Topics

1

Wingsurfing, Windfoiling, Wingfoiling, Wing SUP / Lift Surf 60 v2 vs 120HA

« on: July 23, 2021, 01:26:15 PM »

I've been riding the Lift 120HA for a while now and liking it a lot.  Originally I wanted to go fast 30mph+ and was initially disappointed that it topped out where my Gofoil GL140 did... about 28mph or so going at it 98% fear factor.  I'm sure you could eek out 30mph if you were willing to die for the title.    However, the 120HA has an incredible glide ratio, especially at speed.  I can pretty much do a 360 jibe or tack with no wing power at all, given enough initial speed.

Enter the Lift Surf 60 v2, half the area, less aspect, but still respectable.  I'm hoping for 30mph+ now, but we'll see... if I can even get it flying on a 75L board!  Take off speed of the 120HA is about 8-9mph board speed, but once flying slows down nicely to 5mph without stalling, but skittish for sure.  I'm thinking the Surf 60 is going to be probably double that, should be a good little challenge to get going!  I'll report how it goes... for anyone that cares about going fast on none race foils (Mikes Lab/F4/etc).

Pics show 120HA next to the Surf 60 with the Glide 32 and 25 tails... one has a 3" fuse extension (helps mellow out the pitch stability at speed)… also shows size compared to Gofoil Kai set and my hand!  lol

Here is a quick vid of how the 120HA rides...      (no speed runs here, wind was too light)

2

Wingsurfing, Windfoiling, Wingfoiling, Wing SUP / Jimmy Lewis Flying VM 5'0

« on: April 14, 2021, 12:04:53 PM »

JL VM 5'0 x 24   75L
GoFoil GL140, 18w flat tail, 9.5" pedestal, 29.5" mast with Adapter (+4", 33.5" total)
Lift 120 High Aspect, 32 Glide tail, 32" mast

3

Foil SUP / GoFoil 29" mast upgrade

« on: February 28, 2019, 01:47:08 PM »

Hey guys, been out for the past 2.5 months due to the fact that I broke my arm in half mountain biking, oops.  While healing I ordered a GoFoil 29" mast to upgrade my triple wing set.  I've already broken one 24.5" mast and the replacement (I had to pay for -$600) is also fatigued and sloppy after just several sessions.  Last weekend I had my first outing on the board with the new mast.  I'm still missing 50%+ of movement in my wrist in a few directions, but limping it along I was able to catch some waves and access the new mast.  Winner!  The new/bigger mast is much stiffer and more stable than the originals, massive difference in feel... I'm using the M200 set to evaluate here.  Instead of it feeling like I have a big flexible spring between the board and the wing, it now feels like I'm in control and now, not a second after I weight shift.  I was able to pump back out 4 times with the added length, and haven't noticed any additional drag due to the larger mast (thickness/width)  The old mast was 27.5" and I used a track box adapter with it.  Anyone else switch and notice the difference?

4

Foil SUP / New ride, the latest from JL

« on: August 24, 2018, 12:31:34 PM »

6'5 x 28.5 x 4.25 "Flying V"  107L according to Marlon, despite that the sticker on it says 115L (a mistake from the factory I'm told).  This example is 15.5lbs in carbon.  The red has a pretty metal flake in it.  I'll give a ride report after I get it wet.

5

Foil SUP / Seriously thinking about quitting this sport!

« on: June 15, 2018, 12:09:37 AM »

The facts:  In the last 5 sessions foiling I broke 3 different foils!  They cost me $4000 total, with the breaking of the warranty replacement (had I had to buy that one) it would be $5400!  I've only been foiling for less than a year!  I don't know if I can afford to keep doing this!

Today, RIP GoFoil IWA and my mast.  The IWA is split in half in the center and my mast is cracked along the fuselage and the center of the mast wing.

You'd think I did something really extreme like went out in 30ft waves or ran if over with my car.  No, I breached on a head high swell and jumped off.  Possibly my calf was tapped by the foil as I fell.  I didn't feel much, and have no marks or sore spots.  When I came up, the damage was done.  It was in deep water and no breaking waves near by.

My track box install is still 100%, and my custom carbon adapter is 100%.

I just don't get it.  Something is really trying to tell me to NOT keep foiling!

So bummed!!!!!   

