BOARDS
The types of boards I have found that are most suitable for foiling are the wider light-wind style boards like the Formula boards or wider slalom boards. We recommend no smaller than let’s say an iSonic 127 for racing type foils. That is pretty much the limit; even then that is a little bit narrow. If you go for a short foil designed for freeriding and cruising, then you can go for narrower boards. The problem is the fin boxes though. A normal fin box will eventually break with all the extra load. That is why you must go and buy a new foil board from us at Starboard! If you want to use your existing board I guess you could pre-emptively reinforce your fin box. The other option is to buy a second-hand Formula, UltraSonic or iSonic that are affordable used. The board needs to be at least 60-65cm wide in the tail to control our GT, Slalom or Race foil at its full potential. The shorter the foil, the narrower the board you can use.
FUTURE
I think foiling is here to stay, that is for sure. I think foiling will be at least as big as Formula windsurfing at its peak. All the technical guys will love it, especially for light-wind racing, it is very much in line with that Formula and course racing philosophy. Foiling could grow much bigger than that depending on how fast you can go and how easy it will become. With our latest prototypes, we are already starting to go a bit faster than the best slalom guys in some conditions. If foils become consistently faster than slalom then all of racing will have to go that way because when it comes to racing, it is not interesting to watch something that is not the fastest. The other day we were working with some Formula guys testing our new Formula boards while Gonzalo Costa Hoevel was also over testing the new foil. The Formula R&D team were super proud of their latest board and Gonzalo went out on the foil and beat them at Formula racing. He just followed them and flew past them. Just like that, in a matter of minutes Formula on planing hulls became obsolete. What is the point? They all came back to the beach and wanted to buy foils! When it comes to slalom that is a bit trickier but I think it is possible that soon, foilers will be overtaking slalom guys regularly. At first in light winds, then medium winds and who knows, maybe even high winds. Considering how early the foil development is, there is still plenty of room for it to evolve. And that’s really exciting.”
“ If foils become consistently faster than slalom then all of racing will have to go that way. ”
