Hello everyone !
I’ve been prone foiling for a couple of months, now connecting 2+ waves on a progression 140 and 13.5 G10 tail.
I’d like to get into downwind foiling but i do not have a strong SUP experience.
I was wondering if i could keep the 140 to start DW foiling or is it almost mandatory to start with a bigger foil (say the 200) ? Also wondering about the size and volume of the board, that i do not have yet. I understand that you shouldn’t be shy about the length and volume.
Any advices on front wing and board ?
NB : I’m ~63 kg (138 lbs)
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Where are you? At our spot here in SC (very little geography) there’s not really a hard distinction between “runners” and “downwind”. We just chip in on the inside and some of us go farther out for real DW style bumps on bigger wings and others keep it close in towards the break on smaller setups. This means real “downwind” gear is useless - also, the logistics is a nightmare with real DW stuff - with regular prone gear you can hitchhike or e-skate shuttle super easy!
But if you live someplace with real geography that blocks energy and you have to paddle out it’s a whole different story. The more time goes on the more I realize foiling is at least 80% geography.
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A bigger foil and a big board makes the pop up easy but that doesn’t mean you have to have them.
I DW the 140 here in FL all the time when we get winds at 15 knots or more and it’s actually pretty decent for it.
The more important question is, how are your conditions? For Maui the 140 is huge. For other places, it’s small.
Thank you both for your reply. I live in Hossegor (south west France), we’ve often got sea breeze (N-NW wind → side to full on-shore) that starts blowing in the afternoon around 15 knots on average.
Not sure about the idea to DW with my prone board starting near the shore, if you fall offshore you’re kind of stuck with your two empty hands ahah. I guess getting a bigger foiler might help preventing any falls. First thing could be getting a jetski that launchs you (and follows you) offshore with your prone board so you can start feeling the open ocean bumps and see how it goes with your prone setup.
Your weight in KG x 1.4 = 88 Liters. That’s where the issue comes in for lighter guys like you. You won’t fit stock dimensions very well. You want a board very near 8 feet long. 7’10" - 8’6", but you don’t need the massive volume that stock dimensions will get you. You may want to talk to Greg Closier of 52foilco. He is in France and makes nice DW boards. He’s on Instagram and Facebook.
The 140 will be a little small to learn, but will work once you know how to paddle up. Larger foils are easier to learn, because you can go on lighter wind days with smaller, cleaner, more lined up bumps that are easier to read.
Get a DW board. Put your prone gear away. Do a couple true flatwater sessions to learn how paddle straight. Once you can paddle straight, start SUP foiling in the surf. Continue trying to catch waves further out and further away from the peak each session. Eventually move to true off shore bumps. That will keep it fun and won’t have you paddling for 3 hours not getting up on long DW runs.
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I started on the 1st Armstrong DW board which was 96L (I’m ~75kg) and the progression 170/200. Those should have no issues getting up and keeping up with bumps with 15 knots of wind.
My recommendation on board would be 90-100L (easiest to get) no wider than 50cm, as then it gets too slow paddling, and get the prog 170 or similar which will make your journey way easier.
Spend as long as needed in the flats to learn how to j-stroke and paddle straight even with max paddle power, then take it into small surf and learn to pop up. Do 1-3km short DW runs after that until you’re confident in popping up and staying up.
The biggest issue is logistics. As others above have said, if your logistics are bad then this might not be viable.
You probably have viable runs, but the wind direction is too onshore for this to be easy. It will be technical, I have a similar setup with summer NW sea breezes, but the winter is not good with the swell!.
You will benefit by winging/parawing to get offshore to increase the angle, as you otherwise need to paddle out each time. Because your coast angle is NNE you will struggle to stay off the coast.
Below is a nice run, that would be worthwhile going through the learning hassle, as this is a nice balance of logistics for the distance.
This video is what a shorerunner looks like, you catch a wave, pump out beyond the swells, riding mixture of bumps and swell (in Hawaii they do this but from a reef). The further you go out, the more “Downwind” you will experience. I would 100% recommend doing this before spending money on any gear (140 is perfect for this, best choice for your shorerun for sure). It is super fun, you can do it in cross-onshore and it teaches you everything you need to know about reading bumps, but without as much logistics. And you have the motivation to keep pumping and gliding because a fall means a long paddle! (be safe, don’t go further than 500m out)
A jetski is ideal, if you have access, that will be the best way to learn.
The lake at Hossegor is probably good if it is deep enough. 30+ knots in that lake will be good for learning to paddle, read small bumps, practice simple runs etc. Going into the ocean is very difficult, you get too much ocean swell exposure where you are, so the conditions will be difficult initially. However this requires a big foil.
As for gear, 140 is on the small end but not impossible, but will make your life significantly harder, 200 ideal for lake, 170 for ocean, then 140 once you get good. Go big on the board, 100L 7’6 to 8’
To add to the dynamic, there is some uncertainty, but seeming viability around a parawing being viable alternative route to the SUP paddle.
If viable, this has a few benefits
- no shuttles (this needs you to be able to ride upwind, which might take a while)
- no need to learn SUP (parawing I think much easier at least to get on foil for shuttled downwinders)
- no 8’ SUP board, smaller 6’0 60L wing board is fine (and cheap!), big boards are not that fun to ride
- no big slow foils
- no deflating wings
If you had an easy straight downwind run that didn’t require you to paddle far out to sea, then I’d say go for the sup, but honestly I think this is worth considering … after you’ve done some shore runs. Something to consider.
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