6

Foil SUP / Impressions on first GoFoil rides

« on: June 03, 2018, 03:37:37 PM »

The winds finally died back for a little bit so I could get into the surf again.

For background, I learned on and surfed the Lift 170 foil for several months before getting these GoFoils.  Unfortunately my Lift foil was lost when the FoilMount it was connected to broke where the T-nuts were in the FoilMount tracks.  To it's credit they were nearly double over sets and crunching hard.  My fault really.

The past two days were my first days out with a new/proper track box installed.  I'm using an adapter to go from track box to Tuttle, which effectively adds 4" to the GoFoil mast height.  The Lift had a 28" mast, so I wanted to keep the height the same.

Conditions were perfect both days, waist to chest with occasional head high to over head sets.

I decided to try the IWA first, so I've just been riding that wing these two days.

I should have figured being so used to the Lift foil that I might find the GoFoil awkward to get used to.  That certainly was the case, although I'm now staring to get used to it's characteristics, better and worse.

Right away I noticed when paddling out that the GoFoil had much more drag.  I feels like my paddling speed is about half, but in reality it's probably about 20-30% slower.  Very noticeable.  This makes sense since the Lift has about 1/4" frontal exposure area, and the GoFoil has what looks like over an inch.  The Lift is also quite a bit lighter.

I kind of figured the GoFoil was going to need a lot more front foot pressure and so I was really far forward for my first drop in.  Even with this adjustment I way underestimated just how much nose up force the foil would produce and was launched off the back, like I was learning all over again!  Humbled!

Eventually I came to understand the trait of this IWA to be that at the onset of flight it massively loads up the front, and then after speed picks up to a normal pace it evens out again.  I found the IWA setup to have a very large dynamic pitch range which it wants to fly in compared to the Lift.  I'm now used to stomping all my weight on the front foot at initial drop in and then quickly jumping back after it's flying.  I have to say, this transition is quite dramatic compared to the Lift, which kind of just starts picking up pressure gradually.  I can't help but wonder if the rear wing (the big blue one) with the IWA doesn't have enough slow speed lift to match the IWA front wing.  Anyway, I found this to be a funny quirk to the foil.  Not a problem after you get used to it, but maintaining proper pitch angle at drop takes some real fine tuning to get right.

Ok, the first amazing thing I noticed about the IWA as just how slow it will maintain flight!  Every time I thought my flight was over and turned around to "land" the thing just kept flying!  It really feels like it flies at about 3mph!  No kidding!  Once I got my pumping technique back it was amazing pumping this thing!  Now I totally understand what I see in the videos with people pumping so well on these foils.  Incredible!  I was pumping with paddling between to keep up speed really well on my first tries!  Super stoked on this.

Dropping in is another area I thought would be easier, but I'm not sure it is.  The problem is the reduced paddling speed makes it harder to catch the wave, but then it makes up some of that by flying earlier.  On one wave I actually got the foil flying after the wave peak passed me and I was able to pump back over to the front!  That was a first!  At the end of the second day today I am pretty sure it's slightly harder for me to catch the waves compared to the Lift, very surprising, but I'm confident about this assessment.  The paddling speed is slower, no way around it.

At points in the sessions I felt like I might be over speeding the foil.  On some bigger/faster waves I would start to hear some cavitation and the foil would get really draggy.  I'm not sure though, because sometimes it would go fast and not do this, hard to say, definitely something going on there though at high speeds.

Handling is so different than I'm used to.  At first the foil felt a little tippy, but I quickly got used to that and actually at slow speeds it was kind of the opposite, it was harder to maneuver.  The IWA is much larger than the Lift foil, so all these comparisons are really not apples to apples exactly.  I think maybe comparing the Kai foil to the Lift might be a more accurate view of how they compare.

Anyway, I'm loving the hell out of the GoFoil so far!  It's taken some getting used to, but after a feeling out for a day I'm riding around like a champ and having way too much fun!   

The added effective mast height is very welcomed!  I was still dipping rails and nose on high speed tight carves, with shorter I could not make those turns that hard.

The only thing I really miss right now is the much lower weight, faster paddling speed, and efficient high speed characteristics of the Lift.  Trading out the IWA for the Kai might solve a lot of that though.

Sick ass foil!  Get one!   

7

Foil SUP / Just thinking out loud...

