kiteboy dave said...

glendog said..
Because riding without jumping or tricking is flippin boring. This is a big circle convo. Hahaha but im not sold.

Good, don't foil.

Everyone is into something different, like Kemp & Dafish have said already.

I personally don't see any point in wakestyle, totally boring to me, but it won comps for a decade because it's technically difficult to land a triple spinny roll with double bar pass to blind. Even if it looks like every other wakestyle flippy spinny thing done 1m off the water. But I know other guys see that as the core of kiting, for them, so I don't see any point in knocking it. Whatever floats your boat.

But it's worth mentioning that there's a whole lot of styles of foiling emerging. Surf. Big air. Race. Speed (distinct from Race). Freestyle.

You can jump big because you have the ingredients: speed, load, and a built in ramp better than any TT pop.

But you can also do tricks if that's your cup of tea. Look at the kite flying in these vids, 3.5m kite in gusting 40kts.

Greg Drexler of BRM blows me away pushing freestyle foiling. Check here how he's flying it like a rev. I've never seen anyone do this in 15 years of kitesurfing.

Have a look at the transition at 2:20 - kite roll under on the water, there's 3 or 4 of them in the vid, it's deliberate. Again, totally unique.

Faaarkk offfff!! Those guys can absolutely shred. The kite control on that little white kite was epic. And the foils offs on the slinggy blew my mind. Thanks you for sharing. I think I'm gonna buy one tomorrow

Good points here. I am cynical about fads and about zealots. I also have a surf-first attitude. But I can report that foiling is a nice addition to the quiver. It isn't "the answer!!!" or "going to change everything!!!", but it's a new challenge that can make those "meh" days fun again.

I took kite lessons in France on a family vacation in 2010 and saw a guy out on a foil. At that time, the only foiling in media was the Laird tow-in show. I thought it looked pretty wild, but figured it was out of reach. When I got home, someone had posted an ad for that same original carafino, for "cheap" (relative to the crazy $ new). A very rare fluke ... so I grabbed it, even before I could kite. It sat in the corner for 2 years, while in the meantime foiling took off in the kite racing world, then hit the mainstream.

Anyways, point is, that early carafino foil was a modified AirChair they use for waterskiing. Designed to ride at about a 30 degree angle like a water ski, tons of drag, very slow, easy to get up but low top end. Fun novelty to be up above the water, but that's about as far as it went. No one would call that a game changer. But I upgraded to a stringy foil (similar to zeeko black/white or carver wing) and it's insane how different it is. Like a knife through butter, no resistance in the water, turns crazy fast, and holds as much speed as I realistically want. This is different enough, and offers enough new capabilities, that you could spend a whole bunch of time and still have stuff to learn.

I am finding my main foil interest is carving swells downwind, it's a super cool feeling. I want to carve tacks like Greg Drexler ... though the gymnastics elude me. On any given day, I have foil, twintip, and surfboard on the beach, and ideally use all 3, mix it up, keep it fun. But if there's breaking waves, no question, I'll be on my surfboard.

Bottom line, if you have a few extra $ sitting around, definitely a fun new toy. Or review the DIY threads for cheap options!

PS

Boards: I agree, most of the focus on boards is nonsense. People are using wakeskates, skimboards, and surfboards, makes little difference for non-racers.

Roller: foilers are NOT the rollerblades of kiting, that is twintippers, especially in boots! Foilers are the unicyclists of kiting. Complete with red clown nose and horn.

kiteboy dave said..

Greg Drexler of BRM blows me away pushing freestyle foiling.

Greg would definitely have to be the George Greenough of kite surfing (or foiling.. confused now).

Who's GG you young grommets ask?

Enjoy and praise the Lord himself! (maybe this should have been posted in the Longboard group)

eppo said..
Wanna try it before I comment on whether it's good or not. Maybe some of us should do the same hey.

Recon you would love it Eppo. It will literally pull your low end of super powered days down 8 knots.

You would be able to take your airstyle to the foil in winds that otherwise would see you supping or mowing with no jumps or just sitting on the beach waiting for fun winds getting pissed off that its not windy enough.

Then also a choppy ****ty day becomes an epic flatwater session. No more chop. Chop is gone! I hate chop. No more grinding upwind endlessly. Upwind is fun and fast and stupid angles.

Like others have said choose the tool for the job.
Sweet waves go ride a surfboard,
Epic wind go boost until your scratch gods eyes out,
Epic flat water do your airstyle.
****ty average wind, crappy chop foil like fark.

Plummet said...

eppo said..
Wanna try it before I comment on whether it's good or not. Maybe some of us should do the same hey.

Recon you would love it Eppo. It will literally pull your low end of super powered days down 8 knots.

You would be able to take your airstyle to the foil in winds that otherwise would see you supping or mowing with no jumps or just sitting on the beach waiting for fun winds getting pissed off that its not windy enough.

Then also a choppy ****ty day becomes an epic flatwater session. No more chop. Chop is gone! I hate chop. No more grinding upwind endlessly. Upwind is fun and fast and stupid angles.

