Light Wind Wing Test

[Michael]

Light wind test. 5M wing, 90L board, WL1350(1870cm2), 8g12 knots. I never thought I'd be checking the forecast for a 12 knot day but here we are. I bought the 1350 for light wind days on the Okanagan lake and was super eager to test it out. I saw the ferry terminal was blowing 8g12, and was sceptical, but it was sunny and warm so headed out anyways. After my first few attempts I didn't think I could make it work with the 5M wing, it just didn't seem to hold any power in those light winds. Then I started to figure things out and with a nice steady rhythm of wing and foil pumping it would create a nice gradual lift and I was off. It was such a weird sensation flying in what felt like no wind but once you're going it's so stable and has so much glide. I was super stoked and wanted more but it was really dropping and at 6 to 8 knots I couldn't make it work. I caught one last gust and headed for the beach to discover the down side to such a massive foil, it's a wing shredder! My 5M paid the price! When you fall the foil is buoyant and takes a while to sink, it kind of circles around like a shark fin waiting to take out your unsuspecting wing. I guess it was worth it but tears were shed as I pulled its limp, lifeless body from the water.

[Mike]

A "good news bad news story." (And well narrated with the shark park ). Hope your wing is fixable.

[Michael]

A "good news bad news story." (And well narrated with the shark park ). Hope your wing is fixable.

Thanks Mike. Amazing the light wind ability of that foil. I'm looking forward to more days on it. Thankfully yes, the wing is fixable.

[Slappy]

Have you considered one of the downwind boards for LW? They say they can work in 9 knots if you really know what's up.



https://www.gong-galaxy.com/en/product/ ... -pro-2023/

[Michael]

Have you considered one of the downwind boards for LW? They say they can work in 9 knots if you really know what's up.

Those down wind boards are cool but I think for light wind winging the 90L Drifter is fine. I can stand on it with almost no wind. Having a bigger wing like a 7M or 8M would make a big difference though. I pretty sure I could have been foiling the whole time with a big wing like that.

[Slappy]

The big deal with the DW boards is with that water line they can start to foil before they plane which takes most of the pumping out of getting up.

[JonathanP]

Those Barracuda boards are super interesting. People are even starting just by pumping with 0 wind and no wing. Could probably even get away with a 5m wing and medium sized efficient foil in super light winds, with riding speeds probably on part with higher wind sessions. Need a low lift foil/shim though, with the mast positioning forward to keep the swing weight centered and the nose short.

[Michael]

The big deal with the DW boards is with that water line they can start to foil before they plane which takes most of the pumping out of getting up.

Interesting! Don't tempt me, I'm trying to convince myself that I don't need another board. But then I see this.... are these the boards you're talking about Jonathan? I'm really interested in SUP foiling out at Long Beach and that looks sick!

Those Barracuda boards are super interesting.

[JonathanP]

Haha yeah. I'm not trying to add to the quiver either, but a nimble combo board that could catch unbreaking waves and also be a great low wind wing board would be awesome! Think I'll wait for a while, see if there is anything that would work well for prone or winging in the ~70L range. I wonder how this shape would slog at low volumes.

[Slappy]

Mac has the freedom dagger boards as well, and they look nice but I think the Gong packs all that volume in to the boards via a 7" thickness is a big quality of life upgrade.

If you compare the 6-6 gong vs. the 7-5 freedom you actually get 2L more volume from the gong shape while hacking almost a foot off the nose.

f-one have a downwind sup foil as well but it doesn't look like a displacement hull at all so I wouldn't consider it.