thanks Todd!

thanks!

Here it is! ibb.co/6wxwnh7 I connect the wing leash to the steel ring and the cover is tied into a knot in the webbing belt so it won't slide through.

would be cleaner to sew up a sandbag with a webbing belt but this does the trick!

good guess, but I've sworn an oath of secrecy to the other locals!

@@omenfoils totallly understand, I've got a bunch of BC lakes on my hit list for DW. Just need to learn the damn sport first haha. Gear is looking great btw! Eyeing up an Omen for next summer.

@@brian2973 haha, sounds like a good Omen! shoot me an email and we can talk more details on lakes :) [email protected]

Right on Lex, the huge boards are great for learning but for sure hold you back once you're up and riding consistently. They also generally force you into using bigger foils since they create so much drag when picking up the speed required for smaller foils. Often bigger folks make bad equipment reccomendations to smaller lighter riders not taking into account the significant impact weight has to our sport. Once you've got a few more months of progression you should try something around the 40L range, I think you'll again be surprise that it's really not that hard with a well practiced stinkbug start and decently strong wind.

Great to hear it Gavin, let me know how your tweaking goes!

thanks Nicolas!

Thanks for your comment Bruce, I'm not quite sure what you mean on point #1. Regarding lifting with the finger, I form my hand into a "knife" and lift with my index finger/knuckle which is supported by my other fingers. Found this works pretty well.

Thanks Dean!

haha, already have had a couple sessions on it by the time this was posted. For sure it's an amazing tool but the drop anchors are still fun in a group and accessible without any additional gear purchases to get a taste of the uninhibited downwinding feels. I'm absolultely stoked to get more sessions on the parawing though!

thanks! Hope you give it a try!

Such an amazing spot, my all time favorite place

Thanks Kevin!

Not in this new line but we do have a bigger shape in the works which will only be available in 95L and 105L

Haha, I hope it's not for moral support seeing somone who is truly off! I've been working on my stance recently, trying to get in the habit of turning my back foot a bit more forward facing.

Stoked to hear how it goes!

it is, will have some production ones available in two weeks. Pushes up the stall speed of the 1050 slightly but for that compromise you get more playfulness, higher top speed, and increased mid and higher speed glide :D

you know it!

Drop me a line anytime to chat about the new shapes Bernard, though the 48L Flux may be the right move instead :)

Right on Oceanbound, hope you get out with some friends and give it a shot soon :)

Stoked to get you on one Philip!

Nothing is bad if you can make it work consistently, however, I would say you are likely going to make things harder on yourself with this approach in the long term despite the initial success. I know there is lots of steps involved in my recommendation but after some practice they'll be committed to muscle memory and soon you won't even realize you're doing them. I'd say it similar to winging in general, making a video on how to just wing in a straight line would end up being very complex - so many little micro adjustments need to be happening on multiple axis' at once with both the foil and the wing - and worse yet they interact with each other! Luckily our brains adapt and pretty soon most folks will get smoother and start channeling their inner Johnny Heineken vs Bambi on ice!

Right on Craig, please let us know how it goes!

Thanks Ian, I don't disagree. I made a comment a few months ago that I need to film a follow up but it's probably buried. The pitch up/down of the board with an "off centre" foil position is created during unweighting and weighting the system rather than turning directly. I would add though that while rider skill and input is the most important variable and good riders can adjust and compensate for "poorly" tuned systems or even reap benefits from certain tunings which would cause an intermediate rider to struggle. Ultimately I'm trying to find to provide the most accurate advice for folks to best understand and improve their equipment but at the end of the day the best way to improve at foiling is foiling more :)

Thanks @sakritone. I think it is extra confusing as there are two "right" ways to look at it (both thinking about the foil flying right side up: 1. Calling a shim "negative" since it is oriented at a negative angle relative to parallel (increases the downforce of the stabilizer) 2. Calling the same shim "positive" since it increases the angle of attack of the stabilizer and therefore increases its downforce. Personally I like the second method because I desire an intuitive relationship between the shims I put in and the resulting downforce produced by the tail.

Hi Gilloup, unfortunately they do two completely different things. The plate shim adjusts the angle at which the board flies relative to the foil and the tail shim adjust the amount of stability/downforce provided by the tail. For your setup hopefully the manufacturer set it up in a good overall spot, but even so it can be frustrating if you are short and light, or tall and heavy as this would require a different amount of tail shim to be perfectly dialed.

