Hello and thanks for your help in advance. I'm looking at giving foiling a go after years of kiting. I am thinking that it would be great to get a foil and or board set up that I would be able to learn to kitefoil and surf with. Am I being unrealistic that I can get one foil and board to do both prone surfing and kiting? I'm not sure that my wallet and storage will extend to 2 complete set ups (certainly for learning anyway).
I normally kite strapless on a surfboard and I'm about 192cm and 95kg.
I have been through this myself, a axis 660 kite foil set up will work well and also can prone on it if your lighter or large surf.
However if not you just change the front wing for what you wish to do.
Yes you need a kite foil board sepperate from a prone board
However spend money on a correct prone board, the kite foil board there's multiple used and can be obtained at great prices.
Jon at surf fx is very patient if you check in with him, as foils can get overwhelming
I'm sure other will add to my answear
My pick is AXIS
You can get a prone foil setup and use it for kite-foiling but that will be quite slow and unnecessarily large. You will easily get bored using such a large setup for kite-foiling once you get past the learning stage but that doesn't mean it can't be done.
With your body weight for prone foiling you'd ideally need quite a large board i.e. 6 foot and quite a large wing i.e. ideally minimum 1600cm
I guess you could save money by simply having 2 wings (for example 1000cm for kiting and 1600cm for prone foiling) and using the same (prone) board for kiting with the smaller wing then switch to the large wing for prone surfing. Smaller boards are much more fun and manoeuvrable for kite-foiling.
Hope this helps
Christian
Thanks a lot for the replies. Do I understand you guys correctly?
A board which I could prone surf foil on would probably be way to cumbersome to kitefoil on and I'd probably be better to get 2 boards?
I could potentially use same foil but I would want a larger front wing for surfing as it would plane at a lower speed?
What would it be like using a surf/sup foil (with a kite board) to begin with kiting? Would the shorter mast and higher volume front wing make it easier to get foiling earlier and maybe shorten the learning curve?
Any thoughts on this?
www.seabreeze.com.au/Classifieds/Kitesurfing-Foil-and-Race-boards/~l670c/2019-Airush-Ak-Surf-Foil-4-9.aspx?_page=5&search=p%2FeVEIELGOY38OJR4wnDzg%3D%3D
A board which I could prone surf foil on would probably be way to cumbersome to kitefoil on and I'd probably be better to get 2 boards?
Correct
I could potentially use same foil but I would want a larger front wing for surfing as it would plane at a lower speed?
for Prone foil-surfing, you want a MUCH larger wing than what you would use for kite-foiling. Think about double the surface area.
What would it be like using a surf/sup foil (with a kite board) to begin with kiting? Would the shorter mast and higher volume front wing make it easier to get foiling earlier and maybe shorten the learning curve?
Without going to extremes, the bigger the board, the larger the front wing and the shorter the mast, the easiest to learn on.
I've taught somewhere between 40 and 50 students how to foil from scratch and find that starting them off with a 40cm mast and large front wing (at least 1000cm) makes a huge difference. Board size and volume is not as important, but a larger board in general helps for touchdowns and learning to ''taxi'' which means the board is touching the water with the entire foil and mast submerged, an essential step in the learning process.
It's important to understand that the ideal setup for your very first steps learning to foil would probably not be the same setup you would use after just a couple of days of practice.
Any thoughts on this?
www.seabreeze.com.au/Classifieds/Kitesurfing-Foil-and-Race-boards/~l670c/2019-Airush-Ak-Surf-Foil-4-9.aspx?_page=5&search=p%2FeVEIELGOY38OJR4wnDzg%3D%3D
As an Airush importer and school, this is the setup I would use to teach my students, starting off with a slightly shorter mast (40cm). This is great for learning but you will eventually find the 1325cm front wing to be a bit slow for general freeride foiling (think max speed of about 25 km/h). A wing this big is designed primarily for kite foil surfing.
