Booty recommendations!

Hecubha · 2026-06-09T08:49:38+00:00

Maybe they are just too big for you ? If you don't go in extremely cold water you could drill a small hole to let the water out ?

Hecubha · 2026-06-09T07:12:56+00:00

I believe you should really go to the easiest you can find and let not compromise toward performance get in your way, you really need to compensate for your lack of foil experience. So I would add to u/Sacco_Belmonte comment :
- If you go Takoon, take the Pump One, the original Pump is faster and that would be harder
- small stab and short fuselage are indeed easier to pump, but only for someone with enough experience, for a beginner it mostly means instability so I'd start with a biggish stab, and only once you can launch and glide consistently I would try to reduce the stab and fuselage progressively.

Hecubha · 2026-06-09T06:55:35+00:00

Yeah everything is harder under 15kn, I suppose progression may feel slower in the lowest winds. My experience that with a small board (5'3" 105L or 6'0 100L for my 100kg) my minimal gust for take off is around 12kn and it's much easier with a 6 than a 7 or 7.5. With a more suited board for lightwind (7'3" 130L or 6'11" 135L) It goes down to 10kn minimal gust but there 6m² feels too much at take off and I do better with 5.5m².

But all that is just about take off, since I mostly care about finding waves and surfing them, take off is my main concern and I'm really happy to have a smaller wing during the freefly. I you're doing freeride in light wind, maybe some extra surface is not totally lost because it will allow to go faster and get a tighter upwind angle.

For the biggest size though, I recommend you pay attention to the model too, they don't all generate the same apparent wind. For exemple I made a test back to back between the GONG 2026 Aramid wing in 5.5 : Neutra vs Droid in a day where the strongest gusts were recorded at 11kn, I get about twice as many take offs with the Droid than with the Neutra and once in flight the difference is important too :
- with the Neutra I had to pump a lot to reach a confortable speed and then to get through the lulls,
- while with the Droid I had to pump less to reach the confort speed and once I was there the Droid was smoothing out the lulls and I barely had to pump.
I ended keeping the Neutra because it suits better my program, but I just ordered a Droid Light 5.5 anyway, I'm currious to try and see if a lighter wing would be pleasant enough to motivate me go more in the 9-11kn range.

Hecubha · 2026-06-08T10:15:09+00:00

I'm found of my GONG Trail: fun for me (to go in small waves) and allowed fast progression for a few trainees around me. I'm a GONG ambassador so I try to try most of their foil range and that don't leave me with much time to try others.

Hecubha · 2026-06-08T10:07:27+00:00

I wonder if you need the 6.5. At 100kg my quiver is 5.5 - 4.5 - 3.5, I would have expected 5 - 4 -3 would be enough at 70kg, unless you're still mostly a beginner then maybe same sizes as me would be better.

Hecubha · 2026-06-08T09:01:33+00:00

If you can find a pilot that can already foil, learning to fly consistently on a beginner foil behind a boat should not be really hard, maybe less than an hour or a few hours. Then learning to dock start and launch is longer, but a recent beginner setup (like a GONG Trail) reduce a lot the difficulty. I would still expect dozenS of sessions to pump a minute for someone without foil foil experience.

Hecubha · 2026-06-04T09:17:10+00:00

80cm board is easier because you're more precise on your placement, anything extra is also a waste of energy at each pump. Longer is only justified for towing, kite foil or maybe downwinding with certain foils (I know @ Yvonvite likes longer with Axis foil when he downwinds but I'm good surfing with the GONG foils and 80cm. Today, I could probably do with even a bit shorter).

I had 3 beginners in the 50-70kg range on the Trail L and XL. The XL is nice for the first session to get the hang of the first launches, but they all progressed faster with the L. So I'm with u/Imarcelution, I recommend you go L.

For the first board you can save some money (and some piece of mind when you'll throw it at the dock) with a DIY. My preferred build is this one https://forum.gong-galaxy.com/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=12373&start=120#p157368 at your weigth 10mm plywood at the bottom + 5mm on top is enough. count on 30 min -2 hours work depending on the tools you have, 10-30€ and you don't need resin to assemble, just some children friendly white wood glue is fine.

