Foiling Magazine #5 FREE DIGITAL ISSUE

I N C LU DING

MI CHEL B OUREZ I NTERV I EW

WIN D

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B U YER ’ S

TH E WATER MAN O F C H IBA

G U I D E

TH E 10 1: H OW TO E-F O IL

// TESTED // F- O N E + U N I F OI L + F L I TEB OA RD + AK + NAI S H + AXI S + S LI NGS H OT + RRD + FANATI C 1

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A K D U R A B L E S U P P LYC O . C O M

A K S U R F FO I L With our Stealth fuselage, lightweight pre-preg carbon wings and advanced hydrodynamic profiles, the AK Surf Foil glides through the water like a hot knife through butter...

R I D E R : A LVA RO O N I E VA P H OTO : A N TO N I O H E R R E R A T RU J I L LO RIDER: ZANE SCHWEITZER

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P H OTO : A DA M K L E V I N

SURF PUMP WING KITE 5

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Equipped with the massive Infinity 99 wing, boasting 2,371 square centimeters of surface area, it has the lowest takeoff and stall speed in the Slingshot range. The 99cm wingspan provides unmatched rail-to-rail stability and makes getting up on foil easier than ever. Combined with the large 48cm rear stabilizer the ability to pump and glide with this combo is otherworldly.

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CONTENTS F

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THE WATERMAN OF CHI BA

T H E VAN V U U RE NS

Jun Adegawa’s love for his home province proved strong

Despite having big shoes to fill, Nathan van Vuuren has

enough to draw him back from a waterman lifestyle on

managed to carve out a career for himself working along-

Maui. He returned home with an even more open mind when

side his father (and boss of Signature Performance Gear)

it came to ways of enjoying the ocean, and brought plenty

Ivan van Vuuren, with both nurturing each other’s growth

of that multi-discipline lifestyle with him…

within the industry and on the water along the way.

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THE MI CHEL BOUREZ I NTERVI EW

WIND WING B U Y E R’S GU IDE

Ok, so this interview took place before World Surfing League

Christmas might be several months away yet but that’s

pro rider Michel’s brush with death at the hands of a particu-

no reason not to start that list, and the must-have item

larly determined hammerhead shark while out foiling. But we

for any hydrofoiler right now is the wind wing. So we

made sure we got an update on that, too.

compiled the definitive list of the best…

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24 EX POS UR E // 5 4 UP LOA D E D : L I F T DOC U M EN TA RY // 5 6 R I S I N G U P : U L I SS ES P ER EI R A // 58 SE CR E T S P OT // 6 0 T H E O UT E R BA N KS : DOU B L E W HA M M Y // 66 DY N A M I C S : HY DR OF OI L M AT E RIA L S // 70 R E D L E T T E R DAY: ZA N E S C HW EI TZ ER & DY L A N W I CHM A N N // 8 2 THE G OOD ST UFF // 112 GL I D E R S : A BE L L AGO // 1 1 6 B ACKSTORY: U N I F OI L // 1 2 2 THE 1 01 : E- F OI L I N G // 126 WIN G CO MMA N D E R : P I O MA R AS CO // 1 4 0 TESTED // 1 5 6 I N B OU N D // 1 74 F OR ES I G HT: E R I K A N TO N S O N // 1 76 STATE OF P L AY: G L EN N EL JOR DA N

LEFT Bevan Gooch cutting lines in some Coromandel quicksilver…

Photo: Paul C. Schrader C OV E R This is how Dylan Wichmann starts his day. How about you?

Photo: Kyle Cabano

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CONT E N TS

Solid...

Balanced...

Powerful! sizes: 3.5/4.5/5.5

From the first prototypes to the final production model, developing the A-Wing has been a total blast!

We’ve been riding and testing in all kinds of crazy conditions, making sure that the A-Wing lives up to the Armstrong philosophy of better by design!

Each step of the development process we were searching for the ideal balance between power and feel while reducing leading edge flex to a minimum. From SUP boards to sinkers we are confident that the A-Wing has the power and performance to get you up and riding even in light winds!

6r m i e a r m S t r o n G G e o r G i a S c h o f i e l d R I D E R : 1a

In Combination with the HS High Speed Series Fresh off the Press!

The new and super sleek High Speed 1850 is the largest performance surf wing in our HS range. It’s fast, stable, has great glide and is incredibly responsive for its size! Perfect for carving turns or shredding smaller waves then pumping back out for more, plus it rides like a dream with the A-Wing.

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E D I TO R IA L

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ED ITORIAL Given the unpredictability of 2020, I’m not going to make many concrete assertions in my introduction to issue #5 of this magazine, for fear of getting the proverbial egg on my face. But I’ll go out on a limb on one… Wing foiling is not only here to stay, but it’ll continue, for some time, to proliferate quicker than any other aspect within the foiling spectrum.

You might already be convinced of this, or perhaps on the fence, but to those who doubt it I can safely say that from my perspective, sat here in my office (which is sadly not at the beach, but I can at least hear the surf from here), staring at approximately 50 unread emails, I would confidently predict that over half of them will contain either images, copy, or news about wind wings. Sure, this may not qualify it as scientifically proven, but the simple truth is that we’re getting more and more content involving wind wings sent our way.

And this visibility is matched by an arms race of new wings appearing to match the demand, and not just from brands with a heritage in inflatable products, but from many pure foil brands too. Which is a great sign.

The appeal is pretty obvious. Winging equals complete freedom on the water and harnesses the essence of other sports, whether it’s surfing, kitesurfing or windsurfing. Consequently we’re seeing plenty of crossover athletes take up wing foiling. Names you’ll see in these very pages, such as Olivia Jenkins, Zane Schweitzer, and – you guessed it – Kai Lenny.

So, whether you doubted the rise at the beginning, or you were only convinced of it the first time you saw one of the contemporary pioneers (most likely Kai Lenny) on your social media feed of choice, there’s no question that wing foiling is now here to stay, which has given us the opportunity to beat the drum pretty hard in its favor within this issue too. Alongside plenty of grade-A photo and written content, we’ve also got our first Wind Wing Buyer’s Guide, an overview of the best wind wings currently available to those who are keen to get out and fly…

Of course, as the superb sunrise cover shot of Dylan Wichmann suggests, we’ve not wholly handed ourselves over to the lure of the wind wing. What we have for you here is a magazine that is loaded with all manner of foil adventure and insight dispatched to us from all over the world, as the global foiling community shakes off a tricky few months and emerges into the “new normal” (sorry) with an even more resolute sense of itself, and of our ability to get out there and have fun, no matter the conditions.

Enjoy the issue.

Cai Waggett E DITOR

LEFT

Kai and Ridge Lenny… Two riders who can claim a lot of the credit for the proliferation of the wind wing thanks to their mind-bending aerial exploits and marathon downwinders…

Photo: Richard Hallman 19

E DITOR I A L

New Mast Geometry Easy control at any speed Lightweight Aircraft Grade Extruded Aluminum Up to 25% lighter than 2020 Stiffer in both Torsion & Bend Direct response to rider input Bonded Board Mount & Fuselage Connection Sealed with no water leakage

100% Pre-Preg Carbon Fiber Wing & Stabilizer 25% lighter

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LIGHTER STRONGER Faster Modular Stainless Steel Hardware Superior torque + corrosion resistant CNC Precision Cut aluminum Fuselage With corrosion resistant helicoil inserts

The Naish Design Team - working closely with

our global team and ambassadors - developed and refined a new line of lighter, stronger, stiffer foils for riders of all ability levels. Whether surf, SUP or Wing foiling, Naish has the right set up between our Jet series and expanded HA (High Aspect) range. Our complete foil packages come in multiple wing options which can be customized for optimum performance and specific riders’ needs. Weight is dramatically reduced on all components of our modular system. Our new alloy mast is lighter and stiffer than 90% of the carbon masts on the market yet retains the durability and integrity of aluminum.

Jet Foil Complete: 1050, 1250, 1650, 2000, 2450 Jet HA Foil Complete: 1240, 1400, 1800

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PRODUCTION TEAM Editor: Cai Waggett Editor-in-Chief: Alex Hapgood Art Director: Nikki Hall Digital Marketing: Tom Weyers Technical Editor: Richard Boughton Contributing Editor: Kjell Issey van Sice CONTRIBUTORS Abel Lago, Adam Klevin, Adrian Geislinger, Amores Creative, Armie Armstrong, Antoine Badin, Bellie, Ben Thouard, Benjamin Geislinger, Benny Ferris, Benoit Carpentier, Bevan Gooch, Bob Stawicki, Bombom & Tojal, Carlos Gonzalez, Charles Bertrand, Chris Bertish, Clifford Coetzer, Damien LeRoy, Dougie Newell, Dylan Wichmann, Erik Antonson, Evan Mavridoglou, Gabriel Bachelet, Gary Siskar, Georgia Schofield, Glennel Jordan, Gustavo Arrojo, Ivan van Vuuren, James Casey, Jayde Stent, Javier Fernández, Jerry Mihimana, Jesse Richman, Joan Duru, John Carter, Jun Adegawa, Karl Muggeridge, Kemper Antonson, Kim Hanskamp, Kyle Cabano, Manuel Selman Garcia, Martin Allen, Matteo Guazzoni, Michel Bourez, Michi Schweiger, Nathan van Vuuren, Nick Leason, Nils Brz, Noah Andrews, Olivia Jenkins, Paul C. Schrader, Paul Campion, Paul Karaolides, Pedro Gomes, Pio Marasco, Ridge Lenny, Rodrigo Donoso, Ross Williams, Russell Ord, Samuel Tomé, Sarah Antonson, Sofie Louca, Thomas Burblies, Ulisses Pereira, Vincent Bergeron, Zane Schweitzer A DV E R T I S I N G All advertising enquiries can be sent to advertising@thefoilingmagazine.com SUBMISSIONS We’re always on the hunt for foil adventurers who can write and/or take a good photo. Please send your pitch or previous examples of articles/ photography to hello@thefoilingmagazine.com COPYRIGHT All material in Foiling Magazine is subject to copyright. Reproduction without the express permission of the publishers will result in prosecution.

PUBLISHER Foiling Magazine is published by Water Born Media Limited in Hayle, Cornwall.

United Kingdom E N V I R O N M E N TA L This magazine is printed on paper sourced from responsibly managed sources using vegetable based inks. Both the paper used in the production and the manufacturing process are FCS ® certified.

The printers are also accredited to ISO14001, the internationally recognized environmental standard.

FIND US HERE @foilingmagazine foilingmagazine thefoilingmagazine.com

2 Photo: Jayde2Stent

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W W W . R O B E R T O R2 5I C C I D E S I G N S . C O M

R I D E R Jeremy Stephenson P HOTO GR A P HE R Paul Campion LO C AT I ON Muriwai, New Zealand Paul: Located on Auckland’s wild west coast, Muriwai has a well-earned reputation as a heavy wave, and for tow-foil surfing it’s broken three of our boards in the past month. Just getting out into the water requires negotiating a fourwheel drive track, timing the sea surges to launch the jetskis, and running the gauntlet of the dumping shore break to make it out the back. It’s also a little bit sharky – the further out you go, the bigger they get, and just a few days before this a pack of ten juvenile Great Whites were spotted cruising around nearby…

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RIDE R Chris Bertish PHOTO GRAP H E R Bob Stawicki LOCAT ION Hood River Gorge Chris: I’d been wanting to go up and sail and downwind The Gorge in Hood River for over a decade and a month ago I had a week gap and decided to take it. Pretty new into wingfoiling, six months experience wasn’t really enough to really optimize on the conditions at Arlington, as the conditions were next level… 12-mile downwinders, up a river in 35-40knts of breeze, 6-8ft wind chop! This was an experience, winging up in Hood River, and now I know what I need to prepare myself for next year, and I definitely need to up my game!

E XP OS UR E

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RIDE R Dylan Wichmann P H OTOGRAP H E R Kyle Cabano LO C AT ION Muizenberg, Cape Town Dylan: I have been living in Muizenberg my whole life. But until I had started foiling, I had not spent too much time in the water at Muizenberg since my time as a grom. Muizenberg is South Africa’s best learn-to-surf beach, and rapidly becoming Cape Town’s most popular surf foil destination. Over the past two winters that I have been foiling, I haven’t had to venture too far from Muizenberg, with offshore winds almost every day and only the odd day of bigger surf brought in by Cape Town’s winter storms.

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E XPOS U R E

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RIDE R Jesse Richman P H OTOGRAP H E R Scotty Sinton LOC AT ION South Island New Zealand Jesse: On any surfing road trip, the goal is simple, score as many epic waves as possible. This time around, I was in New Zealand with the North Kiteboarding team, we were geared up for everything and traveled close to the country’s entire lengths. Amongst the absolutely stunning scenery, we found the wind and waves that we were searching for. Most of the trip, the foils stayed dry; that is until we came across this beautiful, long, glassy, and deserted wave. As soon as we saw this, we ran through the sheep pasture and straight into the water. Never has 1-2 foot waves created such titillation; gotta love the age of the foil.

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R I D ER Olivia Jenkins PHOTO G R A P HE R Noah Andrews LOC ATIO N Sugar Cove, Maui Olivia: We decided to shoot at around 5pm, because right now the sun is setting at around 7pm so a late afternoon session can capture the most beautiful light. Typically the wind starts to drop around this time, but we got lucky enough that it was still blowing around 20 knots when we got out onto the water. Noah drifted down the coast whilst a few friends and I jumped around him. After about an hour on the water the wind started to die, and I only just made it back to the beach...

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R IDE R Dougie Newell PHOTOGRAP H E R Martin Allen LOC AT ION Isle of Wight Dougie: This was a cheeky foil-wing on my lunch break from work. We launched at a home spot on the west of the Island to foil against the backdrop of the white cliffs of Tennyson Downs with the monument above. The conditions were 15-18 knots southwest cross offshore going south onshore, not the most favorable due to the building chop but on its day this spot has a reeling right-hand point break. It was beautiful, the water was tropically turquoise, and I was riding my homemade 5’2 carbon wing board, AXIS 102 front wing, 400 back wing and a short fuselage paired with a Duotone 4m wing.

E XP OS UR E

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RIDE R Zane Schweitzer PHOTOGRAP H E R Adam Klevin LOCATION Pailolo Channel, Maui Zane: It’s not always about mastering the craft... The focus should instead be on being mindful in the present moment. This is one of the many reasons why I’ve grown up in love with the freedom of windsports. Over the last year or so I’ve adopted a new way to ride the wind utilizing the wind wing and foil. One of the reasons why I’ve been so drawn towards this new evolution in windsports is because of the ease and convenience with rigging, de-rigging and travel, along with the versatility that the wing and foil can bring to your sessions in a diverse range of conditions! Growing up on West Maui I could really appreciate this as the wind line is usually set about a quarter mile off the coast and on average isn’t as consistent or as strong as Maui’s north shore. Regardless, with the foil and the wing there are so many options for fun in the wind and waves near home for me on West Maui. If you want a fun soul session, join me on the Pailolo channel on the west side!

EX POS UR E

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brian solano team rider: ridge lenny

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RIDE R Joan Duru P H OTOGRAP H E R Nils Brz LOC AT ION Seignosse, France Joan: I started foiling because when it’s too small to surf it’s perfect for foiling, and now I love to foil before surfing as it’s the perfect warm up. Now I’m using the foil to work out, my legs are stronger and I paddle the same as I do with surfing, so it’s the perfect combo for training and having fun at the same time.

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E XPOS U R E

RI DERS Matteo Guazzoni, Camille Bouyer, Julien Bouyer PHOTO GRAP H E R Samuel TomÊ LOCATI ON Langebaan, South Africa Matteo: We were shooting the Wind Wing with Samuel, our photographer, in Langebaan and we wanted to capture some dusk shots and the conditions seemed ideal. I was downwind from Camille and Julien, pumping the foil to get in front of them to have better alignment for the shot. It was a late afternoon session and the wind picked up more consistently. The last hour of light is when you can take those golden shots‌

E XP OS UR E

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E XPOS U R E

R I D E R Manuel Selman García P HOTO GR A P HE R Carlos Gonzalez LO C AT I ON Cabarete, DR Manuel: This session was pre-Covid 19. A normal warm and sunny morning with clear waters and with a couple friends at one of our local foil spots in Cabarete on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. Fun as always. It’s a trip that for the last 20 years of my life I have been driving past this spot and never gave it a crack. It’s almost always working for surfing on bigger days but kinda mushy so it would just be a random check on the way to better waves. In retrospect, that’s the best part about foiling, now on the worst mushiest day it’s when I’m out there having the most fun.

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RI DE R Gabriel Bachelet PHOTOGRAP H E R Bruno Sroka LOCAT ION La Palue, Brittany Gabriel: At first we thought that foils would allow us to surf very small and not so pumping waves like this one (and it did). But the evolution of this growing sport pushes the boundaries of what kind of waves we can fly into.

Maybe one day there will be guys riding 5 to 6 foot barreling waves and carving with their foils just like they had a shortboard under their feet. But is that the path foil surfing should take? Who knows.

E XP OS U RE

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R I D E R Benny Ferris P HOTO GR A P HE R Rodrigo Donoso LO C AT I ON The Pacific Ocean Benny: This session was from last year. It was the first time I’d met and foiled with Nick Leason from Lift. I was impressed with his skill and style‌ It is refreshing when the owner/designer of a craft is skilled at riding it. We were both flying Lift 170s. One was the classic, the other was the 170 Surf which at the time was a prototype. Nick was explaining how, even though the surface area of the wings were identical, the profile and cross-sections were different.

It was interesting to talk about it, then catch a wave and feel what had just been mentioned. Nick knows his stuff and it was fun and inspiring to learn.

That was the beginning. The crowd was thin this day, and the ocean a mirror of the sky. That combination really allows one to be present and focus on being in harmony with the sea, which is what we strive for every session.

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RIDE R Benoit Carpentier P H OTOGRAP H E R Jerry Mihimana LOC AT ION Sanur, Bali Benoit: Memories from my confinement in Bali, definitely not a bad place to be stuck! This session was one of the best I had at Oka Point in Sanur during my time in Bali, one of those glassy and sunny days with beautiful 4ft waves and the Rip Curl surf school crew towing you into 50 waves in one hour on their little boats. This is the kind of session you dream of, with only a couple of mates foiling with you! I would recommend that place to any foil addict that visits Bali.

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THE FIRST INTELLIGENT HYDROFOIL TA I LO R E D A S S I S TA N C E . A M P L I F I E D P E R F O R M A N C E .

PRE ORDERS START ON 06.30

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RI DE R Adrian Geislinger PHOTOGRAP H E R Benjamin Geislinger LOCATION Salzkammergut, Austria Adrian: We get our fair share of glassy, beautiful mornings in Austria. The only things missing are the waves. However, the big ferries on the lake make some surfable wake for the foil. Getting the right speed and time is the key for pumping into it from a dock or motorboat. On this day we went out with my friend’s boat to surf with the foils in the wake. But then we saw the ferry passing by, so I held onto the handle a bit longer to get enough speed to pump into the wake of the ferry. Once I had the right position on the wave I was just enjoying the ride and the view!

E XP OS UR E

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R I DE R Ross Williams P HOTO GR A P HE R John Carter LO C ATIO N Freshwater bay, Isle of Wight Ross: This was actually one of the first shots of a morning shoot and one of my first sessions with my new Tabou board and 2021 GA wing. John swam out into the waves and I wanted to put myself between him and the sun to light up the colours of the wing. I was riding the Poison 4.2m as it was pretty good wave riding and jumping conditions. I was using our 2000cm2 Hybrid wing foil and the brand-new Tabou Pocket Air 6’0 board. It was actually pretty windy, but the wings are able to handle a really wide wind range, which allowed me to have good control in jumps like this one.Â

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RIDE R Ridge Lenny P H OTOGRAP H E R Noah Andrews LOC AT ION Sprecklesville Ridge: With so many flat summer days here on Maui, the main focus for a lot of the water athletes has been trying to push the fresh sport of winging as far as possible. With so many good riders, the progression is happening at an extremely fast rate and every session is a challenge to keep up. This particular jump session with the crew was no different. Every jump we were trying to launch higher, go farther, and one up each other.

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E XPOS U R E

RIDE R James Casey PH OTOGRAP H E R Bellie LOC AT ION Australia James: One day in autumn, Bellie messaged me asking if I wanted to go foil this spot, and it was just before COVID fully blew up. I remember this wave well, as I got a good chip in, and this was the beginning of a big, powerful roundhouse cutback‌

EX POS UR E

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RIDE R Karl Muggeridge P H OTOGRAP H E R Russell Ord LOC AT ION Greenmount Beach, Australia Karl: It’s always exciting to have Russell in town and we always have a full program for the days we have him here on the East Coast of Australia. We are very spoiled here on the Gold Coast with our white sandy beaches and moderate swell most of the year which is generally free of predators. This particular morning Russ and Jarra (Jarrison Bitton) had a shoot prepped at Greenmount Beach, Coolangatta, to capture Beau Young and Rachael Tilly on their new longboards and a bit of foil action on the side. I was testing the new Cloud IX F32 foil and the 4.2 Vapor CloudIX board. There’s nothing like gliding through and banking into a turn on an unbroken wave... I can’t imagine a better way to start your day.

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E XPOS U R E

WA N T S OME MORE F O I L I NG FUN? 56

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Rider: Adrian Geislinger Photo: Benjamin Geislinger

LIFT DOCUMENTARY Amongst all the short, social media-friendly video edits that pop up on our feeds, now and then a fat full-lengther will show up, giving us the legitimate opportunity to procrastinate from actual magazine work, make a drink, put the feet up, and enjoy the full film in the knowledge that it is, technically, “work”. Here is such a film from the team over at Lift that came out a few months ago and, I shan’t lie, got a few runs because it is just so damn lovely to watch. So we put a few questions to the man in charge, Nick Leason…

Firstly Nick, kudos on a really good-looking documentary. Who was behind the camera and production?

The footage was a collection of content that we have captured over the years. My friend Christian Suau put together the production and editing. He’s typically making the hit Reggaeton videos for the Puerto Rican rap stars, but he’s a surfer and part of the Lift family.

There’s a huge range of locations in there. Rivers, towns, bridges, harbors… Can you tell us where a few of the spots were?

Most of the shoots are all within a short distance from our home and headquarters here in Puerto Rico. There are also different shots that we have collected around the world.

You refer to your dad, Michael, as the main tester. Benny Ferris also acknowledges giving feedback. How many are there in your wider test team?

I have a variety of friends that help me fine tune the gear. Mike Leason represents the older, but very capable demographic. Benny Ferris helps me fine tune the surf gear and represents the opinion of a great athlete looking for performance. Laird likes things that can push the limits and hold; he always wants stronger and faster. Then I also have a community here in my neighborhood that is not as refined yet on the foil, and they just want to feel good. I make sure to pass the prototypes around and have everyone get a spin on it. I watch carefully and see where they’re accelerating and where the challenges are.

Last, but not least, I always build a separate rig for myself and exactly how I want it regardless of other opinions.