@@omenfoils Yep I had understood that. I reframe my question. Both ways can provide more lift, or less, correct ? Why using one way instead of the other if you aim at tuning the global lift ? You say the plate shim slows riding, do you then conclude that the tail shim is always to be prefered ? I have just bought 2 plate shims on internet so can send them back if tail shims are more efficient. My plane lifts too much and has a removable tail.

@@Gilloup Hi Gilloup, I think you're looking at it incorrectly. Neither the plate shim or tail shim have a goal of increasing the lift of the system (the tail shim does affect the overall lift, but only slightly and this is not it's purpose). The plate shim adjusts the angle of the board in flight and the tail shim adjusts the amount of stabilizing force the tail provides. Think about them both as tuning a system which is out of balance rather than increasing the lift of the foil. I think it would benefit you to rewatch our stabilizer video and plate shim video with this in mind :)

@@omenfoils Incorrect, rewatch etc ... I respect your goal to sell but please ! Instead you should go for a third video going straight to the issue of tuning the lift of a plane because many riders face it. Reading your last answer there is no way to significantly tune the lift ... so just get rid of my plane and buy another, is that what you mean ?

​@@Gilloup I think we may just fundamentally disagree on what is possible/practical with shims. The baseplate shim and tail shim are not for increasing or decreasing the lift of your front wing. Can you describe what you are trying to achieve with this "lift tuning"?

Hi Gilloup, The plate shim adjusts the angle at which the board flies relative to the foil and the tail shim adjust the amount of stability/downforce provided by the tail. I think this video explains when to use the baseplate shim, whereas the tail shim is to be used to balance the stability and glide of the foil. It's a complicated topic but if you checkout our video on the topic happy to answer any specific questions!

I think I would have just been referring to avoiding trying to force the nose of the board up during the power phase of a pump like you would with a skateboard ollie. The ideal pump cylce starts with a subtle dip downwards of the nose of the board followed by a powerful pushing down with both legs. At the end of the push the front leg is unweighted first followed almost immediately by the back leg so the board and foil can glide upwards and recover the height lost in the loading phase. So the board is not completely flat, however, the angle change is subtle. It's common for beginners to "popoise" the board aggressively which is inefficient and even downright counterproductive.

@@omenfoils do longer legs helps for speed?

@@Jonpilo-uz1yf That's a good question, I could really only speculate. The most important factor is definitely technique, with endurance, cardio, and leg power as other big contributors.

@@omenfoils On high-aspect foils, which is more required to pump bigger? The longer size, like a ha1180, or a smaller size, like a ha580?

@@Jonpilo-uz1yf I guess it depends on how you define success with pumping. A smaller, faster foil will pump "further" provided you can get it up to speed and have the skill to maintain that speed with pumping. A bigger, slower foil is easier to keep up for a longer duration in time but generally takes more energy to travel the same distance. Does that answer your question?

haha, a good session of pumping definitely rivals any workout I've done for cardio destruction!

awesome, got to fake it to make it!

Very cool to hear about the relation to mogul skiing! I often think about the motions of skate skiing when pumping and I think the most efficient pumpers mirror the body mechanics of good skiiers with a powerful push and sustained light glide.

Thanks Matt! I prefer to leash the wing to my waist instead of my wrist since it allows me to move my arms more freely when I'm riding down wind. I also like that I can lie on my board and paddle it like a surfboard without having my wing tugging on my arm. Originally the leash had shock cord embedded but it's since worn out so is really just some UHMWPE line now with brummel splice at each end. On a related note, I still prefer an ankle leash for the board. I've found with both items leashed to your waist it's easy for them to get tangled and an ankle leash of the same length keeps the board a bit further from my head when I fall and I can use my leg to "pull" the board back to me when needed.

This is very true David! I'm summing up the forces though for the sake of simplicity. The downward force of the stabilizer is relatively small compared to the lift from the front wing, but more importantly, there is a rotational moment created by both wings and drag from the system moving through the water. These are the forces that are counteracted by the downward force of the stabilizer acting on the centre of gravity of the system along the axis of travel by the length of the fuselage. Breaking down this stabilizing force into this counteracting moment, the downward component effectively reduces the total lifting force of the front wing but does not "move" the vector's horizontal position assuming the lift is aligned with the centre of gravity of the system. This is because the moment created from transposing the downward force from the stabilizer to the centre of mass is balanced by the other forces mentioned which would otherwise cause rotation. Sorry for the long answer to a simple question! I break down these forces more in our stabilizer video if you're interested in more.

Thanks Oscar!

