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North Hybrid foil board

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Adolfo
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Re: North Hybrid foil board

Postby Adolfo » Wed Aug 29, 2018 5:44 pm

Dont buy North foils. There are better options. North are SLOW and UNSTABLE worst possible combination.
Why do you say they are slow and unstable? Compared to what?
I’m not an expert at all, but I’ve being foiling for two years now.
My normal ride is a LF Happy Foil, and I recently bought an Impulse too. I don’t have a lot of choices here, but I’ve also used Lifts, Cabrinhas Double Agent and LF Rocket.
I don’t own a North Speedster, but a friend lend me one for a couple of weeks, and I actually liked a lot. It is way more stable than the Happy, and much faster than the Double Agent. I found it similar to the Lift in terms of speed and stability. From my point of view the Speedster is a VERY stable foil, incredibly stall resistant and fast enough for free riding.
I’ve recommended it as first foil for some friends, and they are very happy with it.
What foil do you ride that is faster and more stable? It will sure make a better recomendation for beginners.

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Re: North Hybrid foil board

Postby tomtom » Wed Aug 29, 2018 6:34 pm

Foil is 80% and board it just a board as long as it is reasonable good. Tracks system is required to adjust specific foil to specific board. Basically you need to position foil relation to straps. Or if you ride strapless to your preferred feet position. If you have proved board foil combo that is designed to fit together it then tracks arent necessary - but at least straps should have multiple position.
Good board is light, stiff, and has reasonable nose scoop to smooth touch downs. Rail shape and bottom shape are completely irrelevant - if you are not aiming for racing. About board volume there are different opinions - I like low volume. You can live with low volume if you have foil that fly at slow speed and some volume are required for faster smaller foil in general.
Its nice to have front center strap option because you can stand centered - as foil mast extension. Two front setups means you automatically edge and as beginer it can be hard to not "break foil" under yourself. It is most ergonomic position for cranking upwind /race position/ but not very good for learning.

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Peter_Frank
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Re: North Hybrid foil board

Postby Peter_Frank » Wed Aug 29, 2018 6:38 pm

_Kinouille_ wrote:
Wed Aug 29, 2018 4:34 pm
Thank you all for the replies. So, I'm now even more confused about the North foil :D:D. Does the board itself make a big difference on foil? Or any board would do? My goal isn't to do racing competition. I mostly want to have more days on the water and be able to play with the board doing (Once I get better at it) tricks on the water until the wind picks up enough and I can use my surfboard/Twintip. Would the Slingshot converter with the hover glide NF2 be better? The North Hybrid doesn't have a track system but the slingshot does. Would that matter? Maybe to change the center of gravity once I get better? Or is it just a gimmick?
Again, thank you all for your time.

I think the hybrid will be fine, you got both a surfboard and a foilboard in one - and apparently it works just great for beginners and overall freeride, the North foil.

Not having tracks is okay, as you dont have many different wings (or more likely brands mixed), so the trim will be matched.

Of course, if you choose other brands (say Ketos or Moses or Zeeko and maybe others) you get a wider palette of wings/masts to choose from later on.

But if you got okay access to the North somehow, you could go with that one and it will be just spot on now :naughty:

8) Peter

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Re: North Hybrid foil board

Postby tomtom » Wed Aug 29, 2018 6:45 pm

Adolfo wrote:
Wed Aug 29, 2018 5:44 pm
Dont buy North foils. There are better options. North are SLOW and UNSTABLE worst possible combination.
Why do you say they are slow and unstable? Compared to what?
I’m not an expert at all, but I’ve being foiling for two years now.
My normal ride is a LF Happy Foil, and I recently bought an Impulse too. I don’t have a lot of choices here, but I’ve also used Lifts, Cabrinhas Double Agent and LF Rocket.
I don’t own a North Speedster, but a friend lend me one for a couple of weeks, and I actually liked a lot. It is way more stable than the Happy, and much faster than the Double Agent. I found it similar to the Lift in terms of speed and stability. From my point of view the Speedster is a VERY stable foil, incredibly stall resistant and fast enough for free riding.
I’ve recommended it as first foil for some friends, and they are very happy with it.
What foil do you ride that is faster and more stable? It will sure make a better recomendation for beginners.
Compared to any Moses foils. Compared to any Alpine foils. Moses Onda is faster, more stable and flies at MUCH lower speed than speedster. Im faster on Onda with 9m Freeride foil kite than Speedster on 15m race foil kite. And Onda is not fast foil - it is slowest foil from Moses. Speedster hits the wall with speed and its unstable at speed. I think plastic wings on speedster vibrate on higher speeds which cause drag and instability. They are very soft /non stiff/. There are rumors that newer Duotone foils will be standard carbon. Maybe there are worser foils than speedster but I dont rode them. Foils are in very rapid development and something good one year can be completely obsolete next.

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Re: North Hybrid foil board

Postby nayy » Wed Aug 29, 2018 9:35 pm

I can only speak from my experience as a complete beginner:
I bought my foil a few months ago... I doubted between the F-one IC6 and the North speedster... the carbon they suggested was too expensive (moses onda + board was 1000€ more expensive)

The seller told me not to take the speedster, because I would outgrow this foil too fast... he said it was boring and slow... be this must be seen from the sellers perspective, he foils for several years on carbon racing machines...

If you are used to drive a ferrari, porsche or whatever and after that you drive a skoda... yes you will be disapointed...

But when you come form a normal kiteboard, even the speedster is fast... I think that a lot of experienced foilers forgot how hard it is to learn...

On my first session I fought for 2 hours with my IC6 (normal mast), I could hardly kite for 50m on it, even not getting on the foil... after that I tried the speedster and that was a piece of cake (short 60 cm mast for the first session)... is stepped on it and went foiling , I gybed (not flying) en foiled switch on my first foil trial ever...
After 1 session on the short mast my brother went to the standard 90 cm mast and he felt no difference between both in difficulty.

Because of a construction error on the rail my TS51 was exchanged by a TS51V2: there is a track system instead of the power box and they moved it A LOT to the back... at least 8 cm... My TS51 with IC6 foil is much more gentle now...

My brother has the speedster with the flexible nose board... I like it a lot, very nice cork pad on the board. De flexible nose seems to absorb the shock when you nose-dive by error... my f-one board TS51 is very stiff and that works fine too...
My brother bought it as a light wind alternative and he is very happy with it... at the moment he is learing the flying gybe. The speedster is not perfect, at higher speeds it makes noice...

I don't think that as a beginner you will feel the difference between Carbon or injected plastic... with a lot of experience.. yes there will (hopefully) be more differences than the price tag and the weight :-)...

Carbon is much more fragile, and as a beginner your foil will take some beating... I learned in onshore wind with waves (I don't recommend it) and was very happy that I did not have a carbon wing...

On my last session some good foilers went 20 km upwind to another spot and came back... there was a lot of chop and some swell, difficult conditions... when they came back downwind the winner was... the north speedster... he was just laughing at the others on their carbon racing machines... I don't know how this could happen... and the winner was not the most experienced or best foiler...

just my experience...

Nayy

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Re: North Hybrid foil board

Postby CCollins » Sun Nov 04, 2018 12:11 pm

I own a North Speedster on the Hybrid board. I'm a beginner foiler, about four years kiting of which 90% on strapless directional boards. My previous foiling experience was in a Cabrinha Double Agent 2017. I got up on the Cabrinha strapless first time I tried foiling, pretty wobbly and not for long. Bought the North Hybrid with the Speedster on a really good deal for the same reasons as the OP.
So far my conclusions (bearing in mind I'm a beginner at foiling and not much reference). The quality of board and foil seem really good except that some of the bolts supplied were too long to go into the Hybrid mounts (assume they were for the other North boards) and that the bolts were very stiff to get in. I converted all the bolts to Allen bolts and for shorter ones for the base mount and all seems good now.
It's definitely harder water starting this foil that the Cabrinha one, the foil is heavier and the board much more boyant so you really have to get set perfectly before you let go and get you feet on and dive the kite to start. Once you're "taxiing" everything seems quite stable. Takes quite a bit more speed to get foiling than the Cabrinha, took even more with the wedge, which I only tried once. Seems very stable when I'm up, I feel like I'm progressing every time I get out.
As far as speed, obviously I have very little to compare it to, but definitely it's top speed is way more than I can handle at this point!
I've had it wash ashore a few times on waves when I lost it and there are zero scratches or damage. I've heard the fuselage is fragile and can believe that, no issues yet though.
The bag/carrying case that comes with it is really good, actually projects each part separately. The two wing pouches are removable and slotted so you can use them as covers for the wings on the assembled foil, which is a nice touch.

