Plenty of comments on how good Mikeslab is for speed wing foiling...but does anyone have experience in just free riding waves and swell?
Well, from the zero response 24 hours later, I guess that answers the question. Not many wing foilers use Mikeslab foils for free riding waves.
be patient :-)
I am not into speed foiling (too scary), just freeriding, riding swell and waves in open sea.
I use 1150 when light and 825 otherwise. Also have 1300, 1100 and 800
I am 110kg
I would say they are overall excellent because:
- easy to ride
- start early for the size
- massive range
- no noize !
- they are like a hot knife trough butter and very confortable even in rough sea
- excellent glide (depends on AR as for other foils)
- they turn well depending on the span
The problem is:
- they are in one piece (that's why they are thin !) so not travel friendly
- they are expensive and long delivery time
- you don't have as much choice as Axis for instance if you want the perfect choice in foil and size to build your quiver
Hope this helps
I love mine in Maui, Gorge, & Baja. Love them for swells and waves. They are really precise and easy.
I do tend to size up a bit sometimes in waves though, so I'm less likely to outrun the pocket on the 800 instead of drawing a tighter turn into it.
*that wing is frankly not as surfy as some of the others. But I've since replaced it with the 825, which is much surfier, so I expect that to not be a conce run anymore. The 1100 & 1300 are super turny, yet still quick for the size.
Downside is that they are trickier for travel.
And a real consideration is that they are finely tuned and hard to replace. so, I often chose other foils for spots with shallow reef where I'm worried about hitting. But now I have enough of a ML quiver that I'll probably reserve one for that, and stick with ML for all winging.I mostly use them on 96cm mast. But have an 86cm for waves (or lightwind).
The ML700 is the best multipurpose foil I have tried, it is not the best at anything but it is good at everything. If you are looking for a 100% foil there are better foils but it works very well, in my case perhaps the 96cm mast would hurt me in surfing
www.facebook.com/groups/mikeslab/permalink/771426510673242/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v
www.facebook.com/groups/mikeslab/permalink/791965335286026/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v
I've just starting riding ML foils and haven't had a great wave day yet (condition wise), but I'm pretty confident they will work well when the right day shows up. We're entering into better swell season so I'll be sure to report back.
In the few sessions I've had, I'm mainly noticing how easy it is to maintain higher overall speeds, they accelerate very fast, and they cut through the water literally like a knife, no wobble on turns and the harder you go into the turn the better they fly through it. The fastest I've gone so far is about 22 knots and the foils aren't even making noise yet. On top of this, its easy to maintain 20-21 knots for a sustained period of time.
On chest to head high rollers the other day I found the 700 turned fantastic and had good glide but that I also needed to adjust my style from the Armstrong HA680 and 580 I was riding before. Not in a bad way, they just perform differently.
The guy in the two videos above seems to be doing just fine with his.
I'll add to the comments above, currently these foils are very hard to get a hold of. I got lucky with finding the ones I picked up. I think the difficulty of access is the main reason you don't see more people riding them. Price wise, if you compare a ML mast and foil kit to most other premium brands, they're about the same. It's when you start adding more foils that they end up costing more because you can't just buy a new front wing, you have to buy the whole wing/fuse/stab. Like someone else said, I could see the 700 potentially being the only wing I would ever need.
For reference, last summer my friend bought a new F-one mast/fuse/front/back setup at list price in the gorge. It was $200 more than a mikeslab setup.
but he got it that day.
I've certainly saved money by NOT buying all sorts of new parts over the last few years to get a foil setup to work properly.
Mikeslab is just plug & play.
to be fair though, it does require a new board to get the most from it (ie Tuttle). But they do sell a plate mount mast.