Thanks Alva! When I use a board leash I've found the Kaohi double coil to be the least annoying option of everything I've tried. For wing leash I just use a larks head onto an old kite pigtail I attached to my makeshift waist harness. Sounds a bit janky but it actually works great!

Thanks Toobmes, would love to get your feedback after you've had a couple sessions to try implementing the technique :)

haha, very cool xxxyyy - sounds like the beginnings of a good zen poem!

thanks Jack!

Thanks! Have you ever tried a skateboard on a pump track? I've actaully become a big believer that it's a "hack" for dialing in foil pumping body mechanics without having to deal with figuring out dock starts/boat tow ups.

This can actually be difficult to confirm depending on your foil configuration since not all foils have a flat area on the fuse parallel to it's direction of travel. If you do have this flat spot it's very easy with a digital angle finder and flat ground to support your baseplate and set as 0 reference as you've indicated. If your fuselage has a completely organic shape with not flat spot you can still get a good idea by using a long straight edge/level and placing the angle finder on top. Once you zero it out on the flat ground then you can use your eye to align the straight edge with your best bet at your best approximation of "level flight" for the fuselage. This is certainly interesting to know, however, since different brands set their front wings at different angles relative to their fuselage setting this angle to zero with a baseplate shim can't necessarily be seen as a universal standard, however, in general I would say it is a great place to start and play around with adding or subtracting 1 degree to get your ideal "all around position". From there you could add or substract a shim for overpowered or underpowered conditions as suggested in the video. Hope this makes sense! Greg

@@omenfoils thanks Greg very good hints

@@hobbyincantina3983 No problem, let me know how it goes!

Great question, I wish I had some more hectic footage to throw in because that is where I find this technique actually shines the most! Since you are staying low and compressed right until under wing power it really take the frustrating balance factor out of starting in bigger/messier swell.

@@omenfoils That's what I like to hear. I live very close to the (North) sea, and far from the (gustier) flat water spots. But did not have the courage yet to enter the sea with my new 56L board. Now I'm inspired to try with side-on wind and small (< 3ft) waves.

@@LexLissauer let us know how it goes!

@@omenfoils Could take a while. Winter is coming and I'm not very cold resistant, wearing a 6/4 when other people wear shorties. I'll be soon in a subtropical region for a month with choppy & gusty conditions and unpredictable winds (Fuerteventura). We'll see how it goes.

@@LexLissauer right on, I've heard great things about Fuerteventura. My cold tolerance is generally pretty good and I've been really loving my new O'Neill suit, stetchier and warmer than anything I've tried previously. The exception being my hands from too many brushes with frosbite on winter warfare exercises. Makes winging in colder conditions tough and painful at times, really hoping someone comes out with a waterproof heated ~1mm glove!

Definitely! Most of our boats were really underpowered so it was a major source of frustration for guys. I found the trick of staying close to the water super helpful, if you end up stalling the foil you can keep riding the board whereas if you're high a stall almost always means game over. Also, the extra efficiency from riding high is usually a good thing in foiling, but when towing it just means you glide further when the boat slows down and get more slack in the rope.

Thanks! Such an amazing spot! I think you're right about the sink start taking even less energy than the wakesurf style, the reason I'd still recommend the wakesurf style to most is it's easier to learn and quicker to reset for those without a lot of experience since I think it takes less balance and finess. Once you dial in the process of sinking and standing on the board no doubt it's a great technique as well!

@@omenfoils agreed. I find people just have to be patient with the sink start... a moment of calm. Rode your stuff once when Dave (Lift Journal) came down to Delray to wing with me one day. Super smooth and slick would be my best reaction.

@@Foiljourney Nice, stoked you got a chance to try out the Operator! That's a good tip with the sink start, I'll spend some more time messing around with it the next time I'm behind a boat :)

@@omenfoils I have a Jetski in case you are ever in South Florida

@@Foiljourney would love that, need to get down there at some point for sure! Maybe a road trip with youtube.com/@theliftjournal

great point! I did this exact drill when teaching people kitesurfing and wakeboarding. Had them sit down on the ground with straight legs and then hold my arms and pull them up. Repeat again with bent legs and it's profound how much easier it is to get up. I found "teaching the body" like this a lot more effective than "teaching the mind". Wish I had included this in the video!

Good call Irwe!

Thanks Ashley! At some point I should do a video of different tow up techniques for bigger boards but I'm kind of lacking in experience in that area so great to have comments like for folks looking for ideas on how to make their wingboards work!