me less than 20sec. As you can see in the vid, it is messy, cross swell (wind chop + ground swell), + up current, tricky but lots of energy.
Flying, as I said, if it is fast then you it is good, if it is too slow and you have to pump too much it is not so good.
