I’m a 90kg beginner prone foiler with a question about foil volume. I’ve been winging for a couple of years and am now learning prone on a 90 litre 5’4" wing board with an Axis ART1099/375P/short fuselage/60cm mast. I’m about to move to a 42 litre prone board.
I started during winter so haven’t had many days in the water, and have been catching 2-3 feet of white water and getting short flights on my belly, then hands and knees, and then my feet.
The 1099 has felt great the whole time, very smooth and stable on takeoff, but I’m wondering if I could/should make it easier, particularly on the smaller days.
I appreciate that Adrian is not a champion of sq cm when comparing foils so I’ve been looking at some alternatives to the 1099 in terms of volume. Any proners out there with advice on whether that’s a reasonable way to proceed? For instance:
ART1099 - 905 cubic cm
BSC890 - 1700 cubic cm! (Nearly double!)
That sounds like an astounding increase which I assume means masses of low speed lift and limited top end.
Is that true? I asked a friend, 75kg, with an HPS1050 (1665 cubic cm) and he said that it gets up a little earlier than a 1099 but not by a huge amount, which I would have expected if volume played a big role.
Volume isn’t a great measurement, neither is area really(although it’s better than volume). Span is really #1.
If you have 2 wings with identical spans and different chords they’re going to be more similar than you think. With the smaller wing everything you loose in lift you gain in speed which gets you that lift back, so all you’ve really lost is low end. They end up feeling very similar.
Comparing 2 different wings of the same volume tho a micro low aspect will have the same volume as a monster high aspect. 2 completely different animals!
Hi!!
For me having moved from lower aspect … to medium aspect … .to high aspects now, is pretty much as TooMuchEpoxy claims in terms of lift or early take off, I think it’s in the nuances of your begginer/intermediate level on being able to hold the forward moving of the board/foil when taking off with a certain wing. A Low aspect will hold better at low speeds, but will also gain lots of lift earlier in the take off too, will feel like a crazy horse at first if you are not well balanced in it.
For my transitions, I started on 1325cm2 Lower aspect NSP foil 78cms span, then 1129cm2 F32 Cloud IX 81cms span, and now FS 850cm2 at 86cms span.
The main thing I find useful in HA wings, is that they give you that gap of lift being build as it gains forward momentum, that’s really good for giving you some time to pop-up and take off and then the tricky part is to keep it flying since HA require a bit more technique, but new gens of HA are not that hard to use, I think that’s the great evolution in last gen HA wings like the FS Cloud IX or what I guess the ART is all about too.
If you are struggling with keeping up the required speed, I’m not sure what should you jump to since I’m not a user of AXIS foils, but some additional cord will get you flying easier and let you practice the good stuff like carving and pumping, once you figure that out, the ART will maximize the fun of pumping and connecting waves.
I feel that more volume ends up giving you lots more drag. You might get some more lift, but I think it usually is negated by the drag unless you have more power keeping you going like tow or wing. If your riding waves that are so slow and small that you pop up and can’t engage the foil before sinking the smaller board then more chord would definitely help, but personal preference if you want more low aspect manoeuvrability or more high aspect glide. Either way more area might be necessary for the board switch on small mushy waves.