I have to admit, foiling didn't seem like something that would be of any interest at all to me. Now that we're living in a windy location, I didn't even bother going out on anything bigger than a 4.8. "It's 20 knots or nothing" has been my personal rule that echoed in my head for the past 8 months. But, with the arrival of the new Fanatic H9 Windsurf Foil in the shop along with every available Foil Ready board from Fanatic and Goya at my disposal, I figured I might as well give it a shot. And I'm so glad that I did! The experience of getting the board going in so little wind with my freestyle sails I already owned was incredible! In 10 knots of wind on a 5.2 I was able to give a few pumps and I was on my way to windsurfing heaven. The closest comparison I can think of to anything I've felt in my 25 years windsurfing is that getting up on the foil for the first time was just like the first time I got planing on a windsurfer. Just incredible! I'm going to be picking up one of the Fanatic Foils as soon as I figure out which Fanatic board will be best. The great thing is that the Fanatic boards that are foil ready are also amazing normal light wind windsurfing boards! For this adventure, I chose the Gecko 120.
About Me
- Mike Burns
- Nags Head, NC, United States
- Windsurfing has ruled more than 1/2 my life. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about how it feels to fly across the water, fly through the air, or spin around in circles on my windsurf gear. So to help spread the stoke (and further give in to my addiction) I started this blog. I hope you find it entertaining and a place to go for some useful information.
Any thoughts on the power box fitting foils being used with freestyle boards?
ReplyDeleteI'm picking up a 2013 Skate 109TE (largely based on your review) as my mid-wind board but also for foiling on the slightly lighter days.
I'm just now planing gybes, starting to think about looping (Not on the foil!!!) and I wanted a board which was efficient for 5.3-6.5 but still fun in our mushy onshore waves.
The wind tends to be super light in shore here and occasionally just switches off entirely so having something I can uphaul (6', 190lbs and poor balance) in chop was a big factor.
Cheers,
Grant