I’m surprised at the lack of standard unit usage in foiling. Surfing, whose industry was born in the USA consistently uses imperial units (feet, inches) for the boards. A new metric unit was adopted by everybody for the volume: Litres. This mix is pretty odd, but at least is consistent.
But here in foiling, a completely new sport, where not even wax is used for the boards and there’s progression week by week, there a whole MIX of units and confusing names!!!
Why can’t we stick to the only sensible option? I’m obviously talking about the metric system!
Please foil brands, start using systematically metric units for area, span and everything for foils. We can keep using feet and inches for board sizes, that battle is over, but PLEASE make it easier for everybody by sticking to one standard for foils (and the only viable option is metric).
That’s my rant for today, next day we’ll talk about wind speeds
it’s kinda already happened, everyone knows foil sizes in area in cm2 for the main foil identifiers, only Axis insists on using span and Uni and Lift using inches, but I think people think in cm2
Boards are too close to surfboards to change to cm, but also matters less
Surfing has been around forever, foiling has only been around for so long. Also, custom shapes in the surf world generally don’t have much info on them either.
When I started looking at upgrading gear from my beginner Slingshot and Gong equipment I wouldn’t even consider products measured in imperial
I also learned through experience that span (and secondarily AR) are in fact the best primary measurements to think about and compare foil attributes. Much better than just looking at area…
If you’re wanting standardization in foiling, you’re going to be waiting a long time!
Now that you mention it, why is volume measured in liters for surf boards? I’d of thought the first person to build a water tank to check a surfboard would have done so with gallons? Must be that Frenchy Michael Barland who invented the shaper programing.
