Shortboard Hydrofoils

[Cpt.Caveman]

Really interesting work

A credit too u surf foils

Anyone muck around with one as a wake board

Can the captain please supply a update

I survived my birthday but I woke up in Cambodia with a monkey feeding me booze... I'm back though!

Fong, at the moment I'm keen to get it back out in some small-medium size waves to get the feel for the foiling. Its a different type of surfing to regular surfing which is done mostly around the surface of the water. Foiling is more about the power in and under the water, which tends to rest more in the upper area of the wave. I'm keen to get back out because I have a feeling heading for an immediate high line will help with speed and help the board stay hydrofoiling for longer.

Brett is experimenting more now with foil shapes and configurations, and we came up with some ideas for a different board to have on top so the tail of the board doesn't get caught in the wave and cause drag. I'm sure he'll be testing a few things for a while before he hands them over to the crash test dummy (me ).

At the moment I think is about making it more user friendly and working out what will work the best on a wave. I'm sure as you know, pretty much all other hydrofoils out there are made for flat water, not a curved wave.

Anyway, I leave that side to Brett and just tell him when I've broken his hydrofoil and it needs fixing.

[fins]

great to see .... success , Brett !

more to come eh , once 'capt. caveman' Al gets out there again ?!

....... S T O K E D !

" Anyway, I leave that side to Brett and just tell him when I've broken his hydrofoil and it needs fixing. "

AHHHH YESS , Al .. ....

now ... about uploading photos ?? heh heh

[.... just call him 'Alfoil Prototype ' ]

[SURFFOILS]

Good to see you made it onto Realsurf Ben.

[SURFFOILS]

Ben, do the photobucket IMG link thing. It works here on Realsurf.

[Trev]

Ben, do the photobucket IMG link thing. It works here on Realsurf.

Does it NOT work somewhere else?

[SURFFOILS]

Ben, do the photobucket IMG link thing. It works here on Realsurf.

Does it NOT work somewhere else?

Photobucket links don't work on some forums that require you to upload to their site first before posting.

[Trev]

Ben, do the photobucket IMG link thing. It works here on Realsurf.

Does it NOT work somewhere else?

Photobucket links don't work on some forums that require you to upload to their site first before posting.

Thanks for that.

[fins]

[fins]

....this is a different looking board , eh ?!

[damo666]

let's see now ...

You had a bracket in the wrong place Ben.

[Trev]

^
Well done damo.

[fins]

yes thanks heaps , Damo !

here goes....

the damage of which Al spoke . I am just REALLY glad that YOU were still in one piece , captain [ ' caveman ' ....haha ] ...no limbs severed ... thank goodness !

[fins]

'Aliens' .... have invaded sydney's beaches ! [ aka : " when brett met erle * " ..... :) ]



Let's see if it will work with a video clip , too ??


I have a [really !!] short clip of Al's wave on it , when I was in Sydney , last month ...

Taken a bit too far away to SHOW much , unfortunately , but ..... ?????????

[blink , and you 'may' miss it ... I had to click on the 'pause' , repeatedly ... wish it had a 'zoom in' mechanism on video clips , too , sometimes !]

..... okay , I tried .... but it came back with the message : -

" It was not possible to determine the dimensions of the image. "


fair enough .

cheers !

ben


( * pedersen , that is .... the 'jet bottom's creator .... )

[Trev]

You need to upload the video to Youtube and then post the link on here.

[fins]

hi fongss !!

This , is a 6' 7 , waiting in the wings .....but not the 9'4... had to leave that one back in scarborough , unfortunately ....

2nd [longer] fin box needed , further up the board. This fin will go in the front finbox , with a smaller trailing fin set right back , in this back box.

This, I hope , will [eventually] be my attempt ... Greg Wild's 'inline' fin setup , revisited , but with a difference ...

[at the moment , this is only a cardboard wing mockup...]





[there has been a bit of 'back and forth' in emails , between us [brett , alex , myself , and three american blokes, one of who is also currently in the process[es] of tinkering with shortboards with hydrofoils.....]

