Why am I breaching so much on my new foil?

[Trent hink]

Maybe you are just using too small of a kite.

It is true that one and no strut kites work best at the lower end of their wind range, but maybe you are just expecting too much with too little.

I just now realized that most others have suggested the opposite.

I have seen a wide variety of kite-foilers having fun on a wide variety of equipment.

The most important thing is to feel comfortable with the kite you are using.

I prefer to use the smallest kite that will let me top out the speed on my (relatively very slow) 633 surf foil.

I know other riders who get all their thrills from going slow enough to hold down a big kite, and one of my friends is totally stoked about riding his 12 or 15 meter lei (on a faster wing) when I think I am well powered on my 4 or 5 meter Peak 4.

In the end, it all comes down to seeking out conditions where you feel comfortable, and maybe later on, think about what might be possible

[airsail]

I've been prone foiling and occasionally kite foiling on a Cloud IX s24 for a few months. I am in the stage of kiting where I can get going and gybe half the time but foot switching is way beyond me.

Recently I got an Axis setup: 890 wing, 420 tail, "crazy short" fuse. It's so great for prone but when I try to kite on it I can barely ride without breaching. What's going on?

The new setup has very controlled lift when I prone, so maybe it's the fuse length? Or maybe there's just so much power when kiting that the wing behaves different

Holy shit, I just googled the Axis 890, 1290sqcm. I’m an experienced kitefoiler and no chance I would try to kitefoil that. In high aspect about 900 sqcm is the largest I would go and even then I find high aspect not great for kitefoil. It will be a real bitch to get going on, and is you do get going it will be hard to control.
Try a medium aspect around the 800-1000sqcm, it won’t lift as violently and be much nicer to ride.

[ieism]

I was eating shit and thinking I was pulling air under the foil the last two sessions. Turns out the screws on the front wing were loose and the whole thing has lateral movement. As soon as I hit a bit of turbulent water, my face was hitting the water every damn time.

So maybe check your screws and your common sense every once in a while too..

[Oldman_Dave]

I was out yesterday on my Axis 930 wing, 380 tail (same series as 420) crazy short fuse, tray 94 pocket board. It's my super light wind or "super lumpy ocean low speed stable" rig.

There's a whole bunch of theories here but the right answer is that there's nothing wrong with the gear, it's 100% technique. Different wings are easier or harder to balance the pitch on initial lift. I don't think kct's rig is particularly hard, just needs more experience.

kct: I find coming back to the big wing, I need to give it more respect. Can't push it around as much. That extends to the initial start. After the first power stroke/loop, if you're not up and away cleanly, don't rush the second power stroke/loop like you would on a smaller wing. The wing will glide you. Give it an extra few seconds to find it's mojo before adding more power.

[kct]

Here's a picture of the setup. Yeah it doesn't look like what the other foilers have but I'm pretty sure it's possible. I *sometimes* hit the waterstart and then I'm good but just that first half second pulling myself up bah! Needs to be just perfect

[leeuwen]

Having never ridden anything as large/high aspect as this...
Is there a reason to even want to ride this with a kite except for the novelty? Especially when the original poster does have access to a different foil set.
Seems like it would be super slow to turn and is slow in a straight line and it is also hard to ride by the judge of this thread...
I could imagine it would be convenient if you travel by plane and only want to bring 1 piece of equipment but are there any other reasons to chose this over a foil designed for kiting?

Or, in other words, I wonder if the movie quote from Jurassic Park applies:
They were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should.

[bragnouff]

That is indeed quite a beast of a front wing.
I ride a gofoilgl140 which is 80cm span and 1080cm² and it's already at the very top end of what I'd ride for kiting. And I'm 95kg on low power peaks and it feels a bit overkill. Take off is quite critical indeed, and position of front foot when diving the kite is paramount. Lift comes fast and strong and won't tolerate incorrect foot placement. It's great on some regards, light wind, swell, stall speed, but it's actually harder to handle than sthg a bit smaller, even more so when juiced up.

[surfbird]

Here's a picture of the setup. Yeah it doesn't look like what the other foilers have but I'm pretty sure it's possible. I *sometimes* hit the waterstart and then I'm good but just that first half second pulling myself up bah! Needs to be just perfect

It looks similar to my setup.
Shim the stab and increase the plate angle.
Axis foils has a very funny way to take off (wehen kiting). It takes of in a semi stalled way, so it's very important you can keep the nose as low as possible. If you don't shim the plate the nose will submerge, unless you have a board wich plenty of rocker.

And for you who wonder why a such large wing. The glide on the swell. My art899 feels as agile as my old alpinefoil speed wing.
Here I'm using art899, 3.7m cloud, 82cm mast 2.2 degrees shim on stab, h14 board:

It's not a good footage, but the only I have for the moment.

[Kamikuza]

Here's a picture of the setup. Yeah it doesn't look like what the other foilers have but I'm pretty sure it's possible. I *sometimes* hit the waterstart and then I'm good but just that first half second pulling myself up bah! Needs to be just perfect

I've kitefoiled a selection of Axis foils up to 1020... the wider the wing and the higher the AR, the harder they are to water start IMO, and getting them set up on the board correctly is vital.

Last one I tried was the 899 and I struggled to start for what felt like an hour until I got my front foot so far forward my toes were hanging over the nose of the board

IIRC the Black fuselage is longer from the mast to the wing mounting point too IIRC so you gotta push it back even further. Can't do much more with that board, can you try another?

[Onda]

Hey surfbird, what an amazing video! Where is that?! And OMG, is that kite fast!