I am puzzled by some of the comments regarding foil shimming to change the angle of the foil to the board. I recently shimmed my foil - the Smik sup I have has a lot of tail rocker and the foil box is quite far back. My logic was that when I was paddling into a wave - the foil was definitely nose down causing drag not lift. Now my logic is that although this will affect paddling in general - on a steep enough wave - it will be fine as you will be standing well back anyway. But I want to do downwinders so I think that it should be at least parallel on the normal paddle position - if not slightly lifting. I have heard people say that it make the foil unstable AFTER take off. For the life of me I cannot understand that? Unless you are lucky enough to live at a class wave spot - take off is everything, a few degrees will make lot of difference. But once you are flying surely the board is just as happy - a few degrees up or down from optimal . I have a few kite foil boards - they all fly at different angles to the foil and I dont care. Crucially with a kite you have so much power and something to push against - that take off is easy.

Why do some think angle matters after take off? am I missing something ?