Foil polesurfing

[kitelife]

Any foilers have a pole surfing rig with a foil for extremely light unstable conditions? Is it worth doing both so there’s never a down time?

[tautologies]

I don't have one but definitely totally worth doing all of the things!!!

[airsail]

If your a kite foiler, your going to find the wind foiling gear big and bulky. It’s not hard to get up on a windfoil but it’s lot of gear to cart around. I doubt you would get going any earlier than a kitefoil.

[Peter_Frank]

You start a tad later, with ANY windfoil, compared to a kitefoil, correct, but still possible to foil around 9 knots with the right gear.

But the advantage, which I assume is what the OP seek, is you can ride in almost zero wind, non planing/foiling, and not the same risks of downing the kite so even offshore winds are not much of an issue like it is with a kite.

Going distances with changing weather, lulls or maybe zero wind on occasion - the windfoil wins big time, as you can still stand on the board and pump if no wind, or you can sit and wait for wind.
NOT possible with a kite either (in light wind...)

Having said that, indeed windfoil IS big and bulky, compared, so I stopped windfoiling again because of that.

Peter

[ronnie]

What it looks like.


The same board and Neil Pryde foil, but with the Surf fuselage and a wing. If the wind is unreliable, you can have a paddle attached to the wing, so if the wind drops or disappears, you could get back using the paddle.


Wingsurfing with a paddle.


It is also possible to pack down the Duotone wing and clip a paddle blade onto the boom to paddle home. This is one I modified, but it would be possible to have a more efficient blade to clip to it. I wouldn't recommend this particular one as the work involved in getting it off the original shaft was considerable - but it does work.

[IWB2]

Any foilers have a pole surfing rig with a foil for extremely light unstable conditions? Is it worth doing both so there’s never a down time?

I would say kitefoiling has the slight advantage in light wind foiling performance as others have mentioned, while wind foiling has the advantage of sailing in spots where you can't launch a kite in. Also if the wind drops to a level where the kite wont relaunch, a windfoil setup can still get you back in those same conditions. In addition to kitefoiling, I do windfoiling as well as wingfoiling and if there is no wind supfoiling. Plenty of choices to ensure I get my foiling addiction in. The biggest challenge is trying to decide which foiling discipline you will do,(kite/wind/wing foiling) when you have wind conditions that work perfectly for all 3 ...

[foilholio]

Why does one of those wing surfers have his wing attached to the board?

[Eltreato]

I came from kitefoiling to windfoiling. The good thing about windfoiling is that I know I can always sail back in to shore when the wind drops to about 3mph, this happens all the time at my spot, it would suck when I was kitefoiling. That said, I can't get on foil as early as a good kitefoiler. If I lived somewhere with better winds, less crowds and beach closures for kiting, I'd stick with kitefoiling.

[Peter_Frank]

I came from kitefoiling to windfoiling. The good thing about windfoiling is that I know I can always sail back in to shore when the wind drops to about 3mph, this happens all the time at my spot, it would suck when I was kitefoiling. That said, I can't get on foil as early as a good kitefoiler. If I lived somewhere with better winds, less crowds and beach closures for kiting, I'd stick with kitefoiling.

Very true.

I dont kite in offshore winds though, nor that far out (except in summer when going further as you know you can swim without getting cold), so not a problem even IF the wind drops to almost nothing, as either looping myself ashore, or sit on my board (or swim alongside when the supersmall ones) while the (LEI) kite slowly drifts me ashore.

Racers though, they ride sometimes 5 miles out, so IF the wind dies, they are in for a looooong swim, after a packdown (foilkites), so no drifting ashore either

The true benefit of windfoiling kicks in here indeed

Peter

[ronnie]

The bigger issue I see with very light winds is they seem more prone to change direction, and if the wind is very light and swings offshore it makes paddling your gear back to shore much more difficult.