Been foiling for a while now, and I've tried all three of those classes of foils. I agree and have felt the same sensations you had when testing. Great video and review! Big up Lars and Nico!
Started foiling last spring. Using a freerace foil. Last autumn I managed to get around the jibe, not flying through, but keeping the foil forward momentum. It's such a game changer for surfing on lakes with gusty winds. I might not hit my fin peak speeds, but the average speed is much higher, since lulls are less of a problem now. The same goes for ending up too far downwind. That doesn't happen any more. I'm not looking back.
I'm still wind foiling, but my best friend started Wing foiling last summer and is now selling all his wind foiling and windsurfing gear. I love my Ezzy sails, my Chinook gear and my 5 windsurfing boards: Viper 80, Dialer 130, Tiga HyperX 115, Bic Blast 110, and RRD Wavecult 93.
I really like going fast on the fin in strong winds. Bur foilwise i prefer my "slow" freeride foil. It's just so relaxing to fly around and have time to check the surroundings
I started foiling in 2018 with a freeride foil & have stuck with freeride. What I like about the freeride foil is how small the sail sizes can be. Racing foils require 2 to 3 meter larger sails than I need to freeride foil. I only foil in winds under 15 knots so for me that is usually a 4.7 or 5.7 rig. Not fast but great for doing carving freestyle tricks.
Nico another great vid. How about a wave windfoiling video covering skills and equipment. In my opinion there are 4 general types of wave windfoiling broken down to a flagged or luffed sail on either wind swell or waves traveling about 90 degrees to the wind breaking over something like a reef. I enjoy all 4 types but love the powered up down the line WWF I get to do in Maui. However not many foilers are doing this type of WWF and I would appreciate a Pro to show how its done and progress the sport to get more specific WWF gear.
I am a low aspect foiler. I was really surprised how much difference the board makes. I switched to the Predator by Severene which is a very turny, carvy board. The same foil can behave quite differently depending on the board. When using a board like the Predator it can feel twitchy at first, but once you are used to it it is so much fun! Maybe because of the width or the swing weight, not sure why. I rarley go in a straight line anymore!
I started windfoiling last year with a freerace foil and so far it has been great fun and surprisingly accessible. However I made two observations: Somewhat stronger an constant winds make it SO MUCH easier to learn than gusty conditions. And the equipment handling at land seems to stay a hassle. By the way, I guess accessible freerace foils are the sweet spot for many recreational surfers. Low aspect foils tend to be wing foil territory while race gear is... Race gear.
Congratulations Nico, yet another excellent review, love your "evidence-based" approach. My own personal experience after 3 years of foiling is that it has literally doubled my sessions and they are so much more fun, as you don't even lose speed in the lulls. It gave me a new challenge after 30 years in the sport and I now look more forward to those lighter wind days to enjoy cruising on the foil. Your advice is spot on, absolutely agree. Keep them coming and keep those foiling events coming as well!
Nice video to decide which foil you need. One thing to mention for me to highlight the effect on stability is length of the fuselage. I use the glide wind now for serveral year and i changed to the Swift carbon front and rearwing. Amazing, extra speed, lift and control. Just missing now 80cm fuselage for the carbon mast. The 70cm gives not enough power in lightwind and gives some instabilly what i can correct a little with a bigger rearwing. Neil Pryde. It would be nice to have a 80cm windsurffuselage fir the Swift carbon. It would make my windfoil life “more” perfect. Enjoy windfoiling
Good video thanks. It’s interesting to see the comparison. I’ve been foiling for a few years now and recommend anyone who is thinking about it to give it a try. I still really enjoy getting on the fin when it’s proper windy but I’m getting so much more time on the water foiling. It’s a really different sensation than the fin and a new challenge to keep things fresh. I also like the angles you can sail which gives the option to go on “expedition” sails rather than just in and out runs. I went to a race foil setup fairly early on and kind of paid a price. It’s was way more difficult to learn on and I got thrown ….. lot’s of high speed catapults! I’m comfortable with it now but I’m sure it would have been an easier and quicker journey if I had used a free race foil for a while.