To be clear, this setup won't work for prone surfing unless you were much lighter and very experienced at prone surfing. You would need a larger board with much more volume, along with a larger front wing (at least 1600cm). In case you get that setup and need larger or smaller front wings, we can provide those for you
Christian
Hi Alex,
I think you need to be clear on what exactly you want to do with your foiling. There are so many ways to kite foil but realistically only one way to prone foil. Considering this, you would be best to buy something better suited to prone foiling. This however will dictate the way you kite foil.
Kite foiling with a prone board and foil is totally fine providing you don't want to ride really fast, use it in overpowered conditions or do foil freestyle. If your aim is to ride slowly and catch waves, then the prone foil and board will be perfect under a kite.
An ideal board and foil setup would be something like the Fanatic Sky board and a Fanatic High Aspect 1750 foil on 750 mast. Perfect for prone foiling and pumping and I have kited this exact same rig. Its great fun in light to moderate winds on a kite like the Flysurfer Peak4. I even managed 20 knots board speed on this rig without straps. Super fun.
You can take it a step further by using a Moses foil as they have really high top speeds and insanely low stall speed. This gives you the best of both worlds. Look at a high aspect set like the 1100 wing on an 82 carbon mast, You can also use the 683 or 633 front wing if you want more manoevreability in the surf and higher speeds when kiting.
You do NOT need two boards or even two foils so long as you are clear of the limitations of the foil in certain conditions. Moderate to stronger (15-25+ knots) on a surf foil will be challenging with the shorter mast and bigger wings, but <15 knots and a Peak4 will have you loving light wind days and foil surfing.
DM
Hi Alex
Where are you based?
With the foil I only can recommend you to buy quality stuff it's hard to sell second hand foil set ups and people loose quite a bit money upgrading.
Personally I think AXIS is top of the aluminum based models or you go carbon like Amstrong,Unifoil or Signature foils.
I'm 179cm 105kg use a Axis S-series foil with a 660 wing to kite and surf (bigger waves) and have a 900 wing what gets me up from small to medium prone waves.
Not sure how good you surf but I'm using a 5ft 42ltr prone surfboard (Amos custom) again if you go to big it will stop your progression like ppumping.
Everyone can tell you one thing if you get hook and enjoying foiling the money will fly out off the window 
.
Never try to save money by getting gear which you would use for two different codes. You will end up abandoning both.
The foils for prone surfing are twice the size to those for kiting. Sure, you can kite on a prone foil and vice versa, but a prone foil will be slow and tedious for kiting and you'd need to be very good with large surf to prone with a kite foil.
The boards are comparable... just. A large kite foil board is a very small prone board.
I kitefoil in waves with a Slingshot Alien Air 4'8" and either a Slingshot H5 or Moses 550 foil (I prefer the Slingshot for waves). The board is marketed as a crossover for proning but that's crap unless you really know what you're doing. But you wouldn't want to go higher volume for kiting.
Select to expand quotejulzperth said..
Hi Alex
Where are you based?
With the foil I only can recommend you to buy quality stuff it's hard to sell second hand foil set ups and people loose quite a bit money upgrading.
Personally I think AXIS is top of the aluminum based models or you go carbon like Amstrong,Unifoil or Signature foils.
I'm 179cm 105kg use a Axis S-series foil with a 660 wing to kite and surf (bigger waves) and have a 900 wing what gets me up from small to medium prone waves.
Not sure how good you surf but I'm using a 5ft 42ltr prone surfboard (Amos custom) again if you go to big it will stop your progression like ppumping.
Everyone can tell you one thing if you get hook and enjoying foiling the money will fly out off the window .
Melbourne.
The kiting will initially be on the bay and in bay windswell. I get down to the surf coast quite a bit and surf and kite down there so that is where I will be riding waves.
I have done a bit of stand up paddling too. I'm not sure if it would be easier to foil in waves on a SUP or prone board or whether it doesn't matter.
Alex