As for the Hybrid board as a wave board, I've only had it out in small, weak waves so far, fairly powered up on a 9.5m. It's a quick fun board that's quite loose, definitely need to ride it more on fin than rail. Carves super smooth and jumps nicely. Feels like a freestyle board in many ways. Not the best board to learn strapless directional riding on, but fun if you know what you're doing. It's a real directional board in every way, not a foil board that you can attach fins to and make a skim board thing out of. It comes with decent fins.

All in all I'm very happy with the combo so far, and can recommend it, with the disclaimer that I'm no foil expert at all.

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Re: North Hybrid foil board

Postby cor » Mon Nov 05, 2018 10:24 am

tomtom wrote:
Wed Aug 29, 2018 6:45 pm
Compared to any Moses foils. Compared to any Alpine foils. Moses Onda is faster, more stable and flies at MUCH lower speed than speedster. Im faster on Onda with 9m Freeride foil kite than Speedster on 15m race foil kite. And Onda is not fast foil - it is slowest foil from Moses. Speedster hits the wall with speed and its unstable at speed. I think plastic wings on speedster vibrate on higher speeds which cause drag and instability. They are very soft /non stiff/. There are rumors that newer Duotone foils will be standard carbon. Maybe there are worser foils than speedster but I dont rode them. Foils are in very rapid development and something good one year can be completely obsolete next.
+1 :D

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Re: North Hybrid foil board

Postby cor » Mon Nov 05, 2018 12:58 pm

_Kinouille_ wrote:
Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:36 pm
Hi everyone,
Has anybody tried the North (Duotone?) Hybrid board? I can't find a review anywhere. I don't live in a place where there is lots of wind and therefor I always have to travel in order to kite. The hybrid board would allow me to surf strapless (Which I enjoy a lot) AND foil (I'm a foiling beginner) while minimizing the amount of bags I'll have to transport. I'd most likely combine the purchase with the North Speedster GT.
Thank you all.
When you consider the Hybrid board, do not forget that this is a concave deck, naturally, like almost all waveboard designs. In my opinion - and I know not everyone agrees to this - such a deck is not helpful at all when beginning to hf. A flat deck is much easier. I started hf with a Levitaz Transformer and I now switched to a flat deck.

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Re: North Hybrid foil board

Postby windmaker » Mon Nov 05, 2018 7:09 pm

cor wrote:
Mon Nov 05, 2018 12:58 pm
_Kinouille_ wrote:
Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:36 pm
Hi everyone,
Has anybody tried the North (Duotone?) Hybrid board? I can't find a review anywhere. I don't live in a place where there is lots of wind and therefor I always have to travel in order to kite. The hybrid board would allow me to surf strapless (Which I enjoy a lot) AND foil (I'm a foiling beginner) while minimizing the amount of bags I'll have to transport. I'd most likely combine the purchase with the North Speedster GT.
Thank you all.
When you consider the Hybrid board, do not forget that this is a concave deck, naturally, like almost all waveboard designs. In my opinion - and I know not everyone agrees to this - such a deck is not helpful at all when beginning to hf. A flat deck is much easier. I started hf with a Levitaz Transformer and I now switched to a flat deck.
For sure convex deck is a no no for hydrofoiling but it looks like some manufacturers don't know that yet :D


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