You should have made this video years ago!😂 I started a few years ago with a free ride foil and moved to a race one pretty quickly. Now I’m thinking about getting a free race foil to see what is like. BTW, I am surprised that the freerace foil was closer in speed to the freeride and not to the race one. Great video.
Letztes Jahr am Gardasee das erste Mal mit Instructor Foil-Erfahrungen gemacht. Hat super Spaß gemacht und auch wenn bei uns an der Ostsee durch z.B. Algen keine perfekten Bedingungen sind trotzdem für mich ein super hilfreiches Video um mal den Horizont zu erweitern und für Käufe in der Zukunft. Nichts zu meckern, wie immer top gemachtes Video🤙🏼
I'm still learning on a Supercruiser foil (85 Alu mast) and a foil x 145 board, but split my time over fin (when 13+ knots), so don't get out on foil that often so learning curve is gradual. I foil in some onshore chop/swell at times so sometimes challenging keeping foil in water with 1m swell! Still trying to master the gybe, and would like to foil in lighter winds (as this is what I bought it for). Great video tks
Thanks Nico! I sail on a lake and tripled my number of sessions with the foil. I keep the fin for travelling to places with more wind. Not sure the race foil is for me but would love to try it!
Great video as always. I’ve been actively foiling for about 2 years and as you say it really expands our time on the water especially during the summer months. Wind and Wing foiling has really taken off in the Tampa Bay area and it doesn’t hurt that the US Olympic IQ Foiler Noah Lyons is from our area! The vast majority of long time windsurfers in our area are also now avid foilers. We are all having a great time learning together.
Hi Nico, thanks for sharing! 🤙 I am super happy with the Flight FR 800 and I fully agree on how you have judged on it and the Glide foil. It would be super interesting to have such a comparison on the boards, too! Can you please explain the differences of the HYDROFOIL and the HYDROFOIL SALOM? Would be great to understand, if it makes sense to upgrade to your board (and if so: which size). Thanks in advance 🙏
My skill of foil is not very large. I had test freeride foil RRD 1500 cm three times in Dahab on the water. I really liked it, but I understand that I needed more speed and performance. This year there are about 15 times on JP Hydrofoil 155 and Starboard Evo+ wing 1000 and 255, mast 95. It is interesting and challenging. Good speed around 24 knots. Bad turns. It is necessary to train both turns and stability of movement in a straight line. Akvatoia Gulf of Finland, usually gusty wind, wave 30-70 cm
I'm honestly considering sewing some shorts into my harness to help keep it down. I find with foiling, the long lines, how much downforce I need on the IQ I need something different than a waist, but I like boobies too much to use a seat. You've tried the liberty and maybe even the dakine one... Do you think attaching the harness to some shorts would be the ultimate if it is custom sewn?
I foil since last year, 20 years of windsurf back ground with slalom gear. I use gong foil aluminium(cheapest) with 1500 front wing(I think I can switch to smaller now (I am 110 kilograms)) and my Patrick foil ready windsurf slalom board. Here it in my home spot seems like everyday has wind for foiling in the summer . I Deliberately go twice a week only, because more often is too much for me, and I can't keep my rest routine, so 35 sessions on water for this year
I think there are misconceptions about foils which come from the confusion between fastest and the most efficient. HAR foils are not faster than LAR foils. They are more efficient. They only appear to be the fastest. But in reality, HAR's appear faster for a given power/wind condition. ie, in low to moderate winds HAR's will appear faster. But in high power/wind conditions LAR's will ultimately go faster than HAR's.
Hey Nico, i foiled 1 time on an inflatable wing board with a 5.0 sail. Im now almost already thinking about what i foil i need for 1 year. 😵💫 Im wave/slalom surfing already 30years, my biggest sail is 5.5m. So you would advice me a freerace foil?? 😵💫🤘
Nico great video! I noticed your stance much more upright on the freeride foil. The board is much more angled towards the wind on the other two foils! Howcome you don't go towards the wind when angling like that? Thx Jippe
Great review! I am hooked to windfoiling for 3 years now. Have 2 foils now and it seems each one has a kind of top speed limit which is very difficult to surpass. @Nico_GER7 could you please share with us the front wing size of the freerace and race foils you tested?
