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Curious to see what windfoil setups are being used to optimise down-winding & wave-riding.
e.g. - has anyone experimented with swapping out the Naish WS1 wings with the Surf wings, to maximize maneuverability?
I don't really foil at sea, but I do foil with small sails (4.0/3.6 foil Lok?foil Envol) in 25+ knots of wind an use the windwaves to ride on with succes! For this I use a custom board 70cmx180cm with the mastbase starting 80cm from the front finscrew, so that would be about 100cm from the tail. With my mastbase at 105cm I have the freedom to sail with my backfoot out of the strap at all times (just use it for jumping and porrrr upwind). I can put the foot on the opposite rail in the topturn and back on the luffside rail in the bottomturn. I really like this config, because it really opens up the manouvrebility. Maybe try riding the naish foil all the way forward in the rail and your mastbase all the way aft sometime! The closer everything is together the smaller the turns you can make. It might feel a little unstable / nervous at the beginning, but after getting used to it it's great.
I found waveriding on the foil actually quite natural, because carving hard off the backfoot to steer st the wave makes the nose go up, and carving down naturally makes the nose go down.
reefwarriors.wordpress.com/2017/11/19/red-barron-vid/
btw, this is not on the ocean but on one of the US Great Lakes
Just because the foil is under water, it doesn't change the physics. Sliding downhill from peak to trough at the surface or 30 cm under the surface is pretty much the same. The advantage of the foil is that it "slides" easier than a planing board (at low speeds), so it takes less incline to keep going which is why foil surfers can take advantage of otherwise crappy waves.
I tested the 2019 Naish Large Thrust Surf front wing with my wind-foil in a choppy ocean with 1-2m swells and a cold 18-25 knot NW'er.
More wind than ideal but it handled it well - cruised along quite easily even in the bigger gusts. It felt a little more secure in the turns that the WS1 WindFoil front wing and speed was good at about 19 knots without pushing it - perhaps a knot or two slower than the WS1.
The waves were too messy for any serious attempt at waveriding but down-winding the swells was super controllable and too much fun - as it is on the WS1 foil
Couldn't test the light wind take-off speed yesterday in the strong winds, but my guess is that both wings would be the same - for me about 10 knots.
I've no idea how well it goes on a surfboard or SUP but if you wanted to buy just one wing it might be a great choice, given that it wind-foils so well.
Used with Isonic 121 (75cm wide) and 5m wave sail.
Thanks to Daniel at Windsurfing Perth for the loan
Swells have mass and kinetic energy so it's not just sliding down a slope you are harnessing the energy of the wave right? Some of that energy is hitting the bottom side of the foil and giving you a shove. It's like dinghy racing on a reach behind a faster boat. Get in it's wash and let them suck you along for a while. While overtaking a fellow windsurfer from close behind, use his wash to give you a quick blast upwind before you roll him. Even small wake has some sort of energy you can use.
Wave energy is super interesting - we've got the gurus across the road from me here in Freo.
I'm not sure how the physics works but I can definitely feel the foil "pick up" the energy from even a tiny ocean swell and accelerate forward.
Carnegie Clean Energy
Windfoil downwinding. Ride the swells in a way that's impossible with conventional wave & slalom boards which have too much drag to stay on the swells going deep downwind.
A big advantage over SUP downwind foiling is that it's so easy to get back upwind to do it all over again.
Although SUP downwinding would be cool too.
Interested hearing from others into downwinding and the gear you're using.
Yesterday, 18-24 WNW medium swell (1m faces) 5.3 wavesail (4.5 would've been better) Naish Med Surf wing & WS1 rear wing.
Awesome fun
reefwarriors.wordpress.com/2018/08/27/wwf-windsurf-wave-foiling-what-i-ride/
reefwarriors.wordpress.com/2018/09/06/windsurf-wave-foiling-wwf-vs-wind-foiling/
Some info on the subject. beware Surf Foiling is addicting.
JB, have you tried using the Naish Thrust ws wing on the sup as a surf foil? Could you surf with it?
The "Top Gun" Foil board is pretty special, I am having a hard time keeping that under wraps. I have been developing that board for 2 years now. Its a %100 dedicated foil board. super stable, perfectly balanced, gets flying so easy, and loses zero speed in touch downs. It will do all wave foil discipline's WWF, Sup foil, and DW foil, even wind foiling flatwater freeriding is crazy fun on it. It is a strapless board because the bigger hi lift surf foils I designed it for (aka Go Foils) you have to move your feet, just like surfing. I will be posting a little more info about this board in the next few months.
