Shorter board is less playful...!

[kit3surfer]

Hello,

I started with the Duotone freefoil board and the 950 carve wing and found it after a while pretty playful/reactive in waves. Now I switched over to a way shorter stiff board (moses ca. 120 cm) and found it suddenly awful to turn and carve on the waves. I tried two settings of mast position, but both made me feel like a total beginner again. To be concrete: on my old flexible and longer board my carves on the waves were way looser, narrower and more relaxed and playful. I did not had to concentrate at all while surfing the waves.... And now with a two times more expensive board I regresse and can only do big boring carves (fully concentrated)!
What could be the mistake? Any ideas are very welcome.

[Jyoder]

If you’ve accounted for the possible changing variables like foot or strap position then just give it time to get dialed in and update muscle memory.

[kit3surfer]

I ride strapless, so feet can adjust and riding is OK, but surfing swell and turning tight radius changed to the worse

[Trent hink]

This is strange. If you can put your feet in the right spots in relation to the foil, nothing should change much. It seems to me that a smaller and lighter board should always be more reactive.

After all, once you are on foil, the board is nothing more than a platform to stand on.

[Kamikuza]

Used to using the weight to swing it into the turn?

[plummet]

I had a similar thing on my mountain bike when I had flexible wheels. I learnt a technique to turn that required more input and and turning in sooner. I switch to carbon wheels and instantly started to crash as i would turn into the corners too soon.

The same is happening to you. You have learnt bad technique from a flexible board. You now need to relearn on a board that is responsive. Its simply a matter of time on the board. Once you get used to the added precision you will love it.

Because foiling is soo sensitive to weight distribution any slight change is going to mean a recalibration period more so they surface boards.

[Foil]

I totally understand this feeling, and for me it was lack of rocker or nose lift, rocker line that on some small Moses boards is lacking, this lack of rocker made me feel like I had to move my weight back and start messing with the mast position footstrap positioning the whole experience for me was not great, as soon as i swapped back to a more extreme nose rocker board then all came good, what a difference a bit more rocker gives to your sailing especially at speed on a wavy surface when using the water shapes to carve around on.

[Peter_Frank]

Reading your post, it seems like you should just wait, and you will get used to this board, as you should be able to turn faster and more playful on this shorter and stiffer board

But, I agree with some of the others, that too short is not playful or useful.

At some point there is no room for nose rocker (scoop), which means you can not carve and surf around in the waves as playful and relaxed.

Which is why I love my Ketos Pocket 118 cm, and the older Groove Skate 120 is very similar, also a great board.
Being 78 kg.

Shorter than that, I also got a 90 cm board with no rocker, is fun just doing it, but very fast I change to the 118 cm as way better in every way, turns well, can go down on the whitewater or surface without risk, and pop up again, and also way faster waterstarts of course.

Some like the supersmall boards, I dont, except for the occasional fun, there are no advantages IMO, only downsides (if you dont travel).

I cant remember if the Moses 120 got loads of nose rocker/scoop or not?

If it has, then no problem you will have the perfect small board for allround fun

If it is almost rockerless and a quite flat nose (I doubt it), then you might have issues riding relaxed and playful indeed

We are all different in liking, but I really understand this feel you describe Foil.

Peter

PS: If you angle a flat board up for better touchdowns, it will give you a very uncomfortable stance front leg bent rear leg straight...

[kit3surfer]

Thanks for the replys. I don't understand what the rockerline on the nose has to do with carving radius while flying in waves?
The hint with the weight could be an issue... maybe I used the more weight and flex to throw the board through turns and it rebounded better?
Maybe I just have to give a bit more time to myself and didn't be to stressed, but it was really crazy how much the feeling of the board changed, when I put the foil only 1 cm to the front! We'll see.
Any tips with shimming? Duotone gave me some shims with the foil, but I never understood how they work and the describtion is really crap. You even don't understand in which way you have to put them (front and back looks the same and top or bottom is not marked!).

[Peter_Frank]

Rockerline got nothing to do with carving radius, if you hardly never touch down, so as I wrote I don't think this is your issue, but it is for many of us with the short ones.

Peter