I’ve been wind foiling a couple of years now and have gone from a big low aspect Moses foil to a 1100 cm mid aspect free race foil which I love. Trying to perfect my gybes, just purchased a race foil to try, that is next. Thanks for the videos.
Hi Nico, could you tell me what it cost to transport a windfoilset from Germany to Fuerteventure on a plane? I am asking, because I know from your vids that you travel a lot with your equipment and it makes a difference weither you travel with a kite-set or a windsurfset
Really useful video, thanks. I am using a NP Glide Wind and it has been fine to learn on and I can maintain steady height and go upwind and downwind but it does have a maximum speed. I am still trying to learn the gibe on my fin so some way off foil gibe.
Those Windsurfing races from Puerto Ventura were enjoyable to watch, and although the actions shown were brief it is always delightful to watch as Windsurfing has been my favorite sport and hobby since 1979, and I founded my own Windsurfing school for the 1984 season.
Auf eurer Internetseite gibt es 2 Versionen des GLIDE. Einmal SURF und einmal WIND. Welche ist fürs Surfen und welche fürs Wingen? Oder ist das egal? Beste Grüße und schönes VLOG
Great video! I have used that Neil Pryde Glide foil. My friend owns one and he let me try it. I own two foil kits. One is an older Slingshot Hoverglide kit with a 84 front wing (2000 cm2) and also a 76 front wing (1500 cm2). My other kit is a Starboard Freeride with an 1100 cm2 front wing and a huge 500 cm2 rear stabilizer. When I tried my friend's Neil Pryde foil I was impressed by its speed in spite of its somewhat low aspect appearance. I don't have a speed app, but it seemed to be just as fast as my Starboard foil. When we sail side by side, we're just about even most of the time. I also noticed that it seems to glide through lulls slightly better than my Starboard foil, probably because of its greater front wing surface area. However, I noticed right away that it's a lot more pitch sensitive than my Starboard foil. You need to be on your toes to prevent it from nosediving or breaching. I attribute that to the short fuselage and the relatively small stabilizer. I kind of wish they sold this foil with a longer fuselage because then it might be more pitch stable. However, the short fuselage probably also makes it usable for winging, whereas the Starboard Freeride would not be as good for winging since the fuselage is much longer. Compared to the Slingshot 76 kit, the Neil Pryde Glide foil feels faster and has more of a gliding feeling. (It's well named!) That's probably because it's thinner and a little more high aspect than the old school Slingshot design.
I also use the Infinity 76 and 84. I love that the shape resists breaching and can deal with the speed penalty as I'm still the fastest sailor on the lake most days.
Prices drop every year. I spent $2700 on a foil setup that I could have gotten for $1300 the year after. If you can find a pro, get his lightly used stuff when he gets the new kit.
I am currently looking to purchase a windsurf freeride or freerace foil to mess around with on a falcon Lightwind board. I am really having a difficult time finding a quality video that discusses the current options out there and how your local conditions play into what size foil you choose to learn. I currently have very limited flight time on a foil, and I am somewhat concerned to jump right into a high aspect wing setup. If you have anything like this coming down the road, I will really enjoy watching it. Great video.
For using a windsurf board to foil, I'd strongly suggest a Slingshot 84. It's got enough surface area to get up and foiling in lighter winds and has doubled my days on the water. I also started with a 12" mast, transitioned to a 24" mast, 30" mast and now a 35" mast.
Hey Nico or really anyone who can answer, I'm going to learn how to foil this year and I love racing, so pretty sure I'll upgrade to racing as soon as I can but I don't know if I should go for slalom foil (I do slalom fin at the moment) or IQfoil, any advise?
