Hey I’ve been prone foiling almost a month, been out about 15 times and a couple times behind a boat. I’m running a unifoil progression setup, and I’ve been keeping the back shim at 0 the whole time. I just found out that an increase in downward angle on the back wing, (a higher number in the unifoil progression system) actually adds pitch stability but makes it slower. Pitch stability is by far my biggest issue, most of my rides end from either getting too front foot heavy, or breaching. It sounds like at 0 I’ve actually been running it on the most difficult, fastest setting? Am I correct in this thinking and should I try running a higher number? Thanks!
Sounds like a few mixed things going on.
Shimming the way you describe (downward angle on the back wing) adds more lift, and should increase front foot pressure. If you say your rides are ending from getting too front foot heavy or breaching, adding that shim should actually increase front foot pressure, so the shim is going to do more harm than good.
The shim angle also adds drag and should slow the foil down as you noticed. I wouldn’t say a neutral shim is necessarily more “difficult” vs a positive shim though.
Before you play with the shims, have you played with the mast placement? If you are getting too much front foot pressure and breaching, you may just need to move the foil back first (with the 0 shim). With everything going on, you might also want to try a bigger tail to add more pitch stability (which may require you to move the mast even further back).
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Building off @Velocicraptor - what fuse are you using?
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Shimming only makes subtle differences in pressure distribution between front and back foot. Its not going to stop you from breaching at this stage. Only mast position is the thing that could be wrong. What front and fuse are you on?
Ok cool, so it wouldn’t necessarily make things easier per se? Played with mast placement a lot, I keep it around 1-3 depending on the waves, which does cause breaching but all the way back causes an equal amount amount of breaching since I have to transfer weight back to get lift and I usually end up overdoing it, I find it easier to have too much lift rather than too little, and just apply front foot pressure to control it. To be clear, I think the real issue is that waves have really inconsistent energy and it changes rapidly, I don’t have as much problems with pitch behind a boat, but I’m a couple hours away from my friend who has a boat so my time practicing in a controlled setting is limited. I’m mostly looking for anything to make these ocean waves easier to manage but It sounds like shims are not it. I have a 60cm axis mast, prog 170 front wing, prog 14.5 rear wing, 33cm fuse and I’m 170 ibs. I usually try to ride the smallest waves I can, Ideally longboard waves, they’ve been bigger lately in central Fl. though, rarely under waist/ thigh high so it has been a bit more unruly out there.
60cm axis mast
^Get a 75 for sure
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I’ve got a 75, I’m not using it currently because I find it harder to balance on and the sandbars get crazy shallow where I foil so I tend to hit the sand bar while paddling into a wave. Pitch control is only slightly easier on the 75 also.
Front wing too big for 170lbs in waist high. I’m 210lbs and use a 140 in those conditions.
Negative shim is fastest most efficient. Positive can help to control speed which reduces lift.
Definitely try the white shims. A friend of mine started proning this summer. He is a lifetime surfer. He is heavy back footed and couldn’t hold the nose down. He started riding his mast all the way back with the shank tail and the white 1.5 shim. This helped it feel way more natural for him . Prone is hard! 15 sessions is just the start. keep at it
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