I’ve noticed that changing wing size, fuse length, or stab size all seem to produce similar effects — each one can influence low-end lift, stability, speed, and turning ability.
For those with multiple options in their quiver, how do you decide which component to change first (wing, fuse, or stab) when tuning for different conditions or styles?
In other words, when do you reach for a smaller/larger wing, versus swapping fuse length or stab size to get the desired feel?
I’m Specifically curious for DW with PW but all answers welcome!
I buy a foil that’s been well tested and reviewed for the conditions I’ll use it for, then if somthings really off, I’ll try a different stab, then fuse. For example: demoed a 980s Code that was given to me on a 75cm mast with a long fuse and 175 tail. Horrible. Emailed Code and they said foil was designed around med fuse and 150 tail. I prefer an 80 mast. Went back out on 80cm mast, med fuse, 150 tail and have been riding that combo since. If the swell is slower than normal, I’ll run a 158 tail that helps get through the flat spots and to pump.
In general, I’d say use the tail for minor improvements in stability or speed, fuse for big changes like manueverability or pump cadence, and wing for conditions and sport.
6ft tall, about 92kg and riding a 7ft11 wingfoil board, and 3ft9 prone foil board. I’ve been mostly prone foiling for about 2.5years now and daily driver the sk8 850cm in socal in almost all conditions. occasionally will do sessions with the 750cm but mostly if its sub 12-13second periods and 3-4ft
WIND
for any wind foil event I want easy of pumpability and maximum time on the foil. For that I care about a big front wing, long fuse, and to me the tail isn’t important. I use the 85cm mast.(RIDING F-one)
PRONE
For prone foiling waves, usually all types, I need something that’s super manuverable, turns..while sacrificing pumpability. I’ll grab my sk8 850cm, smallest stab and shortest fuse possible and carve away…usually like 3-4 waves or 2-3 waves. Size under 6ft waves or sometimes bigger if its not too jumbly. Rarely i’ll pull out my 750sk8 and it almost feels like shortboarding…with a larger sacrifice to pumping. It’s tough to get back out sometimes due to the speed required to keep it up, aka low end, or if the current/backwash is being super annoying. I suspsect it might be my weight being abit higher…when I get back sub 85kgs the glide is much more supportive for the low end.
I run through a pretty simple formula when I arrive at the beach and check conditions
Front Wing: How much energy is there in the ocean either from waves or wind. The more energy the smaller my front. Essentially just picking whatever lands me in the sweet spot of not being over-foiled but having enough lift/glide to do the foil things without battling a finicky low end
Mast: 85cm for winging, 75cm for everything else
Stab: How much do I want to slow down the setup. Very generally speaking the smaller my front the larger my rear and vice versa but essentially I want to be as closely match to the speed of the waves as to not outrun sections
Fuse: Basically a multiplier of my stab, the bigger my fuse the more the change in the stab is realised. But generally speaking if I totally value pitch stability I’ll bolt on my Medium, if I’m going for turns my small. A more relaxed pump cadence on the medium vs the small but that’s not a big factor.
Shim: Do I want to maintain the stability of a bigger tail but gain some of the speed/glide back, I might shim but it’s not something I do a whole lot.
Now that I’ve got the 810x (so a mid aspect amongst my high aspect S series codes) that throws the formula out a little bit but even then I wouldn’t ride it when it’s huge swell (I’d be on my 615s) or absolutely ankle snappers (I’d be on the 1130s)
I tend to be able to go smaller on the front for winging or prone vs sup surf or parawinging where I will usually be one size up to counter the additional weight of the board and desire to pump further.
Fuse length: Shorter for longer boards and longer for shorter boards. I never mess with this any longer as all my boards are midlengths.
Tail: I used to switch these up a ton based on the day when I was winging. Parawinging I have honed in on a specific tail that I match with every front. All my tails are forward swept. Smallest and highest AR matches with my largest foil. Largest with lowest AR matches with my smallest foil.
Front: This is changed based on how much challenge I want and what the water is doing. Generally: High river flow = small front. Low flow = large front.
Silk 1050 with UG41
Silk 850 with Mako Carve 130
Silk 650 short fuse with C9 157
Front foil size depends on how much lift I need to get me foiling in whatever conditions I’m riding. Lower wind and smaller waves, larger front foil. Higher wind and larger waves, smaller front foil.
Fuse length: shorter for waves, longer for flat water. Shorter for fun and playful, longer for straight line speed.
Rear foil: as small as I can get away with while still maintaining grip and control. Generally larger for slower speeds and smaller for faster speeds. If I’m riding a longer fuse I can reduce rear foil size and get more speed with the same control.
Fuse length: longer for bigger waves/higher speed.
Rear foil: I concur with as small as possible as long I can handle the increased pitchiness. In general, larger rear foil for bigger waves for increased stability, since efficiency is not as important. The Code Foil guys discuss this on one of their podcasts when they introduced some smaller tails.