Nigel no mates

[Sandras]

Is it easier to find mates during low wind days?

[andylc]

I have not the slightest idea what you are trying to say there....

[Foil]

Just something that I discovered yesterday whilst out on my foil fitted with the short 61cm mast and Onga wing(The Moses Sup wing and stabilizer)
remember I am still in my first year and very much a novice still learning my turns and starting step rounds, which are both very hard on the fly, but the waves yesterday were clean 4 ft lines and I was just powered up on my 8mtr, even at my level I can now sort of wave ride with fast carves along the face of the waves and giving it attitude at the top and bottom with toeside riding along the mid section and cutting back to heal using the power of the wave on the massive Onga wing to fire out at speed on heel side ready to repeat again and again, I do look forward to many more days and months of practice as I can see this kit really working well in waves and adding something I never expected to be able to do when I took up the sport last summer.
Wave riding on a foil? Who would have thought! Awesome!

[nothing2seehere]

We need to be realistic, if HF will not get mainstream, it will die out. To get it mainstream, it must be:

- easy to learn
- look super easy to learn
- look super attractive for everyone

Thoughts?

I disagree (at least if you measure mainstream in niche sport terms). Obviously its not going to replace soccer as a global sport - and who would want to kite with all those millions of TV watchers in the water with them at the same time - but it could still become a main type of sailing sport.

1. People are always looking for ways to exclude other groups of people. Technical jargon is created so novices don't understand what people are talking about (search buzzword bingo). The apparent exclusivity of foiling gives people a way of ignoring those who aren't part of the same group. Lift passes to get to the top of mountains spread the number of people on the slopes as effectively as light wind thins the number of people on the water with you.

2. People want to feel like pioneers. Hydrofoiling is currently good for that role and allows people to feel smug that they are doing something new and other people are missing out. The fact that it is difficult is actually a good thing - people appreciate achievement when tasks are difficult more than easy tasks.

3. The industry is pushing it. Endless instagram posts of the pros on foils. Its a new board they can try and sell to everyone.

4. Maybe I'm forgetting things but my learning experience hasn't been as hard I remember learning to windsurf being. I remember crashing pretty hard back then and all the joys of getting my ankles caught in the footstraps that people talk about with foiling. Windsurfing was pretty tricky to learn and people still take it up. Look at the average learner windsurfer bobbing on the water and they don't look any cooler than the average learner foiler. Give the foil to a skilled pilot and you can get equally attractive aspirational videos for foiling as have been produced for windsurfing in the past.

5. Most of sailing doesn't look any cooler from the shore than I do mowing back and forth on my foil. You don't have to look cool. You only have to think that you do. Ever seen someone on a longboard* on the street. They don't look cool. They think they do.

* I know this. I must look a right prat on my onewheel but I think I look amazing.

[downunder]

^
Good thoughs, thanks for sharing.

Actually, longboards are cool. Even cooler with a small kite:)


Time will tell, but I think there are more who failed to learn kiting than who continued.

Remember, with HF, there is no trying, and many many tried to kite.

[fun2kite]

my beach has transformed. For almost 1.5 years I was the only one foiling. Lots of people asked my questions, but few wanted to try.
Last year things changed. From just a small handful of us, it just EXPLODED. All of a sudden everybody wants to foil.
There are more foilers on the water now than twin tip. And it just keeps growing. we are a low wind location and everybody realized that instead of watching somebody out there they can be there too.

[jumptheshark]

Spray is super fun, but your not throwing much in chop and light winds on a tt. You need sweet flat water and decent wind to live that dream.

You CAN however get closer to that powder riding bliss on a foil than any other board. That's its whole thing!

Foils salvage loads of fun from conditions that most other gear doesn't even work in.

As to mowing the lawn. 90% of kiters are pretty lame riders. Doesn't mean kiting is lame. The board makes no difference in that regard.

Foils are the future and you have to be pretty blind not to see it. It's multi platform and getting more and more accessible as we go. You can resent it or engage it, totally up to you. How many end up getting into it is unknowable, but its likely that most truly proficient kiters will eventually give it an honest try. A few will fail, most will get it, and most of those will stick with it to some degree. Most of us like a little challenge, and pretty much all of us like getting more time on the water.

There were nay sayers when kites first hit the scene too.

Since I started many years ago, no single piece of equipment has so comprehensively redefined the sport like the foil.

[andylc]

Foils are just another option, not a revolution, and are especially useful for middle aged guys with disposable income.

[Peter_Frank]

I agree with fun2kite and jumptheshark, it has totally redefined the sport indeed - in so many ways a different sport one could say

And IMO not just "another option of board" like some not into it might think

I see it as a revolution actually, because it is SO different in so many ways opening a huge area of earlier unused spots now - and still having the great features left from the TT and race and surfboards (like jumping higher now, awesome surfboard feel in carves in ALL conditions, going faster)

Not saying it is better than the others - but so little in common and it opened a highway of opportunities not possible before on any earlier boards (now not needing huge kites, having fun/freestyle in much lower winds, being able to ride WHEREEVER you want to go and ride back no matter which course, jumping a lot higher in summerwind, smoooooth and silent in even the worst chop and crosswaves).

For me a revolution and not evolution niches like most boards were since 1999

PF

[DukeSilver]

For me, the difference between foiling and TT riding is that on a foil, the whole time you are up on the wing and riding, it feels good. Throw in a few s turns and you may as well be snowboarding in powder. When I rode a TT, the only real time it felt fun was boosting or pulling off a trick. The bits in between were......meh. Now I understand that people jumping big on a TT will always be a crowd pleaser, but I'm more interested in how I feel when kiting, and for me, I feel fantastic the whole time I'm on my foil, not just the 2 or3 min in a TT session that I might be in the air for. I get on a TT now and think it feels like the most primitive watercraft ever created. So inefficient .