Did we spot some Nazaré footage in there? Looked pretty big…

Laird calls foiling “the highest evolution of surfing”. It’s hard to imagine what could come after electric foiling in the evolutionary scale, but do you have any thoughts as to what that might be?

Probably more foiling. I read that the definition of evolution is to transcend and include. Evolution is not necessarily more simplistic, but actually more complex. We are including what we know of traditional surfing and literally adding another dimension into the sport.

The electric is one version of that, but foiling in general is taking over all aspects of water sports. The absolute most fun that I have is eFoil-towing our surf foils into waves that are still swells. That allows us to ride smaller gear for more speed and maneuverability, ride bigger waves and twice as long. With the electric gear doing the towing, it’s a peaceful experience and you get to switch over every three waves with your tow partner. I truly believe that will become a thing in the world of surfing.

We like the Bruce Lee quote, “Knowledge will give you the power, but character respect.” Can you expand a little more on what you mean by referencing this?

Christian Suau added that in there as something that he related to our project. Lift is a family business based from the roots of Mike Leason, and he’s an awesome guy. Everyone respects Mike because of his character and good nature. We try to keep that as a defining principle in our business.

Who’s the young shredder at 10:25?

The very talented Sage Katz. He’s 14-years-old and represents the up and coming surf talent from Puerto Rico. Not to mention that he’s a great guy and all smiles.

Yep. There is some of that in there to show people what’s possible on a hydrofoil. It’s beautiful stuff filmed by Patrick Weiland and we had to use it.

Any chance we can be in the next one?

U PLOAD E D

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Sure thing!

“LAIRD LIKES THINGS THAT CAN PUSH THE LIMITS AND HOLD; HE ALWAYS WANTS STRONGER AND FASTER.”

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ULISS ES V I NI C I U S PER E I R A

At just 16 years old, Ulisses Pereira has already ridden some of the most famous (and terrifying) waves in the world on a surfboard (check the shot to the right to see what we mean). Now, a new-found love for foil surfing has seen him start pushing his limits there too. We caught up with him in between swells…

Hey Ulisses! How’s your day looking, and where are you right now?

And when did foiling find its way into your life?

Hey! My day is going good, thank you. Right now I’m in Bali, more specifically at Dream Land close to Uluwatu. I really love it here, because there are good waves, good vibes, beautiful places and it’s so incredible how there are waves for anything! Waves for surf foiling, wing foiling, getting barrels or doing turns… So I think in so many ways this place has helped me on achieving my dream of becoming a waterman!

How much has Covid affected your plans lately?

About two years ago, my dad and I would see clips of people foiling and be like “Wow! Look at this new thing that people are doing! The surfboard actually flies, and it must feel amazing!” Then a while after that we went back to Brazil for Christmas and we saw this friend of ours, Remi Quique, and he was foiling… So we talked to him and he said he was going on a trip to Bali soon after and he could teach me how to foil. So I learned how to foil and then he talked to his sponsors, and I’ve been in the F-ONE and Manera teams ever since. And I’m super grateful for the opportunity!

Covid-19 changed a lot of my plans. Like not being able to surf or foil for almost three months because the beaches were closed here, so it was some pretty hard times! But it was also really fun to spend more time at home with my family and do different things, like learning how to edit my own clips or improving my skills on a foil inside a swimming pool! Now the beaches are opening and things are getting back to normal around here, so I’m super stoked!

At what age did you start surfing?

So it was love at first sight?!

I started surfing when I was three with my dad in our hometown in Brazil, called Pipa. In the beginning we would both surf together on a longboard, and not many people know this but I was a goofy footer at first… The reason that I’m a regular footer today is because when we would both surf on the longboard, I couldn’t really see the waves because my dad was a regular foot and I wasn’t. So he switched me when I was younger so we could surf together on the longboard, and I’ve been a regular footer ever since.

Yes, I love trying out new ways to have fun in the water. I think what got me most interested in surf foiling was the fact that you can fly! It was incredible to see this new kind of board that you could go super fast on, even when the waves were flat. Or being able to get three or four waves, one after another. So, yes, it was like love at first sight!

When I saw people surf foiling I told myself I needed to try that.

What’s your perfect foil set-up?

My perfect foil set-up right now is with my Rocket Surf 4’2 foil board.

This board is the perfect size so I can pump and do carves without it being too small and hard to paddle into waves. The mast I mostly use is the 65mm Alu Mast, and I find this size is really good because it’s not so long, which makes it easy to keep control and pump faster.

With that board and that mast, I use my Gravity Carbon 1200 wing which is the perfect size for me because it’s big enough for me to

R I S I N G UP

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Photo: Bombom & Tojal

pump into other waves, and small enough to be super easy to do carves and get waves that are a little bit stronger. Finally, we get to my favorite stabilizer, which is the Stab C275. This size is the one I use pretty much all the time because it feels much easier to move the foil board in every way.

Actually – interview pause – we can’t go any further without finding out a bit more about your name... it’s possibly the best we’ve ever come across…

Thanks! I got this name because my parents really like it. What I know about the name Ulisses is that it originated from the Latin name Ulysses, from the Greek ‘Odysséus’, which means ‘son of anger’. Ulisses is visionary, bold, and enthusiastic about big trips and big projects!

Perfect name then. Now we’ve seen you ride some incredibly large surf very confidently… How big have you gone with the foil, and do you intend to push things further?

The biggest wave I’ve ever got with the foil was about 3-4 feet. It’s hard to get bigger waves with the foil, but one day I would really like to try to get some bigger waves by getting towed-in (maybe!). This year in February I had one of the best experiences of my life, which was surfing Jaws! It was really, really scary, but it felt good to try to bigger waves.

Who’s been your biggest inspiration in foiling?

My biggest inspiration is Kai Lenny for sure. And he really inspired me a lot on the dream of becoming a waterman!

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We’ve got an interview with Michel Bourez in this issue, and there are a lot of WSL riders picking up the foil. Do you think foiling is set to become as mainstream as surfing?

Yeah, I think the surf foiling world is certainly gonna grow big! And I think in the future foiling is going to be just as common as surfing, and people are going to discover and try new waves that they never even thought were surfable. It sure would be pretty cool to see a WFL: World Foiling League.

Any foil adventures in the pipeline?

Yeah! Right now I’m really looking to try foiling the outside section of Uluwatu in Bali, called “The Bommie”. The wave is not so shallow so I think I might be able to foil out there on some bigger waves.

I’m also looking to try doing some downwind in the next few days because the winds are getting a little stronger and I’ve never tried it before.

It’s been somewhat of a curtailed year, but what are your targets for the rest of 2020?

My goals for the rest of 2020 are to hopefully get the best barrel of my life, improve my surfing and foiling skills, and get a few steps closer to my dream of becoming a waterman like Kai Lenny!

Foil maneuver of choice: Backside flip, or hard carve into the pocket?

Hard carve into the pocket every time!

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There are some very subtle hints as to where this might be, and any amateur social media sleuth worth his or her lot would probably not have too hard of a job figuring it out. But we recommend you don’t… Enjoy it for what it is, and as a representation of all the epic and as yet unrealized opportunities that remain across this largely blue planet for rocking up in your van at a launch spot and getting out on the water and still having an absolute blast in less than epic conditions… FM

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GU STAVO A R R OJ O

DOUBLE WHAMMY Evan Mavridoglou, the co-founder and Chief Executive of AXIS Foils, recently made it back to his local haunts following the worldwide shutdown and was ready to make the most of a Southern California summer, replete with gentle Pacific swells and as much sunshine and tequila as he could physically soak up.

Things, however, were about to change in a very dramatic fashion thanks to one pretty hacked off fish‌

HE R E

Not California. Thailand actually, but very much Evan doing exactly what he’d planned to until things went seriously downhill... Photo: Kim Hanskamp 64

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It was mid-July, and a good swell was coming through SoCal. My good friend Merten – from the Los Angeles Foiling Club (LAFC) – suggested to my girlfriend Dorothy and I that we head south to LA, meet with the local crew, and try some of the new wings that we had just finished designing. The LAFC is a very active foiling crew of 30 or so foil frothers, with unparalleled stoke and skill on the water. We packed up a few of the essentials in the van (15x foil, surf and wing boards, 8x foils, a ton of front and rear wing combos, 2x efoils, 3x hand wings, as well as kites, paddles, wetsuits, wax, cameras, a drone and a fridge full of goodies!), and we were on our way.

Seal Beach is a beautiful, wide sandy beach with the rocky jetty on the right, the lifeguard towers and the pier on the far left. I set up my AXIS SUP foil that morning and I went with the new Froth 5’5 board, with the S-Series 910 front wing. After walking for 7-8 minutes to get across to the beach with gear on our shoulders, we finally got to the warm (at least at this time of the year) Pacific Ocean water. There were some surf camps running with kids right in front of the beach, while there were a few surfers already on the jetty side. At this time of the year, due to the warmer waters on the inside, there are stingrays that lay low, right below the sand. Shuffling your feet every step to scare the stingrays away before getting out on the water is standard practice for everyone. I usually have my paddle probing the sand to be double sure. This time though, it was a little different. Right as I put all my weight down to hop onto my board, I felt a jello-like surface under my left foot. And that jello-like surface was trying to move from under my foot. Poor little guy, imagine having 180lbs suddenly treading on you while you’re just minding your own business on the warm sand. A few moments later, I felt a sharp, scaley pinch on my Achilles, as if something with very sharp teeth was biting my heel.

But it wasn’t a bite…

For the first three days we stayed in Dana Point, getting daily foiling runs to San Onofre. This is one of our favorite foil spots in California, with tons of space for everyone to enjoy the mellow long waves.

Thursday was forecasted to have small waves, but good winds, so we decided to go to Seal Beach and SUP and prone foil the jetty first, before we pumped the wings at Belmont Shores, the beach just north of Seal. And this is where the story really starts…

Stingray barbs have very sharp spines with serrated edges on each side. They are designed to pierce the skin of their attackers, as well as deposit venom into the wound. It’s no secret that stingray stings can really, really hurt… I got on my board and the blood was already pouring out, and I had no doubt that I had been stung. “What an unfortunate way to end a foil session before it even started”, I thought.

But the waves were really good at the jetty, and my adrenaline was

hat an interesting July this has been. After four months being “locked down” in Florida, we finally made it back to our home base in Marin County, a few miles north of San Francisco, California, where we could once again ride our local spots. While summer is not known for its big waves on our Pacific coastline, foiling has opened up so many spots and on smaller days, which combined with the consistent winds, have created an amazing surf, SUP and winging playground.

“A FEW MOMENTS LATER, I FELT A SHARP, SCALEY PINCH ON MY ACHILLES, AS IF SOMETHING WITH VERY SHARP TEETH WAS BITING MY HEEL. BUT IT WASN’T A BITE…”

T HE O U TE R B A N KS

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“WHAT AN UNFORTUNATE WAY TO END A FOIL SESSION BEFORE IT EVEN STARTED”

AB OV E

Evan... smiling at this point LEFT

No size 10 footprint on this fella, so we can safely assume this is not Evan’s nemesis

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TOP L E F T

Painful fish stings and muscle tears aside, summertime in Southern California is still top level fun B OTTO M LE F T

Dorothy, before coming to Evan’s rescue...

R I GHT

When you look down and find your medical practitioner has made an octopus shape out of the rock tape for chuckles...

B OTTO M R IGHT

Evan is always game ready, even in hospital corridors

pumping, so I thought to myself why not take a couple waves and ride the jetty all the way to the parking lot, as the tides were low. At least pretend I am having a good session, despite the bad fortune thus far...

The pain was strong, and I had very little balance on my left leg, but I managed to catch a bump that took me halfway, and then I paddled my way back to a small sandy patch, near the jetty rocks, close to the parking lot. It must have been about 25-30 minutes since the sting by then and my foot was already stiff. My leg was getting difficult to move, and the calf muscles were rock hard, like concrete. There was swelling all over the lower part of the leg. I grabbed my board, foil and paddle, and started climbing the jetty rocks, to get back to the van. I could almost feel the venom working its way through my lower leg, a real painful burning sensation. I didn’t panic, but I knew I had to get back to the van as soon as possible to get my foot into boiling water. As I stepped from one rock to the other, at one point I was balancing all my weight on my left foot, and that’s when I felt the pop. The sensation was as if someone hit me with a baseball bat on my left calf. I nearly fell down amongst the rocks… luckily (!) I had my paddle to give me some balance. What just happened?! The pain was beyond comprehension. I dropped my gear on the spot and crawled to the van. I have heard that stingray sting pain is intense. I had also heard that calf muscle-tear pain is intense. But those two together were something else entirely.

Dorothy had to cut her session short and helped me get situated in the van with my foot soaked in the hot water from both the shower and the kettle. I was so grateful. One of the local lifeguards came by with a “stingray bag”, filled with scolding hot water, and in which my foot lived in for the next 60 minutes. The lifeguards mentioned that there were already three stings that past hour, and it’s their “season”.

After a few pain killers and a cold one, we took the scenic route to Dana Point, passing through Sunset Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Laguna checking out the local surf and foiling spots in Southern California. Todd and Nick were waiting for us to talk about our next foil project over some fine, medicinal tequila.

One-and-a-half weeks later, I am now on crutches and a boot. The official diagnosis is medial calf muscle tear. Recovery is still ongoing as I write this in late July. The doctor says it’ll be 6-8 weeks before I can return to my usual activities. So that means 3-4 weeks… I will see y’all back on the water!

A few lessons learned through this process: • Listen to your body, and don’t get overrun by your stoke to go catch “one more wave”.

• Shuffle. Shuffle. Shuffle. Stingray stings can be mild or intense, so just try and avoid them and not find out.

• Don’t go out alone. The buddy system always works, on and off the water.

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DOU B LE WH A M M Y

HE R E

Remi Quique, one of the lucky frontline beneficiaries of Charles Bertrand’s carefully selected foil materials

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DYNAMICS WOR DS C H ARL E S B E RT RAND / F - ONE P H OTOS V IC TOR DU T RA

HYDROFOIL MATERIALS

Hydrofoils for surfing, winging or kiting mostly share the same base architectural concept and also the same materials. Composite materials (usually glass or carbon fibre allied with epoxy resin) and aluminum are generally used to build our beloved flying gear. Let’s have a look at these two types of materials and why one is chosen over the other for a given part or product...

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Aluminum

Aluminum is quite light for a metal and offers some good characteristics with a very useful strength to weight ratio. For hydrofoil, grades 6061 and 6063 are most often used. These are higher grades offering advanced mechanical characteristics which is why they are used in structurally demanding applications such as in aircrafts for example.

Metals normally yield at some fraction of the breaking load. These two grades offer a pretty high yield point which makes them particularly useful. Finally, they offer good corrosion resistance and are easy to anodize to work in the marine environment.

Aluminum is an isotropic material, which means it has the same mechanical properties in any direction. It does not matter whether you’re trying to pull or bend it, the material will behave the same and this makes structural design a little easier.

Aluminum parts can be extruded, forged, cast or milled. In case of grades 6061 and 6063, casting is usually not preferred as it tends to compromise the properties we require for foils. So extrusion is used for long parts with constant section such as masts, then forging or milling can be used for parts with more complex shapes (top plate, fuselage, etc.)

Density (weight index):

2.7kg per liter

Yield point: 240 (N/mm²) Breaking point: 270 (N/mm²) Stiffness index: 70,000 (N/mm²) * indicative values provided for aluminum 6061 T6

Glass/Carbon Fiber Composites

Most often, composite materials for hydrofoils are found in the way of glass or carbon fiber with epoxy resin. The fibers provide the structural resistance while the resin fixes the shape. For a better control of the resin ratio in the material, fabrics of glass or carbon can be pre-impregnated with resin, which brings better mechanical characteristics (more structural fiber, less unnecessary resin). In any case, the resin must be cured and this is often done at higher temperatures to shorten curing time. Composite parts can be wound, but in the vast majority of cases they are compression molded with closed tooling.

Glass or carbon fiber with epoxy are orthotropic materials, which means they don’t have the same properties in all directions. Their strength and stiffness mostly lie along the direction of the fibers. This means you have to choose how many fibers to lay in each direction to ideally withstand the various loads and stresses, which makes structural design a little more complex.

Perhaps the first advantage of composite materials is their ability to form into complex shapes due to their ease of molding. Glass fiber composite is a good compromise between cost, ease of molding and has reasonable characteristics. Carbon fiber composite boasts some much higher properties with a very light density which makes very light parts which are also able to withstand considerable loads.

Glass Fiber

Carbon Fiber

Composite

Composite

Density (weight index):

1.9kg for a liter

1.6kg for a liter

Breaking point:

425 (N/mm²)

Stiffness index:

570 (N/mm²) 25,000 (N/mm²) 70,000 (N/mm²)

* indicative values provided for a load running along the fiber axis

Composites don’t yield, they bend with no plastic deformation until they break. Their breaking point is higher than for metals but their stiffness index is lower. Their density is much lower than aluminum which means we can use more material for a given weight. We normally assume that a metal part will be stiff enough if it is built strong enough, while a composite part will be strong enough if it is built stiff enough. Based on the indicative values listed here above, we have an approximate Stiffness/Density ratio as follows: Aluminium = 26; Glass Fiber composite = 13; Carbon Fiber composite = 43

DY N A M I C S

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Hydrofoil Masts

The main design criteria for a hydrofoil mast is the stiffness. Because of its length, the mast can easily bend or twist under load which means less control. Control is critical for expert riders due to the speed that they tend to ride, but it’s also very important in the progression phase to get the best possible feel for what the foil is doing and to act accordingly.

As a metal, aluminum is reasonably stiff and the extrusion process is very cost efficient, which means the part can be made hollow and affordable. To provide enough control, the sections will be made larger and thicker to ensure there is enough stiffness in the mast. Production is easy and the masts can be supplied at any desired length. A top plate is usually bolted on at the top to ensure a sound connection with a wide variety of boards. At the bottom the mast either fits directly into the fuselage or can receive a mast foot part as an interface with the fuselage connection format.

Glass fiber composite would require larger section to provide enough stiffness with a higher cost than extruded aluminum. This option is not considered practical to build masts.

Carbon fiber however offers a very good stiffness/weight ratio which seems ideal to make a good hydrofoil mast. For a given weight, carbon fiber is almost twice as stiff as aluminum along the fiber axis. We can build the masts using a slimmer profile for a better glide, and also build it lighter. Now remember that carbon fiber is orthotropic which means we need to lay some fibers in different directions to accommodate different loads. There is a fine balance to reach between considering the torsion and considering the bending both of which require different fiber orientations.

Carbon masts are most commonly built with solid laminate throughout or with foam/wood core in the middle. Since the material located at the core has little effect on the mechanical performance of the part, at F-ONE we paved a new way by making a hollow carbon mast.

This brought a lighter weight, a more accurate geometry and less resources being used in production.

The F-ONE carbon mast is also built as a one-piece item including the top plate and the mast foot. This reduces the chances for play or parasitic movement in the assembled foil and ultimately brings better control and better response from your gear.

Typical advantages of a carbon mast over an aluminum mast are: - Lighter weight - Better glide feeling - Better top end speed - Sharper control at any time - Better response when pumping and carving - No galvanic reaction with stainless steel or other composite parts

Fuselage

The fuselage is the part that holds the wings onto the mast. It therefore carries high loads, must accommodate the connections with the other parts and be as slim as possible to reduce the drag.

Most fuselages are built in aluminum using a CNC milling process.

This process provides a lot of freedom to create refined shapes. Obviously, the more refined the shape, the more machine time is needed and the part gets more expensive. Aluminum fuselages made via CNC milling are solid pieces that can be made relatively thin to avoid too much weight and reduce the drag, but they remain heavier than a composite alternative due to the density of the metal. The isotropy of the metal and the accuracy of the CNC provides additional freedom to shape the connections with the wings or mast.

mast. We called this the Monobloc concept. The best way to avoid extra stress concentration and play is to avoid the connection, so that’s what we did on this highly loaded area. The fuselage is split behind the mast slot, where the loads are reduced to keep the wings easy to transport. The result is a solid, responsive and light set-up.

When the wings are small enough, such as on our Escape 530, we can mold the whole glider in one shot, including the tail and the stabilizer for the best possible structural efficiency.

Wings

Some fuselages are built in composites; mixing glass and carbon fabrics or solely out of carbon fibers, usually with a foam core. These parts can be made really light if the section is large enough to provide the stiffness. Careful design is required around the connection areas, especially if a ‘well’ is needed to plug the mast. A different connection format, such as the Titan Connection, is usually required to avoid digging too much into the section of the fuselage to connect the mast.

On dinghies or yachts, the wings are sometimes made in aluminum when they can be designed as a high aspect, constant section shape.

Our surfing, winging, and kiting environment is particularly rich in terms of riders, shapers and innovators and this has driven the design of our hydrofoils very early towards refined and more complex shapes to provide the fluid and intuitive behavior that we expect when riding. Arched, curved and tapered shapes are “de-rigueur” and this means the wings can only be molded out of composites or reinforced thermoplastic such as our IC6 wings. Composites used for wings are usually carbon fiber, sometimes with some glass content, most often with a foam core but sometimes as solid laminate throughout for smaller wings.

With the wings getting larger and larger, the loads and structural demands on the front wing to fuselage connection have grown massively. At F-ONE we decided to step away from the usual split concept for wing and fuselage and design our carbon wings in one piece together with the front part of the fuselage that connects to the

The R&D keeps running apace and as our foiling sports get more mature the design steps will progressively reduce with more focus being brought to the details. Regarding the materials of the foils, this could be on a finer structural design, material selection or more efficient processes. The future is exciting!

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R ED L E TTE R DAY

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ZANE SCHWEITZER PHOTOGRAPHER LOCATION DATE

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ADAM

ONELOA

WEDNESDAY,

JULY

KLEVIN

BAY,

MAUI

8TH

2020

ZANE S C H WE I TZ E R

R E D L ETTE R DAY

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“IT’S CRAZY TO THINK HOW AN AVERAGE DAY THAT MOST SURFERS IN MY NETWORK WOULD CALL “JUNK” COULD BE SO MUCH FREAKING FUN ON A FOIL”

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ere on Maui, an average summer day in Lahaina is paradise, yet can also get pretty predictable. Blue Skies, hot and sunny, the town busy with locals keeping a balance between free time with family and working around a thriving tourism industry. The factor that is constantly keeping us on our toes is the surf and the wind…

On this Tuesday morning, hungry for some action after receiving my new Freewing, I woke up early and scanned the horizon and coast for swell and checked the cloud line over Moloka’i to the north to get a vibe for what the day ahead may have in store for me. Looking straight out to the closest piece of coastline in front of my family home on Launiupoko Beach, and it looked like a lake! Even on a small day there’s an indication of what the south swell may be doing but there didn’t seem to be much to catch my attention. I look to the north though, and there’s some action! Early in the morning and already there is a visible cloud line near straight cut on the bottom and fluffy on the top, blocking any visual of the mountain peaks stretching from the east end of Moloka’i. Could be a good sign for some wind on the upper west side and north shore!

