Thats a great first foil but heavy and slow. See if Real still has any Lift 170 classics left. $300 for a fantastic foil.windybrit wrote: ↑Mon Jan 30, 2023 12:57 pmI have a Cabrinha Highrise Carve foil (2020) with their Secret agent board. It's the second kitefoil setup I have owned it's let me progress reasonably given my time constraints. I am aware that the setup isn't light (85cm mast and top plate weigh 2.3 kg), and sometimes when i fall the board floats mast down with just the board tip in the air, this then necessitates a maddening amount of body dragging as the board is reluctant to drift downwind. A friend, decent foiler, has also opined that the tail heavy setup will make it hard for me to learn to flying footswitches as it will be prone to sinking as I lift my rear foot ... I wonder if anyone knows of a 3rd party carbon mast for this setup (a Moses carbon mast is about 600 grams lighter) or wether I need to bite the bullet, donate a kidney, and purchase a new setup ? All thoughts gratefully appreciated. TIA.
I don't have any experience with your specific foil, but there is no reason a heavy foil should impede your foot switches. In fact, it might help a little insofar as it will arguably be less responsive to the changes in weight distribution that come with foot switches. I learned foot switches on an old Liquid Force rocket foil. It took me a while, but that was more due to a lack of talent that the weight of the setup.
To explain ........ more often than not when I come off the foil it does not float flat, rather it goes tail down vertically with about 20 cm of the nose point upwards (the mast is more or less horizontal under the water) it does not drift downwind ......... I am quite capable of body dragging back to it but this phenomena is a royal pain. The foil mast is watertight, I checked.Peter_Frank wrote: ↑Mon Jan 30, 2023 6:13 pmSorry, but this doesnt make sense to me...
If the mast sinks, the whole setup will drift downwind and you can retrieve the board/foil.
Much worse if it floats on its side - can be really difficult to get back to the foil
Regarding foot switches, I will say it doesnt matter at all if heavy or light - it will NOT sink while switching feet, actually one could say it will be more stable if heavier.
The advantages, besides jumping and lifting the foil in jumps, is it wont sink as fast when waterstarting - in particular helpful when strapless.
Here the timing can be really difficult with a heavy mast sinking fast.
No problem if straps.
And then a light foil is easier to carry of course.
Apart from the fact it just FEELS good when on the water, light and nimble
But no reason to diss a heavy foil, it will work just fine - so unless you know exactly which foil you want, and you want to pay for the luxury, a heavy foil works great also for learning footswitches.
No, it does not sink while you switch feet, here weight doesnt matter whatsoever
Peter
That sounds unusual - perhaps a combination of a heavy mast and a floaty wing.windybrit wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 5:02 pmTo explain ........ more often than not when I come off the foil it does not float flat, rather it goes tail down vertically with about 20 cm of the nose point upwards (the mast is more or less horizontal under the water) it does not drift downwind ......... I am quite capable of body dragging back to it but this phenomena is a royal pain. The foil mast is watertight, I checked.
windybrit wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 5:02 pmTo explain ........ more often than not when I come off the foil it does not float flat, rather it goes tail down vertically with about 20 cm of the nose point upwards (the mast is more or less horizontal under the water) it does not drift downwind ......... I am quite capable of body dragging back to it but this phenomena is a royal pain. The foil mast is watertight, I checked.
To water start I push the board onto it's edge with my back hand and back knee then plant my feet and allow a bit of kite power drift to keep my position....... it's honestly not a problem.