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Hydrofoiling Overpowered

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deniska
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Re: Hydrofoiling Overpowered

Postby deniska » Sun Oct 20, 2019 10:31 pm

UKSurf wrote:
Sun Oct 20, 2019 7:12 pm
Foil wrote:
Fri Oct 18, 2019 10:33 am
immaculate condition on your working surfaces, mast and wings, run clean tap water over the surfaces making sure the water clings to all parts, this gives a much smoother less jittery ride, = more confidence to push hard.
Could you explain this in more detail pls? I am not sure how running tap water over the foil will help
Clean your mast and wings with soap water or windex to get rid of grease stains and other stuff that may cause ventilation at high speeds. Running water over your surfaces just pinpoints possible issues. Something that may require cleaning or sanding with 1000-2000 grit paper.

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Re: Hydrofoiling Overpowered

Postby Foil » Mon Oct 21, 2019 11:00 am

deniska wrote:
Sun Oct 20, 2019 10:31 pm
UKSurf wrote:
Sun Oct 20, 2019 7:12 pm
Foil wrote:
Fri Oct 18, 2019 10:33 am
immaculate condition on your working surfaces, mast and wings, run clean tap water over the surfaces making sure the water clings to all parts, this gives a much smoother less jittery ride, = more confidence to push hard.
Could you explain this in more detail pls? I am not sure how running tap water over the foil will help
Clean your mast and wings with soap water or windex to get rid of grease stains and other stuff that may cause ventilation at high speeds. Running water over your surfaces just pinpoints possible issues. Something that may require cleaning or sanding with 1000-2000 grit paper.
after many disappointing hard and fast runs it always frustrated me how the quality of ride could be so different, in the first year I rarely cleaned my wings and mast and did not really understand what was going on, always blaming myself being a newbie.
but as I got better I was more likely to blame my kit, and then eventually pinned it down to lack of care on my working surfaces, I bought a brand new wing set and used this as the benchmark,but only after fine finishing the surfaces, as even when new there were minor imperfections to be found even many pinholes and minor edge imperfections,
Then checking the water sheen created from running tap water over the surfaces, this really shows up any contaminated patches on the surfaces, getting to the point of looking for a 100% mirror finish sheen created by the water clinging to every part of the surface translates to the smoothest ride you could dream of,
the difference is amazing,
sometimes a finger print implanted by unknown "foil admirers" have had to be removed by using super fine wet/dry paper, nothing else would remove these marks where the water refused to stick.
If the sea is littered with seaweed and you keep hitting it, you even notice when the sticky sap from the seaweed sticks to the mast and wings, it will be noticeable at maximum speed, especially if you have started from the perfect finished wing or mast surface.
daily maintenance can be done by using damp soapy cloths and drying to a shine with a very clean microfiber dry cloth. or use spray window cleaner as this works a treat as well.
never ever touch the surfaces with you hands and fingers, wash wing and mast covers every so often.

if all this sounds like a chore then just slow down to under 20mph, as it makes no big difference at that speed

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Re: Hydrofoiling Overpowered

Postby plummet » Mon Oct 21, 2019 1:21 pm

Foil wrote:
Mon Oct 21, 2019 11:00 am
deniska wrote:
Sun Oct 20, 2019 10:31 pm
UKSurf wrote:
Sun Oct 20, 2019 7:12 pm


Could you explain this in more detail pls? I am not sure how running tap water over the foil will help
Clean your mast and wings with soap water or windex to get rid of grease stains and other stuff that may cause ventilation at high speeds. Running water over your surfaces just pinpoints possible issues. Something that may require cleaning or sanding with 1000-2000 grit paper.
after many disappointing hard and fast runs it always frustrated me how the quality of ride could be so different, in the first year I rarely cleaned my wings and mast and did not really understand what was going on, always blaming myself being a newbie.
but as I got better I was more likely to blame my kit, and then eventually pinned it down to lack of care on my working surfaces, I bought a brand new wing set and used this as the benchmark,but only after fine finishing the surfaces, as even when new there were minor imperfections to be found even many pinholes and minor edge imperfections,
Then checking the water sheen created from running tap water over the surfaces, this really shows up any contaminated patches on the surfaces, getting to the point of looking for a 100% mirror finish sheen created by the water clinging to every part of the surface translates to the smoothest ride you could dream of,
the difference is amazing,
sometimes a finger print implanted by unknown "foil admirers" have had to be removed by using super fine wet/dry paper, nothing else would remove these marks where the water refused to stick.
If the sea is littered with seaweed and you keep hitting it, you even notice when the sticky sap from the seaweed sticks to the mast and wings, it will be noticeable at maximum speed, especially if you have started from the perfect finished wing or mast surface.
daily maintenance can be done by using damp soapy cloths and drying to a shine with a very clean microfiber dry cloth. or use spray window cleaner as this works a treat as well.
never ever touch the surfaces with you hands and fingers, wash wing and mast covers every so often.

if all this sounds like a chore then just slow down to under 20mph, as it makes no big difference at that speed
Thats way too hard for me. i just want to ride. Yep i enjoy speed. But its usually the lumpy swell that constrains my speed not the foils top speed. i can probably run between 40 and 50 kph (by my eyethometer, i dont have gps) with my never cleaned or polished set up.

