Learning to Foil Drive at 60 on the Outer Banks of NC

Foil Drive has ruined my life.
This is an unscripted unedited diary of learning to ‪@foildrive‬ where I live in Nags Head (Outer Banks, NC). There is no action footage, just direct commentary on how I felt after coming in off the water after sessions over the last couple weeks. Recorded on iphone. I've had the max assist now for almost two weeks...so this is all from the late June to early July 2024 timeframe. Maybe it will be helpful for someone else considering the purchase or maybe it will just be fun to look back at this myself in 10 years. Time flies you know.
PS Shout out to all those innovators out there who make these things possible! & I really like the socials put out by Paul at Foildrive. It has been very helpful and interesting. And thanks to Marc for converting me.

[@foilfanatic]

I started on an AK board. Stable and easy platform. I need to get up to the Outer Banks to ride! 🤙

[@JPPBOX]

Thanks for putting this together and deciding to post it! As someone who also lives on the Outer Banks, I've been looking for info about how well this area may be suited to downwind foiling. If I'm understanding you correctly, the wind and swell directions don't usually align well for pure downwind SUP foiling like you see everyone doing in Australia, Hawaii, Hood etc. From your last entry, it sounds like the foil drive enables you to circle back out to link additional waves that you couldn't do either SUPing or even pumping, and conditions like this are typical. Does that all sound about right? If not, what do you think the potential is here for SUP downwinders either on the ocean or soundside bumps? Thanks again

[@rnetsch]

@@JPPBOX I have a second video which discusses a session that may be helpful also..as for DW, I don’t think our swell or wind angles are good for it, without a wing or boost. I wish that was not the case, but I’ve looked hard for a setup that will work in SW or NE wind and don’t see it. Other wind directions are too fickle to bank on. I’ve put a lot of effort into the paddle and am a bit sorry to let it go but swells and waves now available with FD more than compensate for it. Feel free to reach out further if I can be helpful.

[@rnetsch]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bauyoHh6qduMpNEsi=dq31w3o2bcx97RFD

[@JPPBOX]

@@rnetschthanks for your reply. I've been wondering why Real hasn't done more coverage of the downwind possibilities here since that's trending in the larger foil community. How far along did you get with your paddle journey? Could you paddle up on flat water? And just to make sure we are on the same page, I'm talking about downwinding bumps way outside, not doing shore runners. If you can confirm that, I'll put that little dream out to pasture for now and probably turn my attention to foil drive as well, which also looks rad. I do not have a surfing background like you (snow, kite, wake), so hearing this from someone knowledgeable about the ocean side is in incredibly valuable and is likely going to save me a massive amount of pain and effort 😅 Thanks again

[@rnetsch]

@@JPPBOX matt has a clip on the upwind/downwind potential with FD, its a pretty new frontier. He was southside on a SW. i could not flat water paddle up, but did not try much.. i never took SUP Foil to way outside, but winged out there to know there is potential...FD will help on this front a TON.

[@JPPBOX]

@@rnetsch I did see that clip - it seemed like he was essentially using the FD to motor upwind and then cruising back, which is totally cool (and also totally enough for me for now!) I was hoping when Josh Ku visited that he might have attempted an outside SUP downwinder with them, but the conditions seemed marginal, and obviously he was there to rep FD. It'd be nice to know what's possible here before going all-in for SUP downwind, but clearly the FD helps with everything, so I'm thinking I can't go wrong leaning into that first. I'm subbed to you now, so keep the adventures coming. I'm soaking up the insights, and hopefully I'll see you out there one day!