DIARY OF A HESITANT (NO LONGER FIRST-TIME) FOILER – CONTINUES...
Fast forward six months after documenting my first week as a fledgling foiler... and I am afraid to say that very little progression had occurred. Why? Well, I got stuck pondering what foil set-up to buy and it seems I wasn’t yet confident enough to go solo, which brought back memories of the hurdles I overcame in learning to be an independent kiter.
I eventually took the plunge, accepting my clinic leader Rob’s advice, deciding on an IC6 850 wing from F-One, and then a custom mini foil board from my friends at Appletree, who are based up the road from where I live in Lisbon, Portugal. ‘Black Betty’ (Bam-ba-Lam) was finally born and I was excited and ready to take my progression to the next level. Or so I thought...
What a buttery smooth magic carpet ride ‘Betty’ is (once I got going), but oh dear what a huge step backwards I had to take. Spending time stagnating over kit had made me lose some of my skills and I was nowhere near the level I left off when I learnt six months earlier on Langebaan lagoon. My new set-up had a faster, more advanced foil (I learnt on the slower, more beginner suited Shinn ‘P’ wing), a taller mast, but also a lighter, higher volume board and it required a different technique for my strapless waterstarts. I wasn’t able to get going easily at all! The gear choices I made would hopefully eventually see me through taking my progression to the next level, but I felt pretty foolish in having to re-learn the basics. I had no idea how vastly different foiling equipment could
