When I started hydrofoiling I used a flat DIY plank board, trying to emulate what I saw in early BRM cloud videos. My friend had a repurposed banana shaped wake skate as a board. His board felt very strange to ride with front foot high, and I didn’t like it.
I’ve since changed my mind.
Most strapless hydrofoil boards are too flat.
Having the front foot elevated gives much more control as you have more angled surface and friction to push your foot against, especially when pointing down a steep wave face where pitch control becomes difficult on flat board due to the angle.
A strapless board with aggressive rocker or nose kick is much better for control during extreme maneuvers and high speed.
The downside is you need more power to start and the board tends to skip very aggressively off the water when touching down at high speed.
I ride a DIY carbon strapless 110cm x 35cm pocket board with aggressive rocker, with Sabfoil 637/420/111cm mast race foil in everything- flat water to waves.
We all tend to think that whatever equipment we are accustomed to is the objective best, but I will die on this hill.