Best lightwind board

[Rasmus Nygaard]

Ok, so I'm pretty steady on the hydrofoil now. Doing long distances, riding waves, gybing and working on my flying tacks. That kind of stuff.

I have a fast freeride setup in beautiful and light carbon fiber and I ride a small'ish board strapless. It's all nice and performance is top notch.
My light wind kites are strutless 15 and 12meter LEIs. I usually fly them on long lines, and they can stay in the air in the lightest of breezes.

My frustration is that I'm kinda heavy. 100kg on 2meters doesn't make me super fat, just big. And I'm having trouble getting the board up above water when really light wind. My 15m flies easy in 8 knots, and it's not a super big issue to drag my ass out of the water either. BUT.. it is hard for me to generate enough speed to get the wing foiling. On several occasions I have made 10, 20 maybe even 30 loops. First one way, then the other. Then a normal downstroke. Then 2 loops. -you know the drill. All while I'm standing on a semi submerged board and not being able to get that last big push to gain enough speed and get the board out of the water.
Once I get going it's no problem to keep foiling. I can even sail through patches of even lighter wind. But once I touchdown to gybe I'm fucked again.

So. I'm happy with my wing. I'm happy with my kites and I'm happy with my board as long as I have plenty of power. But I have started to think about getting a light wind specific board.

Any recommendations?
What should I look for? I'm guessing, plenty of volume, big flat outline (I don't care how agile and fun the board is, since it is only intended for cruising in light wind) and light weight.
Would a old race board with a homemade KFbox maybe work?

I remember once seeing a Tema Vento board that was huge. But I can't really find any info about it on their website.

What are your thoughts?
Rasmus

[slowboat]

Foil with more lift (like an SUP foil) will help your light wind problem and will be more fun in the waves.

Getting a bigger board at your skill level is going backwards.

[grigorib]

10/10 would recommend Moses 633 setup.
185 sq.in (1200 sq.cm) wing rides up to 20 MPH easily. Goes up on the wing instantly and you can almost stop in transitions if you’d like.
Beautiful, modular. I rode mine on 71/91cm masts, hopefully will try it on 105cm soon as well.

I’m riding it with a “pocket” 42” Slingshot Dwarfcraft board, strapless. Since the wing flies right up in the water the board size doesn’t matter

[Peter_Frank]

Hej Rasmus

See this thread for one option at least: viewtopic.php?f=196&t=2399509

The board is way more important than the wing, I am not in doubt at all, but you know that I can read.

Of course bigger wings is a must, but the board is by far the most important factor regarding "how low can you go" - I have just had these very experiences again the last two days - one can not believe how much the board matters, till one has experienced this.

Dont believe in those saying it does not matter, and it is only the wing that matters, as this is pure bullshit, honestly, it does NOT work like that...

Ciao from Peter

[tomtom]

Peter,

Did you try really big wing which you have problem "not to fly" like takooma or go foil? It is not by any mean to question validness of your opinion on this subject. I just want to if you think that is
benefit to have bigger board also with these?

[grigorib]

...
Of course bigger wings is a must, but the board is by far the most important factor regarding "how low can you go" - I have just had these very experiences again the last two days - one can not believe how much the board matters, till one has experienced this.

Dont believe in those saying it does not matter, and it is only the wing that matters, as this is pure bullshit, honestly, it does NOT work like that...

Ciao from Peter

Pure bullshit or not at least I’m not a dealer and not trying to push race gear sales to people trying to ride LW, [wink]...

If you have in mind absolute lowend like 3 knots wind, then yes, you need an effing SUP holding you afloat before you gain any speed.

But if you’re talking 8-10 knots of wind and riding up most of time (not a beginner) then on a large LW wing it’s much more fun to actually get up upon first kite stroke and foil all along rather than trying to make a blade-narrow, high-AR, small wing dragged under water until it reaches speed it needs to fly.

Just have a look at size of the wings in the thread you referenced. Then try to mount a proper LW wing like 633 to such a hippopotamus board, ride it and ask yourself a question “why did I need that board size”.

Small boards look good, weigh less, easy to travel with and they don’t look a rider is compensating for some small parts (wings)

Consider touching water when foiling a problem - same as not landing jumps. It doesn't matter how high you go if you don't land it. It doesn't matter how fast you go if you can't fly through transitions. You still can get a formula board and practice silliness of going fast on water _all the time_ or every time your foil board touches water (regardless how fancy your transitions are) consider it a failure and either practice more or pick a larger wing so you can actually foil all the time.

[grigorib]

... My 15m flies easy in 8 knots, and it's not a super big issue to drag my ass out of the water either. BUT.. it is hard for me to generate enough speed to get the wing foiling.
...

If your board is moving and foil is not flying - you got too "fast" of a wing mounted. The 15m strutless is also not the best looping energy generating kite size, you should be fine riding a 12m at most with a proper foil, even at 100 kg of body weight.
Which foil setup are you riding?

[Peter_Frank]

You got your opinion grigorib, but I think you are wrong, very wrong....

Board size means so much you wont believe it, in terms of riding in marginal winds or with smaller kites

Regarding the wing on the picture, yes it is one of my smaller racelike wings on a day with lots of wind (and jumping), but remember I got 5 wings and use the big ones +800 and 1000 cm2 when really light.

But having a faster wing AND being able to start with the right board, is a great sensation and will often push your lowend because of the apparent wind where you blast through lulls, but that is another topic.

I dont like racing in any way myself - and raceboards are seriously another world and NOT good for our freeride lightwind use.

Being heavier means you push the marginal wind range a few knots up, so for a heavy rider a marginal wind board for medium weights is perfect in light wind for heavier riders
Especially with LEI kites, board size means even more as you can not get the diving/looping peak power to pull you up, but the right board will still push your lowend even further also with foilkites.

If you honestly think a really big wing only, will work, I say your are so wrong you wont believe it, and you miss out a lot
A "SUP" like board is no fun, as it is heavy and clumsy in maneuvers, and for jumping they are useless too.

I have borrowed and tried many lightwind boards, but they all got some disadvantages.
Either too big and clumsy, or too heavy, or not really pushing the low end (like raceboards)

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and what they like, but the board plays a huge role in terms of light and marginal wind riding both with huge wings and smaller wings, believe me.

I just read your post in the other thread now, and am almost about to ask "what is wrong with you" ???

I have never made any claims about it being easy to travel with, I wanted to share some joy and real life experiences with everybody, thats the idea, having searched and pushed the low end for many years both with kites and wings and boards.
Also, low weight and stiffness is key to starting and pumping in low winds, and feeling small in maneuvers, everybody knows this, so the raceboardstyle build is of course the very best (but for some reason you also say this is wrong...)

I wont comment more on such a post, as it makes no sense apart from seeming like a personal attack, where you for some reason deliberately attack everything also what others have experienced themeselves.
So I wont waste more time on that

PF

[grigorib]

Don't take it harshly. It's just me being overly sarcastic because you're pushing some weird stuff which doesn't correlate a bit with riders' choice and opinions which I listen to closely - Fred, Gunnar, Greg.

You have access to all/any finest gear and I'm just puzzled why your perspective is so different.

Occasionally I have this feeling meeting a knowledgeable, intelligent person, speaking same language but it feels they're from another planet and do things so differently it blows my mind.

Just as in above reply - properly structured small LEI kite gives you exactly maximum looping power, unlike strutless LEIs or foils.

No offense, even though you called my opinion complete BS first

[Pedro Marcos]

100kg ? 19m or 21 foil kite