I find it hard to find the good quiver at 86kg iam currently riding fone gear, 7 seas 1400, sk8 1150 and sk8 950 with a gong board and it’s not working for me , i can ride the sk8 full forward withouth a shim but when i stand up i have to move forward on my board which is weird af , if i paddle forward already forward the board is nose diving, the 7 seas v1 need shimming, and it’s close to perfect but it’s lack definitivly speed to beat closing sections, sk8 really lack of lift for my weight and the wave iam riding .
most of the time wave are around (40cm to 80cm) 1,3ft to 2,6ft max on the beachbreak im riding .
Im looking for my option to move somewhere else where i would be able to use either a board of the same brand or a really plug and play foil, i have some idea in mind but i would like input of heavier rider.
I’m a heavier rider around 90 KG. I ride a 77 cm mast with a 930 and a 680 North sf. I find the mast length to be really critical. I rode an 80 cm mast for a little bit and was way underpowered compared to even a slightly shorter mast. The longer mast really moves the foil away from the wave of energy and makes catching and getting up to speed a lot more challenging. I would say the same for a smaller lower volume board. If your board is under 30 L it’s definitely going to be a lot lower in the water when you’re paddling in again moving that foil farther from the wave energy. My board is something I shaped myself, but I would say it’s closer to 40 L and 4’10”.
Speaking to the north specifically I find the bottom end of those foils to be pretty insane. I find I’m capable of some pretty technical, low speed maneuvers, particularly when popping up in short break. I can really exit with almost 0 speed and execute turns while kicking out and still claw my way into the next wave. It definitely doesn’t have that pump all day glide like some other set ups, though. I really gotta see where I’m going and move directly for the way if I want to pump too.
What’s your wave of energy like though? Where are you located specifically? Geography is really everything. I would say that it’s more critical than your experience or even your gear.
The last thing is that as a heavier rider, you will find you need to have the foil farther back on the board than a similar rider of less weight. The lighter rider will find their sweet spot a lot farther forward on the board when they are popping up so their feet will end up further forward on the board. Every time I switch set ups with somebody lighter than me it feels like it wants to overfoil every time I catch a wave.
My board is quite generous with dim and literage, gong lance surf foil 5’3 21 48liter felt like a mid length and i can wing foil it + it’s got strap insert ! I was wondering about mast length because some of the ripper got 70cm , i have a 75cm fone alloy mast , i guess 70cm thin mast around 14mm might be killer for low drag.
I figured out condition i prefer the most are around 8 sec and less period, minimum 80kj to around 500kj max tide around 40 to 70.
Im goofy and here it’s paradise for regular, there some regular point break i really hate because i often hit my foil on the shallow rocks , hurt myself while trying to duckdive on a slab, haha so i prefer to stick to my sand beachbreak.
Your board looks like a good beach break board as the rails look nice and surfy. This allows for standing up in “surf mode” with a big foil until you catch your balance and then lift. I’ve found 80cm is the right height to pump and turn. 75cm is breach city for me. At 90kg I ride a Code 980s and Amos Kruzer 5’6" at 48lrs in waves that are long period 3ft @17 waist high which would be equivilent to 5-6’ in short period. I could easily ride an 850s too, but I like to make my pumps back out easier and the 850 means I really have to nail good technique. I found the 1130s to be of no benefit on the truly small days as it is draggier and slower to turning. But for the tiny waves you are describing, I’d want the 1300! As TME said, you’ve got to match equipment to your conditions and skill. I would say just ride one foil as much as you can without making a lot of changes once it works. Then get a good carbon mast. Aluminum works but the dead feeling is just wrong to me.
95kg, 40+ liter board (wider is better for beachy & foam takeoffs).
Riding 83cm mast and between 900 and 1100cm2 ( Uni Progression) in the conditions you describe.
It sounds like you have the gear for the job though. Maybe just try exit the wave earlier with speed or punch through whitewash and pump to catch the next one instead of trying to make it around sections. Beach breaks have very little energy once broken, especially the short period you describe.
Also riding higher on the mast and closer to the breaking section helps alot.
@ around 100 kg, I’m usually riding the Sk8 1050 w/ 200xxs Carve tail in 1ft 8 second swell on a mid-length style board. It sounds like you might actually want to try moving your mast back a bit.
I feel uniquely qualified to comment here. 6’ 218# (99 kilos) after my morning BM. While Im larger than most foilers I am right smack dab in the foiling demographic at 52.
For proning I ride a 35LSlingshot flying fish. Its so flat it paddles like a 40 liter. But hard to get whitewater/reform waves for me at that size so mostly just gotta catch them at the peak. I ride Uni Progression 125/170/200 with 14.5 p tail and medium fuse. 0 shim 75 katana mast. Depending on how I feel and the waves are. 200 if its micro and want to pump around, 170 if I’m kind of feeling lazy but still want to make some nice turns and pump around and the 125 when I feeling like picking up the speed and the waves are good and conditions are nice and glassy for pumping. I’ve heard great things about those SK8 foils so I think if you dial those in you are going to be super stoked. I would get some of those adjustable wing screws and adjust it out in the water until it feels more comfortable.
