Progression to Longer Mast or Smaller Wing

[Hun]

Hi all,
A newbie foiler here (although have many years of kiting with twintip & directional). After years of resistance I finally picked up kite-foiling this season. I started with 110 cm^2 wing and 36" mast. But it was quite hard at the beginning with that setup. So I got 150cm^2 wing and 28" mast. That definitely made a huge difference, and I was able to make some progress. Instead of going straight back to 110-36 setup, I like to take small steps. So which one is better for the next step? 1) 110cm^2 and keeping the 28" mast? or 2) keeping the 150cm^2 but using 36" mast?

Looking forward to hearing back from foiling experts.
Thanks,
Hun

[jakemoore]

Alternate both. And don’t be afraid to go back to big wing to practice transitions.

[Peter_Frank]

Go with the longer mast first.

Makes no sense with a small wing and short mast.

Btw, the (Lift I assume) foil wings you are talking about are in square inches.

So the lift 110 is 710 cm2.
Not really small and bigger than the first wings, but today many likes bigger wings 800 to 1200 cm2 depending on purpose.

The lift 150 is 970 cm2. (150 * 2,54 * 2,54 cm2)

If you are average weight, I think this size would fit you perfectly, if you are not chasing speed.

An awesome allround size that I would recommend if you only want one wing for "everything", by todays standards.

A year or two ago, your 710 cm2 wing would be "big", today it is a small (or medium maybe) size, things change fast

Peter

[cglazier]

Peter has good advice above.
After learning for a few hours on the short mast, you will find the longer mast is actually easier in many ways.
CG

[slowboat]

Longer mast. Keep progressing. Don’t go backwards

[edt]

mast first because actually a longer mast is easier (once you can ride in a straight line) than a short mast because you don't ventilate as much

[Flyboy]

Yup. Once you are up on the foil consistently, the longer mast is not noticeably any more difficult to manage & actually reduces the risk of breaching. The shorter mast is only a step to make foiling less intimidating when you start out (& useful obviously for shallow water).

[BCKiter123]

Yup. Once you are up on the foil consistently, the longer mast is not noticeably any more difficult to manage & actually reduces the risk of breaching. The shorter mast is only a step to make foiling less intimidating when you start out (& useful obviously for shallow water).

I found this to be spot on. I bought a shorter mast (after initially buying a long mast) for starting out to minimize bruises and severe wipeouts. I did about 2-3 sessions behind the boat then just said "screw it" and forced myself to learn on the longer mast and definitely improved my progression. It also forces you to build up the necessary muscle memory that you'll need eventually anyways, so it really shortened the learning curve. The ride is much smoother over the chop and overall much more enjoyable!

[MaximumAC]

Glad Peter pointed out the cm2 vs in2. My eyes bugged out when reading that you were learning on a 110 cm2.