Innholdsfortegnelse for Autumn 2020 i Foiling Magazine

“THAT IS OUR PHILOSOPHY, WE LIVE THE SHAKA LIFE AND ARE RECOGNIZED BY ALWAYS HAVING A SMILE ON OUR FACE!” So firstly, tell us where you were and why? Hi! We were shooting with RRD International at Witsand Beach, which is a spot near Scarborough around the cape area in Cape Town. When was this filmed, and were there any Covid-issues with the traveling? The shoot took place during February 2020. It was a full month of shooting as we had to cover all the water sports that RRD are involved with. So it was mainly foiling, but there was also SUP, surfing, windsurfing and kitesurfing. At that time we had no issues with traveling… It was exactly the month before the restrictions were introduced. That water looks insanely appealing.…

This trip was on my bucket list for ages. Then this summer, with my girlfriend Hivanui, the dream became a reality. And what a reality it was… As we left for Tahiti, my boardbag was full of all the water-sports gear you could possibly use: foil, wing, kite, surf… I was ready for anything. I met up with Patrice Chanzy (F-ONE teamrider) for the first time when I got there. Before that I only knew him from social media. He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met, and the best guide out there, it turns out. Tahiti has so much to offer, it’s just insane. You can foil or ride the wing like everywhere else in the world, but it tastes and feels so much better in Tahiti… I…

LOCATION ALMKANAL, SALZ BURG DATE THURSDAY JULY 30TH, 2020 Being landlocked, the idea of foiling inland is perhaps a bit different than living by the sea. We have little constant winds and no waves at all. So before foiling came to Europe, the situation looked pretty bad for doing water sports in Austria. But now there are a lot of possibilities to get on the water, even in a city like Salzburg… Small ponds, lakes and canals offer optimal conditions to have fun right in front of your door. You only need some creativity and a proper foil setup. Plus, since we couldn’t really travel in summer 2020, we were forced to think on our feet. The urge to be in and on the water was huge, but the possibilities…

So how did you guys first meet, and at what point did you decide to start up a business together? Kent Hardley and I first met at the beach in Ventura, California back in 2001 through our mutual love of kitesurfing. That was the start of our friendship and in 2016, like many others out there across the world, we saw Kai Lenny doing something that literally blew our minds! Kai was like some kind of alien god from another planet defying the laws of physics as he flew and hovered over the sea. Our first thought was: SOLD! Where do we sign up? We were both into kitefoiling in the surf at the time and figured we already had an edge with our foil experience and background. Boy, were…

NAME: RICHARD BOUGHTON (TECHNICAL EDITOR) @KITEBARN DEVON, UK Richard, our Technical Editor here at Foiling Magazine, has been in and around the water sports industry for the best part of 18 years. He’s traveled internationally for many years coaching kitesurfing, runs his own sail loft in the UK, and is an avid paddle boarder. Rich fell in love with foiling in 2015, initially shaping his own boards and foils before equipment was commercially available. He’s a genuine multi-sport foil user… Be it propelled by a wing or kite, paddling or prone, he’s very adaptive, and gets out in all conditions, whenever possible. Now permanently based in the wild southwest of the UK, Rich has perfect ‘real world’ conditions for testing prone and SUP foils on his doorstep. His favorite spot…

Armstrong have quickly built a reputation for excellent performance with a focus on quality products with no compromises on materials. From the biggest board to the smallest screw, every detail has been refined and tuned to near perfection. The A-Wing has just arrived and we were excited to see if this philosophy had also extended to the world of wings. As we know, over the last few months, wing foiling has exploded at an astonishing rate with many brands scrambling to get in the trend and make something available as fast as possible. Armstrong, however, seemed to take a step back, look at what was out there, and said “we can do it right”. That’s exactly what happened with the A-Wing. The A-Wing is available in three sizes: 3.5m, 4.5m,…