Hi Nico, is it possible to make an item of the difference between a foilboard and a big foilready slalomboard? The only answer I get in the stores is that it is easier on a foilboard🤔. Is it useful to buying a dedicated foilboard if you don’t foil much.
The big difference is the volume in the tail. A freeride windsurfer won't balance well on the foil and the footstraps will all be too far forward. I have three slalom boards and one foil board. I use the foil board almost exclusively. It gets me planing in less wind and lets me sail marginal days.
I'm already foiling a Slingshot Dialer 130. I started with the Fwind1 smaller blue wing. Upgraded to an Infinity 84 wing for better light wind performance and just recently got a full Infinity 76 foil to use with smaller sails. I'm happiest on the 84. 90kg and windsurfing for 35 years.
Thanks for the informative video, would have been nice to include a table at the end comparing the specs and performance data for each foil tested. I use Patrik AIO foil set on both my freerace and freeride boards - same UHM carbon mast with 115/105cm fuse and 900/800 wings for freerace, and 95cm fuse and 1100/900/800 wings for freeride swell riding. Also interesting to show stall speeds for each wing type and how that relates to easy gybing and swell riding vs top speed as well.
When I changed from AFS 1080 freeride to Phantom 1000 & 760 freerace I think the largest difference came from the 100cm fuselage, it felt more stable over 20 knots than the AFS which was 85cm.
Awesome Video! To bad that it comes, for me personally, 3 months to late but it confirmed my decision between Freeride and Freerace! After 3 Years of learning Windsurfing I will start Foiling. Got me in January a 133l JP Hydrofoil with a 1050 Gunsails Freerace Foil. Took me very long time to decide which Foil to choose. Was reading a lot of tests and just cruising isnt enough for me, so I took the Gunsails which should suit me the best.
Thanks for this video! This is super helpful! I started foiling on the NP Glidewind and now I am on the NP freerace foil which is even more fun! One thing I noticed on my rides but also when closely observing you in this video is that with the freerace foil, one can't seem to "angle" the board as much as with a pure race foil. Is this observation correct? Is there a max angle that a foil allows you to angle your board before it tries to level out? Btw, safe travels to Munich and Lago! 😊
Really nice video, started foiling last summer and I am delighted, so much more time on water and it is very nice to glide in silence across water. I will always stay a fast slalom sailor, but foiling is great for summer holydays, specially when the wind is not so strong. I learned on freerace carbon foil and regular slalom board (falcon 136) and it was not so stable, then switched to proper foil board (falcon 170) and it made so much difference. Noe have a combo of starboard iq foil and fanatic foil board and will see how it works :)...
Interesting video. I'll try as soon as I'm allowed back on the water and fit. However I do think that the basic wing is probably the best for everybody unless you are looking for outright speed, simply because it allows a lot more time on the water with lower winds. My take is that foiling is a complementary water sport to windsurfing but a different set of skills altogether.
Started foiling last year with a freeracefoil which I use incombo with my big slalomboard and a NP freeflight sail. Hoping to get more hours on the water.
Hi Nico. Thanks for all the videos. I ask you if you could make a video to explain how the length of the fuselages affects it and in what conditions the various lengths with the relative wings and stabilizers are used.. thanks
Thanks for the good, informative video. I recognize foiling as being technically superior as a watercraft, but it is not for me. I miss the feeling of the board chattering over the surface of the water. Don't really care about speed, it's all about feel for me. Even with a 8.5 sail on a big freerace board I still prefer that over a foil. But who knows, maybe when I'm old...
I thought I would miss the chatter, but my knees, feet and arms love the smooth, "super-cruise" feel of the foil. I don't windsurf anymore unless I have a raceboard (like an Equipe) on flatwater. In waves, the foil can surf, or you can just cruise through the chop.
I am currently in a search of what type of foil should I buy in order to start foiling. I am considering my self an experienced guy. Do you think glide is going to be very boring and easy for me? Should I skip it. Thank you!
