Hi, I have SB Supercruiser foil that I have been testing foiling on with my Flikka custom lightwind freeride 126l, 76 cm width foilready. I like the feeling of foiling which, compared to fin ws, is silent and much less physical and also that after every foiling session I make an improvement vs the previous one. Therefore I want to replace my lightwind ws board with windfoilboard for sailing with 6.0 to 7.0 sails. After reading many reviews and opinions on this forum, I belive the suitable foilboard for me could be Severne Alien 145. Has anyone on this forum experience from riding this combo and also Alien with Superfyer as this could be the future option when I have made some progres. Any other suggestins are also welcome.
How much do you weigh? Me 75kg. Had the Alien 125, then changed to 120 until i got a very well used 115. The Alien is very nice. Easy to learn, easy to ride. It turned out that 115L 200x70cm is perfect for me. Fast lift off and i am able to get back home at offshore low wind. I have only experience with SAB foil, do not know the Supercruiser. But my bigger frontwings should be similar to the SC.
How about a custom Flikka foilboard? They are very nice. A friend has one, i have a wingboard with windfoil option from them. They are good quality and nice looking. And you have the option for tracks beside the DT box you actually need for the SC foil.
Don't buy too big board as you get better with the time.
Hi PatK and thank for your reply. I weigh 85+ depending on the time of the year and amount of h/week at the gym ;-) so I need a bit more volume at least initially as I want the board to get easily into planing as I am not good at pumping. Flikka is sill an option (I have actually two in different sizes) and a couple of years ago it was close I ordered a Flikka foilboard but at that time I was not sure I would like foiling in the log run so I ordered light wind freeride hybrid fin/foil board. This bord works with foil but it is not optimal for foiling and I want now to replace it with pure foilboard. SB foilboards designed for Supercruiser FoilX need, according to what I read on the forum, certain amount of pumping to get going that is why I am looking for an alternative.
If your goal is to put max a 6 or 7m2 sail, I would go for a smaller board around 125l/75cm .. you are not such a heavy sailer ;)
145l boards with 80cm wide are more adequate if you plan to put a 8.0m2 sail on. With a 6/7m, you would need more pumping to pull such bigger board out of water.
But now, this is already what you have, isn't it? Not sure if you would gain in gliding/planning, but having a dedicated foil board, you will gain more control and more upwind with a large tail.
Thanks for your input. Good point, my current board takes off easily, the main problem for me is that it is difficult to control, even though I am improving for every session. I guess I'll have to test a couple of different boards before I buy one.
Another little advice when you choose/test a dedicated foil board, think of the evolution of your foil in the future. If you go for a more freemove/freeride board ("reduced" tail, more inward footstrap, mast rail closer to the front footstrap), it will go perfectly with your SB SuperCruiser and no cam sails, but not with a more advanced foil. Such combos are good for learning, cruising and perfect for chasing the swell!
But with a more freerace oriented board (larger tail, more parallel rail, full of backfoot position), it goes from the SB Supercruiser, freeride foil to Slalom foiling with cam or no cam sails. One board, multiple foils!
Example of freemove boards: Fanatic stingray, JP freefoil, Exocet Freefoil, Goya Airbolt, Sb Foil X, etc.
Example of pure freeride boards: SB freeride, Patrik foilride, SV Alien, etc.
Example of freeride/freerace boards: SB freeride (possible with race foil), Tabou Airride, Exocet RF, JP hydrofoil, etc.
I am looking for a freeride/easy cruising in light winds type of foil board that will be easy to take off and control in 10-15 kt. Do I gain much replacing my Flikka with e.g. Alien 125?
That Alien 145 might be the smoothest-rising foil board I've ever tried. I rode it with the Severne 1400 which would probably be closer to the Superflyer than to the Supercruiser. The SF might be as big as you'd need to go at your weight especially if you're ambitious to improve, because there's a definite top speed on the bigger wing, and a degree of sluggishness also. The 1700 is really for inexperienced riders or for getting up in the absolute lightest winds - once it's really powered it starts feeling big very quickly.
The 145 is terrific if you don't like pumping because you basically put a big enough sail on it, put your front foot in the strap, hook in and lean back and you're up. I wouldn't expect it to work well with very long racing fuselages but with something like the 102 from Starboard you'd be fine. It's pretty sensitive to boom height and mastfoot positioning. If you're not quite getting going just raise the boom a little and you'll jump out of the water.
I myself wound up buying the bigger 155 because I like carrying big sails and pointing high upwind, and I also weigh over 100kg, but there are days when I think the 145 would have been just as good (and it's cheaper!). I do agree with several of the other guys though, that if you mostly prefer sails smaller than 7.0, and you're athletic, then the 120 or 125 might be all the board you need - you could uphaul either easily if that's a concern.
Thank you all for your valuable input, it has changed the way I look at the upgrade path. I also need to consider bying another front wing. Supercruiser is very lifty in low speed and in low speed it is not stable, specially in gusty conditions it becomes v difficult to controll. One can call it playfulness but when learning foiling I would rather appreciate more stability. I understand that Superflyer is more stable, right? If so which one (1300 or 1500) do you recommend?
One last question I have is about tail wing spacers. Do you use the same spacer all the time or different spacers for different conditions?
When upgrading or buying from scratch look for a
foul that is compatible with lots of options of front & rear wings, fuse & mast lengths. A mat has 4 Starboard foil
set in his garage. I have 1 with wing options to cover all sessions.
can you put another wing on the SC fuse? If so can you buy one, as it's in stock somewhere?
ie- patrik foils have multiple mast fuse stab & wing options to cover learners to advanced winging & windfoiling. And styles too.