Can mere mortals SUP Foil downwind

[atlanticsup]

This week in the local (Cape Town, South Africa) Tuesday downwind series Nathan van Vuuren won the race outright with an average speed of 18.05kph (11.2mph) over 10km (6miles). He also managed to beat both the surfski and SUP record time in doing this.

I understand that this was only Nathan's 9th time doing a downwind on a SUP and I am sure there is even more speed to come.

There is a link below with some footage (I am not sure how to embed it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrbJ43Yy9Sc


Nathan's pretty talented so even though he makes it look really easy I am not sure how often people are consistently foiling downwind. So far I am only seeing lightweight super talented kids who are shredding the downwind sup foil thing, or the David Kalama's of the world - does anyone know of normal weighted mid level guys on a SUP managing to get the SUP downwind foil skill set? My thinking is I will wait another year before attempting in the hope that someone has a foil and setup perfectly for a 80-90kg (175-200 pounds)

[peterp]

We're hoping to be able to answer that question shortly - prior to Nate absolutely nailing it, a couple of guys tried and got virtually no-where, except very tired.

Unfortunately the footage didn't show it - but Nate apparently got onto his foil immediately as he was heading out - even before he got out and hit the runs....to me this seems almost impossible, but he did it...

We've been putting in the time in waves but are nervous about the transition to downwind as its a long way home if you are not on the foil...

A friend offered to be jet-ski caddy - might have to take him up on it.