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Re: Hydrofoiling Overpowered

Postby Peter_Frank » Mon Oct 21, 2019 5:32 pm

UKSurf wrote:
Mon Oct 14, 2019 6:58 pm
Hi, I was wondering if anyone could advise me on how to hydrofoil when over powered. The problem I have is that when I am over powered I dont have the weight to hold my large surf wing down since the kite lifts me up and if I lower the kite in the window I have too much speed. Is there a technique to deal with this?

Out of curiosity - is it because you WANT to ride like this?

Or because you end up too powered very often?

For me, when too powered, tried it with an 11 m2 race foil kite, out strapless - wind picked up and up, it was horrible, but possible.

Had to fly the kite extremely high, and most of the time I was lifted weightless from the board.
Could have edged the board and went upwind - but that is not fun (for me), so tried to keep the kite close to 12 so I could carve around in tight circles - but really difficult as I almost got lifted up all the time, away from the board.

It is not the wing having too much lift, have never experienced this, not even with surf wings in bigger waves, that they lift too much.
Honestly think there is something wrong with the trim of these hydrofoils, lifting up too much :naughty:

Anyways, my point is, that riding powered can be fun as you can do some maneuvers easier, but too much power, and NOTHING is fun when strapless IMO.

So I just stay away from that :thumb:

8) Peter

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Re: Hydrofoiling Overpowered

Postby cglazier » Tue Oct 22, 2019 3:48 am

UKSurf wrote:
Mon Oct 14, 2019 6:58 pm
Hi, I was wondering if anyone could advise me on how to hydrofoil when over powered. The problem I have is that when I am over powered I dont have the weight to hold my large surf wing down since the kite lifts me up and if I lower the kite in the window I have too much speed. Is there a technique to deal with this?
Personally I enjoy riding with plenty of power and am often using much bigger kites than my friends. If you find your kite overhead and you can't bring it down, then just head upwind. When you point high you can lower your kite and you will be comfortable. Similarly you can head downwind and you will find the apparent wind drops and you can bring your kite lower (this takes more experience). You will find many moves easier ( the foiling tack, the foiling jibe, jumps, backrolls etc.) with plenty of power.

I almost always ride with straps which makes riding well powered easier. I often use my 12m foil kite (Soul) which has excellent high wind range like most foil kites. I have been happy riding it while my friends were using 5m kites. I also have a 12M one strut kite (Boxer) which I like but it quickly gets overpowered in strong winds. So using a kite with good range is important if you want to ride very powered.

:wink: CG

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Re: Hydrofoiling Overpowered

Postby jumptheshark » Thu Oct 24, 2019 12:57 pm

TLWR: Got cought out in a short bit of real wind yesterday on foil with a 6m kite and survived 36 knot gusts safely but definitely in mitigation mode.

Yesterday I broke personal ground on this topic. Have been overpowered before, but usually on my 8, or 12. Have had pretty powered sessions on my 6 that would have been better on a 5 or even 4, but never foiled out a truly overpowering wind like yesterday. It's fall here so things are getting windy, and I just cant seem to step off the foil, so I was out in average 20 knots, nice chunky swell. On a standard three strut 6m wave kite, 17m lines, strapless. Having a blast when it starts to ramp and you can see the darkness up wind. I didn't like the idea of trying to exit the rocky spot. Could see upwind it was going to be brief with most of it passing south, so decided to ride it out. Done it a ton of times on a tt or surfboard where you can simply edge out the power. Ramped to over thirty knots with the peak gust recorded of 36. Highest sustained three min average was 32 knots. Pretty freakin windy compared to what I have experienced on foil. Stayed just far enough from shore to feel safe. Had to grind it out with the foil practically gurgling along like a plow, keeping my board speed to a crawl, kite either right at water level or really high taking all my weight. At one point I could no longer put the kite high as it lofted me off the board and I was worried about getting tea bagged away from the board. At that point I ground out the worst of it sitting in the water, kite low at the edge and just leg press plowing the board for a couple min. Once it dropped a few knots I could ride again, but definitely in "safe" mode with near zero board speed until it dropped back below 30 knots. With no board speed it felt manageable with a 6m as its was well within the kites range on surface boards, but get a wiff of board speed and it got unmanageable pretty quick. A smaller kite would have been better, but to be honest, during the worst of it, the sea state was no fun. It was flat and whipped. Once it dropped back to averaging 20 knots, the house sized swell began to roll through and it was absolutely amazing for the next half hour. I'll for sure get myself a 5m if not a 4 in the next year, but its nice to know I can handle truly overpowered conditions in a controlled and safe manner. Being aware of how long it was going to last was key, so heads up out there and make your call to come in before its too late and your in it.


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