Starboard and Airush have collaboratively brought out a wing using their knowledge from their respective windsurf and kitesurf brand expertise. Airush tinkered with inflatable wings as a brand as far back as 2012, but shelved the project in 2015 as they couldn’t outperform their windsurf rigs. With the advent of SUP and surf foiling and the efficiency that brings, the game changed, and they have been reactive in developing and bringing a production wing to the market. From a build perspective it has combined a lot of good elements. The wing is relatively squat and mid-aspect, making it good for shorter people and beginners, avoiding the dreaded tip hitting the water and the wing rolling over that many initially experience. The larger sizes have the wingtips angled in a touch…

Ride Engine founder Coleman Buckley is one of the most iconic ‘out the box’ thinkers the watersports industry, with one of his most famous creations being the hard-shell kitesurf harnesses which turned that market sector on its head in the process. Coleman has always had a hand in shaping surfboards, and the natural progression to foilboards is no surprise, particularly as the Ride Engine brand is part of 7-Nation, Slingshot’s parent company. The aptly named Moon Buddy is a visual feast, and comes with a matt grey brushed carbon finish, and a unique palm frond pattern on the hull. The bottom shape runs a double concave to flat with a gentle spine in the first two thirds of the board. The board feels light considering its volume, and thickness is…

Why the ‘Bee’ Craig? We’re very intrigued… A lot of people who are into a few different watersports want to have the ultimate one-board solution for holidays or even for their daily use on the water. We have some boards which work for SUP foiling and wingfoiling, some which work for SUP and windsurfing, some which work for windsurf and windfoiling. Our idea was to make one which works for pretty much all those sports, but with the main focus of being able to work properly as a SUP wave board, as well as being pretty handy in all the rest of the sports. That´s why it has a longer outline, to be able to paddle and have the fin setup for SUP and SUP foiling too. The name itself…

To those close to the foiling community, it may seem we’ve entered the mainstream, but I believe that the sport is just getting started. We’re finally starting to see small groups of surfers adopt the foil for their small wave needs. In the wind sports, wing foiling is officially taking over. Kitesurfers are making a complete move, and windsurfers who haven’t contemplated rigging a sail in the last 20 years are now coming out of retirement to start winging on a foil board. In the world of electric, more and more eFoils are starting to pop up in the wild and as houseboat owners cruise around with multiple outdated jetskis on the aft deck, they ask themselves, “Why don’t we have one of those?”. The first person foiling was a…

HI JUSTIN. Tell us a bit about yourself? I live on the north shore of Maui, where I have grown up. I am 16 years old, I first tried foiling at age 13 when my dad got himself a setup, and since then I have been hooked. What’s your favorite foil discipline? It’s a toss-up between prone foiling and wing foiling. I like prone foiling for the smooth, flowing feeling on the wave and the fast technical maneuvers that can be performed on the face. I like feeling the power of the water but sometimes I want to let loose and have more freedom, and that’s why I also like winging. Wing foiling allows me to fly, not only in the water but also in the air. I love the…

Staring at a map last September while planning for this channel crossing, I was thinking there was no way I can do this. Yet, something inside me said I would. It’s like anything… day by day, run by run, mile by mile, all leading up to a 43-mile straight trek across the Alenuihāhā Channel, all the way from the Big Island to Maui. My training consisted of Maliko runs, which consist of repeatedly doing a 10-mile downwind run on Maui. My first run was 49 minutes. It went down from there from 45, to 39, to 29 minutes. I would also wing a lot in Kahului harbor after the Maliko runs to both get in more miles and get the feel of going cross wind. The most miles I remember…

LOCATION MAUI DATE SATURDAY AUGUST 29TH, 2020 Ataco party at a multi-million-dollar, nothing-short-of-dreamlike oceanside compound with a pool large enough to foil in? Uh, yeah, count us in… But before you make any grandiose assumptions about the type of lifestyle we’re living here on a typical Maui summer’s day, this was technically a work assignment. My job? Produce a short film that would, in theory, excite someone enough to purchase this epic piece of property for over eight million dollars. But rather than doing a standard room by room tour, we decided to see what happens if we take some of Maui’s best ocean athletes, namely my older brother Kai Lenny, Ian Walsh and up-and-coming grom Otis Buckingham, and let them loose on the property for a day to show…

