Lacking skills? Light winds?
Neither are fatal for downwind SUP foiling.
Not with 2023 foils like the Cloud IX 1780.
TJ breaks down what today’s light wind foils can do. Here’s the video proof!
WINGS THAT FLY FOR MERE MORTALS
Video Transcript
TJ Gulizia: Foils come in all shapes and sizes from big to small, from high aspect to low aspect. But I’m here to talk about foils with wide wingspans because I just had an opportunity to try something pretty unique that might make gliding even more effortlessly than you ever thought it could be.
So here in the Gorge a lot of us have come to find that the Takuma 1440 has been a pretty tried and true big foil. With its 42.5″ wingspan this thing has allowed us to go out in some pretty pretty light wind small conditions whether it’s winging or downwind sup foiling.
Then Armstrong comes out with this guy. This is the 1525 high aspect, yet another super wide wingspan foil that you’ve probably seen Oscar foil for days on. This is a great pumping foil.
But the other day I got an opportunity to try something even bigger, and even wider. Check this thing out from Cloud9. This thing is the FS 1780. It’s got a 50.5″ wingspan. It’s massive.
At first I thought there’s no way this thing could possibly work but what I’m also starting to realize is with proper tuning you can get it to not only pump effectively but turn too. Now it takes a whole different style of riding, but boy you’re starting to find big surface area now in an efficient shape it’s as if they took a 1780 low aspect foil and squished it out and just made it so it’s wider but thinner so this thing can actually glide really effectively through the water.
So if you’re getting into downwind sup foil, for example, and you’re a heavier weight rider in lighter winds on a big heavy board – you might actually consider something big but wide in the future. Because we’re starting to realize that big and wide can also be ultra efficient.
[Applause]
