So many of us windfoil now, and with good gear, that we pretty much take it for granted. We've had more than a few intermediates quickly move up the hill of windsurfing skills by detouring via Foilville and avoiding the heavy tolls at Footstrap Gulch and Harness Junction.
But it wasn't always this easy. A magazine review of the AHD AFS-1 circa 2016. For those of us starting out then, the best advice given to us (by F4 to Chris V no less) was: "You're gonna get wet a lot." Yes. Yes, we did.
https://www.windsurfingukmag.co.uk/new-horizons-ahd-afs-1-windsurf-foiling-system-spotlight/
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Wow, they were trying just about every configuration possible until it started heading down similar paths.
That board design is crazy with the tuttle way forward and the cutout? What is going on there?
The foil too with upturned wingtips for extra hazard. The wing designs look fairly flat with varying chord but I can't tell if they had washout or anything to help the design. Wonder what it would feel like now. The fuse design I've never seen before, looks interesting with the stab attachment, but that's a big looking bulb that probably was more limiting than the small fuses of today.
Saw a few videos, this one at least had a good jibe attempt:
This all came out thirteen years ago: https://www.peconicpuffin.com/the_peconic_puffin/2011/02/hydrofoil-windsurfing-boards-you-can-actually-buy.html Forgot that it was that old.
The board was captive to the idea that we needed a longer board when still on the water but recognizing that all that extra board in the air was subject (or at least, at risk of) getting blown about. ie. "let's build a 240cm board but take away the parts we think might cause problems in the air because there's no way we'll be able to sell a 205cm board to the masses." It was pretty standard just five years before for a 120-130 l. shortboard to be from 245-260cm long. 205 would have been a long ask.
The bulbous nose of the fuse was actually pretty clever for those not familiar with it. It was basically a long screw that allowed you to assemble the wing/stab on to the fuse and then just tighten it by hand instead of dealing with the 12 screws, say, that Starboard now have. Back then, just getting off the water was novelty enough plus we hadn't done it enough to know what we were optimizing for. Wing design was still a bit of back of the envelope and a lot of fluid dynamic ideas didn't consider practical considerations such as falling on the foil or likelihood of ventilation. I think the forward mast placement was partly due to the foil being multi purpose as well since they also were looking at the foil on the SeaLion for foiling in waves, behind boats, etc.
I first got into windsurfing in 2014 in the Seattle area then dropped it about 2014, so I'm just thinking about what I saw. I think they had the old horue and slingshot stuff then and I remember looking into it. There was very little information and I never did sail with anyone else there... can't believe it's been that long.
That would have been very early on. I don't think it sprung seriously on my radar until maybe 15ish and then, iirc, it was '16 when Chris took the big plunge with a foilset here. I do remember reading about it in the early days and I must confess that I was not impressed being a big user of Formula gear - it didn't help that a foil back then was 2500-3000. Kind of hard to spend that kind of money with a (old) Formula board and 9.5 already sitting in the van.
And then, one thing lead to another...
Bonus because I'm a big Mick Taylor fanboy and youtube knows to keep showing me this video even though I've watched and listened to it a dozen times
Ahhh yeah I remember looking into formula gear and seeing foils and being turned off by the costs and the unknowns. Also I had a typo above, it was 2014 and got a couple summers in but didn't sail much in 2016 and my gear sat a lot. I remember getting a 7.5 or something and being intimidated by the size, slowly realizing in the Seattle area that I would need a 12.0 and a huge new board and fin to go fast unless I went hours south to the gorge. Wanted to get lessons but never did...
Glad I rediscovered it in 2020 though, and my second board after the windsup was a blast with the hoverglide kit as well.