Power.

[Foil]

Love some of the comments in this post, I have been jumping between my small easy to loop small kites and my reassuringly powerful 15 mtr Fone Breeze, I love them all, but the 7 and 8mtr are the most fun with little fear factor, the speed the 15 can develop is insane and at my level is so scary, I have been a speed freak in the world of windsurfing and twin tips owning for many years dedicated speed boards, and never have I felt the fear I do now on the foil,
I know I have over stepped the clif edge of no return when turning off downwind on my 15 catching some deep powerful swell and feeling like I am standing on top of the roof ridge tiles of my house picking up speed and trying not to lower the kite, which as we all know is a very bad idea but very tempting, as I use the North click bar I move my index finger over the depower button and click once - twice - gulp! 3 times O my God! Press agin but no response as all depower has been used, O shitttt, now on tip toes with foil only just in contact with the water but strangely very solid and planted and accelerating all the time, mind is racing for a solution, too high and too fast to carve upwind, one wrong twitch and I will die for sure, help me anyone arghh the shore line is only half a mile away and I am going in at warp speed.
The resulting explosion of body and gear into water can be seen from space, I then body drag to shore and change down to my smaller kites and all is good again, until the next time I decide I want to scare the crap out of myself, I am getting better though,as pushing to the limits is pushing my maximum speed limit a tiny bit further forward each time as I find the fear itself is my worst enemy as I panic, but as skills improve I am sure speed will become even more addictive than it is now.
Sometimes I wake up in a sweat as I dream about these out of control speed runs.

[tautologies]

So. I've done the peter Frank stupid small kite hydrofoiling for a while. Now I hunger for speed and power.

Whose else is wanting to grunt up the hf and ride powered.

This is why I quit foiling about 5 years ago. I think the newer ones you can ride powered? right?

[Tone]

So. I've done the peter Frank stupid small kite hydrofoiling for a while. Now I hunger for speed and power.

Whose else is wanting to grunt up the hf and ride powered.

This is why I quite foiling about 5 years ago. I think the newer ones you can ride powered? right?

When I started on a carbon zeeko, I was always riding driving with my front foot and balancing with my back.

Now I am on a Spotz Shark my back foot is pretty close to being over the mast so I am now driving with my back foot which makes pushing with a lot of power a lot more like a twin tip. When I was learning I was always careful about pushing too hard with my back foot, now I am nearly always pushing with my back foot.

I can easily go from my 15 sonic to a twintip now and be just as powered on both.

[davesails7]

as I use the North click bar I move my index finger over the depower button and click once - twice - gulp! 3 times O my God! Press agin but no response as all depower has been used

Haha, i like your description of riding powered!

Race bar setups have a much wider range of depower and you can go from full on to full depower very quickly, probably a better option than the click bar.

Although, when going downwind, if you get overpowered, pulling depower probably isn't the best way to slow down. Going upwind, definitely pull the depower, but when going downwind, I would leave the depower at full power and head more downwind as the kite falls back in the window

This is why I quite foiling about 5 years ago. I think the newer ones you can ride powered? right?

Yes. Depends on the foil though. Something big and slow like Cabrinha and LF fish just shake when you load them up. A race foil will just go faster the more power you put in. What coil did you try 5 years ago?

[Peter_Frank]

As I remember you were one of the very first ones to foil Taut, long before it "caught on" bigtime, and you had the classic Carafino right ?

It can be loaded and you can ride very powered easily, so I think the reason why you stopped were because noone else did it, and maybe because it was too easy/slow so no room for progression like with todays hydrofoils.

Just guessing...

