juandesooka wrote:I bought one, but not yet ridden it successfully. I tried a couple times behind a boat....harder than it looks, and maybe more risk of injury than I thought. I was bobbing up and down trying to find the sweet spot, but the moment I turned even slightly to the side....CRASH. Sometimes my feet didn't come out of straps, which felt a bit iffy on ankles. And if you land on that strut, it's super sharp. So, some caution may be in order.
But I'm sure it will be super fun once mastered -- I saw a guy doing it in France, so smooth and glidey, looked awesome.
Gunnar: would you say it is easier or harder doing this with a kite vs a boat? I suspect the kite's vertical pull vs the boat's horizontal might make it a little easier? Though maybe a little less constant/steady pull perhaps.
Another problem is lots of kelp in the water where I kite ... I understand that's a big no-no for these things. I need to try it out in a nice clean lake.
Hi Juan,
I find it's a bit easier with a kite, as you are mainly riding against the pressure of the kite instead of following the boat. When following a boat your basically doing the same thing as going downwind with the kite and this is where having a good foil makes a huge difference.
What really separates good foils from bad is how easy they are to ride. It was easy for us to make a working foil, it was not so easy to make one that goes downwind as stable as it goes upwind. Also making one that is not so susceptible to spin outs when the wing comes out of the water took some experimentation.
I am pretty happy now with our current wings at Magma, but we are constantly trying to improve the design to make it easier to foilboard. There is still so much more we can learn and improve on foils, so the future looks bright. We have come a long way, and now we have foils that can be ridden strapless instead of with snowboard boots.
After seeing the latest Airchair vids I think its time to put the Footstraps back on my board and get to jumping it again
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Gunnar