Tech talk: The right volume for wing foiling

What’s up guys? Welcome back to another Appletree Surfboard’s Tech talk video. My name is Wieger, co-founder of Appletree Surfboards and today we are going to talk about how to choose the right volume for wing foiling.

Now this is a slightly controversial one and everyone has their own opinion, so this is just our opinion about choosing the right wing board for you. I think it’s a good starting point. So hear us out.

Which measurements are important when choosing a board for winging?

When choosing a board for winging, we mainly gonna talk about the volume. Because the volume is the most important thing that will get you going and the rest of the board should be well-designed around this baseline volume.

3 very important indicators to choose the right volume for wing foiling

There’s a couple of things that you have to keep in mind. Three main things, number one for us is what do you want from your board? Do you want to have a board that you can ride in super light winds? Do you want to have a board that you can ride in big waves or freestyle or just free ride and cruising a bit? That will have a major impact on the type or volume of board that you’re looking for.

Then number two, of course the rider weight. So a lower weight rider can always choose a lower volume board and a heavier rider, a heavier board. This makes total sense. So that’s another sort of baseline. And then number three is your skill level, because of course when you get better you can get away with a smaller board.

What are the advantages of having a really low volume board?

So things to realize, number one is do you actually want to have a really low volume board? What are the advantages of having a really low volume board like this 35 liter one here? It’s shorter, it’s lighter and it’s easier to maneuver. So especially on a foil, the shorter your board is, the less swing weight, the easier it is for you to control your foil. If you get a really heavy over a hundred liter board, everything will just slow down. It feels like you’re riding a bigger foil than you actually might be riding. You put that same foil on a much lighter board. It’s much looser and it also almost feels like you’re riding a different kind of foil.

What is the downside of riding a low volume board?

Now, of course, the big downside of riding a super small board like that, it’s very hard to get going. You will sink it. You need some wind to get it up. So it’s definitely not so that you always want to ride the smallest board possible, especially when you’re riding on a lake and you’re not necessarily on the sea. You have got some time to wait for a gust. It’s just easier to just have a board that’s a bit higher volume.

The ideal size for a for instance 75kg rider

Now our boards sort of start at 110 liters. There’s bigger boards out there, but for us that’s not the sort of thing that we focus on. We want to produce high performance boards and we think that 110L is sort of the maximum that you’ll ever need. Also, if you go bigger, the weight will just get too high. So let’s say you are a 75 kilogram rider, you want to do free riding and you want to have sort of mid wind and you’re not expecting to do a lot of freestyle stuff and you’re not expecting to do a lot of wave riding. We always advise to go slightly over your weight, for us that would be the right volume for wing foiling. So 15, maybe 25 liters maximum over your weight. So for a 75 kilogram rider, this will mean 90 liters as maximum. And then at the bottom, I would say around about your weight. So 75 liters for a 75 kilogram guy is an ideal size.

One more very important tip when choosing the right volume for wing foiling

There’s one big thing to really consider when you’re choosing a board. That is, if you choose a board that is right around your weight in volume. So you’re a 75 kilogram rider again and you have a 75 liter board, the problem that you get is the board sits exactly on the surface when you’re kneeing or where you’re starting the board. And at this point, the chop impacts you quite a bit. It’s actually easier to go slightly under your weight in volume because then the board slightly sinks and this will give you less problems with the chop or you have to go a little bit over your weight because this allows to float you slightly over the water surface. And this also helps a lot with eliminating the chop. So it’s definitely something to consider when choosing the right volume for wing foiling.

Low board volume affects your low wind ability

Now if you go under your weight, you are going to lose some low wind ability. So that is definitely something that you have to take into account. You’re gonna need some more power. So you either have to choose a bigger wing, or wait longer for a gust because if you sink the board, you first have to get it up to the water surface and that just requires a little bit of lift in your wing. So it does make the whole riding experience much nicer but you’re gonna loose a little bit of that low end ability. That is what happens when you have a really low volume board.

Do you really need more than one board?

So at some point you might have to think about getting more than one board. I know, you don’t want to hear that from us as a board seller, but at some point you really want to have more than one board, one for the low wind conditions where you just want to be able to ride and one for when it’s really powerful because if the waves are really powerful and the wind is really strong, you really don’t want to be on a big board. And the other way around, if it’s very light and just want to cruise, you really don’t want to be that guy sitting on a small board sinking and everyone around him is just foiling around.

So that’s a little introduction into the volume of wing boards. If you’ve got specific questions for your conditions or the type of board that you might need for your weight and your skill level, we are always happy to help. Please send us an email or give us a call or go to one of your local dealers and get in touch before you invest in buying a board. Hope to see you next time in another Tech talk video. This is it for today. Cheers. Bye.

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