I called up my friend Adam Klevin to see if he’d be up to come along for the session I had in mind, as I knew he just got a killer new water housing for his camera that he was excited to test out. Adam is an all-around waterman himself, so it’s always fun and smooth lining up with him for shoots as he is a surfer, diver and fishermen, so he has an idea of how to anticipate and see what the rider sees. Adam was stoked to connect for the session as the location I had in mind is pretty much right in front of his house and because this would be his first session shooting the wind wing – plus we all have a bit more of an open schedule now that all us Maui/Hawaii residents are mostly out of work with the state wide business and tourism shutdown. This gave us the chance to experience our community and the island freely without the constrictions of work and without tourists populating the beaches, town and roads…

starting to mention how nice the scene is but is questioning what I’m going to be working with when it’s so small… However, I’m seeing the potential for some fun ramps on the lil’ 1-footers and playing with the wind on the wing! Not knowing what to expect, Adam hit the water with enthusiasm and I slowly and carefully made my way through the shorebreak and the shallow fingers of reef. Paddling my board upside-down and lifting the wing behind me with my feet, I’m already anticipating the biggest potential challenge/hazard, which is lining up enough of a runway to build speed on the inside, and hit the waves which are close to the shore in the shallower water. As I flipped my board over and jumped to my feet with the wing over my head, I’m thinking, “Eh minahs, keep it high! Haha auuraii”.

On my 4’8 board with the 4m Freewing, I felt powered just enough to bring the board up out of the water and pump the wing and board into flight. It’s light here on the inside of Oneloa Bay, with the wind shadow from Makaluapuna point just 200 yards north, but on the outside the wind is cranking through the Pailolo Channel! The strategy in mind was to build speed and keep flight heading in towards the beach, then carry that momentum through a jibe or tack, keeping the foil high and just under the surface in order to avoid hitting the reef, where the little wave ramps were. Adam was just like, “shoots, go for it! Let’s see what you can do!”

We met at Oneloa, a popular spot for surfing wind swell and small north swell, but today it was pretty blown out and small. Adam is just

It’s crazy to think how an average day that most surfers in my network would call “junk” could be so much freaking fun on a foil – let alone the option of having the wind wing to open up our playground and potential for picking it up a notch when the wind is around, regardless of what the waves are doing! Today is nothing different, just another average day at home on West Maui, playing in the Pailolo Channel and blasting some fun little airs! The evolution of the sport of hydrofoiling and the unique sensation has consumed me over the last four years or so, and now so has wind wing riding. As a windsurfer and kitesurfer, I wasn’t sure how this category of the sport would fit into my lifestyle and the choice of craft on a windy day. I’ve found that it’s super convenient to include it in the truck/quiver, and super fun and versatile on most days when there’s just a puff of wind. Plus the fact is: everything is more fun with the foil!

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ZANE S C H WE I TZ E R

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DY L A N W I C H M A N N PHOTOGRAPHER LOCATION DATE

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MUIZENBERG, WEDNESDAY,

KYLE

CABANO

SOUTH

AFRICA

JUNE

24TH

2020

DY L A N WI C H M A N N

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“MUIZENBERG HAS PERFECT FOIL WAVES THE MAJORITY OF THE TIME, SO IT IS PRETTY EASY TO COORDINATE A SESSION WITH KYLE WHEN HE’S ABOUT.”

have lived in Muizenberg for the majority of my 23 years of existence. It was the place where I learnt to surf at the age of 5 and where I did many of my first maneuvers on my shortboard. As I entered my teenage years, the rolling waves of Muizenberg no longer excited me, and I graduated to the Cape’s heavier surf breaks.

Fast forwards 16 years, and I had just been introduced to surf foiling.

This completely altered my perception of Muizenberg as its sub-par shortboard waves are absolutely perfect for foiling. Muizenberg is one of the most crowded surf spots in Cape Town because it is the best and only place to learn to surf. However, for us South Africans, foiling is close to unaffordable, and there aren’t very many of us in Cape Town.

I foresee the day that Muizenberg will have as many people learning to foil as there are learning to surf. Still, for the time being, I have been taking full advantage of being one of the only guys foiling on a daily basis.

With foiling being such a new sport still in South Africa, there are a very few number of photographers shooting foiling, and I have been taking advantage of getting in the water with Kyle whenever he is in town. Luckily, Muizenberg has perfect foil waves the majority of the time, so it is pretty easy to coordinate a session with Kyle when he’s about.

After waking, I poured my coffee, took all of my supplements and got into my usual morning warm-ups. After warming up for about an hour, I double-checked I had packed all of my gear and then suited up at home so that I would be nice and toasty when I arrived at the beach.

With many Capetonians still not able to return to work, Muizenberg has been extremely crowded. Therefore, the best time to hit the surf is at sunrise, when the freezing temperatures of our winter nights still linger. This particular morning, Kyle had a meeting lined up with Airush. He had let me know the night before, at which time I immediately checked the reports, and let him know the waves were going to be cooking.

It takes me a maximum of five minutes to drive from my house to the beach, and I hit the road just as it was getting light outside. Pulling up the beach, Kyle had also just arrived, and the conditions were insane. One to two foot, with the occasional bigger set. There wasn’t a breath of wind, the sun was just starting to peep out from its slumber, and we knew it was on.

The evening before an early session, I like to pack all my gear for the following day into my car and prepare my coffee and supplements for the morning. I then set my alarm for 5:45 the next morning, and did some yoga and stretches before going to bed.

In less than 45 minutes, we had managed to nail most of the shots we had planned for. The crowds were also starting to arrive, and the sunrise was almost over. We called it a morning, Kyle went for his meeting and I went back home, frothing after a good start to the day.

R E D L ETTE R DAY

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“OUR TIMING WAS PERFECT AND AFTER ONE OR TWO WARM UPS WE WERE GREETED BY A GLOWING SUNRISE OVER FALSE BAY WITH PERFECT TWO FOOT RUNNERS BREAKING OVER THE HIP-DEEP SANDBANKS.”

PHOTOGRAPHER’S PERSPECTIVE: KYLE CABANO 24th June 2020, and it is the middle of winter in Cape Town. We have just been upgraded to level 3 of the lockdown regulations, allowing us to now return to the water and get some of the saltwater therapy we have all been missing.

I spent the last two years of my life living in the coastal town of Muizenberg, it is an absolutely amazing town with a strong footprint in the history of surfing in South Africa. The area is east facing, making for a spectacular morning sunrise.

I am now residing back in my home town, 40km further east of Muizenberg, but still travel to Muizenberg occasionally to visit the Airush HQ. On this particular day I had to head in for a meeting, and in my style of planning I thought it made perfect sense to try and line up a morning shoot with Dylan beforehand.

Dylan and I had been doing a few test shoots over the last summer season as I have just migrated into freelance shooting work. I’m getting acquainted with my new setup and of all of the mornings so far we had somehow managed to pick ones with full cloud cover, and were unable to get a classic Muizenberg sunrise scene. Today seemed like it may be the day.

My morning started at around 5:30am, the time to move if you wish to miss the morning traffic into the city, so I had a good feel for the conditions by the time we met up in the carpark at 7am. After a shivery-shakey transition into the wetsuit, we were ready to get out there.

Our timing was perfect and after one or two warm ups we were greeted by a glowing sunrise over False Bay with perfect two foot runners breaking over the hip-deep sandbanks. The perfect conditions for shooting from the water.

Dylan is an incredibly adaptive board rider and it has been epic to watch him progress with the sport over the last year. He is certainly at the forefront of the foiling scene so it is always a treat to shoot with him. We normally don’t bother pin-pointing an angle as we are both in the process of figuring out which tricks are best framed from the different positions, but over the course of an hour we managed to link up some amazing framing and by about 9am we were heading back in after an epic morning session out there.

Our paths diverged at the carpark, I went on to my morning meeting and in the late afternoon, got into the water myself for a shortboard session around the coast. The versatility of the Cape coastline is pretty epic and I am stoked to be based here.

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DY L AN WI C H M A N N

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ENGINEERED IN NEW ZEALAND BUILT STRONG FOR EVERY FOIL CONDITION AND STYLE

AXIS

FOILS

R ID E R : @ LARRYFO

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SUP SURF DOWNWIND WING WIND KITE WAKE PUMP 87

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01 TABOU POCKET AIR 2021 Wing foiling has opened up an opportunity for board shapers too, with many now turning their hand to something more ‘specialist’. Et voila, the Tabou Pocket Air, a designated wing foil platform with plenty of footstrap options that is built to pop and perform.

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ARMSTRONG HS1850 The largest ‘performance’ wing in the Armstrong range, the HS1850 was put on this earth to shred, its lineage coming direct from the popular HS1050 and HS1550 wings. Fast, stable, responsive, and an ideal pick for the wing foilers amongst us.

03 UNIFOIL 150 HYPER SPLIT FUSELAGE At the request of team rider Adam Bennetts, the Hyper 210 was revisited and a downsized but higher performing model was built, emerging as the Hyper 150, a wave riding and pumping machine ideal for Adam’s effervescent riding style.

It’s joined by the 190, both with interchangeable split fuselages.

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04 MANERA WET SHIRT

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It’s nice to drop the neoprene from time to time – conditions allowing – but wind chill is invariably a factor almost everywhere at some point in the year. Step forward Manera’s Wet Shirt, built with a 4-way stretch and wind-blocking fabric and ‘honeycomb plush’ inside to combat any low level chills.

05 F-ONE PHANTOM 1080 F-ONE’s new high-performance surf foil gets a test run in this issue so we encourage you to go find out more there. Safe to say, with a name like Phantom, it’s a stealthy number and we’re told is as close to that “true surf feeling” as you can get… Go dig deeper.

T HE G O O D STUF F

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FLY OVER WATER

INNOVATION EFFICIENCY DESIGN LEVITAZ.COM Made in Austria

SUP

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KITE 89

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WING

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WAKE

06 AXIS FROTH BOARDS

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AXIS, who already have an enviable foilboard line-up, have just released the excellently named FROTH series of boards, all built with an EPS/carbon construction to make them super tough but super light, and thus perfect for all your downwind and wingfoiling exploits, there’s something for everyone, for every session, from beginner to seasoned pro.

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07 LEVITAZ SHAKA New to the Levitaz Shaka range is the 90cm hybrid mast, built specifically for – you guessed it – wing foiling! But also ideal for downwinders and tow-in foil work, it’s built with super stiff carbon fiber and high-strength anodized aluminum, so is tough and fast, and is configured to work with the Shaka M, L or the Shaka Combo

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08 SLINGSHOT HOVER GLIDE INFINITY 99CM CARBON WING

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Lift and stability are tuned up to the absolute max with the Infinity 99, the largest wing in Slingshot’s modular Hover Glide line-up. It’s the foil equivalent of switching on cruise control in even the most gentle of swells and kicking back to enjoy the view.

09 RRD BELUGA Another accessible wing foil board option here with RRD’s spanking new ‘Beluga’ collection, a compact all-rounder board range of two sizes (170cm and 160cm) to cover all requirements.

Both enjoy a deep double concave and pronounced rail bevel underneath for smoother riding and softer touchdowns.

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10 LIFT EFOIL

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Seeing Laird charging up rivers with his pals and clearly loving it should be enough to sell this thing without much convincing, but the Lift eFoil package doesn’t stop there. High technology, superior customer service, that sleek black carbon look and probably the most battery-powered fun you’ll ever have… Take my money.

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11 SUNOVA BOARD

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With such a comprehensive board range, you’ll never be left wanting by Sunova. Here’s one of their latest creations, the Aviator, which is their do-it-all foil SUP, built with the input of team rider James Casey, whose desire to have a board that covered all SUP foil disciplines was fully indulged. Perfect for SUP surfing, wing foiling and downwinding.

12 STARBOARD FOILS COLLECTION A new season and a new set of foil goodies from the Starboard stable, as they introduce their Monolithic Carbon and Aluminium V7 mast ranges, covering both speed, maneuverability and strength, as well as their S-Type surfing and carving foil range, and the E-Type high aspect series for glide and efficiency. All use Starboard’s Quick Lock technology, meaning less fiddling and more shredding.

13 SIGNATURE GAME CHANGER 140

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The dream of Signature’s ‘Flight Engineer’ Geoff Cox was to build a modular, high aspect pump machine intermixed with a fullblown wave riding foil. He expressly wanted to ‘change the game’, and thus the GC range was born, with the 1260 ideal for heavier riders looking to ride waves and maintain glide, and the 900 (shown here) for groms, lighter riders or big wave chargers and higher speeds.

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14 NAISH HOVER WING/SUP Built to work with Naish’s S25 Wing-surfer, but equally just as at home when used as a SUP foilboard or for SUP downwinders is the new Naish S25 Hover Wing/SUP, a high-volume, lightweight carbon series of boards with a compact outline, beveled rails and a double concave V nose for smooth touchdowns.

Tried, tested, and enjoys the seal of approval of the boss man himself, Robbie Naish.

T HE G O O D STUF F

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You’d think that for most budding watermen who get to taste the limitless potential that Maui holds for such a career path, they’d probably end up just selling their return flight ticket and finding some way – any way – to stay put.

Many have. But for some, the siren song of their home country just proves too alluring. So it was for Jun Adegawa, Japan’s foremost foil pioneer, who is leading from the front in Japan’s nascent foil surfing scene…

WORDS & PHOTOS PEDRO GOMES

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hiba is a Japanese province located in the Kanto area in greater Tokyo, on the east coast of Honshu, the main island in Japan. It largely consists of the Boso Peninsula, which encloses the eastern side of Tokyo Bay with an extensive Pacific Ocean coastline. Being located so close to Tokyo, it’s really amazing how this place still keeps the old Japanese traditions alive with their architecture, agriculture, and the habits of daily life. A car ride around Chiba gives the impression that time has stopped still in Japan, a Japan that we can only imagine through the pictures from films or history books; the traditional rice fields, the old train stations, the local population that is basically made up of senior citizens manages to send us back to a nostalgic Japan, an amazing and fascinating place.

Born into this environment was Jun Adegawa, a Japanese waterman who learned from a young age how to interact with the ocean in so many different ways, using the beautiful Chiba coastline as his backyard. The prodigal son of Ted Adegawa, a surfer, visionary businessman and creator of the first surfboard factory in Japan back in the 60s, he had a big influence on Jun’s passion for the ocean and was the one who guided Jun in exploring the coastline of Chiba. With several beaches and a huge variety of surf breaks, the Chiba coastline can accommodate any kind of surfing. And with foiling, it’s no different.

Jun started to surf at the age of six with a regular surfboard, but he was always open to trying any kind of surfing… From windsurfing to stand-up paddleboards, to kitesurfing, Jun has enjoyed surfing in so many different ways, but he became really addicted to foiling… “Foiling is the kind of surfing you can do in any kind of conditions. Flat days, windy days, big days... it is a matter of reading the conditions well, grabbing the right gear and jumping in the sea.” Jun is one of the foil surfing pioneers in Japan, and he’s the guy who knows where to be depending on swell and wind direction, or even on flat days…

“Chiba has a very indented coastline, so the possibilities are endless.

You can surf in the morning and kite in the afternoon, or in the case of it being a total lake out there, you can explore the outer reefs, foiling with the support of a jetski, or using a wing on windy days.”

LEFT Postcard-perfect Japan...

RIGHT Jun has a wealth of epic spots close to home

T HE WATE R M A N O F C HIBA

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“THE SURFERS OF MY AGE CALLED ME A FREAK WHEN EVERYONE WAS FOCUSED ON HIGH-PERFORMANCE SHORTBOARDS AND WAITING FOR THE SWELL”

The interest in alternative kinds of surfing increased when he moved to Hawaii, where he graduated from college. Before going to live on Maui, Jun was already a windsurfer and had taken part in a few competitions. One of the reasons he chose to live on Maui was the good reputation Maui has as a great windsurfing spot. He had expected to improve his windsurf and surf skills, but once he got there he quickly realized that the Maui lifestyle was all about the different ways of having fun in the ocean. “People in Maui do so many marine sports without thinking about it or planning anything too much. To them, it is something natural, spending countless hours in the water, surfing, kitesurfing, windsurfing or doing any other activity related to the sea.

Somehow this Maui lifestyle has remained alive in my present life.”

When he moved back to Japan, he was enthusiastic to introduce all the kinds of surfing that he discovered overseas to the locals in Japan, “The surfers of my age called me a freak when everyone was focused on high-performance shortboards and waiting for the swell, I was into windsurfing, taking advantage of windy days when using a shortboard was just not realistic and no-one was able to catch a single wave. The stand-up paddleboards, the kite surfing, I can say that somehow I was kind of a pioneer for all kinds of alternative surfing in Japan and with the foil, it wasn’t any different.”

Now, foil surfing is what Jun is dedicating more time to, and he’s been training hard for the last three years, “I foil almost every day in all kinds of conditions. If it’s windy, I’ll go wing foil or kite foil. If there is no wind, I’ll SUP foil or go to the outer reefs chasing some swell on the surf foil. I try to put the foil in my menu at all times!” To keep his strength up for all this time on the water, Jun maintains a very healthy lifestyle, “I try to keep very active, I run next to the rice fields near my house and I try to eat only the local vegetables, that for me are the best I have ever tasted, especially the Isumi rice. This is the secret of my power!”

Besides being an all-round waterman, Jun also runs the family surf shop that was started by his father in the 1960s, called TED SURF, which is now mainly focused on surf foiling due to the increasing uptake in the sport within the local populace. This was always his aim…

Get more people in the water, more of the time, in more ways, so that they can have as much fun as him. “I like to introduce new types of surfing to my clients so that we can spend all year in the water. With the average surfboard, you can only surf for six months of the year as it is flat all summer.”

Jun spent a lot of time on countless international surf trips chasing waves and wind, competing but also getting to know and understand other cultures. “I have been to almost everywhere on the globe, places like the Marshall Islands in Micronesia, New Caledonia, Indonesia, Hawaii, Europe, Tahiti where I competed in a SUP event called the Water Man League. In the same year I competed in the event at Sunset Beach in Oahu, and after that I decided to not compete anymore, and just dedicate myself to free surfing.

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“The international trips to me are not just about surfing but also about a way to learn and know other cultures, so even the way you see your own culture and traditions change after that.” Jun started to appreciate his hometown more than ever, where the many positives of a mix of ocean and country lifestyle are in abundance. “Chiba is kind of the perfect place to be. You can have a simple country lifestyle and still be in touch with the ocean. All that and yet still only one hour away from Tokyo city. I have traveled to so many places in this world, chasing waves and enjoying other cultures… But I can safely say that Chiba in Japan is definitely a very good destination for foiling, surfing, and also for learning and appreciating the basic, simple, and beautiful Japanese lifestyle.”

I met Jun at the end of May this year to explore the deep waters of Isumi town, where he lives. Due to the coronavirus issues, Jun hadn’t surfed since the end of February, even though Japan hadn’t enforced a severe lockdown like China and some countries in Europe had. The population listened to the recommendations of the health authorities and the majority voluntarily chose to stay at home and avoid public places, such as beaches and parks. It was a nice spring day after several months of winter weather, and after so long staying inside the house, and with coronavirus cases under control in Japan, Jun felt it was a good day to go back to the things we like doing the most, “I was out of the ocean for almost three months, watching the news telling us how the country was handling the coronavirus issue well. I decided to call Pedro to see if he wanted to come take some photos. I grabbed my favorite foil set up and called another friend to join us.”

We met up, considered our options, and then used the support of a jetski to go chase a swell while the regular beach breaks remained completely flat. After we crossed the Isumi river mouth that empties into the ocean, coloring the seawater brown, we drove the jetski for another 15 minutes to the north, where there sits a cliff with many rocks scattered on the shoreline, and it was here we found some swell. It’s likely that, for any other kind of surfing, it wouldn’t have been possible to have enjoyed any action up there. But with the foil being pulled by the jetski, it turned a relatively flat day of surfing into a super fun foiling session. Just being out there, under a huge cliff face, with a deep blue sea below, and nobody there but us, made it the perfect afternoon in the ocean. After riding several waves there, Jun decided to have a look at the outside banks of Taito beach, a popular longboard spot in Isumi town. All the way, from under Isumi cliff to Taito beach, Jun was reading the swell, following the signs…

Once we made it to the outside of Taito beach, with the sun dipping into the horizon, the light was just amazing, shining all kinds of gold and turning the aqua blue water into a deep, dark blue that mixed with the color of the setting sun and turned the water purple in places, depending on the angle you looked at it. The location is a foil paradise, it’s deep but you don’t get any underwater currents, making the ride so smooth and easy. “I have foiled in many locations in Japan and overseas…” says Jun with a smile, “but the outside of Taito is one of my most favorite spots in the whole world. The time between sets can be a bit long, but once it comes, all that waiting is ultimately rewarding.”

That day we stayed in the water until late, with plenty of laughter, several photos, and stoked faces, making our plans for the next session in this Japanese slice of paradise.

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JCO U NRA E GLL AWA ND WA

Picture a beautiful early morning in Hawaii, warm trade winds starting to pick up as a father and his 4-year-old son load up boards for a surf on the south shore. Just another perfect day for this water-addicted family, not realizing that the foundations are being built for what would ultimately become the core ethos for future developments, designs and innovations for the family business they have yet to conceive…

The father, South African born Ivan van Vuuren – a professional watersport athlete who once represented his country, founder of several sports labels, board shaper, TV host and producer of many early windsurf, kite, Jaws and SUP movies – first arrived on Maui to compete in the early 80s. Falling in love with the tropics, he decided to leave the wild shores of Africa and relocate his entire life to set up a base in Hawaii, where his son Nathan was born, and where the first stirrings of their future working relationship began.

Fast forward 30 years later, and things have gone full circle, with a move back to South Africa and the birth and subsequent rise of one of the world’s most respected foil brands. Now Ivan and Nathan van Vuuren have become synonymous with the performance foil boarding market and their brand, Signature Performance Gear. Given this unique father-and-son dynamic to their business, we got in touch to find out how their working relationship plays out…

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THE VAN VUURENS A F O I L I N G FA M I LY

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IVAN on Nathan Born and raised on Maui and then later growing up on the west coast of South Africa, a treacherous coastline with cold waters, dangerous currents, gale force winds and ever-changing conditions, Nathan had the best start for a young waterman in the making. Having competed professionally for 20 years and been around the world’s top athletes, as myself and others looked at this kid, it was obvious from an early age that he not only had an above average balance ability but also a deep love and passion for riding boards of all shapes and sizes, which would ultimately morph into the sport we know as foil boarding. From the moment Nate stepped on a foil, he was hooked. He caught his first wave, stood up and flew as if he has been doing it for years. The attraction of so many of his favorite sports intermixed into one was almost as if a foil bug had bitten him.

As we look back over the last few years, we obviously see a natural talent that some kids just seem to have. But more than that, he showed a deep love to innovate, test and ride different set ups, assorted gear and was always thinking outside of the box, which still keeps him coming back for more. Whether it’s trying to connect 100+ waves without stopping, foiling with no fuse, downwinding using a surfboard fin for a tail wing or trying twin mast set ups, the kid’s brain is always onto something new and interesting which ultimately keeps him amped day after day.

