Video

Thank you for your video! I am learning to wingfoil on inflatable board. It seems to have no built in rake. In my current setup I need to push hard on front leg when taking off or it goes up to full mast and slaps down. Also I need to push nose to get speed, and it often makes nose to dive. I ordered 2 and 3 degree mast plates in 3d printing. Hopefully it can somehow solve my issues)

Woohoo! Just a little bit of wind! 🤣

Looks like she could be using a 2.0m!

Too windy to wing?

Leashes are so personal and an area of the sport that needs some redesign, imo. I bought the Kaohi with the calf attachment and I hate it. It's constantly wrapped 2x around my leg. I'm going to try to mount it to a waist harness like yours...maybe that goes better for me. Thanks for the video though, I feel everyone's input helps us all figure it out.

I stand by my theory that GoFoil found out about the benefits of tip twist after I published about in in Kiteforums build thread back in 2021 and Triton did it on their monofoil about 3 months after I posted about the theory on kiteforum. Whether Alex found out about it there or somewhere else, perhaps only he will know. Ludwig Prandtl figured it out about 100 years ago but his paper on bell curve lift distribution in French languished until Albion Bowers(then chief scientist for NASA) dug into Ludwig's theory to understand better how to create better handling delta wings. If you research it, you'll also find out about the Horton brothers who had the first use of it I know about. As I'm not a commercial designer and back in 2020, 2021 I was only just starting on my foil design journey, I started experimenting with tubercles and then in late January 2022 I coded for controlled progressive tip twist. I think it was late 2021 that GoFoil released their 2022 foil range with the end step twist and I looked at it and immediately knew what they were doing, but Alex misrepresented it as being a fence that made for better tip breach handling. Having my own understanding I knew that this was outright misleading but I suspect he didn't want other manufacturers beating him to tip twist. The actual benefit is mostly what you describe Dwight except that I suspect Alex first moulds were hack jobs with previous mould ends cut across and welded on at different angles, they would have then cleaned up the join, using soft wax or other, crushing in the gap until they were happy with the interface between the different angles. I agree about the stall chararacteristics you mention in this video and it's what I've described back from 2022 to people about my own first version Prandtl inspired wings. There is not only a lower stall speed, but a higher lift angle possible because stall is tip first on a non twisted wing, but in the centre region for birds and suitable modified Prandtl inspired bell curved lift distribution wings. For birds, you see the flare up on the trailing edge of their wingtip feathers and it's an energy saving performance enhancing feature. Birds though, have dynamic wings under intelligent control. Hydrofoils are fixed for our personal board attached ones. Others who are using tip twist apart from GoFoil and Triton and myself that I know of, are Axis (ART) and Armstrong(new pump foils range) But only GoFoil did it with an abrupt transition region, it's acting like a towed very high pitch propellor with a small amount of associated drag and induced pre-tip vortex. The rest of us designers use some sort of linear or geometric algorithm to position the change gradually. If you want to understand it like Prandtl's genuis uncovered, you can first consider a standard eliptical lift distribution wing like the spitfire, and then think about what's happening to the loading as it transitions from under the wing to under the end of the wing. From the force of our weight on the wing, we are displacing water slightly down in our motion all the way under the wing. The amount reduces near the wingtips due to the smaller chord but it does not dissappear completely until past the windtips. This makes a downward motion water shear past the static body of water past the wingtips. As with a plug hole, the two motions create a vortice which can be seen by monitoring position of the water/air/other fluid particles trailing behind the Wingtips. Prandtl's genius was to see that birds wings consider this irresponsible and so their feathers twist to ride off this pressure at the end and relieve it. Then he made an incredibly elegant 2-page description of the maths of his technical interpretation of what the birds were doing so that we could understand it for our own artificial flight needs.

Not often I'll see Mosier featured

People seem to be discovering Mosier this season.

I ride Axis fuselage but everything else I make that's under the board. The Axis mast foot is big and chunky and I'm very close to the point of doing my own fuselage. My latest foil is somewhere between the AFS Silk and the Code R wing with the sweep. But socketing that front fuselage connection is a big nusciance! I have an algorithm to fatten the wing right around that connection but it always looks bulky. I'm big and heavy so I have to provide plenty carbon under it too. But for sure, I believe the combined wing/mast socket is the way of the future. The secret sauce isn't in the section though. look at the wing end on, I think I can see it because I do it too.

Looks nice out there! I Hope to go back next summer 😊😊👍👍

Nice!!! More windsurfers than I expected! Still hanging on which is good to see!! 😃 Hope you and Jacky had a great day!

I've only been out once so far on my board and it went about exactly the same as this. I couldnt even stand on it.

