Looking at getting into SUP foiling in the surf for summer days in Florida when we have small surf. How hard is it to SUP in surf? I always see the grind to downwind sup I was wondering if it was any easier with actual swell on sandbar. Does anyone have recommendations on boards and sizing? I’m 165lbs and prone a unifoil prog 170 currently
Way easier. It will make prone seem stupid and you’ll SUP foil 90% of the time. 
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I had to go into SUPfoil and quit Prone due to hip arthrosis,cannot pull the prone takeoff anymore.
The good:
-Far less physical.I can SUP a lot longer than i could prone, and no muscle knots afterwards.
-Move to and from far peaks with relative ease vs prone.
-Get in wave earlier.
-Already standing, better chances of pulling off the takeoff.
The bad:
-Huge board.For the car,for storage,for walking to the water.
-Paddle outs and getting caught inside can be intimidating.No duckdiving these boats… 
-Wind can totally kill your paddle out glide(onshore),or your early takeoff (offshore).Also a xchop can make standing in the lineup exhausting.
-More board inertia and more probability of nose touchdowns.Harder to ride like MrBennets
-Paddle in your hands, harder to style like Rob Machado
Overall i love it, even if i get a new ceramic hip and prone again the SUP board is a keeper.
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You can also sup a non DW style board, guys have been doing that forever. Start with a big and wide board and go from there. It will be much more fun at the start.
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Sounds awesome!! Do you use a downwind style board or a wider one?
It took me a while “to bother” trying SUP surf foil. I was more intent on prone/winging until I got a DW board and took it out for a practice in the surf.
Well after that I haven’t looked back, I wing when it’s windy and 90% of the time I’m taking the SUP out into the surf instead of my prone.
Wave catching machines in both bigger and smaller conditions and foiling suits the drawn out turns on the bigger boards. I’m a big fan and now looking at getting a more surf specific sup board.
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Sup foiling is super fun! If you have a spot that breaks farther out and gives you some space to enjoy the glide. I first tried on a 6 foot 110liter wing board and it was super difficult. It spun around like a top and I had a really hard time lining up a wave. Now I am having much more fun on my 7’8 x 21 x 6 downwind board. It is so much easier to build up board speed. This helps you catch waves way before they break. I am 6 ft 185 lbs
You are a prone foiler who wants to sup foil? Waste of time. Get a Foil Drive, or go skateboard or something. That my take, or:
If not interested in downwind, just get a closeout or used wide sup foil board from a few years ago like a Jimmy Lewis that nobody wants anymore but are very functional shapes. Way more more fun and easy for small surf close to the beach. Then if you actually like riding waves with a large stick, foil, and heavy board, get something fresh.
SUP surfing a blast and you don’t need breaking waves to chip into. Still difficult at first but miles easier than dw, plus learning dw will be wayyy easier if you can SUP surf proficiently. Once you start paddling up on non breaking micro waves you’ll want to dw. Also fun in bigger surf, I’ve paddled into head high + sized waves that I couldn’t catch on a probe board. You can get in early and have a ton of fun
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Does anyone have a board recommendation? I’ve been looking at lift flying cat, Nimitz, kt surf and f one dw board
Those frank boards look right
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I ride a hand shape 8’6" x 19". the nimitz 113l version I road, it’s real fun and surfy. I’ve ridden a similar board to the frank board design that’s another hand shape and it’s a good board so I can imagine the Frank boards are awesome. can’t really go wrong with any major brands. flatwater paddled a buddies Armstrong that’s like 8’x20.5" and 120+ liters if I remember correctly, that was one of the most stable boards I personally felt. The kalamas are pretty sick and on sale right now. Unifoil was the must surfy that I tried, it was also the only one under 8’. I’ve seen the flying cat in person, it’s sick, fone too, they both look very stable but haven’t ridden either yet. just don’t be afraid of volume, it’s your friend on SUP to an extent, better to have a little too much than too little especially when you’re learning
I am learning on a Nimitz. Again learning so don’t really have an opinion with any value. But I will say it’s light, durable, and from what I have heard surfy. I mean Erik and Petigo designed it so it’s pretty good. The one feature that took a second to get used to is the hard edge on the bottom. What it does is helps paddle straight and also releases water faster than a rounded rail. Plus it comes with a board bag which maybe some overlook but a board bag can run ya some money. As a pretty diehard prone guy I do see the potential in SUP Foiling in the surf. I feel like I can paddle into the waves the longboards can now and not have to use the Foil Drive to assist in.
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Gotta say, love the feeling of paddling a SUP into a non-breaking wave and gliding away… feels like a total cheat code. love it!
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I (80-85kg, 6’1) have been wondering the same thing. I have a 105L Starboard Pro that I was never good enough to balance on to SUP surf (happy SUP surfing my Fanatic Allwave 156L), so wondering if adding foil tracks (via FoilMount 3.0 or properly installed) would add stability and give me a viable learning tool?
For ref my local often has a strong cross shore current that makes staying in place with a prone board almost impossible, so a foil SUP to use on those days would be good.
Get a board that paddles straight or it sucks. I tested a AFS Blackbird yesterday at the Cocoa Bch contest and couldnt get on a single bump bc the board was so spinny. The rep said the next gen will have hard edged rails and a v-tail to fix that…so look for those traits.
I can normally get into any bump I want over 1 foot tall on a handshaped 120L 7’11x19x7…which has a very deep v-tail. Looks like a kayak. I can get abt 8-10 paddles per side and stay straight. 2-3 paddles is garbage (for me).
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What size was the black bird?
I didnt see dims printed on the board anywhere but rep said 120L. Im 180-185lbs. Im guessing it was abt 8’ long and 19” wide…
It was a Blackbird v2 with dims printed right behind the box 7’6 x 21 mounted with a 75 skinny and silk 1050 mounted forward in the box to surf knee high shore break
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