As a family we were supportive first and foremost, to ensure the fun levels were high and that the stoke remained on fire without adding unnecessary pressures to compete or perform. Performance foil kit is generally a big expense for any family trying to provide the best competitive gear for their kids, and for us it really was no different.

The challenge was that we were both so hooked we had to buy two sets of everything. I recall when we first started foiling and we only had one foil between the two of us, having to share it and how we

A B OV E Nathan smashing out the quality media from a young age...

had to wait for the other before we could use it. At times I even made Nate stay at home and do schoolwork so I could go out and enjoy the foiling without having to share my foil session with him…

We steadily began to realize his unique passion to innovate, so in 2013 started Signature as a surf and skate brand that Nate would ultimately head up. But after we both got totally hooked on foiling, we knew we had to add a new division to channel the ideas and concepts that were coming to mind – so Signature Foils was born and it was the perfect outlet for a young kid that eats, sleeps and dreams foiling.

I guess having the background of both competing with and filming the world’s top athletes has allowed me personally to have the privilege of experiencing what works both on and off the water. Whether it’s riding style that we document while filming during a training session, or how best to communicate with sponsors or customers, Nate has been fortunate enough to be at the right place at the right time to learn all this. Incorporating what he has been taught by so many athletes has no doubt helped him on and off the water, so it will be interesting to watch as he takes the sport to the next level, along with the others groms who are absolutely killing it.

Even though we have been a part of the different stages of foiling, we feel that these really are the early days and realize the best is still to come, with both foil gear and the people that will be a part of the history. Looking at what’s being done out there, we realize things are moving really fast and although Nathan may have some sporting abilities it is a fact that things can change overnight, with new heroes coming in the morning, so it is important to think longer term in between all the fun.

As a family business we love what we do, the sports products we produce are simply a by-product of our passion and a combination of input from the amazing designers, shapers and athletes that are as passionate about performance foil gear and the sport as we are. As the sport develops, and as does Nathan, along with these key people and all the new foil family members that we’ve yet to meet, we hope in the end to look back and have been a small part of the key ingredient that allowed riders around the world to enjoy the sport in one way or another.

TO P R I G H T Every day is a school day...

B OT TO M R I G H T Quality father and son time

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NATHAN on Ivan It’s been great having a dad that is as crazy about the ocean as I am. My first memories are of him holding my ankles while surfing together on Maui as a 4-year-old, and the great thing is that it hasn’t changed much. To this day, 14 years later, we still get to spend almost every day surfing, windsurfing, winging, foiling, or doing some type of watersport together – most times just having a load of fun, and as I have grown older there have also been a few more moments competing against each other, but in a good way.

I remember watching some of the early Maui videos that my dad filmed of the early foil pioneers, wondering what it must be like to fly above water. Then one day I had the chance to try it. The moment I got up on the foil and hovered above the water it was like no words could explain what I was feeling. A sense of surfing, but I was actually flying – it was totally surreal and it felt like a dream. Those early foil days were quite interesting. I was fortunate enough to pick up foiling from day one, and my dad took a few months to master it, so there were definitely some fun moments where, for once, I was better than him at something. But even with this, his water knowledge combined with his competing, filming and working with top athletes over the years allowed a lot of positive input in both my training and competing.

I was able to test and then give a lot of feedback to both my dad and also the designers we worked with. Obviously they had to translate what I was feeling as a young “foil frother” into a product that worked for a global market; so looking back I’m sure they must have had some interesting moments when they were trying to work out what this young kid was saying.

It’s been quite interesting that my dad places such high weight and value on my feedback. Sometimes it’s difficult to put into words what I’m feeling especially with so many variables that foiling offers, but somehow we have managed to get a combo that works quite uniquely, where I add my input and because my dad has shaped, designed, and tested for so many water sports over the years, he is able to translate, combine and add his input, allowing for a good final result.

We’ve had the privilege of having some legends create boards, foils, wings and gear for us over the years and I guess having a personal input into some of the gear has made it that much more rewarding but also motivating to be able to test and then ride product that I have had a say in. There’s just something really cool about riding gear that you have had a part in creating.

Having a dad that has been in the sports industry for over 30 years but totally trusts and values my input has helped us establish a great relationship both on and off the water. We get to laugh, try new gear together, talk about how it works and then talk about what we feel needs adapting. And between his “old school” input and my new school thinking I think it creates a good combination for the end user.

Looking at what’s currently going down and watching riders like Kai, the Spencer brothers and all the new kids around the world pushing the limits, we definitely want to go faster, fly higher and at the same time still create gear that makes it more accessible to a wider range of riders to enjoy this amazing sport. To do this we will keep trying new things, maybe not always getting it right but ultimately pushing the limits of what can be done.

I love dreaming and then shaping, creating or innovating. My dream, that I guess I am already living, is to be a part of a team that creates the best performance foil gear on the planet. I realize there are some amazing brands out there that have paid their dues and that it takes time and I can’t do it alone, so the way my dad initially established the Signature brand, incorporating designers, shapers and riders that have the same passion, along with learning the key factors that my dad and others have taught me over the years will hopefully lead to a story that can both encourage and influence other young people in years to come to live their dreams while enjoying life to the max.

HERE Living between Maui and South Africa, developing a well-rounded appreciation for all kinds of conditions, it’s little wonder that Nathan is now one of the top riders of his generation.

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T H E VA N V U U R E N S

OPEN TH E M I C H E L B O U R E Z I N T E R V I E W

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As one of the top contenders on the WSL tour, and one of the most impressive power surfers of his generation, Michel Bourez needs little introduction. From his home base in Tahiti, Michel gave our Contributing Editor Kjell van Sice some insight into the what’s what

WATERS with his newfound relationship with surf foiling. And we even got a little insight into that shark encounter‌

PHOTOS: BEN THOUARD

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MICHEL,

Congratulations on finishing last year with your qualification for the postponed Olympics! This must be an amazing time in your career…

Yeah, I’m super happy about making the Olympics! It’s a different goal that I set early last year and I’m really happy to reach that one.

When did you learn foiling, and what were your early foiling experiences like?

I started to learn foiling about a year and a half ago with my friends here in Tahiti – Ben Thouard actually, one of the most famous photographers in surfing who also took these shots. I learned behind his boat since he was already foiling. John John was already into it too and he told me that Tahiti was perfect for it, but I didn’t believe him!

It seemed to me at that time that foiling was a super weird sport and I couldn’t picture myself doing it, but everyone changes and it’s good to try something different.

Did you enjoy that process of being a beginner once again?

It’s always hard to start something new and try to get better, but it wasn’t too hard. Especially because it’s still on the water and I love the fact I’m trying something different to what I normally do, and I love pushing myself. It was hard at first because I was scared to fall on the foil and get hurt, but once I passed that, it was a huge joy.

How has foiling fitted into your waterman lifestyle?

To me, foiling is a hobby for when the waves are small or the wind is strong. When I don’t want to surf, I just take my foil out. I always have my surfboards and foil in the back of the car just to make sure that I can fulfil my daily routine of spending time on the water. It’s something that I always do nowadays – surfing and foiling at the same time.

O P E N WATE R S

It’s been quite exciting to see the WSL share content of other tour surfers like Caio Ibelli, John John Florence, and Sebastian Zietz on foils.

What has been the surfing world’s reaction to you picking up a foil?

Yes, John John has been doing it for a long time, and a lot of pro surfers as well. It’s a really good way to get out, surf, and spend time on the water and it’s super physical. It’s good training and you can push your limits. You understand the way the ocean works more because you’re high up on the water. At first, people don’t really want to do it because it’s new. It’s only when your friends do it that you get into it. To me, to watch all the pro surfers doing it, I didn’t care at all, but when my friends in Tahiti started foiling, that’s when I started too.

Do you think foils will remain fun curiosities – lay-day-saving machines, if you will – or does this sport have the potential to grow into something similar to the current competitive surfing establishment?

I don’t think foiling will ever become as big as surfing from a competitive angle just because it’s a different mindset. To me, when I go foiling, it’s to get away from surfing. If I want to do something like a big air, I’ll do it on a surfboard. Foiling is more just cruising – it’s more like on a longboard.

What is the foiling scene currently like in Tahiti?

Over here in Tahiti, there are lots of foilers nowadays. We have a lot of wind and there are a lot of places on the north east coast where you can go out without anyone else around. We do a lot of downwind sessions where we take a ski out and go wherever the wind goes for two or three hours. It’s amazing, we’ve done one from Tahiti all the way to Mo’orea, which is 30kms of foiling, which was crazy. We don’t do the big airs here yet. We are more into understanding the process first, how it works. I’m sure the next generation will go for big airs, that’s the next step for sure!

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“TO ME, TO WATCH ALL THE PRO SURFERS DOING IT, I DIDN’T CARE AT ALL, BUT WHEN MY FRIENDS IN TAHITI STARTED FOILING, THAT’S WHEN I STARTED TOO.” 111

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“FOILING TO ME IS MORE LIKE AN ESCAPE POD FROM SURFING, I DON’T WANT TO BE THE BEST AT IT. I JUST WANT TO FEEL A DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE.”

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What do you think about foils in the line-up, and how should we best coexist with surfers?

I feel like foiling should not be done where there are a lot of surfers in the water just because it’s a sport where you need to be apart from everyone because it’s super dangerous. Sometimes if you’re not that good, you want to go where you’re used to going surfing, but when you get better, you want to go away from everyone. I don’t want to be around people and make them hate foiling, because that’s exactly what’s going to happen. If something happens at one spot, then foiling will be banned. So it’s important not to do that.

Let’s talk gear. What are you currently riding, and what have you learned from the different setups you’ve ridden?

I’m riding with Signature and I’m not the best foiler ever, so I use the Albatross wing because I think it’s the best wing for everything from downwind to surfing. It’s a good combination.

Have you brought over any aspects of design that you love in your shortboards into your foil boards?

I don’t think the board has a massive impact on foiling. The wing and the mast are the most important parts. The board will always have its part, but not as much as when we surf on a normal surfboard.

I thought about a few things, though… I want to be able to do the same big carves on a foil that I can do on a surfboard. I’m not trying to do airs, but I want to do something like a nice roundhouse cutback.

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So who’s your favorite foiler to watch, and why?

Kai Lenny is definitely the main guy out there, he’s the most complete waterman. He’s the one you have to look up to when on the foils, but at the same time, it’s not like I want to be like him. Foiling to me is more like an escape pod from surfing, I don’t want to be the best at it. I just want to feel a different experience.

Finally, paint me a picture of your most memorable foiling session!

My most memorable session was definitely the one from Tahiti to Mo’orea. It was beautiful, with such strong wind, so it was perfect for downwind. We saw so many wild animals like big sharks, turtles, big tuna. You can see everything when you’re foiling, and you feel like you’re alone on the ocean. Everything is so quiet and you have birds flying around you… it was a special moment.

Editor’s Note: Shortly before his photoshoot following this interview (and somewhat ironically, given that last answer), Michel had an interesting encounter with another Tahitian local. We got on the phone...

I was doing a downwind from Tahiti (Mahina) to Mo’orea (Vaiare) when a hammerhead shark chased my foil and bit it. He broke the tail of my Signature foil, so I couldn’t keep going. I waved at my friends on the boat to come pick me up. After two or three minutes of waiting by myself, I felt something was wrong so I stayed alert just in case the shark came back again. And I was right! The hammerhead, who was three to four meters long, came back at me so I put my foil in between him and I to protect myself. He bit my foil a second time, realizing this time that it was definitely not edible.... The boat picked me up a few minutes later and I was safe. I have no bad feelings for the shark at all. He just owes me a new foil!

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ABEL L AGO PH OTOS SAM U E L TOMÉ (U NL E SS STAT E D)

Abel Lago has spent his life with the wind at his back and the sea beneath his feet, with significant stints as a pro windsurfer, pro kiteboarder and now as a fully-fledged devotee to the world of wing foiling. Few others are as qualified to talk about why this new sport has seen such a meteoric rise, so we put some questions to the man in the know‌

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Abel, first a little background… You’ve been involved in wind sports and surfing from a young age. What are your first memories of getting on the water?

My first moments on the water were like almost every kid with a small bodyboard in the shorebreak. But the first good memories on a sail board were at the age of eight, with a really old windsurf board that my mother bought for me because I got good rates from the local school, and we learnt how to ride together. Those were amazing days.

You moved to the Canary Islands and became a professional windsurfer, and soon after that your professional kitesurfing career took off. Were you set on a wind and water career path from that point?

From my first second on a windsurf board, I was determined that I wanted to be good at that, and the only way to get that good is to have the best of the best in the world surrounding me, so I moved to the Canary Islands with that idea in mind. Then, kitesurfing came along and was even easier for me and just more fun, so I had just one idea fixed in my head… Be good, the best I can. I never dreamt of being a professional, I just want to be good in every sport I do.

You became a test rider for RRD in 2013. You must have seen a lot of development in the wind and foiling world since then. Things have moved pretty fast…

Yes, things are moving fast. The industry is bigger than ever and a lot of new brands have joined it with new technologies transferred from other sports, so we have a lot of information and new materials to test and work with. The only things holding us back are the production costs, sometimes we test new ideas that are crazy good and work amazingly well, but when we try to take them into production, the final price is just too expensive because the models or materials are too expensive. It can be very frustrating for us to have a really good design and then not being able to bring it to the market because the costs are just not realistic.

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So coming to the wing, we’re told that it was RRD kite designer Werther Castelletti who insisted you get on the Wind Wing, as he wanted product feedback from you, aware that you were already a good kitefoiler. We imagine that must have been a pretty easy call for you! Was it love at first wing?

Ha, yes, it’s funny because I think kitefoiling is the most difficult way to ride a foil, so when Werther designed the first prototype of the RRD Universal foil and asked me for feedback, I just felt straight away that with that foil I can kitesurf on it, certainly, but also surf foil. It was also at around that moment when the Wind Wing came onto the scene, so the first day I tried out the Universal foil with the Wind Wing, I was already able to ride it easily, and I got fully hooked from that first second.

What was it about the wing that got you so hooked, and how often do you get out and ride?

The thing that I love the most is that it opens the range of new spots where kitesurfing was a bit too complicated or days where the wind is really gusty and unstable. Basically, with wing foiling, I can go out almost every day in front my house or my school here in Galicia, if I see the wind is there I just jump on the water, swim a bit, and then get out and ride, whereas with a kite here we have some restrictions because of birds and beach capacity. But with the wing I can go out and ride whenever I want.

How do you balance your kitesurfing and wingfoiling time now?

And be honest… which do you reach for first?!

It’s simple, when the wind is light or the ocean is flat, even if the tide is too high, wing foiling is the winner. For me to ride on my 12m kite and a twintip, these kind of conditions just don’t give me the adrenaline I can find riding the foil full speed and surfing waves for up to two minutes. But when the conditions start to get serious, I still grab my kite and wave board to ride.

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What’s your foil of choice when out riding with the wing?

I have two easy combinations that work perfectly for my weight. If the wind is light or really gusty I always get the RRD Universal foil with a 1500 front wing and a 75cm mast if it’s freestyle, or an 85cm mast for wave riding. But if conditions are pumping, or the waves are fast and strong, I change my front wing for the new Freeride Wave 1200 that will be released soon by RRD. I have been testing it for a while and I love it for surfing or jumps.

We’ve got our first Wind Wing Buyer’s Guide with this issue. I think everyone was surprised at how fast this new niche of foiling exploded onto the scene once uptake began. Did you have any idea how big it would get, and so quickly?

Honestly, no. But what I feel when I go to the beach with my wing foil set-up, especially in a place like Galicia where things take time to arrive, I feel like it’s twenty years ago when I was going to the beach with my kite and the spot was full of windsurfers, and all of them were telling me “Oh, this new sport looks good but I don’t see it has the future.” So look where kitesurfing is now, and that should give you some idea.

Photo: Javier Fernández

Where’s been the best place you’ve ridden so far?

Because I just started wing foiling not so long ago, I haven’t traveled much for wing foil trips, but luckily for me I live in an amazing spot, so just in front of my school we have a lot of days with side-off wind and nice long waves. I remember one day with not particularly strong winds, where I was the only one out and there were some good overhead set waves. I surfed waves for more than two minutes… It is just amazing how early you can start surfing and how fast you can go.

Is wing foiling a sport you teach at your watersports center in Galicia?

Yes, we have a lot of demand from people who are interested to try it, especially people who were into windsurfing for many years and want to try something new. And these people are by far the ones who have the most fun learning, every single customer screams with delight when they first rise up on the foil!

Photo: Javier Fernández

To anyone who’s about to purchase their first wind wing, what would be your main piece of advice?

First thing to keep in mind is that by having a big wing you will not necessarily get up riding earlier or with less wind. This is the biggest misconception our customers have. Because those first days it’s hard to get up on the foil, people think that they need a lot more power but it’s a mistake, because as soon as you are up on the foil all that power is left over. So it is better have a ‘small’ wind wing and learn how to pump to get up, and then you will ride more comfortably and you will not get so tired as you would holding a big, overpowered wing. It will take a regular customer maybe a week of riding to get their pumping dialed, but after this they will appreciate the smaller wing.

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UNIFOIL With some of the most pro-active content creators as team riders, you’d be hard pushed to not scroll any self-respecting foil Instagram hashtag without seeing plenty of Unifoil product being ridden. This is testament to the journey undertaken by Unifoil chief Clifford Coetzer, as he put his engineering background into play and grew an internationally-admired foil brand from his home coffee table and upwards. We spoke with Clifford to get some insight into his journey…

Hi Clifford. Let’s get right to the moment of conception… When was the first time you encountered foiling and what spurred you into designing foils in the first place?

The first time I saw foiling I was in a sports bar in the UK, and I remember seeing Laird Hamilton bombing down this massive wave and I thought to myself “Nutter, that’s gonna hurt if you wipe out”.

I never thought in my wildest dreams that one day I would be designing these epic flying machines. I started kiting in the early 2000s and when I saw that hydrofoiling had been growing in the kitesurfing scene, the thought crossed my mind. A friend and I started to make our own DIY foils to try it out. I can still remember clearly the first time the board lifted out of the water and having the sensation of flying over-the-water. It was truly mesmerizing. I was hooked.

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So how did you first go about starting your own brand?

So having my own CNC shop, I had the machine to make my own molds which are used to manufacture the parts. I started to learn the ins-and-outs of hydrofoil design. It wasn’t long until there was a stack of prototype parts lying around in the workshop and, instead of tossing these prototypes into the bin, I decided to sell them on our local second-hand website. It wasn’t long before I started getting orders for parts, and people started to hear about my foils. I then started my own brand, Unifoil, then another well-known brand approached me and asked if they could use my foil designs for their own range.

It was when Nathan Van Vuuren used my design to break our local SA downwind record on a High Aspect foil that we realized we were onto something. Nathan then used the foil to place second in the first M2O and the following year my Unifoil 210 Hyper got 4th place.

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Photos: Thomas Burblies

It’s been said that you came up with the first-ever high aspect surf foil. How did the idea for a high aspect foil come about?

I come from a mechanical engineering background and have spent a lot of time researching and building model sailplanes. Using my past knowledge and experience, and experimenting with so many different designs that I thought could work better, is how I came up with a high aspect hydrofoil. I wanted to create something that could be super-efficient, but also ridable for the average foiler. Yes, as far as I know I was the first to make a high aspect surf foil with my Hyper range for Unifoil, which has become a big hit and I have been told are still the best on the market. Having said that, we at Unifoil are always trying to come up with new ways to improve the performance even more. The sky is the limit and we are only in the early stages when it comes to design and construction.

“FROM MY PAST YEARS OF EXPERIMENTING AND R&D, I KNOW WHAT A FOIL WILL DO JUST BY LOOKING AT IT.” You have a pretty enviable team riding your gear – how did you get these men and women on board, and how important are they for the R&D process?

Several brands have now released high aspect wings inspired by your Hyper design. How does that make you feel?

Well I’ll give you a run through of our highest profile riders, and why they’re super valuable to have on the team…

On one level I’m flattered and honored that my designs are being copied, on another level I’m sad that some competitors think it’s acceptable to exactly copy my design with no regard to intellectual property design. Nevertheless, when others copy, they will always be one step behind, and I will continue to innovate and bring new and exciting ideas to market and let the world decide what works best, so overall I’m super stoked about it!

Willow-River Tonkin: To be honest, at that time I didn’t know about Willow when he placed an order with us (I was in Canada at the time).

I was told that he is a really top kitesurfer. Willow released a few vids of himself on the foil and it wasn’t long until another brand had sponsored him. A few months later he got in contact and asked if he could ride for Unifoil – I was so stoked!

So how did you come up with the brand name Unifoil originally?

One of the most difficult things is to come up with a name for your brand, it is a lot harder than you think! Uni meaning number one and having a single mast, I thought this would be a great name being quite similar to the word unicycle. I think it works well!

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Dylan Wichmann: Pretty much the same story, he also bought a Unifoil and not long after that another brand also sponsored him.

It wasn’t long until he came back. The last couple of foiling edits he released on his Instagram page are just incredible. If you want your equipment tested to the limits, I can assure you this is the guy! Dylan is fearless on a foil and his style shows it. Multiple airs on the same wave, backflips, sheesh…

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PHOTO: Thomas Burblies

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Photo: Kyle Cabano

Adam Bennetts: Ok this guy is foil hungry man! Even though we have never met, we chat a lot on WhatsApp, bouncing ideas for prototypes for future models. I make new wing and tail designs, send them to him in Australia and he tests them and gives me feedback.

His track record shows what an amazing athlete he is, and his foiling abilities are beyond limits – the froth that Adam gives off is so contagious, I find myself grinning from ear to ear after he has had a session and we have a chat on the phone. In the latest edit he sent me he clocked in a speed of 41km/h on a new prototype we have been working on!

Hawaiian Unifoil Team: I have to give a shout out to Glennel (Ocean Baby), Zac Jordan, Tedford Mahiko and John Oury, who have all been instrumental in helping us represent Unifoil in Hawaii. They have been great with feedback for our manufacturing team and testing our gear in the Mecca of surfing and now foiling, the North Shore of Oahu.

All our riders have different styles and different needs in foiling according to what they want to achieve, most of the guys are going to smaller foils now, and we have to listen carefully to the feedback to see what’s next.

How experimental are your shapes, and how far do you push them?

Do any standout as landmark “eureka” moments, or do you remember any design directions that really didn’t work?

There isn’t really any need for experimental shapes anymore. From my past years of experimenting and R&D, I know what a foil will do just by looking at it and I know how it will ride. It’s just tweaking now to get that crispness from the foil, and listening carefully to what my riders say and want is crucial. The high aspect Hyper range for sure was a eureka moment, the first time I took one out I was amazed that it didn’t stall at low speeds, then the glide… it just goes on and on. If

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any brand doesn’t have a high aspect foil by now they will have to sit on the porch and watch the big dogs fly by. But yes!

And I guess there are some less ‘eureka’ moments too?!

