Wave surfing swell with kite hydrofoil

[Erlend M B]

I've been seeing a lot of kai lenny videos lately, and really want to try surfing ocean swell with a hydrofoil. I have a noble freestyle hydrofoil. I think the wing has a lower "ar" (if that is the right word for foils) than the foils kai lenny is using. Has anyone tried surfing ocean swell with a kite surfing hydrofoil? Will my foil work, or does it require a longer wing?

[Erlend M B]

And yeah, I'm thinking of towing in with a boat, and surf it without a kite or anything else towing me.

[BWD]

Should be at least somewhat possible.
If you can pump the foil to keep riding when the kite has no pull, you can probably do downwinders without kite once you are moving.

[tautologies]

It was one of my favorite things way back on the carafino foil. Any foil today should do it fine... even on small swell.

Wait..Do you mean without kite? I'd say you'll have some problems with a kite foil. Why not look for bigger wings?

[Erlend M B]

I got no clue about what to look for. My searches on Google hasn't been successful in finding info. I'm just guessing I need a bigger wing, as the glide number on mine seems low. I got no idea tho, I've just been trying it twice behind my boat, and am just getting a feel for riding on the foil as for now.

[juandesooka]

I have been kite foiling a while, about to get into SUP foil too. I think you'll find the kite foil doesn't give enough lift to be able stay up on the foil at surfing speeds. Though I've never tried.

The big name in SUP/surf foil is GoFoil. Wing looks quite large in relation to kite foils, much more surface area. I just got a cheap(er) Chinese knockoff of a Takuma V100. It has a massive front wing, scooped out like a snow shovel. It is intended for SUP/surf but some forum members use it with kite to go slowly in waves. Reports are that it's max speed under a kite is about 10kts.

Slingshot and other brands are making large wings now too. Some brands allow wings to be interchanged, but usually only within their brand. They won't fit universally.

[nothing2seehere]

If you have a look in the hydrofoil section, there is a discussion about $300 foils from china. I think some of the links to some of those are for rip off copies of the takuma surf foil. Thats where I'd start looking

[Erlend M B]

Thanks, i came to about page 3, then it turned into a shit flinging competition.

[tautologies]

Hey there is a nice video by legend Sam Pa'a intoducing people to SUP foils. They briefly discuss that you need a bigger wing.


I do not know if your mast etc is compatible with the Naish foils, but as far as I understand it is the same connection system as a few others. https://www.naishfoils.com/
If not you could contact the company producing yours to see if they have bigger foils. I'd say one thing about that, consider getting foils from companies that knows both sports and therefore have competencies in both.

[Peter_Frank]

I've been seeing a lot of kai lenny videos lately, and really want to try surfing ocean swell with a hydrofoil. I have a noble freestyle hydrofoil. I think the wing has a lower "ar" (if that is the right word for foils) than the foils kai lenny is using. Has anyone tried surfing ocean swell with a kite surfing hydrofoil? Will my foil work, or does it require a longer wing?

Hi

Your wing is 835 cm2 and probably a pretty normal cambered wing.

Which means it is really big in "normal" hydrofoil terms, but of course a bit small in pure foil surfing (SUP) terms.

That it has lower AR, meaning less glide, does not mean anything for wavesurfing, on the contrary - it will turn better than those with higher AR and start just as early.

So it should work okay I would think, can be used for tow in foil surf and also as a light wind kitefoil.

But you have to be quite good of course, when not huge sized

Peter