Has anyone gone totally hydrofoil?

[maximlg253]

I am 70% hydrofoil and 30% twintip. We have a few spots which are knee to waist deep and anything over 18+ knots I can't resist to throw a bunch of TT tricks (jumps, unhooked, etc).

[stevez]

And some of the sloppy big waves I get on lake Erie may not be rideable with even the tallest mast. But then I am a beginner. Anyone have experience using a hydrofoil in wave conditions like this?:

As Peter says, these are great conditions for hydrofoiling - huge fun.
On a small kite (3.5m). Those messy waves are not much good for anything else, but you can really ride them nicely on a hydrofoil.

[SaulOhio]

And some of the sloppy big waves I get on lake Erie may not be rideable with even the tallest mast. But then I am a beginner. Anyone have experience using a hydrofoil in wave conditions like this?:

As Peter says, these are great conditions for hydrofoiling - huge fun.
On a small kite (3.5m). Those messy waves are not much good for anything else, but you can really ride them nicely on a hydrofoil.

How long of a mast do you use in conditions like that?

[cwood]

And some of the sloppy big waves I get on lake Erie may not be rideable with even the tallest mast. But then I am a beginner. Anyone have experience using a hydrofoil in wave conditions like this?:

As Peter says, these are great conditions for hydrofoiling - huge fun.
On a small kite (3.5m). Those messy waves are not much good for anything else, but you can really ride them nicely on a hydrofoil.

How long of a mast do you use in conditions like that?

I would never go below 1m personally.

[Peter_Frank]

Use the standard masts, which is between 90 and 100 cm, they work just fine.

The shorter beginner ones are useless in these conditions.

And while longer might work well in huge windchop, they will be a bit less agile - so no reason unless you want to race in this.

It seems there is a reason why 90-100 cm are the most used

In these conditions I would also take my 100 cm, but sometimes in smaller waves and less wind I use a 91.5 instead

But a 90 cm would work just fine too in your video conditions.

PF

[SaulOhio]

It must be pretty awesome to be in the middle of such chaos and still have a smooth ride from a hydrofoil. That was a very bumpy day for me.

[BraCuru]

Anyone have experience using a hydrofoil in wave conditions like this?:

This looks like a rather normal day at Baltic coast when blows 20+kts.
Most of my local riders use hydrofoil in such conditions and we call it FUN watching those suffering on TT or trying to prove that it can be ridden on waveboards hahaha.

It must be pretty awesome to be in the middle of such chaos and still have a smooth ride from a hydrofoil.

Yes Sir! It is. Learn quickly and safe to enjoy this fun.

I prefer to windsurf then, anyway. But I will be putting my hydrofoil on a windsurfer, too.

Good idea - it's easier to learn than I thought.

I would never go below 1m personally.

100% true. So happy with 111cm. All of my experienced locals want to extend their masts above 1m.

In these conditions I would also take my 100 cm, but sometimes in smaller waves and less wind I use a 91.5 instead
But a 90 cm would work just fine too in your video conditions.

Peter - did you try 110+ ?
In my case it was love from the first ride. Don't want to touch all my foils below 1m now.

[Peter_Frank]

Snip...

In these conditions I would also take my 100 cm, but sometimes in smaller waves and less wind I use a 91.5 instead
But a 90 cm would work just fine too in your video conditions.

Peter - did you try 110+ ?
In my case it was love from the first ride. Don't want to touch all my foils below 1m now.

No I cant say that I have no...

I have 3 lengths roughly 80 and 90 and 100 cm.

80 is only for marginal conditions dead onshore where it is the only solution, but works fine.
Or for strapped riding when jumping/freestyle with a fast wing, where the shorter mast/foil is easier to turn in the air, and the straps makes ventilation less of an issue.

90 works great in most conditions actually, and 100 when really windy and a must in close megachop.
But there is a slight advantage in the 90-95 in terms of turning tight, where the 100 is still fine but maybe has a tad more turning radius/agility when riding waves and turning.

Where the 80 is definitely no good when not relatively flat, as you will ventilate and crash often - OR have to think about riding "easier".
The 90 works fine as an "do it all" length, easy to start and ride waves in shallow water/sand banks, turns tight and agile, and still easy to conquer breaking waves, and give you the extra room for making flying jibes or tacks.
100 even better at the two last parts, but a slight lowering of the two first advantages.

110+ will of course be way better if you have to ride straight, even in less than huge megachop, where 100 and less is extremely tiring in these conditions, if you want to ride some distance, even shorter distances, are my experience

But for waveriding and carving tight, I can see even within my 3 mast lengths, that 90-100 is the range that suits really good overall, 90 in low winds and 100 when more is my typical preference.

That is mostly what I do and love, so can not comment on "other" styles and how even longer masts will be, sorry...

But for riding the video'd conditions, I would say a 95-100 would be spot on for fun carving around and riding the waves, and if one got a 90 and used to it, it would work okay.

If you were to ride for a bit longer distance though, even just 1 km (2/3 mile) a longer mast would probably be way better indeed - but I usually dont ride that far (well, I do, but always doing "something" on the way, 360s or carving around and such, or at least practicing things so crashing), but I like to keep in and sometimes just outside the breaking zone usually, so very different from many others.
In less wind and small wavechop, it seems one can ride for 10 km relaxed with the shorter ones like 90 cm easy.

So no Bracuru, my view is solely based on above deductions, as I havent ridden waves with a 110+ mast no

All the racers here are on 110-115 cm but does not make sense to try a racefoil for me - it should be a long mast with a wavewing

But I could be surprised of course, if I got one 110+ and got to ride waves with it

PF

[Horst Sergio]

Hi PF,

sorry gone the opposite way : After nearly 3 years of hydrofoiling I nearly quit normal hydrofoiling the last month.
Actually nearly just on monofoil.
Once again enjoying every perfect flying tack and jibe, new maneuver possibilities and the "stimulating slow style" .
And about twintip and surfboards?

0% Twintip minimum the last 12 month ... can't remember, but kept one big kite and a twintip for the extremely rare spots and conditions this combination is fun to me.
Sold my surfboard a view weeks after switching to foil 3 years ago, but never have done significant wave riding, just old school low wind big air with it.

But sure to partly go back to normal hydrofoiling, when buying a new race wing to do faster wider distance runs in the future.

[BraCuru]

All the racers here are on 110-115 cm but does not make sense to try a racefoil for me - it should be a long mast with a wavewing

I'd be delighted to hear your opinion if you try and ride such a set up for a couple of hours in future.
First minutes are usually odd. A body and mind need to adopt to the new set up.
My best locals are not racers at all. Pure freeriders and long runners.
They really appreciate longer masts in any Baltic conditions and two of them are pretty close to stick to hydrofoiling only.
It would be 3 of us then.
Another 2 guys probably would join the solely foiling club in next two-three years. Out of 10 local foilers. The half.
So it looks like rather a normal evolution path for old boys