And no, it is not easier to ride hydrofoils more powered today, than the early ones, almost on the contrary as Dave says - you will go faster and faster with a racewing and can end up out of control, OR going fast and more fun, depending on what you want and your abilities.
And new big freeridewings works just like your Carafino did - you can ride really powered quite easy without getting out of control - but not much top end either

PF

[tautologies]

Good guess Peter Yeah I had the aluminum with boots first. Then a few of the carafinos. It was funny I definitely saw the upwind advantage of the foil over raceboard, but the problem was the downwind and controlling it at higher speeds. Yeah and no one else at my spot used foils so once I was doing rotations I kind of lost rotations. I ended up liking the bumpy rides of raceboard better. Go figure.
Because I liked riding waves on the carafino I was trying to get some of the racefin producers to make me a larger foil so I could attach it to my SUP. But my PhD work got in the way of that project. I guess I am coming full circle now that I am getting the surf foil with a SUP board and a 130 hover haha. I am really excited about it.

[plummet]

So. I've done the peter Frank stupid small kite hydrofoiling for a while. Now I hunger for speed and power.

Whose else is wanting to grunt up the hf and ride powered.

This is why I quit foiling about 5 years ago. I think the newer ones you can ride powered? right?

What I've learnt is that rear wing aoa greatly affects how you can control overpowered speed runs. Too much aoa means that you are stomping down on the front and when over powered you eventually get driven out of the water and face plant. I've backed my aoa off and can at any point push the nose down, carve hard down or upwind like a tt and kill power. As I have quite a scoop on the nose of my pocket board I can also force a nose touch down which acts like a brake and kills speed.

I'm also finding as I get more comfortable with speed overpowered becomes less of an issue as I simply carve around at speed to cull speed.

[bigcane]

My 2 cents, I love riding powered with the current race HFs and race kites. I just had my first sesh on the Spotz Shark with plate adaptor extension after coming off an older race HF. Slightly bigger wings and Lower drag seems to make things alot easier especially downwind and thru the tacks and gybes. The shark just kept accelerating in the gusts and felt more stable the faster you go. By comparison, trying to ride powered downwind on a short struted (less than 1m) draggy freeride or learner foil is a nightmare.

[TomW]

So. I've done the peter Frank stupid small kite hydrofoiling for a while. Now I hunger for speed and power.

Whose else is wanting to grunt up the hf and ride powered.

This is why I quit foiling about 5 years ago. I think the newer ones you can ride powered? right?

What I've learnt is that rear wing aoa greatly affects how you can control overpowered speed runs. Too much aoa means that you are stomping down on the front and when over powered you eventually get driven out of the water and face plant. I've backed my aoa off and can at any point push the nose down, carve hard down or upwind like a tt and kill power. As I have quite a scoop on the nose of my pocket board I can also force a nose touch down which acts like a brake and kills speed.

I'm also finding as I get more comfortable with speed overpowered becomes less of an issue as I simply carve around at speed to cull speed.

I'm down in Brazil and have had a few good sessions on flatwater and out in the waves. Yesterday I was perfectly powered on a 9 and Moses Fluente 550/330 wings on the ocean side. The swells are organized and moderate chop. It was fantastic session, my best ever. Linking some heel to toeside and toeside to heelside turns while flying.

I'm having similar feeling, charging downwind with swell at 45 degree angle, 35-40km/hr. I'm having to focus a lot on keeping foil down, and bearing upwind at speed from downwind course is scary as kite is lifting, foil is lifting.
Plummet, should I lift the leading edge or trailing edge of the stabilizer?
I bought a digital angle meter but it took 2 months to get it, arrived too late to measure before leaving for Brazil.

[tautologies]

I'm down in Brazil and have had a few good sessions on flatwater and out in the waves. Yesterday I was perfectly powered on a 9 and Moses Fluente 550/330 wings on the ocean side. The swells are organized and moderate chop. It was fantastic session, my best ever. Linking some heel to toeside and toeside to heelside turns while flying.

I'm having similar feeling, charging downwind with swell at 45 degree angle, 35-40km/hr. I'm having to focus a lot on keeping foil down, and bearing upwind at speed from downwind course is scary as kite is lifting, foil is lifting.
Plummet, should I lift the leading edge or trailing edge of the stabilizer?
I bought a digital angle meter but it took 2 months to get it, arrived too late to measure before leaving for Brazil.

Nice. I love it. I can;t wait to get back into foiling!!
Where in Brazil are you? Any good waves?