New generation of long and narrow foil boards

Foils and Boards - Gear Talk
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I started wing foiling in late 2020 (with near-zero foiling experience) and at the time the general wisdom was to start with big-fat board and then when you get better at foiling upgrade to the shortest as you possibly can ride in the given conditions. So advanced wing board at the time seemed to be very short and thin but still wide to provide some stability and foot real estate.

Fast forward to 2023 when both riders and designers have better knowledge about foiling in general and the evolution of DW foiling and better foils. Now the general wisdom seems to be toward a longer and narrower board with longer and more forward foil track.

I ride mostly in light condition so I bought a very narrow DW board (18") for winging. I must say it works very well in light wind. you can use a smaller wing/foil and still get up easily with almost no pumping. And it works even when the wind drops completly, you can swim 2x faster. The only downside is you may need to adjust your stance a little as you have less board width to stand on.

Then the new generation of wing-specific boards. Some brands offer chopped DW boards for winging and most brands now offer much narrower boards compared to 2-3 years ago.

This board seems to tick all the boxes. The width is 20" I think it is the optimal width for wing foil board. The only thing I don’t like is they have too many foot strap inserts but still do not fit the V-strap in the front.

https://sunovasurfboards.com/en/legends/casey/carver

What are your opinions about this trend?

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No denying the trend. It’s coming like a freight train. The biggest issue is that all the volume big brands can’t introduce this design until their retailers sell their current inventory of 5’ by 30’ wing boards. I have a James Casey Elite 90L downwind board and it is becoming my daily driver for winging. Gets up so easy. Super fun in Bay swell and super fun in surf. Feels way smaller than 6’3”. Sell your square boards NOW before you won’t have a buyer!

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Just placed an order for a 5’5 x 17 @55L “mid length” prone board to go alongside my more traditional shaped JS Mister Bennetts 4’5 x 18 @29L

I haven’t demoed anything similar yet but did witness and test the same trend with downwind boards so hoping this is a similar in the prone world i.e nice fast paddler getting me onto smaller/fuller bumps whilst not being totally horrible to surf and pump once up on foil.

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