Re: What your most used kite size for foiling?
Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2020 6:25 pm
I've foiled for 3 years reasonably solidly. I can foil from 6 to 40 knots and in seas up to 5m swell. I can and have foiled double head waves and everything under. So I don't think its lack of riding skill limiting reckless abandon. Its the nature of the device and my location combined and sea conditions.OzBungy wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:18 am
You need to foil more. You haven't really mastered foiling if you can't blast around with reckless abandon. True there is a bit less spray and splashage on the foil, but the feeling of absurd power is addictive.
The other sign of truncated development in foiling is the fear of being overpowered. A foil gives you almost all the range of a surfboard or TT plus the additional bottom end range of a foil.
That's not to say you shouldn't ride with a tiny kite if you want. That's huge fun too. It's just that you can choose any riding profile you want on any given day.
Also, I'm not claiming that it's a matter of skill. It's more about learning the muscle memory for automatic control adjustments. You might not be able to do twirly tacks. You can blast around in total comfort in a vast range of conditions and hit stuff aggressively.
Locally I have subsurface boulders that can be close to the surface 100's of meters out to sea. Closer to the beach its literally a boulder field where the best waves are. No matter how good you are you can't blaze through the best part of the waves without constant vigilance to not hit rocks. Also there's a good portion of the beach that's just too rock strewn, its too risky to ride.
Some sea conditions are not tenable on a foil. They simply arent fun to ride or even possible to get off the beach. Those batshit crazy days are the days i most enjoy. They are the days the foil is terrible and the mutant is awesome.
Anyway, it is what it is. No amount of skill increase or foil performance increase will change the fact that I enjoy what I enjoy. The foil is good for some stuff and not others and I'm fine with that. It has specific uses in my quiver of wind tools.