Contact   Imprint   Advertising   Guidelines

Delta Hydrofoil's George Hradil talks foil design and the future of the sport

A forum dedicated to Hydrofoil riders
Mossy 757
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1860
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2015 5:10 pm
Local Beach: First Landing State Park, Virginia Beach Oceanfront
Style: Kitefoil
Gear: Delta Hydrofoil and board. Cabrinha Velocity 9m, Flysurfer Sonic2 11m, Ozone R1V2 15m
Has thanked: 41 times
Been thanked: 71 times

Delta Hydrofoil's George Hradil talks foil design and the future of the sport

Postby Mossy 757 » Mon Feb 19, 2018 9:48 pm

George Hradil, owner/founder/designer/craftsman responsible for Delta Hydrofoil as well as the new Neil Pryde FRX one-design concept talking about the early days of the sport, how he got into the manufacturing game, and the direction he sees foiling going as people zero in on the most stable and fun to sail designs. This talk was intended to be about his ideas regarding passively controlled foiling monohull design, but there's a lot of mention of his company and how he and the Neil Pryde team came together to produce a high-performance mass-produced one-design (enough hyphens?!) class to bring more sailors and kiters into foil racing on an even playing field.

https://www.facebook.com/GreenHatKitebo ... yZDFGJpgq8

thewindego
Frequent Poster
Posts: 256
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2017 3:13 am
Local Beach: Wolfe Island
Gear: core and windego boards
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 24 times
Been thanked: 37 times
Contact:

Re: Delta Hydrofoil's George Hradil talks foil design and the future of the sport

Postby thewindego » Tue Feb 20, 2018 2:59 am

Very informative thanks for sharing.

cwood
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 726
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 7:28 pm
Local Beach: Southern Ontario
Gear: Flysurfer
Moses Hydrofoil
Brand Affiliation: Moses, Flysurfer
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 74 times

Re: Delta Hydrofoil's George Hradil talks foil design and the future of the sport

Postby cwood » Tue Feb 20, 2018 1:20 pm

thank you very much for sharing!

User avatar
Percu.org
Rare Poster
Posts: 38
Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2004 9:46 am
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: France - Leucate - Canet (66)
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0
Contact:

Re: Delta Hydrofoil's George Hradil talks foil design and the future of the sport

Postby Percu.org » Tue Feb 20, 2018 3:35 pm

Read the full topic Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/groups/kiteboa ... 599635280/

My best quote for this topic comes from Markus Schwendtner (IKA) : "TTR in the youth olympic games on registered series production equipment (same principle as formula kite) with "bring your own" equipment (not one design) produced direct qualifiers from antigua, venezuela and dominican republic. in an event where there was only one place per continent and gender. havent seen that in any of the one design classes really... kiteboarding can become what snowboarding is for the winter olympics - why screw it up by another monopoly one design failure"

Mossy 757
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1860
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2015 5:10 pm
Local Beach: First Landing State Park, Virginia Beach Oceanfront
Style: Kitefoil
Gear: Delta Hydrofoil and board. Cabrinha Velocity 9m, Flysurfer Sonic2 11m, Ozone R1V2 15m
Has thanked: 41 times
Been thanked: 71 times

Re: Delta Hydrofoil's George Hradil talks foil design and the future of the sport

Postby Mossy 757 » Tue Feb 20, 2018 8:06 pm

Percu.org wrote:
Tue Feb 20, 2018 3:35 pm
Read the full topic Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/groups/kiteboa ... 599635280/

My best quote for this topic comes from Markus Schwendtner (IKA) : "TTR in the youth olympic games on registered series production equipment (same principle as formula kite) with "bring your own" equipment (not one design) produced direct qualifiers from antigua, venezuela and dominican republic. in an event where there was only one place per continent and gender. havent seen that in any of the one design classes really... kiteboarding can become what snowboarding is for the winter olympics - why screw it up by another monopoly one design failure"
Jeeze dude, troll somewhere else, this video has nothing to do with the Olympics discussion.

User avatar
Toby
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 50281
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2001 1:00 am
Kiting since: 2000
Weight: 95 kg
Local Beach: Cumbuco, Brazil
Barra do Cauipe, Brazil
Favorite Beaches: same
Style: Airstyle
Gear: Rebel 2015 18
Brand Affiliation: None.
Location: World (KF Admin)
Has thanked: 826 times
Been thanked: 2354 times
Contact:

Re: Delta Hydrofoil's George Hradil talks foil design and the future of the sport

Postby Toby » Tue Feb 20, 2018 9:41 pm

The video is about one design, no ?

