Boosting Hydrofoil

[Kitemanmuc]

Wanted to see the general opinion of some of the guys in here who enjoy boosting on the foil.

All things being equal, can you boost bigger using a foil kite or lei?

second?

What is the highest wind limit of a 10m LEI on a hydrofoil for a huge boosting session.

[evan]

Using a woo for over a year on the foil with racing gear i can fairly certain state that in any winds under 30kn a hydrofoil wins with a big margin. The only way not to get a global #1 position is if there was a storm somewhere else or a fellow foil-booster jumped higher and i am called a cheater already for the amount of times i got the national daily #1 spot as jumping 13-16m in 16-20kn wind becomes a given fact. But I enjoy racing against my buddy's too much so often end up with just a handfull of 10m+ jumps on the list, haha.

With winds gusting above 30kn you need to use too small kites and the sea becomes too rough to make safe. Also foil jumps are a bit weird going totally vertical at takeoff and landing almost in the same spot with less hangtime while on a TT you can float pretty far when boosting the same heights so they feel less high when foiling.

Wind limit depends a lot on your level, the foil and line length. On short lines (10-15m measured from the bar up) you can hold the kite much longer and still get a decent upwind speed. You also want a small high-AR wing and long mast for the same reason to hold and control more power. Also some wings just jump better, the smaller aspect HW jumps higher compared to the larger bionic front race wing from Levitaz although they perform almost the same when it comes to racing. The aspect HW just ejects jou out of the water violantly at takeoff where the bionic reacts less to the extra angle you give the foil to jump out of the water.

[Kitemanmuc]

Using a woo for over a year on the foil with racing gear i can fairly certain state that in any winds under 30kn a hydrofoil wins with a big margin. The only way not to get a global #1 position is if there was a storm somewhere else or a fellow foil-booster jumped higher and i am called a cheater already for the amount of times i got the national daily #1 spot as jumping 13-16m in 16-20kn wind becomes a given fact. But I enjoy racing against my buddy's too much so often end up with just a handfull of 10m+ jumps on the list, haha.

With winds gusting above 30kn you need to use too small kites and the sea becomes too rough to make safe. Also foil jumps are a bit weird going totally vertical at takeoff and landing almost in the same spot with less hangtime while on a TT you can float pretty far when boosting the same heights so they feel less high when foiling.

Wind limit depends a lot on your level, the foil and line length. On short lines (10-15m measured from the bar up) you can hold the kite much longer and still get a decent upwind speed. You also want a small high-AR wing and long mast for the same reason to hold and control more power. Also some wings just jump better, the smaller aspect HW jumps higher compared to the larger bionic front race wing from Levitaz although they perform almost the same when it comes to racing. The aspect HW just ejects jou out of the water violantly at takeoff where the bionic reacts less to the extra angle you give the foil to jump out of the water.

Hey man, thanks for the reply. Just to clarify, you are saying foil kites boost bigger than an inflatable or that a hydrofoil boosts bigger than a twin tip?

[fogmeister]

i agree with evan......from wat we have seen a hydrofoil slaughters a twin tip ........and a foil kite jumps higher than a tube kite day in and day out ( in under 30-35 kts, and no massive kickers).........i have yet to see some of our good riders on tubes outjump the foils.

[Kitemanmuc]

i agree with evan......from wat we have seen a hydrofoil slaughters a twin tip ........and a foil kite jumps higher than a tube kite day in and day out ( in under 30-35 kts, and no massive kickers).........i have yet to see some of our good riders on tubes outjump the foils.

So foil kite + hydrofoil is boosting bigger than tube kite + hydrofoil

[Horst Sergio]

Thanks a lot for your shared experience evan,

Some questions about the foil:
I also had an eye on the aspect HW for getting better control around 40-50 km/h and therefore better boosting.
Do you use is with the long fuselage and bionic back wing? And would you supscribe it works a lot better for a 62 kg for that, without loosing too much buttom end? What is your weight?
Is the aspect HW more or less the "tachyon" you described more than a year ago?

Some questions about the kite:
Actually I just habe an old 15 m² Chrono1, which feels also with short lines (tried 12,14,16 m) just to big for my weight and serious boosting, but maybe just experience. On the other hand my 9 m² sonic should be great, but around our mountain lakes not so often enough wind around and above 20 knts for serious tries. Fear I have to buy some 11 m² maybe even Aero or SonicRace one time to get more experience here. What line length are you using and are you doing top loops to come down? Peter Müller is doing great spectacular top loops with something like 15 m² kites and bigger, but just 15 m lines maybe less. But I am still scared to do toploops with shorter setup than 9 m² and 21 m lines.

[fogmeister]

So foil kite + hydrofoil is boosting bigger than tube kite + hydrofoil

yes 100 percent!

[fogmeister]

horst.....i am your weight i boost the 15m in 6-10kts approx. (should hit 10m) 13m in about 10-15 (should hit 12-13m)....... 11m in 13- 18kts (should hit 13-15m)..............9m 18 -22kts (13-18m+).......after that i dont have small enough kite but when the wind gets that high it is pretty crappy. these are just aprox. and obviously depend on many variables.
personally use 21m lines on sonic2.......on the 15m i may go to 27m in 4-6 kts.


so basically you dont need over 20kts for serious tries.........

[fogmeister]

......you can do top loops but not necessary.......i have never done a top loop (heli loop) you just come gliding down always......no matter what.

[davesails7]

The lighter the wind is, the more of an advantage you get from the hydrofoil and the more advantage you get from the foil kites.

There was a post a long time ago about how jump height is limited by converting your kinetic energy (relative to apparent wind speed) into potential energy of jump height. With the hydrofoil and big foil kite, you can hit 30 knots apparent wind as soon as there is enough wind to waterstart, so the wind speed doesn't affect your jump height nearly as much as it does on the twintip.

Technique is even more important when boosting on the hydrofoil than on the twintip. We had a Woo big air competition at a race. It was blowing 25 knots. Lots of guys were boosting in the 30-40 ft range on a mix of LEI and foil kites, twintips and hydrofoils. One was hitting 50 feet on twintip and hydrofoil. Then Nico Parlier was hitting 60 ft! I wouldn't have guessed that the right technique would get you more than twice the height of a relatively good rider on similar gear.