Like others have said choose the tool for the job.
Sweet waves go ride a surfboard,
Epic wind go boost until your scratch gods eyes out,
Epic flat water do your airstyle.
****ty average wind, crappy chop foil like fark.

This from the guy who said regularly foil riders were just in an overly excited honeymoon phase :D

Kamikuza said..

Plummet said...

This from the guy who said regularly foil riders were just in an overly excited honeymoon phase :D

I never bagged hydrofoiling and always wanted to do it. And yes until you have done it to death its the honeymoon phase.

eppo said..
Yeh mn just waiting for someone to come down and offer me one to try. I'm past chasing anything lol. One day....

right now my average days are teaching my son. he stayed upwind today...fck yeh.

Stoked about your boy going upwind! Kiting time is now family time! You cunning bastard!

eppo said..
Yeh mn just waiting for someone to come down and offer me one to try. I'm past chasing anything lol. One day....

right now my average days are teaching my son. he stayed upwind today...fck yeh.

My kids aren't showing interest. yet.

You can't try It like having a go on a different board. Like when you first started kitesurfing you have to commit to a learning phase before the true glory reveals its self.

Miser said..

You have met hundreds of dudes in the naki plumbobs? that were stroked?

No. I've seen one tourist foiling I the naki and that's. I'm talking about stoked internt warriors like dudes on this thread.

Kamikuza said..
My, we have a short memory...and I don't think you understand what honeymoon means

its that period where the sheep still thinks you are just helping it over the fence

or just for you kuza

its that period when you still believe the local ladys love you because you are great and not just because they have for thousands of years been convinced they are superior race and they only see you as a cheeky bad boy gimmick or expensive oddity. that being said it helps your rivals are mostly living in parents living room playing super mario and going to bed with their female pillows.

juandesooka said..

Roller: foilers are NOT the rollerblades of kiting, that is twintippers, especially in boots!

Go pull the other one mate.

I gave it a go but in the end found myself wanting to get on my surfboard. I was still in the learning phase but I could get up and go back and forth. I just didn't want to commit the hours needed to progress when I had more fun on my surfboard. It was real fun though at the beginning though and I don't think it's just a craze, just depends on your taste.

Gazuki said...

Viewing from the outside foiling seems a lot like tantric sex,.. you spend a long time to perfect this art which gives you a feeling greater than any other form. Me personally,. I would rather **** like a porn star!

You do know this is a kitesurfing forum right?

Gazuki said..

Viewing from the outside foiling seems a lot like tantric sex,.. you spend a long time to perfect this art which gives you a feeling greater than any other form. Me personally,. I would rather **** like a porn star!

so you're all smoke and mirrors then ?? :)

Miser said..

Kamikuza said..
My, we have a short memory...and I don't think you understand what honeymoon means

its that period where the sheep still thinks you are just helping it over the fence

or just for you kuza

its that period when you still believe the local ladys love you because you are great and not just because they have for thousands of years been convinced they are superior race and they only see you as a cheeky bad boy gimmick or expensive oddity. that being said it helps your rivals are mostly living in parents living room playing super mario and going to bed with their female pillows.

Um . . . ohhh-kay.

You will notice in all those comments I never bagged hydrofoiling. I simply stated that for the most part most if not all of the people commenting are still in the honeymoon phase. Now that may or may not be a perfect term for what I mean. But I stand by those statements.

If you have exhausted your progression with what ever other sports or disciplines. The new sport or discipline will be more fun, more enjoyable, you will want to do it more often while you have that steep learning curve compared to the other sports you are very competent at.

It is only when you have reached equal saturation and equivalent skill levels can you compare which sports you actually enjoy more.

It took me 15 years to reach that point mountain biking, 6 years for landboarding, 7 years of regular kitesurfing, 3 years for longboard skating,
How long will it take for the hydrofoil? I don't know.

Shall we change the term so your virgina doesn't get a wide on about it when mentioned?

Lets call it "progression saturation"

Until you have reached your progression saturation of the new sport your wont truly know it fits in with the other sports you have already reached progression saturation with.

Progress saturation...man I'm still learning new tricks (that I generally can't do) on my supposedly prehistoric twin tip...

eppo said..
Progress saturation...man I'm still learning new tricks (that I generally can't do) on my supposedly prehistoric twin tip...

That's the advantage of being a trickster. You can entertain yourself for years on slightly different variations of the same thing.

I've tried to embrace tricks but i'm not a trickster in any of my sports. I call myself a terrain rider. I love aggressive riding and jumping in interesting terrain. That could be a gnarly root infested mountain track on my mtb. dicing it out in big waves down the coast. Punting sweet jumps when its super windy, ripping the dunes in the kite buggy or now figuring out how the hell to ride 2m swell on a hydrofoil!

The downside. There is a limit to my progression in each sport. Thus I keep adding additional types of terrain riding when I find my personal limits of the previous sports.