« on: April 22, 2018, 05:32:28 PM »

I spotted all these materials around my shop.  Dow high density blue foam(loads of it), honeycomb core material, and plenty of carbon.  Hmmm  what could I do with all this...

With how some foil board shapes look these days, a few cuts with my hotwire and I bet I could have something maybe ridable.  What do you think?  Should I give it a shot?

8

Foil SUP / I need to put a foil box into a board, how do I do it?

« on: April 14, 2018, 12:48:12 PM »

Since my Foilmount failed, I'm going to remove that and do it the right way this time.  Does anyone make a foil track cassette yet?  I don't want tuttle, so not going there.  If no one makes a track cassette, how does one go about doing it themselves?  Does it need to go all the way to the top of the board like a tuttle install?  Info much appreciated!

9

Foil SUP / Foilmount failure

« on: April 14, 2018, 12:44:42 PM »

Well, the board didn't fail, but the mount itself broke!  My foil went to the bottom of the ocean.  I will give this thing credit, it lasted quite a while and abuse in some big waves... but next time, if there was going to be one, which there isn't going to be, I'd tie a safety line to my leash plug... live and learn!

10

Foil SUP / How to build a deep tuttle to plate adater?

« on: March 31, 2018, 11:29:01 AM »

Hey guys, was super stoked to get my GoFoil set yesterday, but then the bad news, everyone is out of deep tuttle to plate adapters for a very long time!  The queue is nearly a hundred deep on the waiting list too!  Insane.  I'm left to have to make my own at this point if I want to go foiling anytime soon, good motivation!   

I have all the composite materials needed and have made some moulds in the past for different things, so I have release wax, PVA, etc and some experience with making splitter plates and going that route.

What I'm totally unsure of is how to build this thing.  I'm looking for ideas here...

I see two level with this thing.  One, seal up a tuttle male part and build up a mass around it and then hand shape and finish to make a one off part.  or Two, take it a step further and make a mould out of the one off and build these as I wish.  Either way I have to make the first one., but if I use it as just a plug I can make it using anything I want, even wood.  That might be easier to design it.  Dammit, I knew I should have gotten into 3d printing! 

So what do you think?  How should a deep tuttle to plate adapter be designed?

I thought of a few key areas to pay attention to so far:
-The wall thickness around the tuttle box part needs to be sufficiently strong enough to keep forces from splitting open at the corners. 
-The thickness of the plate mount part needs to be strong enough to keep it from breaking around the plate mount bolt holes.
-The fillet between the tuttle box part and plate mount part also needs to be big/strong enough to keep the tuttle box part from separating from the plate mount part.

One tricky area is going to be how to deal with the tuttle box bolts going through the adapter.  I suppose I could just build it all solid and then drill out the holes and plunge route out a channel for the bolts to fasten down inside of the unit... so the plate mount is still flush with the board.  I guess that leaves the question, how much distance should be left between the top of the tuttle male part and the board mating surface of the plate mount part?  I guess it would be the bolt head thickness plus enough thickness to keep the bolt from pulling through to the tuttle cavity.

I'm going to go throw some materials around and see what I come up with.

11

Foil SUP / My foil failed (Lift 170)

« on: March 28, 2018, 01:24:59 PM »

Welp, I had been seeing salt oozing and drying in clumps at some seams since I bought it but thought maybe it was just harmless air pockets in the carbon.  That turns out not to be the case.  Today I can see a clear crack and delamination of the main wing where it meets the fuselage.  The fuselage is also cracking down the center in the horizontal axis.  It is unridable now.

I'm actually quite surprised the foil failed, I haven't been that hard on it.  I've never ran it aground or abused it in anyway.  The worst it saw was a few 1.5x to 2x semi-mushy wave hits.  The FoilMount it's attached to is looking solid still.  I'm not sure if it was pinholes that leaked into the core and caused it to fail, or if it was some extreme event that caused it.  I suppose I could break it in half and find out...

Glad I have the GoFoils on order!  Sounds like the GoFoils are much stronger, as people hit the reefs with them and they are ok!  One foil down 

12

Foil SUP / Getting some new gofoils, what to get?

« on: March 15, 2018, 12:02:35 PM »

Hi guys!

I'd like to try some new foils, currently have the lift 170 (as in 170 sq-in).  I'm going to get a gofoil set, just want to be sure what I should go with...