[Cpt.Caveman]

yes thanks heaps , Damo !

here goes....

the damage of which Al spoke . I am just REALLY glad that YOU were still in one piece , captain [ ' caveman ' ....haha ] ...no limbs severed ... thank goodness !

Thanks for your concern Chip!

It was pretty hilarious. I was walking down the beach with the foil board thinking to myself, "wow, would you believe it. The first paddle in hydrofoil about to be surfed at Freshwater beach, the home of the first surfing in Australia". I got all excited and straight up took a set wave which was a fast left, and pretty much ate shite and got tangled up in the thing as we were both rumbling around in the wave. Bruised my leg on the aluminium frame but the other guy (board) obviously came up worse.

Pretty much ruined the rest of the surf because the foil wouldn't lift up at that sort of angle. Learnt my lesson and didn't happen twice!

No more ride reports yet, theres some more trials and testing to be done soon though when the swell has settled down a little.

[fins]

yes , you guys have been getting HEAPS of swell lately there in sydney eh ?

Have you got any more thoughts on the sweet spot / centre of balance / rake [or not?] of the strut ,

and angle [or not?] of the winged part , please Alex ?

When you jumped to your feet ...

did it feel a bit like the foreward / backward tippyness we used to get , standing in the middle of a seesaw [as kids] ?

brett mentioned a word 'yaw' ... is that the feeling , in a word ?

cheers for any feedback from the RIDER , Al ...you alone know the feeling .... which is why I am so keen to see some good quality footage one day , hopefully . I'm really keen to be ble to see what REALLY happens [frame by frame] , at the moment of paddling in , jumping to your feet , and dropping [into the wave] .

Does it feel a bit 'delayed' [for want of a better term] .... on takeoff , getting GOING ?!

and do you think having two smaller one-strut winged foils , further separated , would give it more responsiveness , maybe ? [ like how being able to move the trucks of a skateboard closer together , can alter the boards turning radius , for example ?]

Cheers mate !

ben

[Cpt.Caveman]

yes , you guys have been getting HEAPS of swell lately there in sydney eh ?

Have you got any more thoughts on the sweet spot / centre of balance / rake [or not?] of the strut ,

and angle [or not?] of the winged part , please Alex ?

When you jumped to your feet ...

did it feel a bit like the foreward / backward tippyness we used to get , standing in the middle of a seesaw [as kids] ?

brett mentioned a word 'yaw' ... is that the feeling , in a word ?

cheers for any feedback from the RIDER , Al ...you alone know the feeling .... which is why I am so keen to see some good quality footage one day , hopefully . I'm really keen to be ble to see what REALLY happens [frame by frame] , at the moment of paddling in , jumping to your feet , and dropping [into the wave] .

Does it feel a bit 'delayed' [for want of a better term] .... on takeoff , getting GOING ?!

and do you think having two smaller one-strut winged foils , further separated , would give it more responsiveness , maybe ? [ like how being able to move the trucks of a skateboard closer together , can alter the boards turning radius , for example ?]

Cheers mate !

ben

Swell was big and pumping today so no thought of foil surfing just yet.

I was putting my back foot a little behind the foil and the front foot a little forward of it, or near the front of the foil itself. This was so I could lean back to tip the nose and foil up a little, as it doesn't lift if its angling downward (e.g leaning strongly on the front foot).

The "yaw" was more side-to-side instability at low speeds like paddling, just catching a wave but not yet fast enough to start foiling above the water. This wouldn't be a big problem paddling, but made on my toes. It makes the take-off a little difficult because if you lean slightly to the side it just tips you over and throws you off. Once its up and foiling its far more stable and you can lean a little and try to turn etc.

I'm really not sure why thats the case and I think will only become obvious after more experimenting with different foils and board weight. I mean the original board weighs 7kg and the foil 3kg, so it could just be a heavy board on an unstable base (who knows?).