Yes, I have made some lemons as well! So being quite an impatient person, when I get an idea in my head I wanna get out there and get going with it! For example I started making a new stabilizer a few years back – bear in mind it’s quite a process to draw, machine and make – and when I imported the data file for the profile, I forgot to flip it horizontally, so in effect the profile was upside down. With the profile being quite symmetrical I didn’t notice this. The frustration of trying to ride that foil, I can really laugh now, but at the time I was like “what is going on here?!”

Where do you see the industry now and what size do you think it can be?

With foils being so efficient, they have such a wide range, so because of this I think it’s going to be big. Foils can be used with kites or wind wings in low winds. They can be prone surfed in the smallest of swells, they can cover many miles with little energy. Because they open the door to being able to be on them more often, I think more and more people won’t see them as simply being a niche, but more like everyday items like surfboards and bicycles.

What do you as a brand have to consider to keep on top of this growth?

I think that as it’s growing super fast, the foils that are being designed must fulfil the category that they will be used in, so it’s very important for us a brand to stay on top of this. There was an explosion of big front wing foils not too long ago, but these become boring very quickly, and are often outgrown in a couple of sessions…

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Photo: Tedford Mahiko

Photo: Tedford Mahiko

And on the technology side of things, where are we heading here?

Digital foils, ha! I’m pretty sure it won’t be long until someone does a proper moving surface foil that does away with the stabilizer. You would then use a mobile app to adjust how much gain you want on your foil, you will be able to adjust this on the fly with a simple remote – it’s just a matter of time until it’s done – I have all the parts, I just need some time to put it all together!

So what can we expect to see from Unifoil over the coming months?

Well we have a few new front wings being released in the next month, the Hyper 150 (the smallest in our Hyper range) and Hyper 190, both in our new split-fuselage system. We’ll keep you on your toes about that! After a year of testing, we also have our range of high-performance wind wings available to the public this month. These are not just a rebranded model but designed from the ground up for the ultimate performance. We also have new longer masts and a few new stab designs in the pipeline that will be released very soon…

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HOW TO E-FOIL THE BASICS, WITH DAMIEN LEROY

It might seem easy to the untrained eye, and we’ve all seen the videos… Elegantly gliding alongside leaping dolphins in a superyacht-stacked harbour, or sitting on it, magic carpet style, comfortably heading toward the sunset with nothing more than a smile and absolute faith in your battery life.

Well, turns out there’s a little more to it. So rather than finding yourself with a starring role on Kook of the Day, here’s Damien LeRoy’s guide to your first tentative flight on an e-foil…

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“STAY LOW LIKE SOMEONE WAS GOING TO WRESTLE YOU AND KEEP THAT SPEED UP...”

FIRST THINGS FIRST. Make sure you are operating properly in your local canal, ocean, lake, or intercoastal. You can always check with the local marine patrol and make sure you are abiding by the local rules in your area. Secondly, is your e-foil registered? It’s a vessel that can go over 30mph and may require registration. Lastly, make sure you have the proper water depth for your e-foil, which should be about 4 feet or more to be safe! Then we can get started…

STEP 1.

Start by laying down on the board so you can get comfortable with the hand controller. Slowly idle and increase your speed, you are not looking to fly or come up out of the water. You are just learning what the board does when it’s up and planing, flat on the water. If your nose of the board is coming up you must put your weight more forward as you give it throttle to get the board up to level and planing, like a boat. If you are diving the nose in, adjust your body further back until you hit that sweet spot, planing. When learning to e-foil every movement should be slow, little movements or weight shifts can take you out of that sweet spot. Do not rush this process of learning your remote and balance on the board. Take your time!

STEP 2.

-Once you get comfortable with laying down, you are ready to slowly move to your knees and ride. Again, not up on foil. You are going to place your other hand that does not have the remote in it firmly on the center of the nose of the board at the front. Keep the weight over the nose of the board as you bring your knees up under you. This will keep your e-foil from flying up out of the water. If your weight is toward the back, the foil will rise up – you are looking to keep the nose down and board down on the water. Slowly bring your knees up under you with your weight forward. You can adjust your knees forward on the board to keep the board from rising up on the foil. An important tip is to keep a steady speed or steady trigger. Get comfortable riding on your knees, taking your hand off the front and adjusting your knees and weight to ride the board without it rising up.

STEP 3.

--Now you are ready to stand. This is the hardest part, but you’re so close! Everyone forgets about the remote and only focuses on standing up, and as they try to stand up they slow down, and the nose of the board comes up. Your reaction to this is to give it more throttle, but now the board, which is pointing more vertical, really tries to come up out of the water. Your board is angled up, so the propulsion is up, not forward. The trick is to get to a constant planing speed and don’t change it… speed and steadiness is your friend. Same as the knees, place your other hand, the “non-controller hand” in the center of the board with your weight forward and slowly bring your feet underneath you. You can keep your hand on the front to keep your weight forward as you slowly get to your feet. Stay low like someone was going to wrestle you and keep that speed up. If you stand up tall and fast, you are more likely to fall over. Weight is very favored on the front foot, keeping the nose down and board on the water at all times. Get comfortable with riding on your feet. You can carefully move your back foot up closer to your front to make it a little more evenly weighted, as you will be standing very far forward on the board.

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STEP 4: “THE TOUCH AND GO” ---Now you should be feeling comfortable with riding on the surface of the water. Time to do some touch and goes... Place all your weight toward the front foot again and slowly move your back foot back by shimmying it back very small amounts at a time, one inch at a time may be enough, and it does not take much. Very slowly shift your hips back, taking the weight slowly off of your forward foot and distribute more on to both feet. You will now be moving your weight back so the foil will start or want to fly. The second you notice the nose of the board starting to rise, shift your weight forward to the front foot again. The goal is to fly or lift up only a few inches out of the water at a time. If you go up two feet right away, you are shifting your weight too much to the back. We are looking for slow movements and small touch and goes.

At this point, you are only riding in a straight line, no turns... As you get more and more confident you will fly further and further with longer touch and goes. Remember ‘forward is safe’, it brings the board back down to the surface. If you feel like you are going to fall, do not fight it, just fall. The remote floats, your board floats, and you are comfortable with getting back up!

STEP 5.

----You are starting to get your touch and goes going very well. Now the goal is to try to make minute movements to shift your weight back, “nose up”, or forward, “nose down”, to stay up on the foil. It takes time and you will get it. An important tip when you are learning, if the nose is coming up or you are flying too high: don’t let off the throttle.

Instantly you will fly over the front of the board. If the nose is going down, do not give it more throttle to save it. The goal will be steady, constant speed and small shifts of your hips and moving your weight forward or back. The more time you put in, the longer you will fly.

Then it all clicks, and you will be e-foiling and loving every minute of it! Flying over the top of the water, smoothly carving, and connecting to the water in a way you never have before!

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PIO MARASCO A desire to be at the forefront of the watersport revolution led Pio Marasco to Maui in the late eighties. Taking a job to make fins with the Maui Fin Company ultimately became his life’s work, and now, as head of the company, he’s overseen its entry into the hydrofoil sphere, with a little bit of help from one of the world’s highest-profile riders…

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Hey Pio. So I think we’ve had more people tell us “You need to interview Pio from MFC” over any other name in the industry. You clearly have a lot of respect in your field…

That is good to hear, thank you! I like to connect with lots of different people, hopefully I can continue this way.

So firstly, tell us a little bit about your background and how MFC came about.

I’m from Napoli, in the south of Italy, and I came to Hawaii at the end of 1989 when I was 18 years old. I’d been involved in windsurfing and surfing since I was a little kid, dreaming that one day I might move to Hawaii. So I followed my dream and I’m happy I did it. I started helping the guys at MFC right away, importing fins into Italy for the first few years, until I learned the whole fin manufacturing process and design; in 1994 I became a 50% owner and a few years later, I took on the company 100%. Now I’m here, and in the last 20 years we’ve evolved from windsurfing, into surfing, big wave surfing, and now hydrofoiling. I have to resolutely say that being able to develop product for the windsurfing market really opened up our vision in designing and producing a variety of different products, using many different technologies. Consequently, we were able to use this know-how and apply it to surfing and foiling; it has been working really well.

So when did you first move into building hydrofoils, and what was your motivation?

Well, to be honest we made wings a long time ago, during the Jaws big wave foiling era.

We used to have an aluminum Air Chair setup, and make G10 front wings to ride big waves.

It was right at the beginning, you had boots attached to the boards, and with the alu setup and the G10 wings, it was extremely heavy.

You had to be towed into waves by a jetski.

Those were the years of Laird, Kalama, Darrick Doerner, Brett Lickle, Rush Rundle, Mark Angulo and actually when Kai first went foiling, I think he was 8 or 9 years old… Following that, to be honest I stayed away.

I was approached so many times by riders and many different companies about doing hydrofoils after that time, but I always focused on surfing and windsurfing. The motivation at the time was working with the strapped team as I was making most of the tow-fins for Jaws. Moving forward a few years, and after Kai showed up with that video in 2016, I saw something different in foiling. I remember I was in Thailand working in the factory on surfing fins, and I made a few wing set-ups for him. Kai is a good part of my motivation. He is a perfectionist and he knows how to push me. I like challenges, I just don’t stop and don’t give up.

So you have worked with Kai for a few years now?

Well, I’ve known Kai since that time, when he was 8 or 9 years old.

We always supported him with windsurfing fins since that day, then surfing, then stand up paddle. Kai always looks for the best gear out there, and that also raised the bar for us. He works a lot with The Hydrofoil Company on developing foils, and with MFC we work on the production, materials, constructions, in synergy with them. He also likes to ride other gear, he is never stuck on the same things all the time, he likes to try out everything.

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How useful is Kai’s input in the development process?

In anything we do, he is one of the most precise and technical athletes I ever worked with. He remembers everything, every fin, wing, everything he puts his hands on. He is always very responsive on feedback, and always ready to test new gear. He never stops!

Which other riders feed into the R&D process and do you have a formal system for this with spreadsheets flying around, or is it just keeping in touch with them over the phone?

We all work together. MFC is a group of hardworking riders, shapers, designers, all sharing the same target: create high-performance hydrofoils, fins, and accessories.

I am a team person, and I also work with different designers. It’s not always about me, I’m a good listener. Yes, we have Excel sheets, a WhatsApp chat for the new HELIOS, and shared notes where we write all the testing feedback. We talk a lot in our office/shop that we share with KT Surfing, and I also work amazingly well with Keith Teboul (KT). We are both passionate, dreamers, and share many ideas, and that’s where everything is born. Our brainstorms are pretty massive.

Your reputation has a lineage right back to when you started creating awesome fins. Does that hands-on, Pio-seal-of-approval still apply to every product MFC produces?

Yes, it does, but I take all the input and analyze it really seriously. I never rush anything into production. This is also why I like to work with The Hydrofoil Company, KT, Casey Hauser, Brian Thompson.

We just don’t rush decisions. We are not here to release wings, fins, accessories every 3-6 months. Myself and MFC have been around for a long time, and we take our time. We need to be convinced 150% that what we offer to the customers is what we think is the best out there; we don’t want to participate in the price and delivery time competition.

I honestly feel that basing a company 100% on a profitability strategy does not work anymore.

We always have been a bit against the current, but now even more so, as things need to change, and especially in this specific moment of our existence where we definitely have to care more about how we do things more than what we actually want to do.

How important do you think overall stiffness is to a hydrofoil system? Is there any room for flex or is it purely negative with regards to performance?

It’s very important, especially in racing. I think the carbon will always move and breathe. The aluminum setups are very stiff, but heavy and locked in the turns. The alu setup does not really allow a surfing turn on a foil. Now that wing foiling is taking off, designs and constructions will keep changing. It is evolving extremely quickly.

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Talk to us about that beautiful gullwing stabilizer. It looks like a really natural shape. Where do the performance benefits lie with that design?

the new Closed-Loop technology that we have created. I really hope we can all come together on this issue and improve technology for everyone’s sake.

Carlos came up with this design; he is amazing, and I love to work with people like him. Always creative and always looking to improve anything he does. We are also releasing it on the new windsurfing/ surfing/wingfoil setup that is compatible with the HYDROS. We needed to have a setup that was covering the beginner-intermediate area, since the HYDROS is more geared towards being an intermediate-expert hydrofoil.

Where are your favorite spots to test?

We see you use bio resin for your products. Talk us through how this improves your environmental impact.

Is it hard creating ‘real world’ products when you have a lot of prime spots on your doorstep?

Our HYDROS resin is already 33% bio, and we just won an award for our ‘Closed-Loop’ technology at the JEC World awards in Paris, together with Cobra International. Right now, we are building final prototypes for surfing fins, and once production is launched we will be moving into hydrofoils, making it 100% built-in biotechnology. More info on this can be found on our website, mfchawaii.com.

Yes and no, it’s a mindset. What works for athletes like Kai, Annie, Ian Walsh, Kody Kerbox, Niccolo Porcella etc. does not work specifically for everyone. I’m actually the one pushing for more customer-friendly products. Otherwise it would be the same as if Yamaha started selling the exact same bike that Valentino Rossi uses to regular consumers, right?

As you’ve mentioned, you work very closely with several brands, including The Hydrofoil Company, KT and Fanatic. We seem to see that quite a lot in the foil industry, and it seems to feed into a growing eco-aware eco-system within the sport. As this technology is still developing, do you think it’s important that brands can collaborate on this, especially given the quite surreal times lately?

And what’s in development currently… can you say?

I like to collaborate with brands; there is always something to learn and I like to share knowledge. We are going full speed into the eco-friendly technology, and we really want to make a difference, but it’s extremely hard. A lot of the different constructions and technologies we are exploring have a dark side and we don’t want to be doing this just for a marketing purpose. It’s just not who we are. If to make a bio resin or having some different eco-materials for your traction pads you need to use some very bad chemicals to make it happen, that is not going to work. We take this very seriously and this is why we partnered with Cobra International and Adyta Birla for

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Everywhere, but for the wings we need a good beach to come in and out to change parts quickly. Casey is one of our head testers and he goes out a lot from Kuau. The south side of Maui is pretty good for prone and SUP, then the harbor and Kanaha are also great spots for wind foiling and wing foil.

We never stop. Wings, fuselages, new fins… things are always moving. R&D is the base of MFC, we spend time and effort in developing new products, and we will continue. I don’t cut the R&D budgets, ever!

LEFT LEFT: Product testing about as good as it gets...

A B OV E Making us all feel like we could do a little more exercise, Niccolo Porcella looking effortlessly cool on some MFC ingenuity..

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Rider: Dylan Wichmann Photo: Kyle Cabano 139

WI N D W ING BUYER’S G U I D E

SLINGWING V2 Slingshot can claim to be right there at the beginning when it comes to wind wings, so they have plenty of experience in the field, and with Slingshot co-founder and chief designer Tony Logosz behind the scenes, you know a lot of real passion and experience goes into the product. V2 of their SlingWing comes in at half the weight of their original wing, and is a great crossover option for anyone looking to harness windpower on a board, with comfort also being a big and conscious factor in their design.

This issue we wanted to reflect the remarkable growth in popularity which the sport of wing foiling is currently enjoying, hence you’ll find it lavishly peppered amongst these glossy pages. However, if you’re one of the many who have yet to fall under the spell of the wind wing, then we took it upon ourselves to make it a whole lot easier for you when you most likely do… Here’s our overview of all the top wings available on the market right now.

W I ND WIN G B UY E R ’ S GUI DE

HIGHLIGHTS Lightweight Optimized for one-handed wrist control with no oscillation Soft handles for comfort and control Cambered dihedral design for extra stability Great crossover option

SIZES (M2)

3.2 / 4.0 / 4.4 / 5.4 / 6.4

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$888 / € Check local dealer (4.4m)

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Upgraded from their entry into the wind wing market last year, Duotone’s Echo sees increased performance levels in both the top end and the low end, enjoys a rigid boom and batten set up and a tighter canopy tension, giving it a stiff and stable profile and reliable performance improvements in light winds, jumping capabilities, and out in the waves. Their new Draft Control Rope assists in handling and depower ability, while the oval grip on the boom improves riding comfort and positioning.

Built for waves, downwind and freeride, the Unit has been developed for maximum simplicity and accessibility for every level of rider… but don’t let the ease of use fool you. This wing enjoys efficient power delivery nice and early, getting you up and riding on a dime. The ergonomically shaped strut improves handling and comfort, especially given its EVA-covered handles, while the stiff Dacron LE offers optimum performance and durability.

HIGHLIGHTS

HIGHLIGHTS Stiff battens and leading edge for extra stability and increased wind range Draft Control Rope for performance control and depower ability Oval boom for better comfort and positioning, comes in two sizes Opted dihedral angle geometry for a blend of power and stability

SIZES (M2)

2.6 / 3.3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

Steady drift when depowered Ergonomically shaped strut for better handling Stiff leading edge with both firm cloth and optimal diameter Easy and stable in gusty conditions

PRICE

SIZES (M2)

$769 / €729 (5m)

3.3 / 4 / 5 / 6

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$849 / €799 (5m)

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Unifoil’s latest Wind Wing boasts top-end manufacturing and a compact, stable, V-shaped wing that makes waveriding simple and take-offs and touch downs silky smooth. Its lightweight structure and foam handle reduce all-round weight and increase rider comfort levels, while the 3D-shaped tensioned canopy allows for minimum flutter.

Ozone’s WASP V1 is a versatile wing that’s built for a range of uses, with a simple single strut design that helps in strength and weight, and is built with a design eye that was looking for easy flying and comfortable handling. The larger leading edge and strut add extra levels of stability and less flex, for more low-end power and high-end control. The leading edge also features multiple Power Handles for precision control and comfort.

HIGHLIGHTS

HIGHLIGHTS Powerful, reactive profile allows for easy take-off Front handle depower increases safety Added durability with reinforced seams and double-layered Dacron Harness line attachment point

SIZES (M2) 4/5/6

WI N D WI N G B UY E R ’S GUIDE

Low aspect ratio for extra power Built for water, snow and land riding Durable with various reinforcements throughout Optional one-size-fits-all waist leash for added freedom

PRICE

SIZES (M2)

$850 / €750 (5m)

3/4/5/6

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$849 / €919 (5m)

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RRD’s Wind Wing is a rigid and fun beast, built to maximize the wind range with good power in the low-end and optimum control and predictability in strong winds (regular readers will have seen Julien and Camille Bouyer making the most of this wing in Cape Town in issue #4). The large positive dihedral leading edge and slight V adds to stiffness, control and on-tap power delivery. The wing’s five intuitive semi-rigid handles are purposely positioned for rider requirements and supreme comfort.

Naish’s S25 Wing-Surfer is an intentionally simple pump-andplay wing that is specifically designed as a do-it-all wing model, so surf and SUP riders really don’t have to think about a whole lot more than getting out on the water and having some serious amounts of fun (for further proof of this, you can check out our test of this wing further along in the magazine…). This new incarnation of Naish’s wing has had a re-design which has seen further improvements to both performance and handling.

HIGHLIGHTS

HIGHLIGHTS

Bigger windows make for improved visibility (and sightseeing) Increased leading-edge diameter and canopy profile for increased stability Re-design for overall performance boost and better handling More size options Packs up small

Variable design geometry and profile between sizes for optimal performance Dump valve on central strut for instant depower Built with Technoforce Double Ripstop Kevlar reinforcements on all exposed areas

SIZES (M2) 3/4/5/6

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PRICE

2.8 / 3.6 / 4.6 / 5.3 / 6.0

$ Check local dealer / €929 (4m)

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PRICE

$890 / €750 (5.3m)

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Don’t let Gaastra’s GA Poison fool you with all its feather-light construction… Although low end performance is impressive thanks to the Poison’s light weight, this spanking new wing (so new that we don’t yet have real photos) is built to take on the high winds too, with redesigned strut and handle positions optimized for balance, control and stability. A big size range means you can choose your perfect Poison too.

Gaastra’s GA Cross is their all-round performance wing and embodies all the Gaastra team wing knowledge. Easy and balanced handling is combined with reinforcements, multiple strap positions and a window to assist less confident riders and also for the cracking views. Freestylers will appreciate the different strap positions together with the neutral handling when boosting large…

HIGHLIGHTS

HIGHLIGHTS Redesigned handles for neutral and balanced handling Increased size of leading edge strut tips and middle strut for improved stability Superb low end performance Lightweight construction

SIZES ( M2)

2.8 / 3.5 / 4.2 / 5.2 / 6.2 / 7.2

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Multiple strap positions to suit inexperienced riders and freestylers Increased size of leading edge strut tips and middle strut for improved stability Redesigned handles for neutral and balanced handling Large window for improved visibility

PRICE

SIZES (M2)

$ Check local dealer / €749 (4.2m)

2.8 / 3.5 / 4.2 / 5.2 / 6.2

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$ Check local dealer / €749 (4.2m)

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Takuma have loaded up on wing knowledge since their first iteration in 2019 and now present the Wing Ride III. Stable, with plenty of forward drive, the Wing Ride maintains a stiffness that allows for comfortable and efficient riding. It’s also built to last, with plenty of reinforcements for durability while retaining a very light weight. A specifically-designed arc improves ride efficiency allowing for easy upwind momentum, while the tapered leading edge has improved low end performance.

The focus from the top design bods at F-ONE was on balance, control and performance, and they have managed all this and more with the SWING. A unique profile allows for instant power delivery, but less experienced riders can be assured that depower is just as fast if required. Impressive in both low and high end, the SWING has been ridden from 15 to 40 knot winds with complete control maintained in those upper ranges. Built with hard-wearing but light Teijin Dacron and a Technoforce D2 canopy, the wings are robust and built to last.

HIGHLIGHTS

HIGHLIGHTS Kevlar reinforcements in critical areas Unique handle construction to improve control Reworked leading edge diameter, providing stiffer platform Naturally tensioned canopy for responsive inputs

SIZES (M2)

2.6 / 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 5 / 6

Single point inflation system with high-speed airflow Large volume leading edge for added stiffness and power Optimal 4x handle placement Full traction control

PRICE

SIZES (M2)

$ Check local dealer / €889 (5m)

2.8 / 3.5 / 4.2 / 5 / 6

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$ Check local dealer / €849 (4.2m)

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The wing produced by French company SROKA enjoys a mix of kitesurfing and windsurfing heritage, testament to the experience of award-winning windsurfer, kitesurfer, adventurer and company chief, Bruno Sroka. Rideable in just 10 knots of wind, this wing makes the sport easily accessible and this uniquely shaped wing is perfectly balanced with a rigid structure, allowing for a stable, reliable ride and multi-discipline access in a good wind range.

Brand new onto the market is Armstrong’s A-WING. Armstrong’s philosophy is “better by design” and that’s just what they’ve followed here, with input from top kiteboarders and award-wining sailors. The carefully developed airfoil section gives it a claim as one of the most powerful wings on the market, while the large diameter and stiffened airframe aids performance when pumping in light winds and jumping in the stronger stuff.

HIGHLIGHTS

HIGHLIGHTS Delta shape for reliable stability Ultra-light construction to maximize the performance Compact wing to optimize maneuverability and transitions Handle on the leading edge for self-stabilization in the surf Large diameter inflation valve

SIZES (M2) 4/5

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Shear Web stiffened handle connection system for enhanced control Pre-loaded leading edge geometry to maintain airfoil when under load.

