Figured I better create an account on this forum and get my first post/brag out of the way.
I remember listening to Erik’s paddlewoo podcast back in the early days of SUP surfing. I was a bit delayed on the whole foil thing so was pleasantly surprised to find in those years he’d gone all in on the foil!
Well I’ve finally arrived! I’m a few weeks into the learning process and boy is it hard (also trying to learn winging with no previous wind sport experience so that’s been interesting) but those brief moments on foil I’ve felt have been mind blowing.
Mind blowing enough that I sold off some surfboards and placed a preorder for a progression 170/katana 830/3 tail pack combo which arrived yesterday! A long with my foil drive which arrived the day before (I was dead against them until I made the mistake of testing one and my mind was blown, suddenly with the ability to be on foil at will my surf muscle memory was being converted to foiling)
About to head out for my first session on this setup. If that goes to plan might go back out this arvo with just the prone board (4’6 34L) and unifoil and see how I go.
I’d love to provide some top notch feedback but lets be honest I have no idea what I’m doing at the moment but I’m excited to be on the journey!
Haha thanks mate, I must admit I flipped the board upside down in the water a few times just so I can stare at the foil glistening in the sun, a piece of art well worth putting your name to! Hopefully one day I have developed the skills to actually be able to ride it near it’s potential it may replace the other black machine for thrills!
@beepityboppityboop I’m 70kg and like this size at my initial learning stage. I come from a surfing background though so the paddling out and duckdiving knowledge was already there. Having said that I do miss a lot of waves but that could have a lot to do with my poor wave selection for foiling.
Other than that when I do catch a wave I can easily pop up on this board size and get a brief bit of flight while going straight. I’ll need to wait until I’m further along the foiling journey to offer any more advanced feedback than that but can say I’m happy with this size for prone whereas I’m a little unsure on 5’2 85L wing board atm as I’m finding it crazy hard to stand on that one for now.
@Clifford hope you don’t mind me tagging you but figured I’m best going straight to the source.
With my unifoil setup I splurged on the titanium t-bolt hardware. Unfortunately I can’t get them tight enough to hold the mast on either of my boards and I suspect it’s due to the extra length possibly bottoming out in the tracks vs the other included non t-bolts which work perfectly.
Is there any reason for the additional length and do I have any better options than attacking this expensive titanium with an angle grinder?
Also while I’ve got you, what’s your thoughts on products like tef-gel lanolin or grease on all the bolts or is it not needed for titanium/carbon?
Hey I just started with same foil kit and Foil Drive plus 6’7 x20 DW Pro by F One. How’s your progression? I’m getting up on Foil via motor but struggling with turns and foiling above motor. I feel like I may be too far removed from foil with a 80.mast plus FD Max base plus a shim because it’s a step bottom…
Well 9 months on in my “learn to foil” journey and I’m still totally foil brained.
Lots has changed since then both progression and gear wise.
These days I’m proning with my FDA+ in backpack mode (as I didn’t want any box or weight on the board) I’m riding a 29L JS Mister Bennetts most of the time and also have a 55L Konrad 5’5x17 mid length.
I’m now on Code Foils 720s and 980s foils
Annnnd I’m now a couple of months into winging which I don’t use the FD for.
I don’t have any recent footage this is back from November/December when I first switched to code so was getting used to riding the small 720s
My motor pod is around 17cm below the base of my board I use my FD to pop up on foil then a little unweight/ollie and the pod is out of the water and motor completely off, I then ride the wave completely unnassisted and pump back or motor back out depending on conditions.
No worries, you’ll get used to the height. I have a 75cm mast on my Gen2Max wihich works out at about 80cm. The happy thing about your 80cm mast is that you get a little more room to play with before breaching, whereas with my 75cm I have to be a little more precise.
More time on foil will help you adjust and the FoilDrive gives you all that you can handle. I’m 18 days on foil out of 26 this month, with the remaining days due to recovery from overtraining from all that time on water, and the wind being 35-45 knots, so CBA.