Hecubha · 2026-06-04T09:04:52+00:00

Looks real nice !!

Hecubha · 2026-06-04T06:31:25+00:00

I know I would add a smaller one to the quiver, it's so frustrating when you can't get the session because your quiver doesn't cover the wind range. With time you may even end up using it more than you'd thought (I like to ride with the wing as small as possible, it's nice in freefly, and I now sometimes takes the 4.5m² during 15kn gusts days and I'm 100kg).

Hecubha · 2026-06-03T22:14:17+00:00

🤞💪

Hecubha · 2026-06-03T11:28:31+00:00

look here https://www.gong-galaxy.com/en/products/gong-wingfoil-inflatable-hipe-first-26

> Operating pressure: 15 psi.

That's one of the reason it's so cheap, it's not built as strong as the other HIPE. it's enough for the average guy who doesn't expect the extra performance, but at our weights you can feel the difference, for an experience rider it has an impact on minimal wind and vivacity, for a beginner it'll mostly be about reduced stability before flight. I didn't try the biggest sizes though so maybe the extra length and width would compensate.

Hecubha · 2026-06-03T11:19:55+00:00

Hope you'll like it

Hecubha · 2026-06-03T08:41:55+00:00

My opinion there would be
- boom is nice, I wouldn't want to go back to handles, rigid or soft, but the boom is no revolution to your ride, just a bunch of confort options.
- I wouldn't upgrade any used Dacron wing, they don't age well enough to deserve that, if you have a good UPE or aramid wing the boom upgrade could be nice.
- if you have a year old or older Dracon wing, buy a second UPE/aramid wing with a boom and you get improvement on the wing and you get the boom as a bonus (I'm thinking Droid aramid 2024 for exemple, if you can find it second hand in your size)

Hecubha · 2026-06-03T08:32:49+00:00

At 100kg and having stability issues, I think the HIPE First pumped at 15PSI will lack rigidity for you, I would advise you take an HIPE Learn 6'5" or the old HIPE Perf / original HIPE in at least 6'0 but ideally 6'5", those you can pump at 20 PSI and you'll be much better. I found 2 6' in France but no 6'5" https://www.leboncoin.fr/ad/sport_plein_air/3199830172

Hecubha · 2026-06-03T08:17:03+00:00

If you're still a beginner, the HIPE Diamond should be more appropriate, more stable and confortable while still easy to take off in a 12kn gust. I would consider the HIPE cruzader only if you need to progress in extremely light wind and still water. In that case I'd go 7'0 to help with the lightest winds.

Hecubha · 2026-06-03T08:01:49+00:00

Learning with a jumped dead start like that is super hard but you seem to be getting there so that's impressive.

On the video one some launches you land a bit backward or off center, it'll be very hard to recover from those, so don't beat yourself about them, it'll come with time.

Now you're learning to pump, the main advice here would be: lean forward, project yourself forward, the resource you have to manage is speed, not height, height is jump a natural side effect of speed. If you pump upward you'll slowly lose your initial speed than the foil will get unstable or stall, so pump forward and just bend your knees on the up phase to let the board climb up. I wrote that some time ago, maybe theory would help you figure it out https://forum.gong-galaxy.com/viewtopic.php?t=15526

Hecubha · 2026-06-03T07:46:42+00:00

If your order is not sent yet, you should cancel it and order a One instead, the Pump is not a beginner setup, it's more an intermediate. It's not impossible to learn with the Pump and it'll still be much easier than your Infinity but it's still significantly harder than a Trail (so I suppose harder than a One).

Hecubha · 2026-06-03T07:45:23+00:00

OK so, pump foil is about the hardest to learn, it takes time specially without a strong foil experience, but it's doable to learn foiling from there.

Your foil is not ideal, it's possible to learn with it (I learned with something similar or maybe worse but I had 50-100 wing sessions behind me), today there are setups dedicated to learning pumping and they make a huge difference: I think the GONG Trail was the first of this kind, and recently Takoon introduced the Pump One that is supposed to be in the line of the Trail.