Aramid Reinforced Load Zones to maximize structural integrity Well-balanced in all conditions

PRICE

SIZES (M2)

$ Check local dealer / €650 (4m)

3.5 / 4.5 / 5.5

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$995 / € Check local dealer (4.5m)

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Simplified, detailed and redesigned for all-round fun, the SONIC from Signature Performance Gear is easy to control if you are just starting out but also a high-performance wing offering extra grunt for early lift and ultimate flight for advanced riding. Signature have been in the wing game since 2005 so the SONIC comes with a good pedigree too…

Starboard and Airush have joined technological forces to build the Freewing, a wind wing that benefits from a generous strut diameter meaning this wing maintains plenty of control when overpowered and is extra user-friendly when pumping in light winds. Easy to depower and easy to handle, the Freewing also has new harness line attachment points that’ll save some armache on those long downwinders. A definite option for all levels of wingfoiler.

HIGHLIGHTS

HIGHLIGHTS

Featherweight lightness Early lift, wide wind range and great upwind ability Window for added visibility and safety Great crossover for foil, SUP, skate or surfboard

SIZES (M2)

3.2 / 4.2 / 5.2

Inward angled tips to keep the larger wings out of the water when starting Bigger windows for better vision Kevlar reinforcements where it counts Thicker and softer handles that are angled for convenience

PRICE

SIZES (M2)

$650-$750 / € Contact SPG direct

2 /3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

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PRICE

$989 / €899 (6m)

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THE TEST TEAM

NAME : RIC H ARD B OU GH TON (T E C H NIC AL E DITOR) DE VON, U K

@ KI T E B A R N

Richard, our Technical Editor here at Foiling Magazine, has been in and around the water sports industry for the best part of 18 years. He’s traveled internationally for many years coaching kitesurfing, runs his own sail loft in the UK, and is an avid paddle boarder. Rich fell in love with foiling in 2015, initially shaping his own boards and foils before equipment was commercially available. He’s a genuine multi-sport foil user… Be it propelled by a wing or kite, paddling or prone, he’s very adaptive, and gets out in all conditions, whenever possible. Now permanently based in the wild southwest of the UK, Rich has perfect ‘real world’ conditions for testing prone and SUP foils on his doorstep. His favorite spot is a bit of a secret apparently, but involves an empty reef break which requires a lengthy paddle and nerves of steel, but rewards with minute-plus rides...

NAME : K JE L L VAN S IC E C AL I FORNI A, U SA

@ KJ E LLI SS E Y

Born in Belgium and raised between Hawaii and the African island of Mauritius, Kjell van Sice’s life and career have been transglobal and shaped by the ocean which he clearly loves. An internationally published ocean photographer, university professor in design, and competitive water athlete (and now a Contributing Editor for us), Kjell added surf foiling to his pretty loaded repertoire in 2018. Although Kjell foils daily in the kelp-filled, rocky waters of the central California coast, he lives for towing into fast, open-faced lines of energy south of the Equator. Where the waves end, Kjell finds foiling potential too, and he loves exploring California’s alpine lakes and rivers on leg power alone.

NAME : S KY RAMA MAU I , H AWAI

@ S KY. R A M A

Maui born and bred, and with 20 years in Bali under his belt, Sky has been foiling for over 14 months now and loves every second of it. Having borrowed a foil in Bali, on his second wave ever he managed to ride it all the way to the beach, and from that point on he was hooked. After buying himself a cheap aluminum foil from China, he then graduated to better gear and has never looked back.

His favorite conditions for foiling are sheet glass waters with a nice mix of soft and vertical waves, and he loves to push the limits of both himself and the foil he’s riding, and his favorite spots are all contained within West Maui… The undoubted king of foiling social media thanks to his Soloshot set up, he’s guaranteed to ruin any afternoon in the office when he drops another dreamy clip.

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NAME : ANTOINE MALOLO B ADIN AL J E ZU R, P ORT U GAL

@ TONI O OV E RTH E R E

Antoine is a 33-year-old Frenchman living in Portugal. The day job as a surf coach means he has the chance to be at the beach every day, with plenty of opportunity to go foiling on the Algarve’s west coast. He’s been foiling for four years with experience in all disciplines (kite, SUP, surf, wing, tow-in) and his favorite test spot is a small bay on a rivermouth that offers long, reforming waves with plenty of sections and works with all kind of swells and gets zero crowds (hence he’s keeping it hush!). Antoine conducts his tests both in the surf and open ocean swells, but when the north winds kick in and the Algarve coast becomes a foiling paradise, he can be found at the end of rope enjoying some tow-in sessions…

NAME : JOS E P H C ARB E RRY C AL I FORNI A / I DAH O, U SA

@ J OEC A R B E R RY

Whether it’s snow, surf, or foil, Joe Carberry has been testing gear for nearly two decades. From New Zealand hut skiing to Himalayan river running to Mentawai boat trips, he’s made playing outdoors his life. Foiling is just his latest passion as he splits time between Southern California and the Pacific Northwest with both the mushy waves of San Onofre and the ripping winds of Hood River and beyond as his testing grounds. Joe is currently the managing editor of The Inertia and enjoys riding all sorts of craft in all sorts of waves, but has found the foil to be one of the most diverse tools on the planet.

NAME : KANE DE WIL DE MAU I , H AWAI I

@ K D M AU I

Born and raised on Maui, Kane has been in and around the water from a very young age, doing everything from skimboarding to sailing, and most recently of course, foiling. Kane enjoys riding weird and unusual surfcraft and is constantly tinkering with his gear and striving to improve it. On any day with solid north swell he is usually found testing at Kahului Harbor, with the smooth water and consistent wave shape making it the perfect spot to test and compare new gear. Kane has experience in designing, testing, and giving detailed feedback on foils and foil, SUP, and finless boards. This experience helps him look at a foil from a more technical and theoretical perspective and we’re stoked to have him on the team.

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AK SURF FOIL 1300 AK is a South Africa based brand manufacturing high quality foils as well as surf, wakeboard and kitesurf accessories. From their base in Muizenberg, Cape Town, they have one of the very best foil testing playgrounds on the planet and a dedicated team of foil loving enthusiasts who can turn around and be testing prototypes in less than 24 hours. So: this is a very well honed product!

The AK Surf foil has an aluminum mast and fuselage, with full carbon front and back wings. There are two sizes available, the 1300 (which we had on test) and the 1600. The big difference with most of the other alu foils on the market is the depth of the mast mountings on the fuselage and baseplate. They are twice deeper than usual and are mounted together with two screws on each side. The torx headset gives you confidence to tighten everything up gradually and gives the hydrofoil a really stiff feel. The front wing comes under the head of the fuselage with a perfect fit mount molded on top. The stabilizer comes with an interesting tuning system that allows you to change its angle of attack by sliding it forward or backward. It is simple, looks really good, and gives you the possibility to change your tunings really quickly. The mast is a heavy duty aluminum profile and the aluminum section is thicker than other production alu masts. Assembling the foil is easy and quick, and the open drills of the baseplate allow you to adjust your foil position and dismount it easily.

Once together and the first thing to say is: this is a really stiff hydrofoil. There’s zero play in the connections, the mast and fuselage are super stiff and it is still really light for an aluminum foil. This stealth fuselage looks A1, and the relatively thin profile of the front wing for a medium ratio looks really promising in the water. For the test, we used a custom 5´0 board in various conditions, from 3-7ft waves, with rider height at 186cm, weight at 86 kilos.

Paddling out on the foil is very comfortable, but you can feel the foil under the board. The front wing has a positive flotation, so when paddling in the rip you feel the board sometimes twitching a little bit, although this has no consequences and there’s no need to balance it, and it feels lively and stiff under the board. When duckdiving in powerful surf you need to be careful not to angle the board too much towards you when reaching the surface to avoid losing grip.

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Getting down to business and pivoting and catching a wave is pretty easy. The AK foil has a really graduated, balanced lift. It feels safe to pop up on, no early lift and easy to angulate. The flight is balanced and easy to manage and the foil responds effectively with zero lag. It builds speed gradually, and as soon as you push into turns you feel that you have quite a lot of power under the hood.

Everything is super predictable and it works really well in a large range of conditions. You can really rely on the overall balance and ride it with a lot of comfort. It provides a medium turning radius and you can sharpen it by trimming the rear wing to positive pitch. It is extremely stable close to the surface, and breaching wingtips in carves is fine and controllable, as the foil eliminates the air as soon as it dives again without stalling.

Pumping the AK is super easy and doesn’t require a lot of energy to keep flying. The stall drop is really low and within two pumps it gets back to speed comfortably. The overall stability and speed range will allow you to pump with ease at speed and on long distances. It also glides really well and you can rely on that when your legs are burning. Connecting waves is simple and effective.

Overall the AK Surf Foil is a very impressive all-rounder. It has a super wide speed range and is a really stable platform for beginners to pros alike. Stiff, bulletproof and predictable: a true one foil quiver. - AB AK SURF FOIL 1300 GLIDE

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U N I F O I L

UNIFOIL VORTEX 150 Unifoil are a South African company who have been designing hi-performance hydrofoils since 2014. Working together with their team riders, they develop some of the most technically advanced foils on the market, with a constant design R&D lab innovating everyday in hydrodynamic research on profiles and outlines of hydrofoils combined with the most advanced technologies in carbon fibers and production methods. The Unifoil team have some of the best foil riders on the planet on their team, and a large range of hydrofoils wings, parts and stabilizers to match their team (and their customers!) expectations. The Unifoil Vortex slots in as a super light and stiff piece of carbon fiber designed to send the sharpest turns with the maximum speed. We had the 150 on test with the 75cm mast and the 14” Flare stabilizer. Also worth mentioning is the quality of the cover bags which our foils arrived in – these are excellent and great to see brands putting so much effort into ensuring that gear is kept in a bombproof environment.

For the construction, the mast and baseplate are one-piece full carbon 75cm with standard 6mm closed holes. The split fuselage is mounted on the front wing with a conic carbon connection tightened with a single titanium screw, then the fuselage has multi-positional tail wing inserts.

The mast is then connected on the front wing with a conic-mast insert and two screws with the tailwing mounted directly on the fuselage with two screws without a shim. All parts are built from high-modulus prepreg carbon and once assembled together it looks like a single molded piece.

This thing is really, really stiff and incredibly light. There´s absolutely no play in any connection. The pedestral mounting on the board is a classic closed-holes and, yes, you will have to unscrew it all everytime, but it also means it’s more durable.

Tests were run in 3-5 foot waves with two different boards, a 5´0 45 liter, and 4´2 28 liter. Paddling out on the foil is like paddling with a shortboard.

It is the smallest hydro I rode so far and this thing is so thin and light that there´s absolutely no drag in the water. Pivoting, paddling at speed and catching a wave is effortless and there´s no early lift or lock-in tracking in the pop up. You can pop up super quickly or adjust your tracking with a lot of ease, it is really close to a surf feeling. Up on your feet and as soon as you start flying the acceleration is insane. This foil goes really, really fast but needs solid speed and a good amount of wave power to fly - this is not a foil designed to catch whitewater reforms in small surf unless you are a really light rider.

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Once you are riding and looking to initiate turns, the response on input is completely instantaneous but still predictable. Flying full speed in a straight line is super easy and you can go up super quick even thinking of breaching. The power you get from the foil is really balanced and despite the high-performance characteristics, it is super accessible and easy compared to other high aspect wings. Entering the carve is predictable and you can set in really tight turns with an instant response. I really can’t stress enough that this foil really does feel close to riding a shortboard, the gradual lift and power combined with the instant turning response and overall balance will allow you to send more vertical, tighter and more radical maneuvers with a lot of ease even at maximum speed. Getting close to breaching is not really an issue as the foil dives down gradually at the slightest push on your front foot. The glide is also very impressive, where the smaller surface area combined with the extremely thin profile and specific double concave bottom of the front wing makes the drag pretty imperceptible. Coming out of a wave full speed and getting high on the mast, you will glide for really long distances and the stall point is surprisingly slow, around 10 knots for my weight. Pumping the Vortex 150 needs a good technique and a lot of speed but as soon as you have combined those elements it is really efficient at pumping in between sections.

It is not an ideal foil for dock starting or pumping long distances but it is possible for a light or very proficient rider.

Overall this is a very high performance hydrofoil designed for intermediate to pro riders in tow-in or in waves with solid power when prone surfing (or as a day foil for riders under 65kg). It provides a stable carving platform that is easy to ride, fast, ultra-responsive and very, very fun. - AB UNIFOIL VORTEX 150 GLIDE

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TE ST E D

FA N AT I C

FANATIC AERO 2000 The Aero foil range from Fanatic is their modular direct turning foil system comprising of three different sizes up to 2500cm2. We tested the mid-size 2000 Aero wing with the long fuselage, aiming across the three disciplines of surf, SUP and wing use.

First impressions, as they say, are everything and everything comes in a slick package with well-tailored wing covers and a well-conceived and compact travel case teeming with Velcro pouches to keep the relevant parts separate, safe and protected. Immediately noticeable is the deep chord on the mast which is German manufactured with a fusion technology, which Fanatic says offer a 30% increase in stiffness over other aluminum counterparts. The base plate is also bonded permanently to the mast, with some chunky bolts locking things in place making for zero play on your board connection, which can often prove a problem area with regards to the overall stiffness of the system. It’s a similar situation down at the fuselage which all locks in with a sturdy precision-manufactured confidence. The M8 bolts can take more load than you are ever going to throw at it and the helical inserts are replaceable, and should be corrosion free. A set of stabilizer shims are provided to tailor your experience. Wings are a PU core with several layers of carbon lay-up.

The best description of the riding feel on the Aero is that it is incredibly unfussy and is confidence-inspiringly predictable. We took it paddling and winging and got similar results from each. The foil runs quite pitch neutral with a soft and predictable lift generated progressively with speed increase. Just a touch of front foot pressure is required at the top end, and when it does top out, it doesn’t seem to become unstable and push you into a breach, it simply won’t go any faster. The pitch control with the long fuselage we tested was extremely consistent throughout the speed range. It’s a relaxing and refreshingly fatigue-free experience. It’s great for making wide carvT E ST ED

ing turns and definitely has amplified glide for a 2000cm2. Our learner wing surf team loved it, and we’d wager it would make a capable pump wing from someone around 70-80kgs.

It’s a dramatic shift from the slightly outlandish boomerang shapes the Aero range previously sported, and the much more conventional shape rides all the better for it. It’s a solid performer which makes your first attempts across either of its three intended disciplines as fuss free as possible. Plus, the ability to drop down to a smaller 1500 wing by undoing a few bolts means you can tailor to more powerful conditions easily, whether it be waves or wind. The Aero’s matt black appearance gives it a stealth bomber vibe, which suitably matches its character of quiet, smooth and hassle-free operation which will capably meet the needs of pretty much every foiler. - RB

FANATIC AERO 2000

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NAISH S25 WING-SURFER As Naish head into S25 which marks a quarter of a century of water sports legacy from the Hawaiian brand, they have been ahead of the game in the exploding wind wing sector and have now released the second version of their Wing-surfer.

We are greeted with six different sizes ranging from 2.8 through to a mammoth 7.2. The one wing quiver theory from last year is long gone – as the sport started to find its feet it was obvious that a full range was required. The other notable change this year is some large PVC windows which fill a considerable percentage of the canopy of the wing. The luff strut remains and is a mid-sized profile depth in comparison to its stable mates.

The high pressure (7-9PSI) leading edge with an iSUP valve system carries over from the kite range; a large diameter one pump hose links the leading edge with the strut. The leading edge seam is neatly tucked in behind the canopy, minimizing any drag and keeping it well away from your knuckles. The front tube has a visible amount of segmentation, tailoring a lot of shape into the comparatively narrow diameter front tube. Kevlar reinforcements cover each of the joints and the wingtips have a noticeable taper to shed wind efficiently. Canopy wise, we are looking at the standard Teijin D2 cloth throughout, framing those huge PVC windows. Each canopy segment has a dart extending down every seam; the same applies to the trailing edge, which seems to stabilize the leech and reduce flutter.

Eight handles run the entire length of the strut giving you plenty of options. Webbing wraps the intermediate section of each to really stiffen the connection – you can feel the benefit from this when pumping the wing in light wind. Three more handles set at 90 degrees on the front tube perform a similar function to the cross straps from other brands, and feel well placed and natural to use when swapping hands during transitions. The central handle also acts as your float handle for using the wing disengaged in waves.

Its low position takes a little getting used to, but the thick and stiff handle design lets you correct the wing well with your wrist if it starts to shift around in gustier conditions.

The windows make a big difference to your awareness on the water, however do not expect 20/20 vision through a wet piece of PVC without some windscreen wipers. At certain angles your view is still obscured, and you may have to move the wing down to peer

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through. But you are far more likely to notice movement or something approaching and as the sport increases in popularity, in a busy spot this makes a big difference.

In the hands the S25 wing feels instantly stiffer and far more responsive than the previous incarnation. The leech tension seems to have been tightened up considerably and it makes for an excellent wing to pump against. The wing feels efficient and the narrow leading edge diameter drives upwind with ease, carrying a notably high forward speed. If you are using it with a larger hydrofoil you can definitely feel that top out before the Naish wing does. Considering the weight of its sturdy build and windows, it makes an admirably tidy job when luffing the wing on a wave. The minimal leading edge means running up into wind on a wave, or even in offshore conditions you feel less drag. The only slight compromise comes in its low end, where you can feel it a bit when you’re limping around off the foil, but overall the wind range and sweet spot has been greatly extended from the first version.

Things have certainly developed in the last year of inflatable wing design, and Naish have produced a well-considered follow up which does the long-standing brand justice. It is a true V2 product in line with the rest of the market. Build-wise, the S25 is a show piece of how a long history in kite construction can be transferred into a wing design. It is a fast, efficient and powerful wing. - RB

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R R D

RRD WIND WING When it comes to the world of Wind Wing technology then it is clear that brands with a heritage in building these type of flexible inflatable products have a jump on the competition. RRD have been in the watersports business for 25 years (they have just released their Y25 quarter-century collection) and as a consequence they know quite a lot about how to make this kind of thing… Perhaps surprisingly they were not one of the brands to jump into the Wind Wing game as soon as it was clear that there was a rapidly growing market for them and have instead waited a year or so before bringing their take of the wind wing to the market. Looking back now and it’s pretty clear that this was a sensible move – a lot of the 1st generation wings have relatively quickly been surpassed by a 2nd generation as riders have quickly evolved the new sport and their expectations of the product, and brands have consequently evolved their products. The RRD Wind Wing launch has also been supported by some of the most impressive media that we have seen – mainly from their crew of your wing rippers who spent plenty of time gathering footage in Cape Town before lock down. So it was off to a good start.

Getting the Wind Wing pumped up and the first thing that jumps out is: it’s black, very black! RRD have gone full stealth mode and the Wind Wing only comes in a black colorway with some subtle orange details – no one is going to doubt the brand of wing that you are shredding around on. We had the 4m on test and, unlike many other brands, this has the centre strut attached to the wing canopy. Even on the beach this clearly gives the wing more stiffness and notably less flutter. The center strut also has a kink in it before the first handle (again something we are seeing more of on second generation wings) enabling the strut to remain flush with the canopy and minimize flapping at the front of the canopy. Then there are five handles which are stiffened internally to ensure that they hold their shape pretty much completely making it easy to grab them when starting or when making transitions. Overall the build quality is solid, with Kevlar scuff pads and reinforcements where required. And this is not the lightest wing on the market, but it is by no means the heaviest and overall it feels like the balance between longevity and weight is on the money.

On the water and the 4m Wind Wing’s stiffness is immediately apparent. With the strut attached to the wing there is very little flutter

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and the leech also remains super-taught. Pumping the wing to get up on the foil and the low end power delivery is excellent, we found the middle handle pretty useful for getting yourself up onto the board if you are knee starting and then the remaining handles are pretty much perfectly placed to give a good, balanced feel when you get to your feet. A few solid pumps and, even in marginal conditions for a 4m, we had enough power to begin pumping the board and were away. Up and riding and the Wind Wing gives a very precise power delivery, almost more like a sailing dinghy where you can sheet in very precisely and deliver power injections when required and – again – the rigidity of the wing really stands out.

Picking up some rolling swell and ‘turning off’ the wing and it swings around behind you very naturally and the Wind Wing will sit behind you and remain super stable. In our interview with Roberto last issue he explained that a lot of R&D hours had gone into this aspect of the foil as it is essentially for wave-riding, and this is evident.

There is no outlandish movements from the wing and – although it is never going to be completely predictable – you can lock into the wave and switch to surf-mode with confidence.

Once your session is done pack up is straightforward with an additional dump valve on the strut – the jury seems to be out on this still but it certainly reduces pack up time by 25%+, so if you’ve got over-excited and stayed out longer than your allotted time that could make all the difference… Overall the RRD Wind Wing delivers all that you need from a wing, and feels very much like an evolved and cutting edge product. - AH

RRD WING POWER DEVELOPMENT

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F-ONE PHANTOM 1080 F-ONE have been designing hydrofoils for a decade now, they started designing surf foils and boards in 2018, and the Phantom series are their new high-performance, high-ratio hydrofoils with their sights set firmly on the surf market.

The Phantom 1080 has an aluminum mast and baseplate on a full carbon front wing, fuselage and stabilizer. There´s four sizes: 1080, 1280, 1480 and 1780cm2 and we had the baby of the crew on test, the 1080. The F-ONE Phantom series has a unique assembling design. The mast and top plate are mounted together with two screws and then every aluminum part has integrated stainless bolts to prevent seizing for a longer lasting product. The bottom of the mast is mounted on a specific mast mount with two screws which is then assembled on top of the front wing fuselage with three other screws. You can choose between the shorter or longer fuselage to adjust your pitch stability and turning radius. The front wing and fuselage are mounted together with a specific radial mount and two screws. The stabilizer (we had the stab C300Surf) is then mounted on top of the trailer fuselage with two 16mm screws. The one-size Torx headset gives you confidence to tighten everything and is the only tool you need to assemble the foil and mount it on the board.

Assembling the foil takes a little longer than other production foils because there´s a lot of screws of different sizes, but once together it looks like a fighter jet. It is extremely rigid, stiff and ultra-lightweight and the beautiful carbon matt finish shines on the anodized blue of the alu parts. It looks great. The Phantom 1080 wing profile looks unlike any other with its thin ‘autostable’ profile and constant arc, with flat tips twisted a little downward to provide extra stability and faster transitions in the turns.