Sorry but that is wrong in many respects. When you ride fast you want your fuselage to be level, if it is not there will be excessive drag. Mast should be vertical, if it is not there will be excessive drag. That is why fuse and mast always have 90 degree angle. So reference plane is not the surface of the board but the fuselage (or foil itself), because ideally it must travel at the same depth under the water. And because water surface is always level fuselage must be also level to keep the same depth (with minimal drag). If you have positive angle between fuselage and top of the board (meaning front of the fuse is further from the top than the back) it means board is nose up when foil travels level. That is useful because if you hit the water tip of the board won't catch that easily. If you then were able to push your front leg so much that board was level foil would be pointing down and lose lift and board would hit water. Theoretically you could make even this level board position work by adjusting AoA's of wing and stab but it wouldn't make sense because of increased drag. So claim that you'd be riding nose down (while keeping same depth) "on fast foil" (rockerless board and fuse parallel) is false, unless board bends under load (which would be very bad board). When riding fast foil creates more lift and you have to compensate by increasing front leg pressure, to keep it at low AoA, to not let it rise out of water. This may feel like you were riding nose pointing down. But definitely you can't push proper board nose down, to a position in which foil is pointing downwards without hitting water. Then why boards have rake in their attachment area? It just makes board ride on positive angle, kind of increases nose rocker. In practice it isn't that critical if board is more or less nose up, what is critical is the position of foil itself when riding. Start isn't that big thing any way but having some degrees of rake helps it

There are a lot more variables to throw in, the camber of these new breed of foils is where the magic seems to happen allowing lower stall speed but have less drag while doing it. But like everything in life, the gains are often incremental in multiple areas adding up to a bigger overall change.

Great review and assessment of the Code

I can attest to this and owned most of the foils on his list and many unifoils. I am all in on Code now

Good low end for a given thickness/span/area makes me think of armie HA. IDK about thickness, maybe I’ll get some digital calipers, but the only thing I can see is the thickness seems to be carried well aft, with a rapid taper in the last inch.

thanks, I immediately bought that caliper on amazon!

Good idea, I just got one of these alula wings given to me because of leash failure in that part of the wing.

Wait until you get a crack at the R series. You ain’t seen nothing yet 🤣 the ridiculous takes it to another level.

770R is 11.8 mm and the 1130S is 14 mm (measured an inch from the center). I am headed to Cocoa this weekend. Want to meet up and try the 770R or the "Dragon Lady" 1075R? Hoping to ride some at the beach in the morning and The Slick in the afternoon if we get any wind. Robert @ Downwindtown

Cheers Dwight, I've been playing with this for sometime but couldn't explain it technicals as well as you have so thank you. I do have a question or two if you may have some thoughts to share. I use sunova boards, Armstrong MA foils but a project cedrus mast and fuse (no rake built into these) . What I spent awhile doing was to stand balanced on the board stationary and to get on foil without readjusting my feet. This ended up requiring a 1½° base plate shim. And the result is smooth effortless take offs 👍 The only thing about this setup is at speed sometimes my rear tail will suck up to the surface and pull the board almost windward and into a crash. I've just started to experiment with a mast fuse 1½° shim as this gives the plane the same desired effect. I have only had one go in light conditions to test a couple days ago. It seems to have a similar effect but need more trials. (80cm mast). Do you have any thoughts on the positives, negatives or changes i should of could make? Cheers if you do have an thoughts

Thanks for that spread! Let’s get some Rs on there. I really liked the 150X compared to the 980s specs. Although head to head I like the 980 more, more user friendly but find the 150x faster. Foil section have so much to do with these foils.

Foil thickness is key, but I think your analysis must include the AoA (Angle of Attack) and the placement of the thickest point (related to foil shape, chord, NACA shapes etc). I never foiled a CODE foil, but they seem to have higher AoA than other brands. This appears to be a great combination: thin profile + high AoA. For sure, Mike's Labs, which are made for speed, has low AoA = flat foil position and the max thickness is quite backward (in the middle of the foil). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NACA_airfoil

I ride a code 980 s on a Nolimitz 72cm on Appletree V3 90 liter and a slik 1050 on a 80 cm uhm mast back to back ,my thougt on it : the code come easy on Foil, is fast pumps better and jipe easy ,very good Setup. After that i go on a Slik 1050 on a 100 liter Whitebird , after that i bought the Afs , it is all about your feel and how your conditions are. The silk is going like the name, it was the wow feeling. That mean , is comes it little bit harder on foil and pumps not so good as the Code ,but is near as fast as the code . The thing is when you riding in small windbumps ,chop ( Baltic see) you want a turny foil . You can go as hard as you want full speed in a tight hard turn and you can trust the silk . The Silk is very good surfy foil in small condition and the code is good foil in small condition, when you riding in bigger swell or only flatwater i would choose the Code ,im my conditions i like the Silk more. Anyway ,Code or Silk you cant go wrong is fun on both ,is more the feel that you prefer .Only my own thougts from a average Joe ,4 jears of winging strapless, 59 j. 97kg , have fun on the water ;-)

Gong YPRA-S Large; 12mm thick, 90 cm span, 1000 sq cm, AR 8.2. YPRA-S Medium 11mm thick, 80 cm span, 782 sq cm, AR 8.2. Gong has been posting thickness and volume for years. Surf and freestyle variations of the YPRA-S. Never ridden any of the YPRA-S’s (I ride the V2 Veloce’s) but I know the team riders are very competitive with them (even though many wingers still dismiss Gong as low end performance/quality). Not surprised that Gong never gets mentioned in many comparisons

Great specs list. for sure we are living in great times for watersports. Code foils are awesome especially the R series. As with many things in life numbers don't always tell the whole story and there are some other sub12mm foils not on your list that are a different feel than the Code foils especially in surf and for winging vs DW. Personally I wouldn't trade my Mikeslab 700 for any of the foils on the list. If you get a chance place your calipers on a Mike'slab 340 then ride it. Even in light 12-15 winds that foil feels like a completely different sport insane all around performance.

