Foilers want to foil, and the latest advancements in foil board design focus on minimizing surface time and maximizing foiling time.
What’s a Mid-Length Wing Board?
Mid-length foil boards combine the benefits of conventional wingfoiling boards with the longer, narrower downwind foiling boards that have gained popularity over the past few years.
A growing trend has already seen wingers using downwind-oriented boards as 'light wind' options to get out in marginal conditions. The added length and reduced width of these boards compared to a normal wing foil board decreases surface drag and improves speed, allowing riders to pop up onto foil earlier much like with a downwind board.
Mid-length boards are shorter, lower in volume, and less boxy than pure downwind boards. They sacrifice some stability compared to a downwind foil boards but give a more connected feel once on foil, giving a lot of the performance benefits of a conventional wing board with the early release you get from a downwind style board. Additionally, they come universally equipped with foot straps, which are often absent on downwind-specific boards.
Why Choose a Mid-Length?
Mid-lengths boards will allow you to get up to speed and onto the foil earlier, this will give you more time on foil in gusty or light wind conditions, allowing you to progress down to smaller foils regardless of conditions. The smaller sizes in the midlength boards are also a great option for starting to prone foil or prone foiling in less than perfect conditions. The added length and reduced width of these boards helps you to get into waves earlier meaning more waves and more fun.
Which Mid-Length Board?
Although new boards are continually entering the mid-length foil board market, at Reative we have two clear favourites: the KT Ginxu Super K Carbon and the Armstrong Midlength FG.
The Super K features a distinctive soft rail at the nose that transitions all the way to the center of the board creating an almost dome-like underside for smooth pumpability and watershedding. This profile changes abruptly at the foil box for a much squarer beveled rail and angular tail for quick water release. Although the curved bottom will produce a rolly-er feel, but the wider profile compared to Armstrong helps stability.
The Armstrong mid lengths draw inspiration from thier excellent downwind board range. They feature a noticeably flatter bottom towards the nose of the board for a more planted feeling on the surface. That said the Armstrong boards are more drawn-out reducing lateral stability for additional speed. The boards features a beveled rail throughout and very practical 'bump' in the deckpad to indication the position of the foil underneath your feel.
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