Secondary mast choice: 70cm vs 41cm

[fun2kite]

Hi all,

As a secondary mast for learning the tricks and riding in shallow waters. Trying to decide if I should go for 70 cm or 41cm mast. (Note this is a secondary mast, primary mast is regular size )

There seem to be some people who think that buying 41cm mast will be a waste as it is barely useful for riding in regular conditions with chop. Is this true? Can you ride a 41cm mast in conditions other than total flat water?

But others claim that learning gybes etc, is so much easier on 41cm mast. (Does 70 cm mast makes any difference on making learning the gybes and tacks easier? )

70cm mast on the other hand seem to be closer to regular size and will allow to ride waves.. (can you ride waves with 41cm mast? )

41 cm mast would allow to ride waist deep water easily without worriying of hitting the bottom.

So many arguments for either one.. So does anybody have an expireience with both and can talk about what reality of riding those short masts are? What are they good for and what are they NOT good for despite the marketing from the manufacturers.

Thank you.

-D.

[nothing2seehere]

Hi all,

As a secondary mast for learning the tricks and riding in shallow waters. Trying to decide if I should go for 70 cm or 41cm mast. (Note this is a secondary mast, primary mast is regular size )

There seem to be some people who think that buying 41cm mast will be a waste as it is barely useful for riding in regular conditions with chop. Is this true? Can you ride a 41cm mast in conditions other than total flat water?

But others claim that learning gybes etc, is so much easier on 41cm mast. (Does 70 cm mast makes any difference on making learning the gybes and tacks easier? )

70cm mast on the other hand seem to be closer to regular size and will allow to ride waves.. (can you ride waves with 41cm mast? )

41 cm mast would allow to ride waist deep water easily without worriying of hitting the bottom.

So many arguments for either one.. So does anybody have an expireience with both and can talk about what reality of riding those short masts are? What are they good for and what are they NOT good for despite the marketing from the manufacturers.

Thank you.

-D.

41 cm - waist deep? How short are you?

If you assume that you want to be riding at about half mast, you would be aiming to ride at 20cm out of the water. That isn't a lot of room for failure (or even small ripples on the water). Even on the 70cm you only have about a foot either side of clearance. I'd say if you know a spot that is only knee to waist deep that you can regularly get out on then 'maybe' the 41cm but the 70cm mast should work fine in waist deep water. Ultimately do you have a nearby spot that is shallow but where the level of water doesn't change much?

Hydrofoiling is a deep water sport really.

[cosmo]

Love the slingshot short mast, but you can't edge as hard as the foil can because the wing goes out of the water.

[fun2kite]

yeah, you are right.. I am 186cm .
I often ride at the lagoon behind the reef. The water in the lagoon goes from being chest-to-neck high to zero water inside, but behind the reef, there is always deep water. I really want to ride in the outside of the lagoon and explore the coast of the island. But getting to the reef is about 800m, so I want to ride there not walk.

I can time the tide and only ride when the water is still high, but very worried about hitting the bottom as I know I will push the time to the max and may not come out in-time while tide is still high.

I also was thinking about 41cm because I was told that learning gybing (which I still struggle with) is dead simple on that mast. I have nobody to prove that statement except the dealer comment on this forum

So I wanted to hear other people opinions on the usefulness of the 41cm mast. You sound as 41cm may not be too useful at all.
Is that what you are saying?

41 cm - waist deep? How short are you?

If you assume that you want to be riding at about half mast, you would be aiming to ride at 20cm out of the water. That isn't a lot of room for failure (or even small ripples on the water). Even on the 70cm you only have about a foot either side of clearance. I'd say if you know a spot that is only knee to waist deep that you can regularly get out on then 'maybe' the 41cm but the 70cm mast should work fine in waist deep water. Ultimately do you have a nearby spot that is shallow but where the level of water doesn't change much?

Hydrofoiling is a deep water sport really.

[fun2kite]

What kind of conditions did you ride it in?
Is it possible to ride in a small size ocean swell (1-2 foot ) ?

Love the slingshot short mast, but you can't edge as hard as the foil can because the wing goes out of the water.

[fun2kite]

New Moses masts went on-sale: http://www.moseshydrofoil.com/index.php ... path=78_86

[plummet]

I haven't used a shorter mast than 90cm. But at 90cm in ocean swell and chop it is sometimes hard not to ventilate the wings carving and canted over doing upwind reach. I think as you reduce mast length you limit what you can do regards to water condition you can ride. If the water condition is less than mast height then you have an easy task and can simply punch through what ever is coming your way at speed. As soon as the undulations are greater than mast height then you need to pump up and down through the water so as not to ventilate. The difficulty arises when you have chop height on top of swell height. It then becomes more difficult when you have swell coming from one direction and chop from another. That can make for some crazy assed peaks and troughs.

So I guess what I'm saying is that it will depend on your particular swell/chop combo to how short the mast is you can run. I personally think 40cm would be particularly useless in the ocean with chop and swell. Maybe useable in flat water with just chop.

[DAnderson]

Hi all,
Can you ride a 40cm mast in conditions other than total flat water?

Not really.

70cm is my vote. 40cm is only useful for the 1st couple of hours of learning imo.

[Peter_Frank]

Hi all,
Can you ride a 40cm mast in conditions other than total flat water?

Not really.

70cm is my vote. 40cm is only useful for the 1st couple of hours of learning imo.

Agree - even with my 83cm mast I can not do much except marginal conditions being cautious about my height, and everything gets more difficult with the shorter mast as you can not foil all the time and you will ventilate and crash more often

I see the potential for the very first hours, or for those with less talent - with a much shorter mast as you can just get the feel and ventilate without crashing - but the fun when you CAN ride is totally lost IMO.

So go for the 70cm if you have low water, then you can still have some fun

Of course I can somewhat get used to my 83cm especially with straps and when jumping there are advantages - but really really difficult to "change" as your body is not set for the difference

PF

[junebug]

I bought 15 inch and 24 inch masts from Slingshot to learn. IMHO, the 15 inch mast is basically useless after a couple of hours. It was good to get the feel of how much front foot pressure you need to foil without the risk of a nasty fall, but there is so little margin for error before ventilation, especially if you have swell and/or chop, and so little space between the bottom of the board and surface of the water on turns that it is not actually practical to ride.

If you are committed to getting a short mast, I would definitely go with the 70cm.