It was a rough start for me with a very hard learning curve, but quickly foiling became a real gamechanger for me. In addition to regular SUP, foiling has allowed me to increase the amount of hours I spend on the water by making more of otherwise marginal wave conditions. Essentially, foiling has opened up a whole new dimension of fun on the water for myself and thousands of people around the world. I hope my experience and advice can help shorten your learning curve. Let’s get started! “JUST LIKE LEARNING TO FLY AIRPLANES, YOU DON’T START OFF BY CAPTAINING A F-35 FIGHTER JET. THE BUZZ THESE DAYS IS VERY MUCH ABOUT EFFECTIVE HIGH ASPECT FOILS.” EQUIPMENT Before hitting the waves, start by familiarizing yourself with the simple physics of…

The Sky SUP foil 6’11 sits as the largest model in Fanatic’s range of foil craft, packing a massive 142L into that compact sub seven-foot frame. For 2020 it appears Fanatic have aimed very logically at a crossover product, bridging the gap between a SUP foil and platform that’s capable of entry level wingsurfing, as riders will increasingly grab a wing once the wind picks up. Fanatic’s shaper Sky Solbach has the benefit of being based on Maui, at the cradle of progressive surf and SUP foiling and it looks like he’s taken influence from the custom brands around him, and applied some good old fashioned common sense to the Sky SUP. All the bells and whistles are in place. From a practicality perspective, a concave deck is present along…

Starboard are no strangers in the burgeoning hydrofoil market and for 2021 have implemented a comprehensive multi-sport system to cover surf, windsurf, wing and SUP disciplines. First let’s talk about the modular Quick Lock technology as it’s fairly unique in the industry currently and a focal point of the system. At the business end of the mast, on both carbon and aluminum systems, is an aluminum T piece which makes up the center section of the fuselage. This slides into the top of the fuselage with a plasticized boot which goes under compression with the fixings, and weeds out any play in this joint completely. Your chosen front wing and tail slide onto a box section divided into two leaves. These are threaded and expand with a simple M6 Torx…

Naish need no introduction, as the legendary brand of all things windsports for many years now. In the beginning of the foil revolution, they set the standard as some of the best gear on the market, with the likes of the Hurley boys ripping on their foils. On test I had the 1240 HA wing with a 310 HA back wing and a 75cm mast coupled with the standard fuselage. The board was the 4’4 Hover Surf Ascend Carbon Ultra. First up, the foil… Unzipping the foil bag and everything was organized really well. The aluminum mast is super light, 25% more than its predecessor, and all bolts are T30 Torx which is quickly becoming a standard for the foil industry. The front wing is nice, thin and light, and…

For their Y26 season, long established Italian windsports brand RRD are well and truly committed to the wingsurf phenomenon and have developed a comprehensive line up of wings and boards. The Beluga 160 is their mid-size wingsurf-specific board, packing 75 liters into a futuristic 5’2 compact shape. In this particular size, the board is available in RRD’s LTE construction which feels like a sturdy balance between strength and weight. It’s aimed at more advanced or lighter weight wingsurf aficionados and for me sits as a 15kg sub bodyweight sinker board, ideal for stepping up from full flotation board without going too small. All that litreage in such a short package also means there’s an obvious crossover potential for novice prone foiling. There is also a bigger brother in the range,…

Hi team. So being as it’s all still so new, what were your design objectives for your first wing-specific board? Learning from both SUP foiling and also windsurf foiling, we had a good base on what we needed to achieve with the Wingboard design. First, having a board that is stable and comfortable to ride was vital. Short lengths make it easier to trim the board and control it, but without enough volume and stability it is harder to get riding. The boxy rails pack volume where you need it, allowing you to ride a narrower board. We tried cut angles on the sides of the board, but lost too much stability, so then would have needed to make them wider to obtain the same stability. We also learned that…

