I had a really fun and enlightening morning out SupFoiling at my local. I’ve been riding the same place for almost 8 years, since I got my original blue gofoil and laminated a tuttle box into a SUP. I haven’t counted, but easily over a thousand sessions. Over those years I’ve bought and sold more sets of foils, tails, masts, boards than years have gone by. GoFoil through 4 generations, takuma through two generations, 3 generations of axis, then code, and now AFS (all of those multiple sizes of each). At least two dozen tails, 9 different masts, and 6 different boards. Wow, its a fun trip down memory lane even compiling the numbers.
This week for various reasons I’m not able to use my latest generation gear. I realized that I still have enough parts laying around to could go out anyway. An old aluminum mast, old axis front wing/fuse, old (and big) KD maui surf tail, and an old board nobody will buy from me because the shape is outdated. Generally 3 year old tech.
Holy Shit, I couldn’t even barely catch a wave and once on it couldn’t barely ride it, and once I peeled off can’t barely pump anywhere. Super eye opening experience.
OMG on one of these threads i sat down and did a breakdown of all the FOILs i’ve owned and it was HORRIFYING.
For me, i think alot of the old gear is hard to ride because the way we see waves has changed. In the beginning, coming from surfing, we looked for waves that matched that and the foils we had were slow and good at controlling too much speed and power. As the gear evolved we started looking at things differently and seeing breaks and waves and setups differently. I tell surfers looking to get into foiling the hardest thing to train is your eyeballs.
I’d say your riding has probably improved alot but you’ve tuned what your doing (how you ride, how you see a break from the beach, how you see a wave from the wave) to modern foils alot.
I just came off the water. This morning I had every part of my setup dialed perfectly for the way I want to be riding. And I couldn’t stop thinking, my riding really has been continuously evolving in a positive way. What a fun morning, when the gear and the mind is in sync and I can execute everything I see ahead of me. Maybe the entire premise of the thread here is wrong - “getting better” is not the same thing as “evolving”.
I have witnessed similar behavior from people learning to foil. If they come from a surfing background they sit deep and catch waves near the white water. They talk about/focus on ‘turning’ and tend to foil in or around crowds, and smash their foils on the bottom.
As your foiling evolves you want less to do with steep takeoffs or whitewater. You move much wider and eventually get up and arguably ride indefinitely away from the traditional breaks.
This is more true for those moving towards downwind style riding and/or boards and foils.
No offence to you Beasho, but riding away from the crowds and wide of the rocks at Mav’s is pure lunacy!
Coming from a surfing background, my first foil an LOL 1300 had me taking off with the crowds of surfers and riding the pocket and bouncing off the whitewater. Then I got a Kujira 980 and discovered pumping. Then a 1095 and discovered gliding… Now I’m on Code and have been finally able to get 3 for’s even though I’m sliding way past my prime! I miss the in the pocket riding of the 1300, but I can say that the Code S series does a decent enough job surfing that I can fully embrace a foil that really glides now. Downwinding/long supfoil boarding has it’s place for sure, but when I can’t paddle prone anymore, I’m going with a Foil Drive and sticking near the curl!