PROTOTYPES
In the beginning, what I wanted to do was to create a foil platform. The idea was to make the boards, the structure of the foil, organize the production and then work with partners to make the actual foil shape itself. I thought there was no way I could catch up with the best already on the market. I talked to the guys at F4 and other companies who all liked the platform concept but F4 ended up signing exclusively with NeilPryde. I also talked to Mike’s Lab who was making arguably the best kite foils. I went to visit them in San Francisco but the deal on the table was way too expensive and we could not afford it. With those and other options out, I decided to design my own foils as well as the boards. I made some moulds and started developing the way we do at Starboard: lots of prototypes, lots of testing, over and over again.
THE FEELING
When you plane for the first time on a windsurfer, you will always remember the feeling. That moment when your draggy board releases itself from the water and skims along the water surface, there is that magical moment that you won’t forget. With foiling, the first time that foil lifts you out of the water, it is that same magical feeling again. It is even a little bit more surreal because all the skimming noise just disappears. It is gone and everything goes almost silent. There is less friction, no sound and suddenly you are dealing with another dimension, rising up and down. You feel like you are a bird flying through the air. Right away, this new feeling made me go back to those days when I wanted to just go as fast as possible all over again, and learn to jibe all over again, this time without touching down.
LEARNING TO FOIL
Once you are up in the air, there is a learning and crashing stage but once you go past that stage, foiling is really easy on the body. I was quite surprised about this aspect. Normally after a day’s windsurfing you feel quite beaten up but with foiling, you don’t feel anything because you are not dealing with chop or impact on your knees or body. All you are doing is flying. Foiling becomes less physical, once you’ve learnt to control the foil in flight.
