I threw this together this week to experiment with. 60cm x 38cm. XPS foam from Home Depot and 3x 4oz glass top and bottom. 22mm carbon fiber tube I had from a bar project epoxied in middle. Weighs 1.0 kg. Cost maybe $30 plus time.
Took some time to figure out how to water start- basically have to angle board just right and pop up instantly onto the foil. Much harder than my normal 145x42cm plywood board. I was on 5.5m BRM Cloud mostly decently powered.
Once up, I immediately got speed wobbles like on a skate longboard. Even when I got foot position balance correctly it still felt tiring on the legs, as the tiny ultra light board meant I felt every bump and twitch of chop and water texture. After an hour struggling like I was learning to foil all over again it started to click and I could relax and not strain so much. The wobbles stopped and I started playing in the 2-3 foot rolling swell. I could turn tighter and maneuver the board in ways I haven’t on my big heavy board. It was eye opening! Gybing carves on the swell was very fun. They say the foilboard doesn’t matter once you’re up but it definitely does. My regular plywood board weighs almost 5 kg. This micro board is 5 times lighter and more than 2x shorter with so much less swing weight and inertia to overcome.
However, the maneuverability has its drawbacks, as normally I can do flying footswitch to either side 80% success on my regular board. On the micro I couldn’t come close to 1. The board is so twitchy and jumpy when I unweight with the kite.
I’ll probably train on it a while then go back, or build something in between. It’s a fun experiment for now, though frustrating at times. Might have to add a strap or two like Horst Sergio’s micro boards.
Jesse