RIDER Bevan Gooch LOCATION Pauanui, Coromandel, New Zealand PHOTOGRAPHER Paul Schrader Bevan: Testing prototype foil combinations out for Armstrong foils at my home surf in Pauanui is the perfect way to wash off a hard day’s work. We get really consistent waves all year round and I can really tune into the subtle differences in the gear. Here, a new smaller HS prototype is being pushed to its limits. Getting a similar feel/core DNA characteristics as the other wings in the range is key when swapping between wing sizes for pushing the G’s in turns. RIDER Julien Bouyer LOCATION Ile de Ré, France PHOTOGRAPHER Gaël Conta Julien: We did this project for a YouTube video. When we hit 5k subscribers, we did a video where we were towed with a…

When in Spain, teaming up with Samuel Cardenas is always a good idea. On a recent trip to this spot somewhere in the south of the country, the water here has been pretty icy and the Poniente wind has been really consistent. Using this to our advantage, we decided to do a shoot on the FreeWing one evening. With a keen eye and ready to get the last shots for the day, it was close to sunset when the light turned into a magical dusky pink and the cliffs just lit up. Heading towards the black of the cliff faces, the orange of the FreeWing magically illuminated, and Samu got the shot… Victor…

Having grown up on the prairies of Canada, I was more familiar with ice skating than hydrofoiling. I was a competitive figure skater in Saskatchewan. Figure skating helped me learn how to balance, but more importantly, the sport introduced me to my wife who is also a figure skater. Today, we live on a small, quiet lake in upstate NY, about three hours north of NYC. We met figure skating at MIT, where we both went to graduate school in engineering. I had never heard of hydrofoiling until I sat for an exam in my Fluid Dynamics course that had one question exploring a flapping hydrofoil wing. At the time, I didn’t believe a flapping front wing could propel anything. During that exam I remember staring at a blank page…

01 AK 1300 FOIL AND PHAZER FOILBOARD AK’s high aspect 1300cm2 wing together with their tapered carbon mast and rear Anhedral High Speed Wing work together as a foil set-up that is primed for those who want to add some enhanced speed and glide into their wave-riding coupled with a nice and efficient pump back out to the line-up afterward. Add in their versatile and speedy Phazer Foilboard, and you’ll be getting more waves than you ever thought possible… 02 MANERA SEAFARER There’s no denying winter is here for many of us, that special time where we dig out the thickest rubber in the arsenal and brave the coldest waters. If you’re in the market for new neoprene togs, you’d be hard pushed to find much better than Manera’s Seafarer…

Foiling as a sport is incredibly difficult to explain to anyone, especially people who don’t foil, but we all know that! They simply just don’t get it and you see yourself losing them halfway through the conversation if you try and explain what makes it so unique. If you compare it to surfing and how inefficient surfing is in comparison, you just make people defensive and mad. It’s a lose-lose, unless you’re describing it to people that are non-watersports people, as they just find it fascinating and unbelievable, and even more so when you show them pictures and or videos. But as soon as you foil and you find yourself gliding and floating above the water in effortless silence, everything makes immediate sense and – as we all know –…

Name: Clinton Filen Job title: Brand/Design Director Years in the industry: 17 Proudest professional moment: There are a few key product breakthroughs, but ultimately developing the products that powered kitesurfers Alex Pastor and Bruna Kajiya to their respective world titles, and sharing their stories. Name: David Kay Job title: Product Development Engineer Years in the industry: 19 Proudest professional moment: Getting a triple crown in 2016/17 which included a kiting freestyle world title, cable wakeboarding world title and the Red Bull King of the Air, all on boards I’d designed. Could you give us a little background about your experience in the world of kite/foiling? When did your journey begin? CF: I was designing accessories for a European brand, and while visiting a factory in Asia I met this slightly…