For this foil test we used the the F-ONE Rocket Foil 4’2 in waves from 3 to 5 feet. Paddling out with this foil is easy. The foil is light and is not affected by any turbulences in the water so you can reach the lineup as if you were paddling a standard surfboard, but it still stabilizes the ‘row’ effect of the board which will be helpful on compact foilboards. Catching a wave is very smooth and the foil stays gentle and predictable under your feet, even in hollow takeoffs. It will only lift when your feet are on the board and you can comfortably push the nose down and stand up with zero stress. Once you are ready, the graduated lift is extremely stable at any altitude, deep or close to the surface. You can comfortably build your speed

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and consider your next move without having to adjust your body position. The foil responds effectively with no latency, builds speed gradually and glides forever… It is pretty insane. Entering a carve is super smooth and you can decide in every phase if you want to sharpen or extend your radius with a perfect flow. It is ultra-responsive but predictable, and sending backhand vertical maneuvers is easier than on any other foil I have ridden.

Overall the speed, balance and stability are excellent and it is extremely close to a true surf feeling and any competent surfer with a bit of background on foiling will shred on this foil in a couple of sessions and, for experienced foilers, breaching wingtips, sending critical maneuvers with a lot of power and balance, and getting some airtime are definitely part of the Phantom program.

For pumping the Phantom 1080 is very effective. It is impressively accessible and – despite the small surface area – it is very forgiving and efficient. Getting out of a wave and connecting to the next one is easy, and you can really rely on the glide and just pump slightly with a little bit of frequency to keep it flying, and the overall stability and balance allows you to focus totally on the next wave. Passing through whitewater is also super easy.

Overall, the F-ONE Phantom 1080 is a high-performance yet ultra-accessible hydrofoil that will suit any intermediate to pro level foiler. It has enough lift to foil in 3 foot waves but will also work being towed-in at lightning-fast speeds in big conditions. A well-designed and very versatile pumping and carving machine. - AB F-ONE PHANTOM 1080 GLIDE

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F-ONE ROCKET 4´2 The Rocket foilboard is a compact platform designed to ensure that you can ride with maximum control. The stiff and super light construction gives an instant response from the foil and the compact outline and volume distribution makes it easy to catch waves. It’s available in 5 sizes from 3´10 through to 5´6. This test was run on the 4´2 (28 liters) in 3-5 ft waves on with the Phantom 1080 F-one foil.

The construction of the Rocket is in line with your expectations for F-ONE boards. They have been refining this ultra-stiff, ultra-light full bamboo construction on their SUP, kite and foilboards for many years now. The result is light, bulletproof and ultra stiff. In terms of the shape, there is a relatively constant rocker, a compact round outline with a quite narrow diamond tail, and beveled rails. The deck has a big constant concave that comes flatter under your back foot and helps you position your front foot in the right spot. The volume distribution strikes the balance between minimum volume-to-size ratio and the maximum under-chest floatation to help you catch anything.

Handling in the water is surprisingly easy for such a low volume board. Paddling out on 28 liters for a big guy could seem to be challenging, but the board is really balanced and glides through the water like a bigger board. Duckdiving it is obviously a joy!

Overall the Rocket is very balanced in every phase, from paddling to sitting on it, to catching a wave: the volume distribution matches the outline and the rocker and you can appreciate the engineering background of the designer. It is relatively easy to build a big board that works with a foil, to build a small low volume board is far more challenging…

Despite the super small size and low volume, the Rocket thing is a wave hooker. A minimal amount of strokes and you glide down comfortably. The concave deck allows you to naturally position yourself in the sweet spot, and the rails make it ultra-forgiving to pop up on. The tail is narrow but yet has enough surface to allow you to bump on any push from the wave. Up on your feet and the response is impressive. The board is really stable and stiff and provides an intuitive response from the foil. Pumping is super effective and the ideal stance is easy to find with the thin pads giving the grip you need to throw it into a carve, whilst still being smooth enough to move your feet position with ease, 1 57

ensuring you can find your best position and enjoy your flight. If you mistime a turn or find yourself landing with speed then remember that this is a compact high performance foil board and it is not designed to bounce off the water. That said, the bevel rails are relatively forgiving when touching the water in critical maneuvers.

The Rocket 4´2 is a high-end surf foil board designed for experienced foil surfers. It is extremely responsive, easy to take off with, and will give you unlimited control with pumping and carving, but its small size and low volume requires good foiling skills, especially in rougher conditions. We would class it as a weapon of choice for an intermediate foiler under 70 kgs, or a great option for an expert up to 85 kilos. For a beginner or heavier rider I would recommend the 4´6 or bigger. Coupled with the F-one Phantom Series hydrofoils you have a state of the art high-performance and bullet-proof foiling setup that will take your foiling experience to the next level. - AB

F-ONE ROCKET 4´2 TAKEOFF

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F L I T E B OA R D

FLITEBOARD Amidst the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, the opportunity presented itself to take a pair of Fliteboard E-foils for an afternoon of social distancing. We tested two of Fliteboard’s offerings: the Fliteboard, and the Fliteboard Pro, each paired with their optimal combination of mast, battery, and front wing.

I first tried the brand’s standard Fliteboard offering. This model is the brand’s standard offering. Coming in at 5’8 x 28” and 100L, this board’s construction is a PVC carbon sandwich with an innegra deck finish. Our test foil was equipped with the 40 Ah/2.1KWh Explore battery, referred to as the “Flitecell.” Average runtime is stated around 60-90 mins. The Fliteboard was finished in a slick black, matching nicely with the deck pad under which lies the board’s heart: the battery compartment and the Fliteboard’s brain. The large size Explore battery takes 3.5 hours to charge (under normal conditions), after which it’s a matter of opening the gasket-sealed deck hatch, dropping the battery into its molded home, then connecting two power cables – in total, a 20 second operation that can easily be done on the beach. Connected to our test unit was the 60cm aluminum mast and Cruiser wing. Exact specifications were unavailable, but an educated guess would put this pre-preg carbon wing at around 1600sq/cm. It has a thin foil, mid aspect shape, and down curved wingtips, giving a maximum speed in the low 20s (MPH). The entire unit tips the scales at 74lbs, making it a process to carry down the beach, even with grab handles on the rails. Assembly of Fliteboard models (not including the Air model) should be mostly familiar to those experienced with unpowered hydrofoils. The front and rear lifting surfaces are removable, as is the mast from the board. With the exception of greater weight and quirks such as wiring that require attention, a Fliteboard is no harder

to live with than an unpowered foil. Fliteboards come standard with a board bag for day use, as well as travel bags for greater protection for individual components. As for the remote, it’s quite a piece of kit. Synced through both GPS and Bluetooth, the unit is paired to the board simply by touching the remote to a coin-sized magnetic marker on the board’s deck. Input pressure to the throttle within five seconds, and the board begins to accelerate. Fail to apply throttle within this time period, and the Fliteboard automatically activates a killswitch. This safety system operates very efficiently in a crash when the rider separates from the board. - KVS

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FLITEBOARD PRO The range-topping performance option, the Fliteboard Pro is a 5’0 x 24.5”, 70L board. Our test unit was finished in a clean, bright white, contrasting nicely with the tall 75cm black aluminum mast. Within this board was the Sport Flitecell, a slightly smaller and lighter 30Ah/1.65KWh option with an average 45-60 minute runtime. Charge times on this unit are about 2 hours on average. Our test foil came with the Flyer wing, a thin, small (~1000sq/cm), high aspect design allowing for a top speed in the mid to high 20s (MPH). It’s worth noting here that both test setups were equipped with the same stabilizer.

Test conditions were typical Central California: a breezy onslaught of knee to thigh high bumps, and a healthy serving of floating kelp to dodge.

Tester weight was 165lbs. To start, all E-foils are amazing by virtue of their nature. Riding a hydrofoil with the ability to instantly modulate speed and angle of attack with the touch of your forefinger is a simply awesome experience. This is also why electric hydrofoils are so easy to learn when compared to their unpowered cousins. However, the great number of parts and pieces within the system as a whole means that the difference between a good and a great E-foil lies in subtle details. A sensitive, yet user-friendly throttle unit is perhaps the most foundational aspect of a good E-foil. Fliteboard brings these qualities in spades, and the result is a nearly telepathic connection between rider and board, allowing for even the most micro of adjustments to throttle and angle of attack when riding. This is especially useful at high speed over rough water. Both Fliteboard models utilize the same motor, although our Fliteboard Pro test unit was not equipped with the prop cage. Motor vibration is impressively dampened when compared to other options on the market, as is the correlated noise. Clever design and materials are clearly at play. Regarding flight characteristics, the initial acceleration to flight phase is characterized by a rather severe angle of attack which only increases as the board’s length decreases. This is true of all E-foils and takes some getting used to when coming from an unpowered foil background. Standing in the middle of the board leads to heavy front foot pressure, but improved turning ability. Conversely, standing forward of center provides a more neutral front/rear balance, but decreases riders’ ability to carve in turns. These facts lead to a riding style of some compromise.

Given that, and without delving into the subtle differences between each board’s setup, the Fliteboard and Fliteboard Pro perform exceptionally.

The Fliteboard is easy enough to get flying as its size provides a stable platform, even in choppy seas. The Pro is definitely a challenge, and feels somewhat like getting up on a small tow board. However, once flying, both platforms are stable and solid. No flex can be detected. The most dramatic difference between the Fliteboard and the Pro is in their pitch and roll sensitivities. Wing and mast considerations aside, these sensitivities are primarily a product of board size and weight. The Fliteboard is extremely approachable from this standpoint, making banking an intuitive process even for the uninitiated. For performance-oriented riding, the Pro feels comparable to a large prone foil board, making it the clear choice for playing in waves or carving around flatwater. Traditional considerations such as pumping ability, drag, and glide are virtually irrelevant on E-foils. In our test, battery life was impressive, and even after a 90 minute session, both boards were still over half charged — much better than anticipated. As for speed, we weren’t able to do justice to these boards’ top end capabilities in rough sea conditions. However, a few full throttle squeezes on the Fliteboard Pro gave a very good hint… - KVS FLITEBOARD PRO GLIDE

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S L I N G S H O T

SLINGSHOT SLINGWING V2 JSlingshot were well and truly ahead of the game when it came to pioneering inflatable wings, with the perfect test bed of Hood River on their doorstep. Finally releasing their first serial product in 2019, the SlingWing Classic was headed off on a strong design tangent with huge leading tube diameters, and an inflatable trailing edge.

It was focused on rigidity and had enough handles to confuse an octopus. It was a product focused on Gorge use – blasting around in strong gusty wind – and was without doubt successful in those conditions. The user requirements in the wing surf market have evolved quickly, and Slingshot have reacted suitably. Emerging sneakily on social media, amazing videos appeared from the Spencer brothers in Maui. There were glimpses of minimal prototype wings with Slingshot logos towing into waves with tiny foils and popping some massive jumps in and out of the pocket. The exponentially growing wing surf community were immediately intrigued, and we have now been presented with the SlingWing V2.

First off, let’s hammer home the most important message: it is absolutely nothing like the V1 that was a product that polarized opinions, and it appears to be an almost ground up redesign. 50% of the weight has been shaved off, bringing it within a few grams of the lightest available on the market. A full range of five sizes now exist from 3.2m to 6.4m.

Build wise, Slingshot are not normally famed for minimalism, but in the case of the SlingWing V2 things have definitely changed. Rather than the full barrage of handles running the length of the strut we see on some brands, there are four intelligently spaced horizontals, three of which are at the end of the strut to cater for different arm widths – it seems easy to a find comfortable position. Two 45 degree cross straps link the leading edge to the strut and give you more options. We found this a good grip point with the 6.4m SlingWing to get a little extra clearance off the water with the wingtip, and beginners also seemed to love the cross strap for getting themselves on the foil. If you are coming off a wing without cross straps, you may well find yourself using them more regularly than you would expect. All these straps are relatively thick and chunky feeling with a rigid core, so give an extra positive connection to the wing.

The canopy is made from D4 Teijin cloth, which is going to give it the excellent wear properties associated with the premium Japanese textile brand. Wings seem to take a bit more abuse than kites, with their proximity to the user and board, so it is a good move using a wear resistant cloth. Two soft battens are sewn into the wingtips to reduce flutter and seem to do an effective job. Inflate the sail using the bayonet style valve derived from the Slingshot kite range, and you can see it visibly force tension into the canopy, particularly noticeable in the leech and the heavily cambered section just behind the leading edge.

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Deflation is often not too high up the priorities list for most people, but some wings can be genuinely annoying to deflate. On the V2 we have a wide aperture one-pump hose connecting the strut to the main tube, and a dedicated dump valve, meaning you can get it down quickly and easily, giving you a hope of getting the wing back in the lightweight water-repellent rucksack provided.

We tested both the 4m and the 6.4, and the sizes feel very tailored to their intended uses. The 4m excels in a wave scenario, with truly excellent luffing characteristics and fast forward speeds. It feels narrow, efficient upwind, and connected and easy to throw around.

It coupled well with higher aspect faster foils and gave you the impression you were riding in double speed. Power delivery is punchy and very reactive to small sheeting inputs. In its very top end, it seems to build quite a bit of pressure on your arms, letting you know when to change down. We can’t emphasize enough how well it luffs on one handle.

The 6.4m is the largest size in the range and treats you to a generous low end. It is among the most usable of the larger wings out there, with excellent stiffness and relatively light weight. The wing gains its extra surface area in chord rather than span, and has an extended tail of canopy along its lengthy strut. Be aware that the handle spacing is quite wide, making it a little tricky for smaller humans, but they could probably easily drop to a 5.4. The rigidity and canopy tension make it very simple to pump against in a light wind scenario and get foiling. Do not underestimate the usage of the 6.4 in a wave scenario. We managed to limp out in some very subpar conditions with the big wing, and with all that power available managed to pump into some decent waves, scraping a session when you would normally be reaching for a kite foil setup.

Slingshot have truly taken the SlingWing concept from the Gorge to the Ocean with the V2, and it is an extraordinarily successful design exercise, and an intelligent reaction to the current direction and requirements of the sport. - RB

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A X I S

AXIS S-SERIES 1010 AND 1150 GLIDE WINGS New Zealand based foil brand AXIS have been working diligently at their development again, and have expanded their already comprehensive range even further with some refined higher aspect flat shapes.

The result is the Glide series wings, which come in sizes dictated by their spans – 910, 1010 and 1150. These all go straight onto the existing AXIS mast and fuselage range with some slightly shorter countersunk bolts to adjust for the thinner profile, and they offer complete backward compatibility. With a span of well over a meter on the largest wing, the low levels of flex are impressive, and the thought that has gone into designing the existing system is evident. These new front wings have been derived from a completely new foil section, different from the original set of S-Series wings, so expect a different evolved performance from the 920, 1020 and even 1000.

Paddling the 1150 got us into some wave conditions that previously wouldn’t have motivated us to get the kit out of the van. The sheer lift and stability of the wing underwater is very apparent underfoot with a SUP, and you gain a substantial amount of roll stability particularly noticeable with a smaller board. Short, well-timed strokes paddling in when you get a little lift from the wave, yield a surprisingly early and gentle pop onto the foil and (if you keep position in the power) an enhanced glide we’ve yet to experience on tiny waves, when normally you would be bogging or pumping like a mad man. In fact, telling yourself you don’t need to pump as much could be the most challenging part…

Although its high aspect (AR7.4), small chord and massive span appears an extreme shape, and maybe looks a little threatening to ride, the lift and stall characteristics are so soft, the usability extends further into the realms of beginner foiling than you’d imagine. We did some test sessions behind the boat at low speeds with complete beginners with the 1150 wing, and due to the exceptionally high roll stability that the wide span provides, and the early lift and wide speed range, we had some people learn to foil very quickly, which could be a slightly unintentional but potent side effect of successful design. We slipped the longer fuselage on and tried pumping from the boat, which seems to require less effort and a slower pump rhythm – you could go as far as you like before your body gave up. The dock start potential is as huge as its span.

In a wingsurfing environment the 1150 is a light wind enabler, and its early lift is comparable to the 102. Expectations need to be managed on its cornering ability, but it is definitely no slouch, and with the 460 rear wing and a short fuselage it will be tight enough for most. What surprised us most about the 1150 is the top end when pushed. We were literally limping around with a 6m wing, pumping hard to get onto the foil, but then managing to pump into some fairly powerful small waves – a true 0-60mph experience, with the control in the top end very impressive. There was no heavy pressure required on the front foot to prevent breaching, and pitch control remains. For making the most of light wind and small wave conditions, you are going to have far more fun than you would expect with such a large foil. It is a session saver.

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For the average weight multi-discipline rider mainly focused on wing and SUP, the 1010 is probably the sweet size in the range with the most balanced characteristics. If you have ridden the 1000 before, prepare to be surprised by how much more friendly a foil with similar stats on paper can be. If you already have an AXIS setup and fancy a step up in outright speed and glide from the 1020 or 920, this could be an excellent option. The 1010 takes all the pleasant attributes of its bigger sibling and makes things faster and snappier. It suits more positive wave and wind conditions. Expect rapid arcing turns – so deep in fact that you might even pop a wingtip out of the water – which it handles with complete control. If you make direct comparisons to the existing 1000 wing, expect softer lift and stall characteristics, and more confident cornering at speed. Not to forget the 910, which suits higher wind speeds, more powerful waves or smaller humans and carries over the same characteristics.

When it comes to getting these wide span creatures around the corners, AXIS now provide a massive amount of options when it comes to stabilizers and fuselages. We tested the new Glide series mainly with the 400 and 460 stabilizers. The 460 has a narrow profile, is completely flat, with no winglets. It provides a loose feel to your turns and extends the top speed range. This is really evident when entering a faster wave that jacks up and gives more speed than expected – even with the massive 1150, you can make some impressive forward speed with control.

It makes the setup feel like it is running far more pitch neutral and of course that reduced drag makes for enhanced straight-line glide.

One of the major positives of the AXIS setup is the relatively low cost of the modular parts and complete cross-compatibility. There are no distinct rules to play by and it is really simple to change a part mid-session to experiment. Your setup is a matter of personal taste, and it is all catered for. Adrian Roper’s depth of technical knowledge, and critically how to apply it to the real world shines through with the Glide series.

Few other systems offer the versatility, customization and price point, and it sets a benchmark of just how friendly and accessible a higher aspect foil can be. - RB AXIS 1150 & 1010 (US FUSELAGE AND 400 STAB) GLIDE

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BEHIND-THE-SCENES Just to prove that our testers are real people who really love to get out on every bit of kit they’re sent (and are often reluctant to hand back), and take their roles very seriously indeed, we thought we’d open up a new page showcasing some shots of them in action, happily testing away in their respective corners of Planet Earth…

Photos: Luke Lane

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INBOUND

NAISH S25 RANGE

Few brands can really own the word ‘comprehensive’ when describing their foil range but Naish can certainly pin that shiny badge on theirs, with a foil and board line-up that truly covers every angle. Adding and improving on that with their recently released S25 range, we spoke with Product Manager Michi Schweiger to find out what’s new…

Hey team! So could you give us a quick overview of the new S25 foil range...

Working closely with our global team and ambassadors, our design team has come up with a new range of lighter, stronger, stiffer foils for riders of all ability levels. Weight has been dramatically reduced on all components of our modular system, so whether for surf, SUP or wing foiling, with S25 we have the right set up between our Jet series and expanded HA range.

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You guys have a massive range of board sizes this year, perhaps more comprehensive than any brand out there. It’s great to see so many volumes in the wing SUP range. Which are your most popular at the moment with people learning the sport from scratch?

Generally our most popular sizes in the Hover Wing/SUP range are the 95 and the 110. The bigger sizes like the 125 and 140, as well as the Hover Air 135 and 170 are gaining popularity with customers who have no previous experience with wind sports or foiling. We also see cross use of the smaller Hover Wing/SUPs between surf and Wing-surfer foiling, while the mid to big volume sizes are popular for both SUP and Wing-surfer foiling. This versatility aspect was also very important to us in the development process, making sure that we get full performance for the different applications. There is also a strong following with boards that are more versatile, such as the Hover Crossover. Customers value the options that those models offer with 3-in-1 and 4-in-1 sports in one board.

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What compromises (if any) did you have to make in the Hover Crossover board, being as it covers SUP surf foiling, wing surfing as well as other variants?

We see Robby riding strapped in the Hover Wing SUP strap inserts quite often. Talk to us about the benefits and drawbacks of strap use for winging and SUPing disciplines...

The compromises lay mostly in the priorities of the customer. The Hover Crossover boards are shapes that evolved from SUP surfing and we have not had any major compromises on that end. For the use of SUP foiling, they carry a little more length than a dedicated Hover Wing/SUP for example, which has some advantages when learning as the board can continuously get up to speed before getting onto the foil. The same counts for the use with the Wing-surfer. They offer a bit more fore and aft stability when off the foil than a shorter board, which helps in the learning process.

Riding with straps is getting very popular, especially with the use of the Wing-surfer. You are automatically adding control and the option to jump. The insert options that we added to the Hover wing/SUPs allow setups with two front straps windsurf-style, or single front strap for riders who do not switch their feet after jibing or tacking, as well as a single back strap. For SUP foiling the straps also offer more control as well as more leverage to pump the board up onto the foil. For anybody wanting the freedom of no straps, all options are obviously wide open, as the boards are sold without straps, but they are available as accessories.

Our Hover SUPs are essentially 3-in-1 boards allowing the use for SUP surfing/SUP foiling and Wing-surfer foiling. The Hover Crossovers are 4-in-1 with the addition of windsurfing to the mix.

The setup of the Crossover is as such so that we can recommend moving the foil into the forward portion of the track boxes for SUP foiling and Wing-surfer use, while you move the foil further backward in the track boxes for the use with a windsurf sail. All of that can be done by using our Jet foils or Jet HA foils. The Hover SUP foil models do not have strap inserts while the Hover Crossover has the necessary strap inserts to be used as a windsurf foil board.

The inflatable board looks like an interesting addition to the range.

Is it purely aimed at beginners or should the travel convenience not be overlooked by the experienced rider?

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The Hover Inflatables are designed for beginners and intermediate riders. They do not offer strap options and are high volume boards that are easy to learn on. Experienced riders often ride boards small enough that the travel size aspect is not that crucial. But when compared to boards in the 120+ litre range, then the compactness of the Inflatables is certainly an advantage for both travel and everyday storage and transport.

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How has the Jet foil range moved on from the 2020 designs?

The S25 foils have been redesigned dramatically. The main advances are: • Lighter overall weight due to weight savings on the mast and fuselage as well as in the wings. We have a new mast geometry that has permanently bonded ends, allowing us to eliminate some of the internal structure of the aluminum mast that was previously necessary in order to screw the end part on, and the weight savings on the masts are in the 25% range (depending on the size). We also saved weight by streamlining the fuselage design, and achieved weight savings in the foils, as they come with a lighter foam core in combination with a UD carbon pre preg layup. These new complete foil setups reach weights that are hard to beat even by most carbon foils on the market.

• Heli-coil fuselages – we implemented heli-coils into the foil to fuselage connections to limit corrosion.

• T30 stainless steel screws – the Torx system limits wear and tear on the screw heads and allows the necessary leverage (with the supplied driver) to secure all screws in our system.

• New mast geometry – this makes them a more stable ride at low speed, gives them better tracking through turns, and more directional stability at all speeds.

What sort of speeds are you clocking on the new Jet HA 1240?

We tested the 1400 last year and it was fast, this thing must be a rocket ship!