I'm riding surf only in N. Calif, don't do any downwinding.  That said, sometimes the waves aren't breaking and I'd like to catch the large swells too.

My current foil is super fast and efficient at speed, but I have to think the fatter foils are going to be able to slow down and keep lifting better.

I was going to go with the IWA and Maliko 200, but I was told if I was going in the waves not to use the Maliko... instead it was recommended I go with Kai and IWA.

.. so what do you think?  I'm trying to compliment my lift 170, not necessarily replace it.

I'm going to be using a tuttle to track mount adapter, in case it matters...

Thanks!

13

Foil SUP / Learning foil pumping

« on: February 21, 2018, 06:08:52 PM »

I've got good enough at foiling where I'm getting super tired paddling all the way back out after a few runs back to the beach. 

I figure it's time to learn how to pump these babies back out and save some time/effort, maybe?

My attempts up to this point were very poor, I would try to push down with my feet and it felt like I just sunk the foil down with very little lift if any at all.

However, on my second to last session I accidentally figured it out for a few pumps, but had no idea what I did differently.

Today I focused more on it and had some initial thoughts on what worked, what didn't, and general observations:

-Starting with the foil high up or with speed to get it high up seems pretty important.  I could not start pumping without some initial potential energy.  That seems obvious when I think about it, and it certainly was in practice.

-Don't push down on the legs until the foil is heading back down into the water.  I think this is what I was messing up to this point.  Seems obvious but it really wasn't to me.  It would just stall and peter out if I pushed down too early.  When I sucked my legs up and waited a little while for the foil to level off and start back down before pushing back down it seemed to work best.

-Paddling can really help keep speed up, if you can reach the water!  I think I need a longer paddle!  I was also coming very close to tipping over the foil a few times trying to reach for the water.  I have a 28"+ mast, btw.

-When you get it right it is very obvious that it's working and is pretty sustainable for short/medium periods.  I got tired after 50ft or so, but I can see how the pros can do it longer with a little more strength and dexterity... and maybe a slower higher lift foil too.

-I wonder if I'll ever be strong enough to make it worth while to learn to pump back out?  That 50ft I did today was pretty tough, I'm not sure if this is an attainable skill for me (pumping back out to the break), but I'll keep trying!

Any tips from those who have figured it out or ideas from those who are struggling like me? 

14

Foil SUP / FoilMount tips

« on: January 25, 2018, 02:32:48 PM »

I know the stick on FoilMount is not the best/strongest solution for getting a foil attached to a board, but I think how you install it and set up your foil on it could help in using it without something failing/breaking as easily.

There were a couple of things I did when setting mine up which I feel helped to more evenly distribute the forces on the board.

I have the split version of the mount so it can more easily bend over the V in the board, but I would imagine just about every board has some V and even the non-split mount probably bends some too.

When I set my foil on the mount after sticking it to the board I noticed the perfectly flat plate mount on the foil side was rocking on the bent FoilMount on the board.  To me this seemed like I would be introducing a lot of "pre-load", if you will, to the mounting plate and on the board when the foil gets bolted down.  Just bolting the foil down to it would result in it trying to lift the plate up off the board at the sides.

I did two things to mitigate this:
1. I took a sanding block and sanded down the center ridge on the FoilMount so it was more flat, but I didn't want to remove too much material as to weaken it, so then I also did a second thing...
2. I bought some very large diameter rubber washers and placed them between the FoilMount plate and the foil.  This fully prevented the rocking of the foil on the mount plate, so that when it was bolted up it wasn't trying to pry the FoilMount off the board.

The one other thing I do is not to leave the foil bolted to the board, I keep the screws loose until I'm about to hit the water and then loosen them back up right after getting out, this keeps the board from constantly being stressed.

If you do happen to use one of these mounts, I think these things will help, good luck!  Mine is still going strong after several months and has seen double over conditions at times.

15

Foil SUP / Foil box options?

« on: October 23, 2017, 11:29:29 AM »

I'm using the stick on mount right now but eventually (or maybe fatefully) I'd like to switch to a built-in box.  What do I buy to make a track mount box?  Does anyone make a dual box yet?  Do you use two standard US fin boxes with a bolt pass through in the center of the tracks?  Or two windsurf mast tracks?  Would be nice if someone made a drop in dual box already reinforced with high density foam, does that exist?