Here is a review from Mark Shinn posted on Kiteforum.
in a couple of days we will have our own demo teamed with the Zeeko Pocket Air board and Notus Air 8m hydrofoil dedicated kite.
there will be demo's also in Perth and you may hunt down owners in NSW and Queensland, they'll be the ones attacking the waves.
Enjoy Mark's comments.
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Hi all,
I don't often write here but when I have something I think is significant to say I will say it.
Now seems a significant moment.
Shinn has been selling Zeeko foils with our boards the past year and I was fortunate enough to receive Spitfire #01 last week which I promptly took to Tenerife with me for testing.
As a passionate foiler (albeit not expert one) I am as keen as anyone to test it.

Notes first.......
My normal ride is a Zeeko carbon foil with Carver wing.
I only ride Shinn boards (normally prototypes) - no surprise there then!
I used the foil 3 times, once with the Ozone Chronos V2 UL 11m in marginal winds and twice with Blade 8m Skinny Boy wave kite in stronger conditions.
Wind conditions.... unstable in all cases but I used the same kite with the Spitfire as I did with the Carbon/Carver combination.

This foil is different. Very different. Not bad at all but if you are a foiler of a year or 2 you need to make some adjustments. I only used the Spitfire strapless so I don't have to worry about strap and foil position as I can move my feet at will but I did need to make several conscious adjustments to find the sweet spot.

At first I was not convinced for lower level foilers, I ride with a GPS and at 22 kph I found the Spitfire very twitchy.... the canard appeared to be catching and dropping alot and it was hard to find a steady ground. After one run though I found that at 24 kph the foil stabilises nicely and at 26 kph it's very stable. NOTE I am talking KPH NOT KNOTS!!!!!!

Once fast enough the foil is very stable indeed and tracks nicely. I felt I could drive it upwind fast. It feels normal, it is only at lower speeds that you feel the pitch control differently (or at least maybe I should say that I, personally, felt the pitch control differently).

Early starting it is good, I'm not sure better than the carver wing but not alot of difference. The difference is that on the carver wing once you start foiling you have time to drink a coffee, adjust your harness, call the wife etc...... on the Spitfire you want to get on with it and accelerate immediately because I only achieve stability at higher speeds than the carver.

Carving is ...... we'll, there is nothing to discus. It's fantastic. It feels more "natural" for a surfer. In fact, if I can apply my own logic I would say in a "normal" foil you have a wing and a stabiliser. In practise on this foil you have a wing and a stabiliser too but the stabiliser is in front of your back foot, not behind it.....it's a wonderful feeling for carving, I loved it but you have to maintain speed...... on a carver you can flirt with cavitation all the time...maintaining just enough speed to keep foiling, on the Spitfire you want to have more speed to maintain stability and at first it feels a little out of the comfort zone. On the Chronos I felt that the kite seriously hindered the performance in the turns. The kite is too much slower than the foil and you can't feel the benefits. On the 8m wave kite you can feel what the foil can do as the kite turns fast enough to keep up.

OK, if you want fact stop reading now. The following is purely my "opinion".

Beginners...... is this good to learn on? I have NO idea and I don't believe anyone that learns on a "normal" foil can comment. The feeling is different for sure and it took me some time to adapt... but if you have no experience at all maybe it is as easy to learn the Spitfire technique as the normal way .... time will tell but only when newcomers start with the Spitfire.

Transitions - for any turns that I made without switching my feet I loved the Spitfire but I didn't master the foiling foot-switch yet. The timing is different but more importantly the speed. I normally bleed speed on the carver wing, switch feet then accelerate and on the Spitfire you need to switch with speed.... this is probably as much a failing of my technique as anything but I am writing an honest account of my feelings..... in 10 days I will be back in Tenerife and spend some more time on the Spitfire and may change my mind on this!

So in summary..... is it a game changer? You'll have to ask someone else but I love the out the box thinking, I love the turn on it and I think it opens the door to the future.
So thank you Nicolas and Zeeko....... indeed I think you made some people scratch their heads!!!!



Mark Shinn