Down wind Foiling - what works?

Hi,

Interested in trying down wind foiling and looking for tips and advice on work works. With the cost of new gear would be good to hear some opinions from people who are DW foiling to help get a proper set up. Looking to DW foil across local lake & off the beaches.

Been SUP foiling waves for about 6 months (Kite foiling 12 mths) & have that pretty sorted (still working on proper pump tech) but have not had much luck or experience DW foiling.

Currently running a Naish Thruster large wing & I'm sitting around 90kgs.

What wings & boards are the DW foilers running or recommend?


Thanks


Scott

Firstly you should be able to DW your Thrust Surf Large, It will pick up chops and swells quite well, however it is challenging to stay on them.

The Thust Surf XL however is awesome for DW surfing/paddling/pumping.

This said though, I would not embark on a decent journey until your pump is 100% dialed, as you will be doing a lot of it (I suggest being able to pump and paddle in unison effectively enough to pump back out the back while surfing as a minimum).

Whilst the gear helps a lot, it is still mainly technique, knowledge, skill and a lot of fitness that will get you down wind. I assume you have done downwinders before on a 14'er or similar with success (being lot's of glides maintained for a decent distance)?

Here is a vid from quite a while a go when I tried my first SUP Foil DW attempt. It had mixed success and the wind totally died on me by the time I got out into the swell, but I did get a couple a short glides and it taught me a lot. This was on the Hover 120 and Thrust Surf Large.

Looks like about the same size as a 200 Gofoil which you can down wind on no worries if you are good enough and have enough wind. The bigger 280 GF is so much easier for most of the east coast Down wind conditions to learn on. I think if I had to learn on a 200 to DW I might never have got it in the winds we have as it's not Maui here that's foresure!!

Maybe it has more lift than the size shows but to me it looks like you would be able to get up and going for a while but to keep it up for 10 km would require a bit more skill so maybe it's a bit more of a adavanced DW wing the Naish? Sometimes it's hard with companies that come out of Maui as the winds are so good that they sometimes forget that the rest of the world does not get the same kind of epicness and that the sport is still so young and everyone is still learning. I still say if you want to learn DW then start with the biggest foil you can as staying up on the foil is the key and going fast will come later.

Just did my first run here in Hood and used the 280 and my 7'3 as I am still waiting for my new 6'1 to turn up and it was so crazy easy!!!
foiled from the very start to the very end just over 12km with 4 falls after hitting weed patches it otherwise it was 2 or 3 strokes and up and going.
I have a SUP race tomorrow but after that I will do a few vids of how easy somewhere like Hood river is to foil and maybe a few vids on timing to pump it up.

Could easily use a 200 here today as it was pretty windy but the 280 did fine just a bit over powered in the middle part of the run.

Thanks Jacko
my main question was relating to paddle length.
Had my first go today in a bay was blowing 30 knots. I rode a JL 73 and the go foil 200. Paddled the whole way and didn't get up once. Absolutely buggered.

The Naish large is the equivalent of a Go Foil Iwa 160. (Targeted at surfing not downwinding)

HI Paul,

Awesome video, were you running a 55cm mast?

How do these conditions compare with the Gold coast DWer's?

Hi, I would love to try a 280 for downwind. But I dont think I need it in the surf.

I often ride the Maliko 200 in really tiny surf. It is all you need. Even at my big size, once the surf grts above waist high, you worry a lot more about keeping the foil in the water than having fun.

I will use the 200 today in ankle to knee high surf. I have never used a 280, but I dont think its necessary in basically any surf.

I prefer the GoFoil Iwa now for "fun". But a day like today is a 200 day for me.

DW foiling is gathering momentum, that's for sure. And it's heaps of fun.

Wanted to add some runs I did last week when I got totally skunked by the weather, but still had some fun.

Initially I thought we were about 4kms out from Palm Beach, but upon checking my location, is was more like 10km. There NE'er was building nicely when I was doing all the boat filming (aiming to make a few videos from this session), but unfortunately as soon as I hit the water all but disappeared. I got a few runs on the SUP, but thought I'd just share this one, as it shows my paddling up onto the foil to catch the tiny bumps. It was a lot of hard work, but amazing what was achievable in these light and tiny conditions. Here's where I foiled from,


The wind was forecast to reach 20kn, but sadly I think I had about 10-12kn whist in the boat, and about 5-10kn whilst paddling.