Wing Drifter Pro?

[APPST_Paddle]

Another great board line are the Amundson Johno Sups.  The 5'9" x 28 113 board is probably doable for a 170-190 lbs with good sup skills and would be easy to learn winging on.  I'm 185 and have the 5'6".  Really perfect for winging, but for sup there's no way I could have learned to sup foil on it.  And unless I catch just the right wave, and get flying out the back, paddling is pretty difficult.  Shape wise, the Drifter Pro is flatter rocker and wider tail looking at the profiles, compared to the Johno with a wider nose and narrower tail (more like a Kalama.).  Functionally, the DP has a shorter water line in the wave as you angle your take off when the wave pitches. I find this type of board more difficult to paddle into a wave because it doesn't want to surf and is instead meant to lift before the wave pitches.  This means you have to get on foil or eat it.  Bottom contour discussion alone on foil boards is a bit of a joke imo, but taken as a whole of the board design, a certain concave in the nose or tail release point could be the standout feature.  My summary, without any experience on the Drifter, is it's more of a wing foil board and advanced sup board.  It looks cool, and I'd trust Keith's board design ability way more than my unproven theory!

Good point, and honestly, that drawn in tail on the Kalamas is helping to reduce a bit of volume in areas where it's not needed. I'll check the Amundson's out, I wonder if the Kalamas are being built a bit lighter. The only person I know around here that got one (and I'm not sure if it was the 1st or 2nd gen) hated it because of it's weight.

[WingTime]

Yeah, I was looking at the Kalama's since he seems to be one of the few sticking with a SUP-dedicated foil board. I'm really between 3 boards (currently on the 6'5" Flying-V, which I really love, just want a smaller overall footprint/swing weight):

5'11" Flying-V @105L. pretty hard to find right now, and is worth spending that much for a 6"/10L drop?

5'8" Quattro Wing Drifter V1.2 @115L, that's a ton of volume, not sure how smooth it would be for paddling, I'd probably do it over the 5'6" to be safe. Any idea on weight?

5'11" F-One Rocket Wing - mainly bc of the 6.2 kg weight, although I bet the 105L JL is right around that.

Any thoughts? I'd wait on Kalama, but I feel like I'm losing sessions I could be progressing on. The 6'5" is great, but I could definitely go down in volume/size.

Yeah, I’m looking to upgrade my sup foil, I’m a 100kg on the JL 6’11, great float (129 liters) and easy to paddle but very slow pumper and lots of swing weight. Was considering the Armstrong 6’4 FG board 132 liters, don’t want a sinker. Super light , and shave off 7 inches of swing weight . Has anyone tried sup foiling one ?. Was also looking at the Kalama E3 ,  but good luck finding one.

[sailwave]

Did my maiden SUP foil ride on the 5'8" 115L Wing Drifter. Compared to my 8'5" Starboard SUP it felt like I was standing on a near round platform. Relatively stable but I had to switch paddle sides every two strokes because it just want to pivot in a circle with each stroke. I put the foil square in the middle of the track. Is there a way to paddle or foil placement so you can get a straighter paddle line? If not, then this board is too short for foil SUP it seems to this novice foiler.

[Califoilia]

Did my maiden SUP foil ride on the 5'8" 115L Wing Drifter. Compared to my 8'5" Starboard SUP it felt like I was standing on a near round platform. Relatively stable but I had to switch paddle sides every two strokes because it just want to pivot in a circle with each stroke. I put the foil square in the middle of the track. Is there a way to paddle or foil placement so you can get a straighter paddle line? If not, then this board is too short for foil SUP it seems to this novice foiler.

If you're not already, paddle in your surf stance with your feet along the centerline of the board as close as possible. From that stance, put slight pressure on your toes to tip the board slightly to your frontside, that will engage the foil a tad to that side to make it turn in that direction. That slight foil turn towards your paddle stroke side will offset your paddle stroke on that side that wants to push you the other direction, and you'll paddle straight...w/o causing you to ever switch paddle sides.

You can also offset your handle to the blade a bit (I'm goofy-footed)....

...which will turn the blade on a slight angle towards the board with your hands in your normal position, and give you an automatic "J" stroke to also pull the nose of the board towards your paddle stroke and add to your straight forward direction. I don't ever change paddle sides any longer with these lil techniques.

[sailwave]

Saaawweeet! Foil tilt to compensate for paddle pull/rotate!!! Thank you.  BTW, I like to paddle on both sides in both stances, gotta keep the six pack symmetrical :-)  The skateboard paddle helped develop my goofy.

[GL]

I haven't tried angling the board to one side but I found that if I stood slightly more forward on the board and pushed the nose down the board track much better. I was using the six foot board which actually measures 5 ft 9. It wasn't too bad once the nose was down. I will try that along with angling the board next time.

[radair]

Did my maiden SUP foil ride on the 5'8" 115L Wing Drifter. Compared to my 8'5" Starboard SUP it felt like I was standing on a near round platform. Relatively stable but I had to switch paddle sides every two strokes because it just want to pivot in a circle with each stroke. I put the foil square in the middle of the track. Is there a way to paddle or foil placement so you can get a straighter paddle line? If not, then this board is too short for foil SUP it seems to this novice foiler.

I don’t know what you’re running for a foil system but on my 115 L wing drifter I ran my Armstrong foil all the way forward in the tracks. I did a lot of testing behind a boat as well and found it most balanced with the mast all the way forward. I have since gone to a 75 L wing board and have not used the wing drifter since. It is a really nice board though. A diagonal J stroke in addition to the suggestions above will help keep you paddling straighter.