Hydrofoil Buyers Guide | How to Buy Foils

[Dave_5280]

[Peter_Frank]

Some confusion and questions Dave.

Is it you in the video?

And who are "we"???

Not mentioned....

You say "My favorite is 1700 cm2 and AR > 7", but for which conditions and sport?

As it looks like flat water pumping in the video, but for wingfoil and especially kitefoil 1700 cm2 and this AR is pretty useless for most.
And a 75 cm mast is super short for kitefoil and wingfoil, so assume you mean for "pump" foil or surffoil?

A bit confusing to bring it all together like this, sorry to say.

I know you have good intentions, as to advice everyone totally new to foiling, I love that - but IMO you need to be more precise and differentiate between the totally different disciplines, requiring very different foils.

Peter

[Dave_5280]

No , not me.

[cglazier]

This video is for those who pump and ride waves with a hydrofoil and without a kite or wing.
It is not a hydro foiling buyers guide for most of us who kiteboard or wing. It is badly named.

[Oldman_Dave]

Peter "Wake thief" is pretty well known in dock start circles. Very much focussed on dock start pumping, with a slight side interest of prone or tow where they cross with pumping.

[fluidity]

It really is a good video for those who would foil like wakethief does. It points people to sellers who he makes a commission on directing to but he's up front about that. Most importantly, he's passionate about the sport and performance so you get a lot more accurate guidance than you'd get from some retailers. However he doesn't wing, kite or spend any considerable time I'm aware of in coastal wave conditions, where a shorter wing span is bonus for quick manouverability on waves. Wakethief's passion is an efficient design for sustained pumping so those are the foils he will most promote. For this, it comes down to the natural highest efficiency cadence your body is capable of pumping the foil at, that's why he's focussed on the larger foils. Currently there is a lot of international interest on maximum pumping time but distance is also up for record grabs. Time records need bigger foils, distance records need smaller, faster foils.