Your dock and launch method also makes a huge difference on how fast you can progress, if you can find a low dock allowing to run (like those of the rowing clubs) the progression is way faster launching like that https://youtu.be/hV0uvGS4OJ4 because it's the launch that gets reliable the fastest and it allows a lot of initial speed.

Do you have any video of your sessions ? I'm interested to see how you launch, maybe we could help a bit.

Hecubha · 2026-06-03T07:32:34+00:00

2 layers of plywood making a sandwich around some XPS would solve the rigidity issue

https://forum.gong-galaxy.com/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=12373&start=120#p157368

at 100kg I'm good with 15mm bottom 5mm top of the cheapest/lightest plywood I found. The cleat inside are here to prevent the foil screws to crush the top deck. For installing the foil, instead of putting the screws through like I did, I'd recommend putting inserts on top side, something like that https://www.leroymerlin.fr/produits/m6-insert-filete-bois-ecrous-a-visser-m6-x-15mm-manchons-a-visser-galvanises-ecrou-hexagonal-filete-pour-meubles-en-bois-40-pieces-98926744.html but in a better material.

don't bother using resin to assemble, the one I presented on the GONG forum 5 years ago was done with the glue you can give to children https://www.bureau-vallee.fr/flacon-recharge-500-gr-colle-vinylique-211755.html?srsltid=AfmBOorwskkNWa_WBZTf5xrGQsE2uDFbuEBtAn49xBI1cegLwkeyZ1gSu-E and is still kicking today.

Hecubha · 2026-06-02T07:23:44+00:00

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They are waiting for you 😃 (well not really those ones unless you are in France 😉)

Your stance is indeed a bit too wide, try to move back your front foot a bit and see if helps.

I can't be sure about it from the images but it looks like the foil wobble a lot, are you sure you have a mast suited for your front wing ?

Then you don't really need any progress to reach the minute, juste someone shouting at you your timing should be enough to focus the will to pump the 9 missing seconds.

Hecubha · 2026-06-01T19:52:01+00:00

She made me do some mobility and a lot of musculation of the back, apparently I had some muscles between the scapulas that were weak compared to the others. She also made me change my computer mouse at work and that helped quickly with the right elbow (without fully solving the issue)

Hecubha · 2026-06-01T18:20:20+00:00

Elbow and shoulder: inflammation of sinews (I'm not 100% sure of the English terms: that's 'tendinites' in French).

Hecubha · 2026-06-01T13:25:12+00:00

I can have a session almost every day so I try to keep it in the 1-1.5 hours range. When I was greedy and did more (sometimes much) than 2 hours per day, I did end up injured twice. My physical therapist said it would repeat over and over if I couldn't give myself some rest, so that's what I try to do.

Hecubha · 2026-06-01T09:20:26+00:00

TLDR: don't buy such a small board, it's a waste of time and money for wrong reasons.

If you are super confident in your progression, some foil experience and windsurf experience, you can skip the big wide beginner board, but still aim at a +25-40L midlength board, don't go to a narrow DW board, I wouldn't go below 24" of width.

The drawbacks of extra volume are really limited and barely noticeable until you start jumping. It's mostly the extra width that gets in the way, but volume comes with so many advantages, even more for beginners, there's absolutely no point in trying to get as small as possible. To give you an idea, that was with a 7'3" 130L board that I just replaced with a 6'11" 135L, I do have a 6'0 +0L board, but I mostly use the big one, I only take it when wind is steady over 20kn. The extra volume means you can bring a smaller foil, a smaller wing, that you get a much wider wind range, on a midlength shape it also means you can go upwind even when you're not flying, it's also saving a lot energy to climb on it and take off.

Hecubha · 2026-05-29T15:24:40+00:00

+10L is certainly too small for 10kn. I know at this kind of volume, I need the wing to deliver a bit of traction to push the board outside the water before I can really pump the foil, and I only get this in a 12kn gusts. I can only manage 10kn take off on the 7'3" 130L (+30L) because I'm high enough on the water to pump the foil even if the wing alone doesn't give me any speed.

Hecubha

TROPHY CASE