Pictured are a bunch of the new-ish surf foils. Are these new elements like the gull wing really more effective? or is it just more fashionable and sleek looking for market appeal. I'll admit, the old flat G10 wings that started the foil craze look sad compared to the new hot carbon curvy sleek hotness, but what changes and new design has really caused the reported performance boost compared to the old traditional foils?
1. Gull wing? That's the s-curve (dihedral/anhedral). What does it do? Anything except look nice and make the foil harder to manufacture?
2. Airfoil? has the "airfoil" really changed much and how? Or, is it mainly another factor, like thinning out the foil and stiffness from carbon?
3. Delta shape? The initial foils had that shovel-shape and now the raved about Onda does too, and looks like the SS infinity series does as well. Does wing sweep really matter in hydrofoils? I've seen some off-brand rectangular wings work great, and the Spitfire canard wings are squarish and seem to do alright.
4. The SS Space skate has Dihedral! what the?! discuss.
Anyway, there's more probably, but I'm just wondering how much we are being bamboozled by marketing and "looks" and how much of all this new stuff is really effective at increasing performance in terms of low end, high end, stability, turning, etc.
Hydrodynamics is a black box in many ways.