Foam hits
A collection of links for your pleasure, and some spice applied to the world of electric foil assist.
Racing
Ze Race in Guadeloupe just happened, some clips below and the podium. Local ripper Melvyn Mouret taking first place.
🥇@melvynmouret (@armstrongfoils)
🥈@simongalamez (@fonefoil)
🥉@romualdmamadou (@armstrongfoils)
Amazing race with perfect conditions this year. The level in SUP Foil is constantly progressing, it's so good for this magical sport 🤩
Not really too much about what it was like. 37km in relatively light wind, 90-120min time on foil. Clip below gives an idea.
Check out the rest of the scheduled events at events.dwfoil.com, the ones below have confirmed dates.
This Sunday, 4th Feb, two races! Sydneyfoilclub:
Oahufoil is running a cool local series, I would love to see more of this!
Big sends
This is the clip I show surfers when I want to get them amped on downwind. Epic!
Andrew Redhead sends a neat 105km West Aus run. Discussed on the Foil Project podcast
Coaching / Instructional
There are now 3 coaching clinics running that I’m aware of:
If you’re in Aus or regularly visit tropical island locations, Coach Casey is your guy.
If you’re stuck on the soggy isle then UK based Dark Arts of Downwind aka How to deal with terrible UK conditions is probably your go. 6mm wetsuits with gloves etc. Delightful! (I’m doing it in a few weeks time, early Feb).
If you’re really lucky and somehow able to get to Hawaii then check Voyager Foiler Retreats (fancy! including meals etc).
Here is a clip from Coach Casey showing a good bit of progression for someone early in the journey:
Nice tutorial from Josh Ku for Unifoil. Especially useful part on reading bumps at 15:30
Something from Lift, a nice addition to the Unifoil clip above.
Electric foils
Flitelab* just released the jet foil, which I’m sure is causing a lot of recent Foil Drive buyers some desperate anxiety. Here is the first soothing balm that has been released, I’m sure lots to follow. Can you say pod dips? Anyway the comments section of Adam’s video where he explains how it works raised a fact check eyebrow, but na na no worries mate.
In all seriousness, the jet drive might be safer? Downside is that you need to buy the entire board. I present my solution:
My take is that you need to be a very proficient prone foiler for the jet to be viable.
In other battery related, an interesting video from foilonly on the upwind part of the Foil Drive:
The issue is the upwind part; it's just super hard and almost impossible to go against that strong wind. The water is choppy, and the bumps are steep, making it hard to keep the propeller underwater.
More recently the Foil Drive ambassadors seem to have been instructed to released a video demonstrating the battery life, which generally run counter to the above quote.
The last observation for e-foil is the Generic Foiling discussion where they aggressively agree that it is very easy, very fun, and completely irritating to watch in equal measure “wave-stealing bellends”. With all the good riders banging on, it does remind me that I’ve never seen someone rip on a foil drive who didn’t already rip. Old buyers, beware!
People doing downwinding
Oda, below, is a pro windsurfer who didn’t take long to crack a good few downwind runs in Brazil. Now in Cape Town. Seems the windsurf to foil pipeline is pretty strong!
Jon Mann with consistently great advice. This point below hits something I’ve discovered recently. If you’re getting up on bumps, try not pump! Aim to flow, peel 🍌, and spot the next bit of energy. Downwind is flow, not cardio 🧘♀️.
Unless your conditions are garbage, then you need to pump like a mad thing 🕴️
Prone downwinds are the best thing ever when they go right, but usually they go super wrong, or at least that has been my experience. Still one of the more fun ways to downwind, mixing between the swell and the bumps. This clip captures the best and the worst of it with a cool tune to go along:
Another observation from foilonly comparing DW on ocean vs lakes, with a video of the lakes.
The first main difference is the speed. Riding the lake feels like slow-motion ocean downwind. The bumps follow the same physics but it's a scaled-down version.
🏞️Lake: takeoff and go straight
🌊Ocean: takeoff and cut
Dave West sharing his video of him down at the Aus Hood river. (some more clips on the map here). Looks fun. Scouring google maps for UK equivalent as we speak (I think Jack, below might have the closest thing so far)
Jack Galloway has been documenting the Solent, an estuary on the UK’s South Coast. The Solent is interesting for a few reasons, but it is essentially an incredibly tidal, relatively sheltered, very complex bay run. I wonder about the possibility of a race there, the only shortcoming is the ferry! Map here.
Found this pic from 2018 while spending some time in Cape Town. Cool to think that they are on their 7th or 8th season on the foil downwind agenda. I’ll be sharing a guide to Cape Town next week.
Thats it for this Foam Hit!