Author Topic: Pre-foil wing training boards...  (Read 1082 times)

Wetstuff

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Pre-foil wing training boards...
« on: June 23, 2020, 02:08:05 PM »
This past fall before winter and COVID interrupted things.. I got a WASP 4.2.  Knowing I could not jump directly to a foil, I figg'rd; 'Hell, this is a hand-kite so I need a large kiteboard.  I had lotsa fun with speedy 'directionals' in the old, kite days, so it seemed a natural fit.  FAIL - big time!

C'hit, this ain't a kite, it's a wing. Half to a third the size of a kite and without a turbo-charged initial impulse on tap. So, I decided to try a couple of SUPs. Oddly enough my 28" x 12 'Bigwave' (Ya, right..) went upwind better than a 10' nose rider.  BUT, I was lead to believe nervana was accessible atop a windsurf board with a daggerboard. 

I had a nice fellow meet me halfway to Norfolk and for $250. I am the new owner of this BIC.  I did not have wind over 10kts until (naturally) I was tired of a couple of hours slogging around on it.  Mistake #1 was thinking the sand non-skid was non-skid.  #2 was using a coil leash with that bigass rear fin. There was no location for a leash, but I made a simple webbing bridge near where the rear foot straps went.

It was a lot more corky than I expected. It has so much nose kick the actual, useable waterline seems a lot smaller than the length and weight of this sucker would indicate.  I am also finding the 'sweetspot' difficult to find. Where the previous footstraps are located had me sinking the tail.  Straddling the daggerboard didn't seem to be exactly right either?  I clearly need more time on it.  It was less intuitive than expected.

What was cool, was I was able to jibe it a few times ..given that I was not hauling-ass upwind I figured I would get something out of the afternoon. I am mimicking Robert at BluePlanet doing one-handed overheads. 

If one of you had tried this 'sailboard' route, I'd appreciate some tips.  There are not a lot of pages left on my calendar.

Jim

Ooooh!  And wait till you see Federal Parks - they look like Jacksonville Beach or Coco.  Holy c'hit, they're packed in tight. I can't blame them for getting the rugrats down there to wear them out, but shoulder to shoulder with little protection beyond sunscreen is scary for me.  I walked through tickland to find an isolated spot to launch.
Atlantis Mistress .. Blue Planet MultiTasker ..   Atlantis Venom

 


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