You will be surprised. For more advance riders, the 1240 HA adds an-

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other speed dimension. It is a progression of the 1400 and 1800 HA and comes with a 280 stabilizer. Besides the speed difference, it also offers incredible pumping performance for its size. It was important to us to not only create fast, good pumping wings but also keep turning in mind. Many of the high aspect wings on the market are dead straight, which is great for speed and pumping but lacks in turning ability as the wing has to be turned quite flat or with more speed. Our planform allows us the best of both worlds, while also making the HA wings turn well. We therefore also use them a lot for surf foiling and they are an ideal choice for use with the Wing-surfer. Our foil designer Nils Rosenblad has done an outstanding job translating our testing feedback into a series of truly magic foils.

We got the S25 Wing-surfer on test for this issue and it was a lot of fun. How much did this ongoing explosion in the wing market feed into decisions made for the rest of the range?

The development goes hand in hand and it for sure has had a great impact on the development of the foils. Foils that are being used with the Wing-surfer are the most versatile foils within the range.

While windsurf and kite foils are quite specific to the particular sport, the foils that are commonly used with the Wing-surfer cover a much wider range as they need to be able to surf foil, SUP foil and be ridden with the Wing-surfer. Testing surf foils with the Wing-surfer adds another speed dimension to the testing process compared to only testing them in a surfing or SUP foiling environment. We believe this helps the overall performance and pushes the development forward.

Our go-to foils for the Wing-surfer are the Jet and Jet HA range.

Depending on rider weight and skill, pretty much all the available sizes are applicable. It is interesting to note that the wind range of one Wing-surfer size can be dramatically increased by the use of different foil sizes and vice versa.

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TAKUMA KUJIRA FOIL

Takuma approached us with a bit of a scoop for this issue, giving us the first look at their new ‘Kujira foil’ range, a range which claims to have its design basis inspired by nature. Well we love a bit of nature here at Foiling Magazine. And of course we love a scoop… so we were keen to hear more.

So let’s start with the thinking behind the name, Kujira foil. We did a quick Google of ‘Kujira’ and we got pictures of some pretty impressive whales...

Yes exactly, Kujira is Japanese for whale. Takuma has some Japanese ties, not only with the name of the brand, but also part of our R&D is actually located in Japan where a minority of people still hunt whales as a traditional custom. We have always been very against these cruel behaviors and during the process of developing the Kujira foil, we made the decision to commit ourselves to contributing even more to environmental protection. There is an element of biomimicry in our innovation and engineering process on the Kujira foil, as it is fully inspired by humpback whales. So after two years of analysis, research, and tests, we are finally ready and excited to release our foil evolution: the Kujira line.

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From what we’ve read, it sounds like quite a process that Laurent (who worked on the Takuma LOL Profoil range) and Cyril (Takuma founder) have gone through to come up with the Kujira range. Were there actual whales involved?!

In a sense, yes! First of all, it’s been a long process of research, analyzing the phenomenon and finding the best way to adapt it to hydrofoils with our knowledge of their design. The Kujira foil is inspired by the pectoral fin of humpback whales, who are known for their agility, power and efficiency. After a number of prototypes, modifications and adjustments of the shape and profile of the bumps, computer simulations, and hours of testing in all conditions, we could clearly feel the big improvement in terms of glide, lift and comfort in our foils.

So what design elements were conceived from these observations of nature, how were they implemented, and what benefits do they provide?

The efficiency of humpback whales is due, amongst other things, to their pectoral fins. The mechanics of it is basically create lift by generating swirls. This also creates velocity while maintaining control, which is specific to this type of whale. This is what we wanted to implement into our designs, and we did just that by reproducing and adding on whale-like bumps to the hydrofoils. We adjusted their shape and how many there are to best fit our design. This really gives an extra lift that allows the rider to use a smaller foil for a similar

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support, and creates a smooth fly and glide, even at low speed. The smoothness and comfort of the foil only increases at higher speed.

You can immediately feel the benefits of the Kujira foil, and it’s super interesting to see non professional foilers get better using them.

And what sizes are they available in, and what disciplines are you recommending for each size?

The first release of the Kujira foil is 980cm2. It’s become one of our most well-rounded foils in surf and wing foiling, but it’s also used for lighter and more advanced foil in downwind. Other sizes are in the works, but we make sure to take the time needed to have the right shapes and most efficient foils for the disciplines and conditions.

Tell us about those signature LOL upturned winglets on the front wing. What do they do for the ride?

It is really the same concept as in aeronautics: it feels more comfortable and reassuring to navigate, and it saves on kerosene. Using winglets on a hydrofoil will make it more efficient in terms of glide, lift, and will give extra comfort while foiling.

Where has the R&D primarily been taking place, and where have been your main testing locations?

We have different testing bases depending on products and conditions. It is super important to test in all kinds of conditions to get the most efficient products. Laurent Borgna and Clement Colmas (team rider) are based in New Caledonia. They have all the conditions needed to spend hours testing every single day, from windy lagoons to extreme reef breaks. Another part of the R&D team is based in Ja-

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pan and Taiwan. We also get a lot of feedback from our international team riders.

Is the Kujira foil range going to influence your e-foil design in the future?

It’s a bit early to talk about it… but e-foil is not only so much fun, it’s also an incredible way of testing products. It’s really accurate and we can know right away the efficiency of the hydrofoil we’re using.

After the e-foil tests, we could already clearly say that the Kujira foil and the bumps concept is super efficient in terms of hydrodynamics, lift, and early take off. The result of it is longer autonomy and super smooth riding.

You recently released the Wing Ride III, your latest wind wing. Being as this section of the sport is really exploding right now, did wing surfing play a part in the design process of the new foil range?

Sure, wing foiling is one of our biggest focuses in R&D. It does play a big part in the design process and the Kajura foil has all the characteristics needed in wing foiling: easy and early take off, smooth riding and extra lift that you might need in maneuvers. Wing foiling opens a new era in foiling and will open the market to many more users… a great future!

Anything else in the Takuma pipeline that you can talk about right now?

We never stop the R&D process and we do have a lot of things in the pipeline, but the process takes time and it is still too early to talk about anything specific…

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RIDE ENGINE FOIL BOARDS We were just having a little lunchtime internet-browsing downtime around the publication of our last issue when we spotted these striking new boards, fresh from the Ride Engine stable. We gave them a quick mention in the last issue, but we were keen to find out a little more. Brand Manager Gary Siskar filled in the gaps…

Hey Gary, so tell us what’s new construction-wise in the new boards?

We have tuned in the lamination construction and material use by model, as each specific board has a different set of requirements based on its intended use. Then the boards do share a few techniques that add to the overall strength and durability, while remaining lightweight. One of these techniques is a unique process in which the foil tracks are constructed in the boards, that incorporates a top to bottom lamination that creates an I-beam. This allows us to deliver an extremely strong mounting interface for the foil, yet eliminates unnecessary lamination around the boxes that creates unwanted weight.

It seems the evolution of dedicated foil boards has been almost as quick as the evolution of foils – what are the main characteristics of foil boards now compared to surf/SUP boards?

No question about the fast evolution! About the only thing that foil boards share with traditional surfboards or SUPs would be the paddling performance found in a volume that you are used too. Beyond

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this, after you are up and riding on the foil, everything changes. Foil boards address performance needs such as the need for a quick, controlled deflection when the rider touches down in the instance of coming off the foil. With the use of forward concave bottom contours, heavily chinned rails, and a kick in the tail that offers clearance when pumping, touch downs and water surface contact, it becomes clear how fast and easily you can get back on foil rather than on a traditional surfboard, where rail and fin hold, or hull speed are the key factors. Along with this, lower swing weights are important, which translates to more compact designs that pack in volume with muted nose shapes helping with board control on the foil. In the end you are riding the foil, but the shape of the board does have a huge bearing of how well you can keep control..

We see the Goon Bunny logo (trademark of Ride Engine founder, Coleman Buckley). Are we right in thinking these are full Coleman creations?

Coleman is a masterful shaper of all wave watercraft. And I mean everything. I have seen surfboards, kite surfboards and even handplanes for pulling into your local shore pound from him that are amazing. Coleman had his hand in all the boards, from complete shape design in the Bird Machine, Escape Pod and Dad Board to a collaborative design effort in the Moon Buddy with Julien Fillion.

Beyond Coleman and Julien, is there anyone else who provided particular inspiration in designing the line up?

We can’t go without saying that Tony Logosz from Slingshot has had a bearing on the shape influence. Tony’s knowledge base that spans from windsurf boards, kite surfboards, surfboards and foil board is vast to say the least. Also, Coleman is a shaper’s shaper. He draws inspiration from every board craftsman, from past to present.

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Bird Machine

Moon Buddy

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Where have you been working on the boards, and which riders have been testing them?

All the Ride Engine boards started with Coleman making them at his shaping compound in Santa Cruz, California. From there we have had guys like Brendan Richards in Santa Cruz, Jesse Faen in Southern California, Julien Fillion in Maui, and a host of others ride the firsthand tuned shapes from the shaping bay, and all the boards through early production.

ers looking for a stable platform. As many wing surfers prefer to use straps for pumping, deep start stability and jumping, all the Ride Engine boards come with inserts for strap placement.

How well does the Moon Buddy cross over between SUP and wing disciplines, and where do any compromises lie? What weight of rider would you recommend on each size?

That wave is in Montreal, Canada. Julien rips the standing waves, be it on a foil board, kitesurfing (yes kitesurfing) or surfing. As for what to ride, it really depends on what you want to ride. All the boards work great depending on your skill level.

The Moon Buddy is a great board for both. It will satisfy the seasoned SUP hydrofoiler all the way to the SUP surfer that wants to get into SUP foiling. For wing surfing, the board is a great platform to start the sport and perfect your skill until you have the urge to move down into a smaller board size. If you are looking for a single board to do both, look no further as the board has been designed with both disciplines in mind. Weight recommendations are hard to recommend as skill level comes into play. What I will say is that the volumes and the dimensions make for a very stable platform that is easy to paddle or remain balanced in choppy conditions.

Why the “Dad board”?!

Tell us which hydrofoil wings pair best with each board…

Great question. As you have mentioned earlier, the evolution of foil board shapes has been going in crazy directions. We saw the need to design a board that is closer to a traditionally shaped surfboard and not so alien. We packed in foil-specific design with a double concave hull shape, chinned rails and more volume into a board so that when you paddle, it feels familiar to your surfboard. Plus, it doubles as a solid wing surfing board.

This is a tricky question as much depends on the rider’s ability, weight or what they feel they are looking for in a foil. We have however streamlined some of the decision processes and suggest the Bird Machine for kiting, the Escape Pod and the Dad Board are very versatile with the Ride Engine Futura Surf 76 hydrofoil kit, and where the Moon Buddy is best is with the Ride Engine Futura Surf 84 hydrofoil kit. With this all said, the boards work great with any foil on the market out there that uses a foil track system to mount the foil to the board.

We’ve loved the shots of your guys riding that ‘standing’ wave recently. Where was that, and which of these would be best suited to riding here?

Speaking of which, this issue comes complete with our Wind Wing Buyer’s Guide. You identify the Moon Buddy as your wing boarding option – what are the main characteristics required here compared to a surf/SUP board?

Actually, we have three great boards in our line that align as great wing surfing boards, depending on your skill level. The Escape Pod is a solid board for winging if the rider knows how to sink (deep water) start, or is light enough to knee start. The Dad Board is great for most to knee start and with a more drawn out outline it tends to be more stable on the knees when planing on the water surface before the foil engages. As you mentioned, the Moon Buddy is a prime board for winging for the first timers to advanced wing surf177

The fact that you seem to have gone hard out on foils and boards suggests that you are expecting the sport to continue to grow – is this the case and where do you see the biggest interest and growth?

I am sure that I am not alone in feeling that hydrofoiling is going to continue to grow. I think that we have seen the first set waves in kiting, the second set waves in surfing, and now a new set in wing surfing. I think there will be participation growth to be had in all aspects of foiling. But there is no doubt that wing surfing could bring a whole new group of participants to the sport of hydrofoiling.

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ARMSTRONG A-WING PHOTOS GEORGIA SCHOFIELD

The first we knew of Armstrong’s entry into the wind wing market was when a bunch of top-drawer shots landed in our inbox (some of which you see here). We were straight on the wire to the boss, Armie Armstrong, to get all the juicy details…

So, the A-Wing is here! It looks great. What originally spurred you guys into joining the wind wing market?

Winging is simply so fun! It’s light, easy to setup and makes foiling accessible for more people to experience the sublime sensation foiling delivers.

So tell us about the A-Wing setup, and some of the technical highlights…

We have put a lot of time and effort into understanding what we wanted our A-Wing to deliver. This led our design process to create something powerful yet well balanced in a wide range of conditions.

Some key features are: • Shear Web stiffened handle connection system for enhanced control and no energy transfer loss.

• Pre-loaded LE geometry for maintaining our unique airfoil section when under load.

• SAIL101 leach tensioning Dyneema line.

• Aramid Reinforced Load Zones, to maximize structural integrity when the wing is loaded.

What’s the optimum foil pairing to ride the A-Wing?

Any Armstrong foil depending on wind strength and experience level – I use the 85cm/33.5” mast, TC60 fuse HS232 stabilizer and HS1850, 1550 or 1050 depending on wind and wave energy.

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Where did the majority of your testing take place, and who’s been feeding into the production process?

We have been in development for over a year, since being bitten by the winging bug while testing our HS foil prototypes and Wing SUP boards on Maui last summer. Many people have contributed to the design, from legendary kite designers like Dano See, to Olympic gold medallist sailor Jo Aleh, and current America’s Cup winning sailors.

Almost all of our testing and development has been done in the varied weather conditions of New Zealand.

How long was the testing period, and how many iterations did you go through?

We have made so many versions I can’t even remember how many… so many materials tested and ideas. I almost had to fire myself for making too many prototypes and spending too much cash on R&D. In the end, functional simplicity of design was the key and we are stoked with how the A-Wing has finally come out.

You’re claiming the A-Wing as one of the most powerful wind wings available. What are we going to notice when we get it on the water?

Light wind pull, handling and powered aerials are on another level.

This is primarily because the airfoil section has been carefully developed by an internationally renowned sport wing designer and we have incorporated industry-leading pre-load geometry to the airframe, making it solid and the perfect designed shape when under load. This translates into the A-Wing, meter for meter, being one of the most powerful wings available.

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Tell us about the size range, and who should be riding what?

3.5m, 4.5m, 5.5m. They all ride a little bigger than their size compared to current wings due to what I mentioned above - you need them all!

We’re packed with wind wing content this issue. What’s your assessment on the rocketing uptake of wings from both the industry and consumers?

It’s a revolution for foil sports because it makes it easier and more accessible, it’s super fun from beginner to expert, and I have no doubt it is going to blow minds in the coming years.

As with any pretty new product, undoubtedly there’s going to be a bit of an arms race with wings now there are several in the market.

In what areas do you think advancing tech can improve them over time?

The great thing is that there have been awesome products on the market for years like the rigid-frame land Kite Wing, so we have a perfect springboard to start at a solid design platform. From here, it’s mostly a matter of understanding the different loads involved and how these are transferred into energy for the rider, and combining this with manufacturing techniques and materials that bring it all together. It is a super exciting time and the future is wide open. We look forward to continuing to develop some really radical concepts and pushing the sport forward.

And while we have you here... any more Armstrong goodies in the pipeline that we should know about?!

We have also been working hard on our foils, especially our mid aspect HS foil range with the HS1250 soon to be released, expanding our foil quiver, from the low aspect CF range to the six size mid aspect HS range plus there will be one more set to complete our foil line-up…

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FORESIGHT ERIK ANTO NSON Erik Antonson, host of ‘The Progression Project’ podcast (with the current foiling series being a regular drop-in for a bit of intellectual chatter with some of the highest profile riders in the game) is well-placed to offer his gathered insight into where foiling just might be headed. So we asked him to ruminate a little…

PHOTOS SARAH AND KEMPER ANTONSON

Within the next decade, while production foils will still be the mainstay, 3D printing advancements and materials will allow entry to many more designers. Where surfing started with the backyard craftsman, foiling will evolve to the backyard designer. New materials and tech advancements will allow for changes in your setup while flying. Literal onthe-fly shimming will be possible. Maybe angle of attack changes for the front foil. If you look at airplane design, the basic shapes of planes haven’t changed much, but the technology has. This decade will be the beginning of technology for foiling.

The big evolutionary leaps of the last century created an expectancy that the progress would continue. Flying cars?

But a car still looks like a car. A plane is still a plane. Formula 1 track times haven’t changed much in 30 years and the Concord hasn’t flown in 20 years. Sure, there have been improvements, but very few leaps. Whenever I’m stopped on the beach after a foil session, and folks are inspecting my setup, and they ask about the sport, my response is, “We didn’t get flying cars, but we did get foils.” The foil is the rare evolutionary leap forward.

Maneuvers get bigger, but they won’t continue the rate of change we’ve seen in the last year. Strapped foiling will start to look more like a snowboarding/surf crossover.

Unstrapped riding will look more like shortboarding, but faster. The evolutionary leap has already happened. Now we’re in a refinement phase. Look at surfing over the last 50 years… better, faster, more critical, but recognizable. Foiling will experience the same trend.

In the longer term, I’m not sure where design goes, but battery technology will allow for very light efoils at a much lower cost than currently available. Motors that can move along the mast and allow true depower. Foils could have computer chips that measure water speed and adjust angle of attack. The ocean will be our playground.

Lots of people say that foiling won’t take over surfing, but I’m not sure. Access to waves is limited. Access to water is abundant – wake foiling, efoiling, wing foiling... And once you can pump and ride a wake, you can ride in the ocean.

At some point there will be a Costco foil and everyone with a boat or jetski will have one. If you look at that trend over 10-20 years, there are going to be a ton of foilers on the planet not accounting for the surfers who see the light. And more and more surfers will make the switch as foiling is a more complete sport.

Right now we’re on v2 moving to v3 in foil design. We’ve seen specification towards surfing or down winding with the best wings being tailored towards high efficiency with high aspect ratios or surf wings with dihedral and lower aspect. In either case you’re sacrificing turning or pumping. I think v4 will be the true hybrid, pumping like the Uni 190 and turning like the MFC 1250 in one wing. Dihedral will make its way into high aspect.

You can find The Progression Project on all good podcast providers.

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Stemming from her first mesmerizing experience on a foil, Glennel Jordan (aka @ocean_baby) has since found that her mind, options, and local landscape have all been opened up like never before. For our State of Play this issue, she waxes lyrical on her ongoing hydrofoil love affair…

Each and every day we wake up is a new opportunity to express ourselves and manifest those dreams and visions we have for ourself. I believe it’s human nature to want to explore new frontiers or try something new. We are constantly changing and adapting and looking for ways to improve what is already happening, whether it’s something in our own lives or maybe in our professional lives or something a lot larger that affects large populations. This is what foiling has brought to my life, it has expanded that component in my brain that strives for new ways to connect with nature and more specifically that spiritual experience that I gain from being in the ocean.

The outdoors, the ocean, surfing, the changing seasons of nature, are all incredibly strong forces that have driven many of the choices in my life and countless other outdoor sports enthusiasts. While pursuing professional goals not related to surfing there was always an eye on how to maintain and improve that side of my life where I felt such a strong, visceral connection to that spiritual high a lot of us get from various extreme sports.

Initially, I’ll admit, when I first heard and saw videos of foiling, I was not immediately impressed. The only reason I started foiling was because I was looking for a different way to pass the time in the summer on the North Shore of Oahu while still being able to possibly ride a wave. Fast forward two years from that summer, and I can definitively say that foiling has altered my life and my perception of how we can enjoy the sea.

Any foiler will probably explain that the first time they realized foiling was a game changer was when they first caught a wave from the peak all the way to the sand. In many cases, it may have been the longest wave they ever caught in their life. However, one of the ancillary benefits that came with foiling for me was the amount of new relationships that formed with people from all backgrounds, all experience levels, different ages, different races, even people from other countries all over the world. Unlike surfing, where there is a constant search to find an uncrowded wave, with foiling we could find almost any crappy waves and a group of friends could have the time of their lives sharing waves and cheering each other on. As we get older and become adults, start careers or businesses, have families of our own, making new friends becomes increasingly difficult and sometimes impossible. Since I’ve started foiling I’ve created countless amounts of genuine new friendships with people I would most likely never have become friends with before, and certainly not at this level that we have.

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LEFT Ocean Baby by (Insta) name, Ocean Baby by nature...

GL E NN E L J O R DA N

But foiling has also expanded my mind to include ways to enjoy the sea outside of just a surf break. I think almost any foiler will say that watching some of those first videos of Kai Lenny doing downwinders on a SUP foil most certainly made their brain explode. It certainly did for me. At the time I wasn’t yet at the level to be able to enjoy the foil in that type of capability, but knowing that the opportunity was there to expand my reach on the ocean was an absolute fantasy for me. To be able to harness the power of wind and swells and be in the middle of the ocean riding waves was something that I yearned for.

Those of us in Hawaii are so lucky to be able to watch the amazing athletes in Maui pioneer open ocean down winding on foils. Although I was still a newbie in foiling, I had the benefit of kitesurfing for the past 10 years so I understood how it was possible to harness the wind and the unlimited amount of fun that came from essentially having your own personal jetski tow you around and catch waves. So when I was in Maui and saw some of the first wingers at Lanes, catching overhead surf on foils, I was instantly struck and knew I had to learn yet another sport.

“I CAN DEFINITIVELY SAY THAT FOILING HAS ALTERED MY LIFE AND MY PERCEPTION OF HOW WE CAN ENJOY THE SEA.”

While foiling was that initial hitch that expanded my mental horizon, the wind wing took that surreal experience to the next level for me.

It is one of the most freeing experiences I have ever felt in my entire life. Unlike kitesurfing, where you are essentially always connected to your kite, with the wing you can completely de-power it, and are simply foiling while holding the wing. And my wave count has gone up drastically because every time I come into the beach, I’m usually riding a swell. After learning winging at surf breaks, I started playing around doing downwinders around Oahu. Although it’s nothing like Maui, we still have the opportunity to fly down the coasts and catch swells. I am currently in the midst of a wind winging/downwind love affair. I am finding out that catching swells on the foil and riding them is a huge learning curve, but having the wing as my jetski assistant has basically opened up every body of water around our island.

Never in my life would I have imagined I would be able to harness the wind and waves in such a way that I could enjoy our island so fully. I am finding myself passionately in love with different coastlines around Oahu, that even after 20 years of living here I previously would have never visited or considered. I’m awe struck on a daily basis, and in the midst of Covid and travel restrictions, I have never enjoyed my home so fully.

Most surfers are all striving for that same feeling. That spiritual high we get from those few seconds on that perfect wave. I believe foiling and its various disciplines can manifest that experience for almost anyone.

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Kody Kerbox on Drifter Pro Compact by Paul Karaolides, available in 4’8”, 4’10”, 5’0”. ktsurfing.com, @ktsurfing

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Photo: John Bilderback

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