BayAreaKiteboarding.com

It's another weekend of racing, but this time it's a foil fleet. If the starting line wasn't sketchy enough, now everyone is gonna riding 3 feet off the water and moving slippery fast! Come up can see the magic (or mayhem) happen off Crissy beach. Who's gonna be the fastest foiler??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... nY2-9QwToQ[/video]

And here are the results. http://sailwave.com/results/stfyc/foilboardca.htm

Nice Job Johnny! And all the other local riders!

So cool to see all the new foilers out there working on the basics again; before, after, and during the races! Watching a kiter from a distance, you wonder if they are going to do the "lifting" thing or maybe they are using the regular kind of board...?? With the light-wind conditions over the weekend, I'm not sure if the usual course boards could have made around the course!

Big congrats to the St Francis Yacht Club for putting the races on and and thanks for supporting the foil movement! We're stoked to have racing in October!

John quick question about super lightwind - are foils really superior to a 70 tri-fin?

When I ride the 70 + 18m kite the wind is sometimes so light at startup that the only thing that allows me to get planing is the initial massive buoyancy of the 70 to buy me a few seconds to stand on while the fins begin to pressure up.

I'm sort of a fatty compared to the average kite racer but I can't imagine the foil being able to plane up for me with the thin boards I see being used for the riding platform on the initial waterstart if the wind is too light as well as a 70 could - any feedback on this for heavier riders?

It's not the board that cause the planing, it's the foil. If you can fly the kite then you can foil because it takes almost nothing to get the foil to lift the board off the water. I don't think I will need a kite any bigger than a 9m to ride the foil.

Yeah, it's the effect of the foil that adds the extra get-up-and-go like the volume of a 70cm course board. They're so much more efficient, not even giving you a chance to drag if you wanted too, unless you come down and touch the water...