The Gravity range is a well-established carbon wing system for F-ONE, who have been producing a mixed materials modular hydrofoil system for kiting for several years now. It centers around a lightweight and lean aluminum mast system that has a favorable stiffness to weight ratio, and the best part is it all transfers over cross discipline, so you can use the same pedestal and mast for your kite foil, all the parts are interchangeable. The Titan foot plate slots in to the bottom of the mast and accommodates the larger carbon SUP and surf wing fuselage that neatly breaks in half at 45 degrees between the tail section and the front wing. It’s a unique design which eliminates the need for bolts to hold the front wing to the fuselage…

Amongst one of the many great things about the new world of foiling and wingsurfing is that the whole thing is pretty ‘democratizing’. Unlike in, say, kitesurfing or windsurfing, you don’t need a huge range of 15+ products to become a respected brand, you just need good products. So it has been great to see brands who have never been on our radar sending kit our way to test, and it has been great to see how much of this kit is actually very good… A case in point is Ullman, a South African brand with a 50-year heritage in sailmaking and more recently in kitesurfing, who have now turned their hand to the world of wingsurfing. They currently offer four wings, and the Osprey II is their ‘all-rounder’ designed…

AXIS have added some larger surf performance wings to their range, building on the popular tow and big wave foiling platform of their 660 wing. As we’ve covered before, the AXIS system is extremely comprehensive across disciplines and modular so there’s complete compatibility with the rest of their range. The 860 comes in at 1293cm2 and is lightweight at around 800g. Construction is a fiberglass and carbon shell, wrapped around a recycled core. If you’re familiar with the popular 660 wing, the 860 has quite a few of the same attributes, but an enlarged span and corresponding surface area. The key features, such as the pronounced gul wing and delta swept back shape remain, but built into a higher lift and higher aspect format. The 860 also packs a different…

Talk us through the philosophy behind the Flying Fish? We wanted these boards to sit a little higher in the water than the older High Roller boards that featured the concave rails. The mellow bevel on the Flying Fish helps with paddling speed for the average user. We find that a lot of people are looking for the mellowest bump with maybe just a little folding white water for their get in, the clean rails and kick tail help you get sufficient push from a real mellow top to middle wave. Tell us about the layup and the build… While originally designed for prone surfing we quickly realized that our whole team wanted them for winging and huge airs. We put in a full wood stringer, wrapped in a 6oz…

Hi Sylvain. We’re looking forward to getting a chance to ride the new Carver Efoil at some stage. How has the response been so far? The Cruising was released in 2019, then came the Carver this summer, and there was a lot of anticipation! We ran out of stock from the beginning, and it’s still a mission to be able to produce enough boards to satisfy the demand. The Carver is a carbon-sandwich board (saving weight and improving reactivity), with a slightly longer mast, two battery options, and the options of smaller wings. The Carver is the Efoil model made for riders who are looking for engaged turns. We think we made the right move in taking our time before putting it on the market, it is truly a fantastic…

The efficiency of foils these days is allowing us to be up on foil for 10-20 minutes, so if you combine this with any downwind swell elements, you’ll be able to head out on an adventure on tiny bumps for a very long time without using much energy. We are already seeing this in Hawaii with guys like Adam Ayers, Jack Ho and Scott McNally doing downwind runs on the reg. If only there was a way to upwind run so you didn’t get stuck if you don’t have a buddy to go with? I also think surface finish of the wings will come into play eventually, which will also aid in efficiency and lift. So we should see smaller wings being more efficient and have more lift, so you’ll…

With a long and rich nautical background and establishing itself year after year on the world stage as a force to be reckoned in terms of board sports, Portugal has been keeping a low profile on the international foiling scene. But there is a small group of talented foilers from different backgrounds (surfing, windsurfing, kitesurfing, SUP and even skimboarding) determined to make an impact. And for a weekend, this group of foilers met at one of Portugal’s most iconic locations and an absolute foiling paradise to exchange experiences, wings and push each other to the limits, all under the lens of Tó Mané, one of the most famous surf photographers around the world, and who made an impact on the mainstream scene with the world famous photo of Garrett McNamara…