UAE Foil Drive road trip
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- The footage in this video is all shot in Umm Al Quwain (UAQ) which is one of the northern Emirates in the UAE (United Arab Emirates), and is located about 4.5 hours drive north of Oman. Last weekend I visited a friend (Sean Jahnig - @foilandwater) who lives in Sharjah to do some foiling and to let him try Foil Drive. Until this visit I wasn't aware how good the foiling conditions could be in the UAE, despite missing the best of it - the previous few days saw much bigger surf than what was around while I was there.
The trip was awesome - I had some super chilled foildriving sessions, catching long rides on sets of rolling swell in some the most beautiful beaches you can find. Sean tried Foil Drive and was impressed by its potential for the many summer days in the UAE of light/zero wind to be able to catch and ride small waves and swell that couldn't otherwise be caught without a the power boost that you get from Foil Drive. I also met Sultan, the owner of the Kite Beach Center UAQ, (an avid wing foiler) who also tried my Foil Drive and instantly fell in love with the ease of which it let him get on foil.
The Kite Beach Center (@kitesurfbeachcenterummalquwain ) is located in the UAQ, designed and built by Sultan ( @sultanalazemalali ), inspired by Zanzibarian culture, and built using sustainable products wherever possible. It has a surf shop, coffee shop, restaurant, a beach-side fish grill, indoor and outdoor seating, raised seating areas, cabanas for day and overnight stays, watersports equipment for hire, and a very, very chilled vibe. My favourite beach club in the UAE for sure!!!!!! I'd like to say a huge thank you to Sean and Sultan for making me feel so welcome 🙏 🤙
Equipment used in this session:
Foil Drive Assist Plus
Naish 5' x 85ltrs wing board
Axis PNG1010 & p350 rear stabiliser
Advance crazyshort fuselage
820 high modulus carbon mast
How good's that! Love seeing you sharing the FD Froth :D
Awesome 😎🤙
Great clip. Looks like an easy setup..wondering what the board and front wing is. Thanks.
It's a Naish 5' wingboard, I think somewhere between 80-90ltrs. It's not mine so I'm not 100% sure - normally I use an Axis pump 4'6" x 37ltrs. The foil in these clips was the Axis PNG 1010. All the equipment is listed in the video description
It was awesome to have the opportunity to try Foil Drive, thanks Dom for coming to visit and bringing yours with! It is definitely a hack that unlocks new ways to enjoy the foil, especially when there is no wind and the waves are small, which is pretty often in this place 😁 I'm pretty sure that when our winter season is over and the wind/waves end, I am gonna buy one!! The wave at 8:08 should've been the first one in the video, it was awesome!
Cheers Sean, it was a super fun weekend - thanks so much again!!!!
So thankful seeing people like Dom sharing the love! You're spot on, that wave at 8:08 is unreal
It is great to see even beginners get up so quickly. My boys and I just moved to some smaller waves from our initial Foil Drive Assist plus freshwater lake and I noticed immediately that salt gets the drive stuck. I keep washing it with fresh water frequently but if not used for a couple of weeks I still have to move the prop manually somewhat to free it. Do you have any recommendations on proper maintenance in regard to salt water?
Yes it's really important to do effective maintenance, not just a quick rinse with fresh water. FoilDrive have just released a few videos showing exactly what you need to do. I have taken the circlip of the motor and pull the rotor off the stator after each session. This makes it really easy to clean. I also spray with lubricant regularly. Their videos are really detailed, I thoroughly recommend watching them
This may seem a little off topic and I see that these were not your boards and wings but the foil drive seems to be mounted fairly low on the mast so that the drive was touching the water even when pumped well. I understand or that is I have been told that longer masts are harder to bring up on foil. Have you in your experience found this to be true? Have you done comparisons? I windsurf foil with a 125 mast in high and low wind, 3.2 to 5.0. Even when the wind is dropping I pump just my board with a 3.2 and go. The benefits in big chop and swell are obvious. Once you are up that high there is a lot of room to work with pumping. I want a foil drive but I need to choose my mast. So, are the longer masts that much slower to plane? Can you pump to foil a 98mm mast? Could you foil drive a 98mm mast?
Thanks, you are one of the most informative resources for foil drive and foiling in general.
I use an 82cm mast for everything, except for winging when it's super choppy or huge swell when I change to a 90cm mast for the extra clearance. The offspring of the motor on the mast is a personal preference. I seem to prefer it a little lower on the mast than most people because it gives me more margin for error with my pitch control when I'm efoiling out to connect waves. It means the motor stops in and out of the water occasionally when pumping but the drag is minimal, in fact I hardly notice it.
I haven't used a mast over 90 cm with FoilDrive but I can't see any reason why it works wouldn't work
To add to my previous reply, I prefer the 82 over the 90 as shorter masts are more responsive to rider input. I only use a longer mast if the sea conditions are rough
@@dominichoskyns9091 Thanks for the reply and input. When the foil is near the surface of the water, the mast mostly out of the water, it would seem that it would take more heeling action to bring the foil more perpendicular to the surface, jibe, but then again the bigger the lever the less the input energy. Perhaps even larger span foils would heel more efficiently with the longer masts. It is still very much winter here, your videos bring a breath of warm air and O Man!