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Foil - wave riding

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mike holmes
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Re: Foil - wave riding

Postby mike holmes » Tue Jul 30, 2013 11:54 am

Foil in waves looks pointless to me. You can't offda'lip properly and there is no splash :roll:

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Re: Foil - wave riding

Postby ronnie » Tue Jul 30, 2013 1:58 pm

mike holmes wrote:Foil in waves looks pointless to me. You can't offda'lip properly and there is no splash :roll:
But you might be able to ride upside down in the tube hanging from the top of the tube at Jaws. Apparently that is one of the hopes Laird Hamilton had when he was first developing the foil for surfing.

It may be that a foil strapless would work on a very big fast wave with chop on the surface.

Like most things, it would be interesting to see how far it could be developed.

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Re: Foil - wave riding

Postby ChristoffM » Tue Jul 30, 2013 8:58 pm

I wonder how many people are actually trying foilboard in the waves? Foilboard are still scarce (which can be expected given their cost and learning curve), and most people getting them get them because they have light wind (which is often also flat water). There must be only a handful of people riding foilboards in waves I guess.

Despite it looking quite unimpressive, with no cut-backs, no spray, just gentle down the line riding, I find that riding a wave on a foilboard is quite addictive. Once you have felt the energy of the wave on a foilboard, then any surfboard will feel very mushy and slow, unless the waves are massive.

I am sure in the future we will see some smooth turns on the wave and maybe some other manoeuvres and not only down the line riding, but at the moment simply riding the wave is challenging and exciting enough for me. We will definitely need improved foilboard designs to do more in the waves. I think the improvements we would need are:
- a wider speed range. We need a foil that can go fast (I am too limited on my board to go fast down the line on big fast moving wave), but we still need to retain the good low speed performance of the current lower aspect ratio design foilboards
- Slightly longer keel part- my keel (distance between board and foil wings) is 80cm. This is nice, but I find it is sometimes difficult to keep my wings under the water without my board touching the water. It also allows more range in your height control giving you slightly more time to correct your height. But who knows. Maybe a longer keel makes everything else more difficult?
- more practice. Its difficult enough getting on the wave without speeding down the face and out in front of it (a foilboard has so little drag that slowing down is not too easy).

Oh, yes, I think wiping out with a foil in waves with other kiters would not make you popular. Thank goodness for winter. 80% of the time I am the only one out this time of year, because no one else can kite in under 10 knots of wind when the wind is light, and few people will kite in the rain when the wind is stronger.

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Re: Foil - wave riding

Postby Europ2 » Wed Jul 31, 2013 3:56 pm

ChristoffM wrote:I am sure in the future we will see some smooth turns on the wave and maybe some other manoeuvres
The future is today with Marc BLANC ... strapless :wink:
Looking forward to watching this in bigger waves :o


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Re: Foil - wave riding

Postby BraCuru » Mon Dec 23, 2013 5:21 pm

Lanzarote in November. Only one day out with a gopro and this is short video showing potential of wavefoiling in future:
Last edited by BraCuru on Sat Feb 23, 2019 8:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Foil - wave riding

Postby föhn » Mon Dec 23, 2013 10:32 pm

+1 :thumb: +1

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Re: Foil - wave riding

Postby tautologies » Mon Dec 23, 2013 11:31 pm

mike holmes wrote:Foil in waves looks pointless to me. You can't offda'lip properly and there is no splash :roll:
they are very different in waves. Not in a bad way unless you expect to hit the lip hard. They are much more fluid. You'd be surfprised at how small waves you can ride with a foil..the biggest problem in smaller waves is that it is shallow...but in general they are really nice in terms of being different and how they flow.

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Re: Foil - wave riding

Postby Flight Time » Tue Dec 24, 2013 5:48 am

All the videos collectively make me feel a great big hearty meh. I can't speak for how it feels, having never ridden a foil, but it sure doesn't raise the pulse to see someone doing it, that's for sure. It seems like it subtracts all of what makes wave riding fantastic, and replaces it with a hovering, floaty sensation. Isn't the point of wave riding the "connection" with the water, you know, the rips, the carves, and the water flying everywhere when you slash the crest of the wave?

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Re: Foil - wave riding

Postby tautologies » Tue Dec 24, 2013 6:27 am

Flight Time wrote:All the videos collectively make me feel a great big hearty meh. I can't speak for how it feels, having never ridden a foil, but it sure doesn't raise the pulse to see someone doing it, that's for sure. It seems like it subtracts all of what makes wave riding fantastic, and replaces it with a hovering, floaty sensation. Isn't the point of wave riding the "connection" with the water, you know, the rips, the carves, and the water flying everywhere when you slash the crest of the wave?

Absolutely not. It is always better to ride a glassy wave than a choppy one. Well imagine being able to ride the smoothest wave ever.
I wouldn't want to do that everytime, but mixing it up a bit is always good in my book.

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Re: Foil - wave riding

Postby BraCuru » Thu Dec 26, 2013 9:47 am

Flight Time wrote:It seems like it subtracts all of what makes wave riding fantastic
I thought the same 6 months ago. In the meantime I had twice a chance to ride on the proper wave with 10s plus period. And it was surprising fun. Feeling of the wave was unexpected great.
Most of us believe that once a foiler is a meter above water he cannot feel the water.
Wrong, wrong, wrong! Who rode waves knows what I am talking about :idea:

There is similar discussion on the Polish forum where majority of riders disbelieve as you.
I gave them to think saying that most of us understand, feel and see the Newton's law of universal gravitation. However it might be much more difficult to us to understand and first of all to feel or see the Einstein’s theory of relativity, which superseded a 200-year-old theory of mechanics :wink:

It’s a matter of time to see top foilers riding more waves, doing aerials, crazy tricks and generally bending our classical understanding of wave riding. I believe and enjoy it :D


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