Thanks so much for posting these measurements- I always wished more manufacturers would quote max thickness. I'm now on Unifoil Progressions and the 140 is around 15-16mm while the 200 is closer to 18mm (hard to be exact as my callipers aren't quite deep enough to reach back to the max point). Anyway it all makes sense as the progs are not super fast foils but do have a great low end & I'm really enjoying them. The Code wings look great.

But it makes me cringe at the simplest strapless air, how easily it would be to snap a wing it being that thin

Awesome review! Im surprised to see the AFS that thick. Where they the fuselink one piece ?

Mahalo for this video! After seeing it I kept my eyes open till I found a 6'10"x20" 105l board on CR. This has been the easiest thing to help me jump from my 129l 6'x29". Soo much easier to get onto foil with the faster foils on this board.

nice explanation Dwight! I'm a little confused how with a leveled setup your nose will point down at higher speeds. does the foil and fuse typically ride that far off the level when at speed?

Amazing advice, I had been thinking about this recently and your explanation was perfect timing. I'm definitely going to give this a try with my HA setup.

I’m tying myself in knots since i have been using a different brand board to the brand of my foil, if you dont want any trouble just buy the same brand board 😅 It’s started with a armstrong foil on a gong board i couldnt tune properly ended with 2 degree shim and a stab shim , i changed for something more plug and play but having a rake shim is never the same than having the brand designer board. On my fanatic sky free te 2023 im using a front rake shim of 1 degree on my foil which us full forward on the us box, another issue with shimming is strap insert, that why i had to put the foil full forward in the box, because even if i had the strap full back i had a lever forward that was putting the nose down i was past the balance point. Here some tip to notice your board is not fine tuned , backleg burning, stay up straight on the board while flying and if the board cannot maintain the fly without you changing your balance it’s not balanced, same goes for changing foot in fly if the board fell off instantly you are not balanced either. The truth is , probably around 80% of people riding mixed gear doesnt have they board properly tuned ! As for the surf foil , i find easier to maintain fly with little bit of front foot especialy when pumping, backfoot is ok when the wave push you but when it’s stop 😟 it’s sux it more tiring to offcentered in the back and you feeling more the lift of the foil with little bit of front foot only issue, is you will loose little bit of bottom range , that why it’s better to alway favor the same brand , since then i purchased the same brand board for my foil in surf foil and it’s night and day…

Thanks Dwight for your good info. Did I see an R front foil. I have been wondering if Rs for low wind foiling without swell would be better to use due to improved glide and speed.

Thanks for the design lecture, makes a lot of sense!

As always great information Dwight. Thanks for sharing. I have to do some measuring now to see where my kit is set up.

Nice timing! Experimenting with this at the moment on an Fone Rocket V2 (2022) and winging with Sabfoil Blades (w1000, w740), also w835 Onda. Quite a strong forward tilt at speed,making it feel quite strange and hard to get out of any touchdowns. Also hard to be efficient hiking upwind with the rail heeled over if the nose wants to be angled down. A 1 degree mast shim improves this a lot by giving 3.6deg rake and will be trying a 2 degree, which gives me about 4.6deg rake. I wouldn’t want to go much more than 2deg shim as the bolt threads now will be stressed a bit mote off axis and also the contact point of the mast securing bolts and washers will tend to take take an angle relative to the carbon mast base, instead of a flush seating. Thanks for the video.

Thanks for the explanation

Nice!!! 🙌🏼

I take it that this is Jackie, given the small wing and small foil in light wind?

I'm on axis, ride mostly spitfire, 900 and 960 when lighter. I'm taking a hard look at code. I'm 95kg. Want an all around for winging surf, free ride and capable DW/down-winger occasional prone. The rave reviews make R series tempting, but thinking an 850S w/ 150 ar fuse seems the safe bet. You have any opinions? Is the 850S a capable downwinder in good 25+ conditions? Thanks!

Love the drone!!! Hope you both are doing well!!!

Water looks so clean too

Go Drone!! Nice video!!!

Cranking wind

What would be the differences between the Code and Go Foils you were using?

Thanks for the good info- it all keeps gettin better!

Have you demo'd the AFS Silk by chance? I demo'd the Code 850S and found it way too pitchy. Demo'd the 850 Silk and it felt really good. Probably 2 months between rides and similar conditions, 4.5m Wing but different boards. Maybe something was off that day.

So, you sold all your GoFoil?