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Plywood surf foil wing

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Jyoder
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Plywood surf foil wing

Postby Jyoder » Mon Apr 01, 2019 1:05 am

I’ve been wanting to try a surf foil sized wing but couldn’t justify the cost of a new foil so I tried my hand at building one for my much loved Stringy foil. I glued 2 layers of already warped 1/2in plywood together and shaped with hand tools. I just shaped a airfoil that felt right, semi-symmetrical, no guide. The lines of ply layers helped make it uniform.
The result exceeded my expectations! Slow, stable, but plenty maneuverable for carving swell. It is draggy and vibrates at speed, but foils at a walking pace with little kite power.
I got lucky and haven’t needed to shim or adjust the foil in any way other than just bolting the big wood wing in place. Made from scrap plywood with 1 layer of cheap 6 oz fiberglass and epoxy, the stainless bolts cost as much as the materials. Foil is 31 inches wide, 9 inches middle chord and 1 inch thick in middle, tapered to the tips.
First session took a few min to get used to it but soon was doing flying jibes and foot switch a bit more easily than my regular Stringy front wing. I miss the speed and apparent wind of the smaller wing, but riding swell with this is a fun new experience. You can go sooo slow and really feel the energy from the water.
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These users thanked the author Jyoder for the post (total 2):
purdyd (Mon Apr 01, 2019 2:35 am) • AndersP (Wed Apr 03, 2019 8:28 pm)
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jumptheshark
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Re: Plywood surf foil wing

Postby jumptheshark » Mon Apr 01, 2019 1:15 am

Dude, your my hero. Clamped to the kitchen table. Looks kinda nice once glossed up.

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MaximumAC
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Re: Plywood surf foil wing

Postby MaximumAC » Mon Apr 01, 2019 1:29 am

super impressive

stevez
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Re: Plywood surf foil wing

Postby stevez » Mon Apr 01, 2019 3:20 am

Awesome build. Great to see! I'd love to try this sometime.
I reckon wood is a highly suitable and overlooked material for surf wings.

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Kamikuza
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Re: Plywood surf foil wing

Postby Kamikuza » Mon Apr 01, 2019 3:56 am

Very cool!

plummet
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Re: Plywood surf foil wing

Postby plummet » Mon Apr 01, 2019 7:00 am

Good effort. I wonder if you tapered the tips more like stringy if you would end up with less drag, a little more top speed but still with the ability to go slow and feel the wave power?

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Re: Plywood surf foil wing

Postby Cdog » Wed Apr 03, 2019 5:14 pm

Nice work
You could also get a stringy surf wing
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Jyoder
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Re: Plywood surf foil wing

Postby Jyoder » Fri Apr 19, 2019 12:41 am

Just to follow up on this and encourage anyone else thinking of giving a plywood surf foil a try, or any surf foil for that matter, do it!
I’ve been riding it exclusively since first session and now that I’m dialed in, it’s awesome! I found I can actually push it almost as fast as my Stringy foil wing. It doesn’t feel draggy anymore and some extra attention to sanding imperfections made it ride much smoother. With a short board, it turns well and is a blast to foil in windswell waves (no real ocean waves here on Chesapeake bay). It takes so little power to keep up in the foil that I can stay up with a few kite swoops and then coast along the swell with kite depowered, then turn and pump and blast back upwind at good speed. Rode with my 5.5m cloud today with less wind than I thought would be possible on that kite. The combination of being able to pump the foil synchronized with signing power stroke creates great acceleration and allows for a good upwind angle, considering. Super happy with the wing now!

stevez
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Re: Plywood surf foil wing

Postby stevez » Fri Apr 19, 2019 3:13 am

Yeah, after seeing your result, I'm super keen to try.
I've got some paulownia sheets left over after my last board build. I reckon that could be used to build a wing.
I'm thinking sandwiching in some biax carbon in between one of the botton two layers would give it enough strength and resistance to torsional deflection.
The top mounted stringy design hugely simplifies the hardest part for most wing builds - the fuse mount.

My biggest concern is my hand shaping skills: how hard is it to end up with a symmetrical wing that doesn't want to fly off in one direction?
Anyway keen to give it a go, hey what's the worst that can happen? :)
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Cdog wrote: You could also get a stringy surf wing
XL stringy wing is awesome, but it's not a fully fledged surf wing.

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downunder
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Re: Plywood surf foil wing

Postby downunder » Fri Apr 19, 2019 4:33 am

Well,

Just use your eye and make it symmetrical;)

The middle carbon layer does nothing, outer yes.

Have a bit different approach to diy build :)
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