Rowdy takes us on another trip, attempting to ride a very round looking 4'6ft foil board and later giving us a glimpse into what Kitesurfing in the 1970s would have looked like if kites existed.
What a great episode to show people why round rails on twin-tips give grip and sharp edges give release and speed, I feel like I’m always having to explain this one to kiters and still many disagree haha. I had wanted to try this for a while, riding a super round foil board with a ton of volume. I figured it would be bad, but as you can tell from the video I didn’t think it would be quite as bad as it was. I think what I underestimated was the roundness in the back of the tail, if that wasn’t so extreme I think it would have at least planned. There’s no point in trying this one again, even in more wind, it’s just a total pig.
The champion of the episode was surely the Single Fin. I’d ridden it behind the kite before but it was quite some time ago. Luckily this is the board I’ve been surfing a lot lately, so getting it on the kite was like putting it in Turbo mode. I can’t even describe how much fun that was. Single fins give you this really glidey loose feeling, you can get in positions where if you pull something off it just feels outrageous, like releasing the tail through a turn, you go from massive hold to absolutely nothing in an instant. Somehow I’m really drawn to that feeling. This whole test has given me inspiration to maybe get some new customs based around single fin design.
— Alexander James Lewis-Hughes.