And that has a lot to do with Olympic.

bigcane
Medium Poster
Posts: 110
Joined: Sat Oct 02, 2004 3:00 am
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Delta Hydrofoil's George Hradil talks foil design and the future of the sport

Postby bigcane » Tue Feb 20, 2018 10:10 pm

Great talk by George. And nice to see NP come out with a quality offering although I am not convinced that this is better than what you can already buy off the shelf now for similar or less money. But if we are worried about the cost of gear for Olympic racing then box rule has got to be the way to go. Restrict use of high modulus and set mimimums for strut thickness and kite and board weights to reduce the arms race and ensure the gear has a decent lifespan. Maybe add a length restriction for the strut. That’s it.

User avatar
foilonfoil
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 579
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2015 8:31 am
Local Beach: Belmont Shore, CA / Hood River, OR
Favorite Beaches: Crissy Field, San Francisco, CA / Benicia, CA / Sail Bay, San Diego, CA / Hermosa Beach, CA
Style: Kitefoil
Gear: Flysurfer Sonic Race, Core Section V1's, MikesLab Foil, Camet Boards.
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: Delta Hydrofoil's George Hradil talks foil design and the future of the sport

Postby foilonfoil » Wed Feb 21, 2018 12:57 am

I'm not a fan of one-design as it takes away from innovation. So much opportunity for improvements in foil design and stability given how much variation that exists today between manufacturers and foils.

A small number of companies have made a name for themselves on the race circuit - MikesLab, Ozone, and f-One to name a few. One-Design essentially says, I can't complete with these manufacturers and products but by adopting one-design, competitors are now on the same (slow) page.

As for innovation, check out the latest on Super Cavitation that has started to be adapted to yachting but yet to be realized in kite foiling...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercavitation
http://www.marinepropulsors.com/proceed ... /MB2-3.pdf

james
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 701
Joined: Sun Mar 07, 2004 2:18 pm
Gear: My own
Brand Affiliation: My own
Has thanked: 32 times
Been thanked: 43 times

Re: Delta Hydrofoil's George Hradil talks foil design and the future of the sport

Postby james » Wed Feb 21, 2018 8:42 am

bigcane wrote:
Tue Feb 20, 2018 10:10 pm
Great talk by George. And nice to see NP come out with a quality offering although I am not convinced that this is better than what you can already buy off the shelf now for similar or less money. But if we are worried about the cost of gear for Olympic racing then box rule has got to be the way to go. Restrict use of high modulus and set mimimums for strut thickness and kite and board weights to reduce the arms race and ensure the gear has a decent lifespan. Maybe add a length restriction for the strut. That’s it.

You want to add in a few more restrictions too? Like rider size, nationality and having a ridiculously funded MNA, how about line length or material? No adjustable depower setups on bars, board size strut placement so you can’t tune the balance of the foil, stopping surface preperation on the mast and wings, no sanding or filling,

Even better let one brand sell you the gear outside of the normal retail channels and see how much grass roots benifit there is to kitesurfing as a sport. None.

Mossy 757
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1860
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2015 5:10 pm
Local Beach: First Landing State Park, Virginia Beach Oceanfront
Style: Kitefoil
Gear: Delta Hydrofoil and board. Cabrinha Velocity 9m, Flysurfer Sonic2 11m, Ozone R1V2 15m
Has thanked: 41 times
Been thanked: 71 times

Re: Delta Hydrofoil's George Hradil talks foil design and the future of the sport

Postby Mossy 757 » Wed Feb 21, 2018 2:12 pm

You guys act like a one-design foil class would cancel open class racing. Can you imagine sailors having this conversation in real life? There are a ton of OD classes in sailing, and a bunch that are not, some are developmental rules and some are open. It doesn't cancel out the other forms of racing when a new format gets established. This is another, different form of racing.

BTW!!!!

This is not a thread about the Neil Pryde FRX class, this is a thread about passively stabilized sailboats and how the lessons learned from foil development apply to new ventures as materials improve.

If you guys want to bitch about Neil Pryde and the Olympics, start a different thread please.


Return to “Hydrofoil”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: TheJoe and 54 guests