RRD’s international marketing and team manager, Matteo Guazzoni, gives us the lowdown on their new compact windfoiling range.
Words Matteo Guazzoni // Photo Julien Leleu
Windfoiling has opened up a whole new light wind experience, allowing you to have fun on the water in only 8-10 knots of wind. Compared to normal windsurfing, the rider’s feeling of the board and pressure of the sail are different. That’s why we have worked on a specific program for windfoiling that includes all the components, the board, the hydrofoil and the sail. We wanted to develop an innovative concept for light winds and realized that the length of the board could be greatly reduced; and by doing that you can actually have more manoeuvrability and a huge advantage in transport.
We started looking at some reference shapes and found inspiration from our ‘K-RAPIDA’ kite race board with dimensions of 150 X 70 cm and only 70 litres of volume. We modified the board by adding a mast track to the deck and when we tested it in our home spot of Castiglione della Pescaia our initial thoughts turned out to be true. It had fantastic flight control and was a lot more manoeuvrable. The only issue was that the board didn’t have enough volume to float and uphaul the sail, not good when sailing in only 8 knots of wind!
John Skye further tested the ‘K-RAPIDA’ at his home spot in Gran Canaria and was able to give more valuable feedback. John Skye – “Wind foiling for me is the ultimate light wind windsurf experience, but I had the unusual situation where I was desperate to learn to foil, but had too much wind. My first foil board was the 91cm wide H-Fire 91 and the majority of my early foiling experiences were with a 3.7 sail. My problem was that most of the time the board was getting blown away. Then, during our importer meeting, I saw our Brazilian distributor, Paolo Migliorini, with a super short custom board and straight away I took back a K-Rapida and it was like a whole new world. Suddenly the wind was not an issue and I could focus on the flying. What was perhaps even more impressive was that when the wind was light the board was still amazing. The only issue was uphauling in zero wind, where it missed some volume, but otherwise the board was amazing.”
A shorter board greatly reduces friction and increases the feeling of adrenaline. The potential in light wind is greater as you don’t need bigger than a 6.0 sail to foil with 8 knots of wind. The ideal freeride rig has to be as light as possible. Furthermore there is the ease of transport. A short board takes up far less space in a car and is more comfortable to carry around. Roberto Ricci is very passionate about windfoiling and has carefully developed all our windfoil products. He wanted to shape a new board that was as short as possible and the most fun and accessible. Our first 3 prototypes were 200, 190 and 180 cm long with thick rails and high volume from the tail to the nose. But the standout model out was the 180 cm board. This was the first sample of what we later called the ‘Pocket Rocket’. The board performs best in light winds and with small sails. We also added a handle on the bottom of the board that greatly facilitates transport in the water.
At the same time we worked on 2 new aluminium hydrofoils. The idea was to develop the easiest and most accessible foils for light winds. The fruits of our labour are the ‘WH FLIGHT ALU 85’ and the fully convertible ‘SH FLIGHT ALU’ which allows you to foil in any discipline by using a conversion kit that converts this kite/sup hydrofoil into a windsurf foil. When using it with the windsurf setup it provides impressive stability and early take off thanks to the wide surface area of the front wing (82 cm wingspan) and the length of the fuselage (100 cm). This hydrofoil allows you to improve foiling skills really quickly. Talking about the ‘UNIVERSAL ALU SET’ and the ‘Pocket Rocket’, Roberto Ricci said, “When I first rode the Pocket Rocket 200 cm proto I immediately understood that we had under our feet a real jewel. The lack of a nose in front of the mast track allowed it to be more stable and keep foiling even in the lightest winds without the need of a big sail. I was using my 5.2 Gamma 3 batten wave sail in only 10-15 knots of wind and having a blast.
A week later we made a new 190 cm and even a 180 cm board. Both of them had the same maximum width (76 cm), just different lengths and volume displacement. The Pocket Rocket proto 190 felt better than the 200, as the feeling of foiling longer and easier was even more evident, but the 180 was a total breakthrough. It planed earlier than both the 200 and 190, stayed up foiling longer and easier and still floated me perfectly when uphauling a bigger sail. That board was one of the biggest eye openers I’ve had in a really long time. Not to mention the practical side of things for carrying and loading the gear in your car! The Pocket Rocket 180 fits perfectly inside a car, even a Fiat Panda!
The combination of the Pocket Rocket 180 with our WH ALU FLIGHT 85 Hydrofoil (our freeride hydrofoil with 120 or 110 cm fuselage) is a fantastic mix of early planing, long “floating/foiling” characteristics even when the wind drops, and is super easy to ‘fly’ off the water with the slightest pump of the rig. This is our best freeride combination for those who prefer control and speed with the lightest conditions.
For those who instead want to immediately learn how to jibe and be the first ones to foil and do not care so much about top speed, we have developed a ‘CONVERTIBLE KIT’ that allows you to convert the SH FLIGHT HYDROFOIL ( our sup/surf/kite hydrofoil ) into a WINDSURF UNIVERSAL HYDROFOIL. The conversion kit provides a 100 cm fuselage, the tuttle insert and (if requested) an 80 cm mast to make the SH FLIGHT HYDROFOIL ready to be used with a windsurf sail.
This is a unique fully convertible setup that allows you to learn how to foil, jibe and ride any watersport from surfing to SUP’ing to kiting to windfoiling…”
Then Roberto asked John to think of a new sail that could work with the ‘Pocket Rocket’. Talking about it, John Skye said, “Since foiling first started to take off (pun intended!) we were really analysing what sort of sail would be best. Initially we followed many others in producing a twin cam sail. Something easy to use but really stable, and the F-wing has been very popular. However sailing the shorter boards and experimenting with different foils, it became clear that actually you barely needed a sail. We were looking for something with great low end to get flying really early, but then something that disappeared in the hands once you were flying. We weren’t trying to break any speed records, or fly upwind, we just wanted something really light, throwabout and above all else fun! We started testing all of our current ranges in foil mode and the winner turned out to be the Gamma, which was our 3 batten wave sail. We took that as the base and started working on how to give more bottom end to the sail to get up and foiling as early as possible with the smallest sail possible. The result was 3 battens in the 4.0 and 5.0, but in the 5.8 and 6.4 we felt that having an extra batten in the foot gave that little extra boost when pumping to really get going in sub 10 knots of wind. The Freefoil sail was born.
Once we had the range clear, the obvious thing was to apply our Compact Series technology, and make something super portable. With the Compact Freefoil we have exactly the same performance, but with a sail and rig that fits in a backpack. Windsurfing has never been so compact. A board length of 180, a complete rig that fits in a backpack and the foil all fit in the back of a car with ease!.
More info at https://equipment.robertoriccidesigns.com