Hey Marty, thanks for the detailed post!Select to expand quotemartyj4 said..
I've found the spitfires need a lot of speed to get them up and going. The learner orientated foils you can pump with your back foot and they will respond by lifting the setup out of the water. Do that with a spitfire, and the thing will climb out of the water, but they often stall, and you plop back down. Is this an issue for you? If it is, then you might need to modify your technique to work the wing a lot more (pumping) and less pumping with the legs to get flying.
Yep, definitely had this issue particularly at the start. I just let the board get more speed plaining before I get it up on foil. I had a second session today and I'm starting to get a feeling for how much speed I need to lift without stalling the foil.
I also tried an axis short fuse (703mm) today and to be honest I think it was a bit easier. It was definitely less stable than the longer fuse, but the trade-off was that once I worked out where my feet need to go I could make smaller adjustments to the pitch.
So for anyone who is keen for an update, I managed to get out this afternoon with a guy I've taken a few lessons from before. He had a go of the board and confirmed it was just a skill issue (no surprises there lol). He also had an axis short fuse and I was able to give that a go with my foils, and for those of you who thought the greater stability of the longer fuse meant I was overcorrecting, I think you're right. Once I worked out my foot placement it felt better. So now I've got one of those on order.
I also focused on (and had some success with) narrowing my stance and moving the front foot further back.
I'll stick with the rest of my gear for now and continue to work on the skill issue. Thanks all for the input!
From what I read - all foiling systems work the same way: the front foil lifts you up (good) but the high pressure on the trailing edge is always trying to make the front foil, and hence board, nose-dive. To counterbalance that torque designers add a stabiliser to push the nose back up. Designers over-compensate that front foil torque so your centre of weight is in front of the lift from the front foil, and the bigger that distance the easier it is for you to control pitch stability through the positioning and weighting of your feet, but also makes it less manoeuvrable.
If the 899 fuse is designed for windsurfing the designer is expecting a lot of down force through your feet and mast foot i.e. well in front of the foil-mast. However, when winging weight is only through your feet, closer to the centre of lift hence less stable (assume you change front and back foil from windfoil to winging ones which expect).
So get a shorter fuse.
If I got this wrong an expert might explain.
Hi Dieseagull, I've just read through this topic as I have a bit of trouble with pitch control myself. I noticed that you have 2 front foils that both require a black fuse, i.e. much different from the (red) windfoil fuse. That is, the black fuse has a different shaped head (where the front foil attaches). I am pretty sure that neither of your foils will work at all well on the windfoil fuse. So I agree that getting a black fuse, either standard or short (784 or 703) would be a priority. P.S. I just checked on axisfoils.com and notice that they have a black windfoil fuse. I now assume that your windfoil fuse is a black one. If so, please disregard above comments on that.
My other point is that I had to spend quite a while using an old 1020 foil which was huge (2050 sq. cm and very thick) to get reasonable pitch control. I tried it with my (red) windfoil fuse, but found it was easier with the standard fuse. (I think, as some commentators have suggested, that it was too slow to react.) I did find the 500 anhedral stab helped at first, then I graduated to a 400 freeride. I should admit that I am 74 y.o. and have lost quite a bit of my sense of balance, so you might not have to go through all that! Only now (after 18 months wingfoiling) am a graduating to an HPS 1050 on a short (black) fuse with the 400 freeride stab. But it is a bit like starting again, having to learn better pitch control. I'm sure you will pick it up more quickly than I have, but you might find the path I took to be informative. I certainly think you would find the HPS 1050 to be a good foil to start on from where you currently are. I am amazed at how many blogs I've read that credit the 1050 with a breakthrough in pitch control, etc. Good luck with your journey!
Select to expand quotetaveray said..
Hi Dieseagull, I've just read through this topic as I have a bit of trouble with pitch control myself. I noticed that you have 2 front foils that both require a black fuse, i.e. much different from the (red) windfoil fuse. That is, the black fuse has a different shaped head (where the front foil attaches). I am pretty sure that neither of your foils will work at all well on the windfoil fuse. So I agree that getting a black fuse, either standard or short (784 or 703) would be a priority. P.S. I just checked on axisfoils.com and notice that they have a black windfoil fuse. I now assume that your windfoil fuse is a black one. If so, please disregard above comments on that.
My other point is that I had to spend quite a while using an old 1020 foil which was huge (2050 sq. cm and very thick) to get reasonable pitch control. I tried it with my (red) windfoil fuse, but found it was easier with the standard fuse. (I think, as some commentators have suggested, that it was too slow to react.) I did find the 500 anhedral stab helped at first, then I graduated to a 400 freeride. I should admit that I am 74 y.o. and have lost quite a bit of my sense of balance, so you might not have to go through all that! Only now (after 18 months wingfoiling) am a graduating to an HPS 1050 on a short (black) fuse with the 400 freeride stab. But it is a bit like starting again, having to learn better pitch control. I'm sure you will pick it up more quickly than I have, but you might find the path I took to be informative. I certainly think you would find the HPS 1050 to be a good foil to start on from where you currently are. I am amazed at how many blogs I've read that credit the 1050 with a breakthrough in pitch control, etc. Good luck with your journey!
Hey Taveray,
Congrats on being out there at your age, I would love to think that I'm as active when I'm the same age!
Yep I'm on the black windsurf fuse. I did try my spitfire 1100 on a short (703mm) fuse yesterday and it was closer to my experience in Greece, i.e. yes it was a bit more agile in terms of pitch but I could also make smaller adjustments and when I touched down I kind of saw it coming. With the longer windsurf fuse i'd often be touching down after a gradual pitch down and it would come as a surprise.
I've heard good things about the HPS 1050 but given I've got a HPS 980 and the SF 1100 i'd be wary of getting too many wings that overlap too much. I actually think the SF 1100 will be ok, I just need to get better at the gybes.