Most boards come foil ready these days, but honestly it's not worth buying that. You need to be far further outside, especially with your back foot on the foil. You can't do that on a decent freeride, freerace or even slalom board, if it is not a big lightwind board. But you don't need a big lightwind board any more.
@@slickvisualpoetry thanks for answering. What would be a big board in this context? I have a freeride board with 110 liters, I wonder if that's enough for using with a foil.
@@miguelbemartin I think width is more important here than volume. I am currently riding an 81 cm width foil board. I also have an older 85 cm slalom board. However, the tail gets more narrow quickly, while the foil board remains 81 wide. Now you can also buy more narrow foil boards, but I have no experience with these.
I started foil with an old Bic Techno of 133 L, but 70cm of width. I'm agree with you, width, especially width of the tail is the key : it was so hard for the back foot. I had to keep pushing a lot. It was almost impossible to go upwind. And the bigger the sail was, the harder it was to fly. Now I have and JP Hydrofoil 135, 85cm width and it so comfortable!
A bit light on detail in this video, especially when you’re quoting speeds. We had some detail on the entry level foil setup but then you didn’t tell us the front wing area, fuse length, stabiliser area or angle, or the mast length on the other 2 🫤
I started foiling this year and i have neylpryde f4 slalom foil with carbon fuselage melted into front wing. And the worst part is stabiliser angle for me because it have screw to adjust stab angle. And i cant find sweet spot :( but also it would be nice to have guide how to start foiling. Because i have problem with the stance also and i ended up staying at /45° angle and having pain in my back 🙃
I moved from a windy place (commonly 35-45+ knots) to a far less windy place (usually 18-25 knots). I took my windsurf gear but can't do much with these light winds. I bought into the hype and invested in the windfoiling board/foil so I could use my wave gear with this setup. What a hassle! The windsurf shop sold me a foil meant for winging with a short mast and short fuse. It was a miracle I got it to foil. I realized their mistake and they swapped it. I wanted the Starboard Super Cruiser but they convinced me to get the Freeride (1100 cm2 up front). They didn't tell me this foil will only work with windfoiling. I wanted something I can use for winging too. Starboard really screwed us over. I can't get any different wings for it, and they changed the standards the next year, so my expensive foil is utterly obsolete now. I'll never buy anything from them again. My access to the ocean sucks these days, so I have to ride in a RHIB to get to the launch spot - with all this gear. I'm a pretty good windsurfer/wave sailor and can handle very high winds, but this setup sucks. Maybe I suck?! The board is super heavy and the wind range is very narrow. Sub 16 knots and I'm not foiling at all (needed a bigger front wing), but too much wind and it's uncontrollable. This was supposed to give me a bigger wind range, not this. Add up all the gear and all the expense, it's a massive hassle and I wish I hadn't done it. Life is too short to struggle with crap gear, so I bought a wing and a BIG 2000 cm2 foil that can be used for both sports. I see wingers out there having fun, so I know it's possible. I'm sad to give up on windsurfing but I have to do it. I'll keep the wave board for the Gorge though! You can't beat wave sailing.
I don't want to advertise, but I'm very happy with my Gaastra Foil. It works modular, all front wings and fuselages are compatible. You can switch between freeride and freerace or even wing mode in no time.
Even the very affordable gunsails foils are modular. You can even mix the freerace stuff with the full carbon slalom stuff. I can highly recommend it. The only thing necessary with the 1050 Frontwing is a shim to change the backwing angle. It doesn't work with a wing, though.
Similar Experience with Starboard here. A new starboard foil did not fit in a new starboard foil board last year. Production tolerances. Customer service was aware of the problem but kept delivering the parts. They lost a customer forever.
My Slingshot gear is completely modular. I can swap front wings, masts, rear wings and mounts. I have 2 complete setups and 4 different heights of mast. I tend to start the season on the medium 24" and move up to the 30" and 35" masts as the season progresses. I prefer the 84 front wing for lighter wind (8-12 mph), and move up to the 76 for (13-25 mph). After 25 mph, I just put a fin on my wave board and go out to jump everything.
