GONZALO COSTA HOEVEL
Right now I am using the standard race foil from Starboard. It is the same as last year with the long fuselage 115cm and then a front wing of 800cm2 and a tail wing of 250cm2. That is our standard race foil and with this foil you can race in light winds with very good angles upwind and downwind. At the same time it is a very easy foil to gybe because it keeps your glide momentum and speed even if you slow down so you don’t collapse.
A normal foil uses a smaller fuselage but bigger wings so it is easier to carry in the water and easier to handle. The further forward you have the front wing the more power and lift you get in lighter winds. You can get that with the front wing further forward or with more area on the front wing and keeping it further back. With the wing further back it is a bit easier for the beginner to have a normal windsurfing stance compared to the race foils we have. With the race foil you have to lean forward and control most of the foil with your front leg so it is quite different from the normal windsurfing stance. So with the foils we have developed for beginners you actually use the same stance as normal sailing. When I started foiling it was really difficult to learn. Now you hook in with your regular stance and go. When you do something wrong it just collapses, but you start getting that feeling of how to stay in the air. If you want to start foiling with a race foil you have so much power that even if you do something wrong you will stay up. Then you don’t really get the feeling of how to control the foil.
I use the foil 127 board which is the 91cm wide foil board from Starboard. It is a great all-round board in light and strong winds. For the design we took quite a major decision not to only make a foil board for advanced racers. This is an all-round board that will go in light winds right up to 25 knots. We made a board that is easy to use. There are a lot of boards on the market that are quite specialized for under 15 knots so when it gets windy they are very technical and challenging. Our board is very easy, that is the philosophy, a good race board but also easy for the normal customer. The main thing you can see different to a normal board is that they are super wide in the back. It has quite a straight outline. The back foot gives you a lot of stability and comfort. On a normal board for foiling you always feel your back foot is too far inside and you start twisting your body and get back pain. With the foil race board you stance is similar to when you are slalom racing so it is much more comfortable. The nose is not so important, the main thing is that the tail is wide.