Hello
The other day, I was windfoiling in a light gusty wind (8-11 knots) with my 5,3 sail and big foil. Another guy got into the water with a very old 3,80 m race board and 7,5 m2 sail. What happened? Well, he was planning and getting upwind all the time while I was flying hardly 20% of the time, and I usually fly sooner than wingers.
Living in a place with light wind and good waves I've spent much more time in my life thinking how to get more wavesailing days than in the water. On the other hand, in the old glory days of windsurfing, people went wavesailing every day with big boards and small sails.
I have a supsurfing small board equipped with a mast track, a windfoiling equipment and learning winging but foil is awful to get into shorebreak, and the crowd of surfers lets free only a distance part of the beach. I'd need something to come back getting upwind in light conditions (10-15 knots).
Besides side onshore conditions are not good for supsurfing or big waveboards for float&ride so a wavesailing longboard could add improved planning and upwind performance in light wind on shore with a 5,5 sail? would the turning performance enough to enjoy mid to small waves?
Honestly don't know if it's worth to have such a big heavy board for that. The only suitable manufacturer is Exocet. No need of use it for supping.
Any experience, example of wind/sail/weight planning conditions is appreciated. Real light wind situations compared to kiting, winging, etc could be funny
Being a mediocre wavesailor and trying to improve while living in a fairly light wind area in Florida, I've had kind of similar thoughts. I don't particularly like trying to foil in lighter winds if the shorebreak is a major factor and would much rather have a fin, similar to you. There are some spots with more bump and jump conditions in light wind, with knee to hip high pretty clean swells that often have enough push to get you on plane on a fin on light wind days.
On the big 11'8" Link I've got, I felt really comfortable holding a 7.5 or more and getting in some light swells, but that thing is massive and heavy and difficult itself to carry to some spots with longer walks from parking. My Dyno 115 is a bit too low volume to feel really comfortable going out further if the wind comes down (I'm 90kg at the moment). The Blast 145 was floaty but in swells and chop it really starts to be uncomfortable if the power comes up because it has a wide nose and not a lot of vee.
My compromise was to go for the biggest Kode, and I've had 4 sessions on it since I got it less than a week ago. So far I've just run it up to a 7.5 even though it'll handle an 8.5. The day before it was really light but I was getting some swell rides and planing a couple of times by pumping up, and yesterday it was underpowered but I got a 2.5 hour session of just riding around cruising up and down swells except when there were lulls.
I don't know if it would be as comfortable holding a 5.5 in similar wind, as even in single fin mode it probably would be lacking power and not having centerboard probably wouldn't get upwind as well? But so far the shorebreak here isn't too bad to get a 7.5, 8.0 or probably even bigger if it is marginal conditions, just depends on tide and how onshore it is.
The conditions haven't been the right direction yet for the bigger wave spot where sometimes it is more onshore and I've had a hard time punching out of the inside with the dyno, but I'm thinking it'll be a huge improvement and will let me actually ride on those days where otherwise I'd be getting beat up on the inside.
Someone I know has a bigger exocet x-wave but he said it doesn't plane up that well (also no centerboard) compared to other designs. I can't remember if he has a bigger longboard that's also exocet, but I think he was having a hard time finding one too.
If they could somehow sneak a centerboard into a board the size of the Kode, as it's almost the same outline as the Dyno 115, it'd be truly magic but I don't think it's possible. But that would enable smaller sails in the light stuff if that was what you are after. Here are examples of what I mean, both with a 7.5, both very recent. Swells are similar but first was marginal with only planing in the bigger gusts. Second is where the average wind speed is planable with a 7.5 and pumping or getting a boost from swell. Not true wave conditions really but it's best I've got at the moment.
Hi, thanks. Compared to a big freewave board a longboard should catch soft waves earlier and get upwind better in non planning conditions. In terms of planning and turnning will depend on each board. I expected exocet Xboards would plan earlier. I'm light so I hate big sails for surfing and uphauling. I prefer to use bigger boards to get planning earlier.
In medium to big shore break both windsurfing boards should get into easier than winging
I'd rather wing with a 7m than try to wavesail with a 7m sail. I'd take either over dealing with a shore break windfoiling.
What SUP do you have a sail on? What sails are you using?
I'm +90kg and use a 7'4" Hypernut for side-shore light wind wavesailing but it's definitely got some limitations mainly because it's too low volume. I'm tempted to try it with a foil and wing in the same conditions.
I have a good supsurfing board which I can use with a sail to catch waves but only in side shore conditions. The gap remains in side on shore ones. The two more suitable options in side-on medium size waves could be longboard wavesailing and winging. My bigger sail is 5,6 wave sail. I don't want to use a mast bigger than 4m
What direction is your wind? If it's side offshore then you can float and ride and really work the wave on pretty small gear. Your waves still need to have a decent size.
If it's on, well, I'm not sure there's anything you can do regardless of gear. I heard some people riding fish boards or sup boards, depends on your exceptions and wave quality.
So I just recently tested this for winging. Side-on, barely enough wind to waterstart a 5.3m (I'm 92kg) and unproductively slog my 104L waveboard, maybe 1-1.5m breaking windswell. If I had my windSUP I could have ridden that although it would have been just okay, not exactly exciting without groundswell and side-on.
Switched to winging and was riding everything.
So yeah from 12 kts to 20kts that'll be my go-to from now on.
A 9'5 to 10ft SUP with a wave sail is pretty fun in the surf, and you can just putt around and work on your tacks while waiting for the sets.
