i don't know why but for some reason this forum seems to need to argue the benifits of foils v inflatable.
The fact is they are both good for different reasons and different styles/applications.
I had a cranken session last night on my 10 manta (depower foil) on the landboard in 20-25 knots it was freaken powered and good fun. gusty as shit but i was grinning like a crazed monkey. i was fangen 50+kphs with drift wood boulders and buildings meters down wind. It was dangerous, but fun. I had complete faith in my foil in those conditions not to be dragged into the drift wood.
A couple of weeks back i had an epic boosting wave session (similar height to the fs vid a few pages back) height was insane glide was epic, hooning up behind the wave boosting and landing on the wave face was insane, you could see my grin from the beach. I was flying the 11m ozone edge in similar 20-25 knot wind.
Now the 10m manta is about the same power than the 11m edge so its a fair comparison sle v foil high aspect sle high aspect foil. 08 manta v 09 edge. I'm compitent at flying both.
So which one wins?
The edge has more depower, faster and smooth as indeed. boosting is insane.
The manta has less depower, is more powered (obviously) but thats a good thing, the power melts away when you slow down. Boosting has less height but glide is far superior. The touch down on the manta is soft and battery smooth every time with the edge you come down alot faster and need to time the re-direct alot better to get a buttery smooth landing.
When stopped and parked with the kite at the edge of the window the manta is far more stable and wont fall out of the sky if you let go of the bar.
Which one do i prefer? in trueth the glide of the manta gives me the biggest grin factor. But ripping it up in 4m swell in 25 knots on a fast inflatable pretty damn close second!! Horses for courses. I'll use my foils/inflatables when the conditions demand.