Fone foil are cool, but i have been playing with setting the foil properly for age (2 years, printing shim and so on) and im in the point of ditching everything , the fact im changing my quiver is money related too.
There not a lot of fone 38l surf board available, and the last one from 2025 seem to be the better for heavier rider but the price of their board for their techno is not worth it, and fone board in french market are a huge loss of cash once used, i got a small wing foil board for 600 used that was costing 1600 brand new and nobody want it for 400 euros, people dont like fone boards.
There the ml Armstrong board option but it’s still expensive as hell. Armstrong pair well with fone tho.
A
Some brand like afs are more plug and play , i tried the enduro on my gong board with no shimming and it’s was perfect still too much expensive for me, im looking for a full foil around 1200 euros max ,if i go to gong it’s 890 euro , less if you take the fg front m. All of those will be alu mast due to cost the fact i need two mast .
Will be using the setup both in prone and wing option i see are:
new Kt nomad but i have hard time to figure out what surface to choose, cost around 1300 euros with alu
new or used gong v3 very popular in france selling quick and almost no loss, ultra plug and play, best money for value +dockstart foil avail. Is the clever choice for french market
duotone whizz 1200 and around 900 i guess used around 400 euros front stab in france doesnt seem to sell well + dockstart foil avail
code would have been nice it’s seem to work very well on heavier rider but very expensive on france, maybe harder to sell used and to find
Maybe axis would be a good option , there quite some stuff in france even used and i could use alu mast and dockstart foil avail
Seems to me that you already made up your mind on Gong.
The best way to not loose money is trying the gear before buying one. If Gong is popular in your area, I’ll focus on that. Plus there’s no stab shimming involve. Hell, if I we’re you, I’ll take a few days and drive to St-Nazaire and ask for some demo at the Gong Center. Still less expensive then buying gear that you don’t like.
80Kg prone foiler here and had the same experience as you on F-one foils (Eagle and Sk8), very quick and responsive in powered surf. They pump very well, if you had a fast exit and stayed very high on the mast. Any dip in speed or mast height and I was back in the water.
I went to Uni Progression and they were great (4 for 1 on my first wave) and now onto Code foils which are a step up in performance and speed. Just ordered a Whizz 1000 kit for cheap and am looking to get onto the KT Nomad in the future. I love trying all sorts of stuff.
Axis has a a ton of options and can be hard to pick something, but invest in a newer advance+ fuselage and whatever you get you’ll probably be happy with. I liked the Spitfires and am hoping to try the fireball soon. The BSC series could be a super cheap option as they are a couple generations old (slower) but still very fun foils.
not really made up yet . But im only 1 hours away from st nazaire so pretty close , do you know how demo work with them ? how long you could keep the demo gear ?
I was out yesterday, struggling as usual… with a Code 980S. (Granted, I’m a good winger, just suck at prone). There was a kid out, lighter than me, on a 1130S. He was doing well. Maybe that might be a good option for you at your weight.
i suck at prone too =) i guess code is a bit off my list , only one used setup on the whole france atm , carbon mast too ( i know an option for an adapter on alu mast ) but the fact there not much used code foil mean im gonna have to use brand new front.
I’m 80Kg and at Seal Beach where it’s easy to prone I can comfortably use my 32L board and could probably go smaller. At other beaches where there’s not a nice slow reform I need more foam.
I am 80 kilos, ride mostly with Foildrive (adds 6kilos) and with a 5/3 wetsuit…
Let’s say that I put over 90kilos on top of my mast.
I lately moved to Code and I immediately feel the extra stiffness, solidity, reliability and amazing connectiveness with the foil. I loved it.
It’s no surprised, most parts of Code are a bit chunky, the baseplate is wide.
There is likely a tradeoff, all this makes loose a bit of glide (which is not very important for prone).
But it’s a good trade off to accept if you’re on the heavier side.
Got a few sessions on the Whizz 1000, very very fun kit. Very responsive on turning and improves as you slow down. The low end is phenomenal, pumps at low speed very well and you can build speed while pumping (grave digging). It’s not fast, but most of the waves I’m foiling are slow rollers.
I am on day 3 of riding the Code 1250R for dockfoiling and it is amazing. I was riding the Axis 1201 which was also very nice. The Code is much easier to ride (to control) and I think this is from the downswept wingtips and the wing being much much stiffer from tip to tip. I weigh 200 lbs (91kg) and am pretty fit, though will be 60 years old this month so no spring chicken. Hope to post more as I learn and try different tails etc. I tried long and short fus and was on the 135R which I shimmed nose down (looser) quite a bit (3.2 degrees), though the foil rode very nicely in all the configurations I tried.
