Foiling tips & tricks: high aspect foils and the proper mast.

Foiling and foils continue to evolve rapidly. Depending on your foiling level will perhaps depend on whether you’re using high aspect foil wings or not. There’s no question, as we all improve we want to unlock more and more performance. In particular more glide, more pumpability and more speed. But swapping your front (and rear) wings is only part of the story if you want a smooth ride of it (literally).

What’s a high aspect foil?

Which foil brand you choose will determine just exactly how high aspect you can go with foil wings. Some don’t take things too extreme, whereas others push the boundaries of what’s possible.

Axis Foils are definitely one of the latter. Their HPS range is already held in high regard as a range of high aspect foil wing designs. But you can go even further with the brand’s ART lineup. Yet some riders are missing one important piece of the jigsaw.

What else do I need to know?

High aspect foil wings are generally much thinner, with a much narrower chord and more span (relative to their overall size). You can’t measure these ‘engines’ by CM2 surface area as that doesn’t tell you much about performance. Instead, it’s more about the mean chord length. Although that measurement might also confuse riders. especially if you’re looking at jumping from a lower aspect foil which you’ve been used to identifying by CM2.

Efficiency is the name of the game with high aspect foils and you definitely need your skills dialled in so as to be able to use them properly. A better course of action, often, is going for something less high aspect rather than the full blown extreme. If you make too radical a change chances are you won’t get on with what your purchase. Best to take things step by step, incrementally. And don’t forget; there’s nothing saying you HAVE to change what you already ride and have fun on.

Keeping your high aspect foil stable in aerated/choppy water – all about mast rigidity!

Riding a high aspect foil – especially the extreme end of the scale – requires everything to stay composed. Choppy, aerated water (which we get a lot of in the UK) means these already reactive foils become even more so – but not in a good way. For many that equates to a twitchy feel which they don’t get on with. Vibrations, subtle ups and downs and imbalance can literally knock riders off. And there’s the turning factor – particularly noticeable in wing foiling.

If your front foil wing is gunning for the upper echelons of performance but your mast isn’t stable enough to support it the feeling can be one of discomfort, at best, and session wrecking at worst. We’ve experienced it firsthand where the wrong mast in tandem with a high aspect foil wing can be so unstable that it chucks us off. And this becomes extremely frustrating as moves that were once completed on autopilot now require gritted teeth and absolute determination. This becomes waring, tiresome and is enough to put anyone off foiling for good!

Flip this to using a more rigid mast, capable of supporting your foil wing, and suddenly everything is much more joyous and smiles.

Mast rigidity – carbon versus alloy. Which mast should I choose?

The new generation of high aspect foils – especially the ones with largest span – requires the stiffest mast possible. High modulus carbon is usually the way to go here. That’s the case with Axis. Even the narrower, smaller high aspect wings benefit from this.

This said Some brands – again, such as Axis – offer superbly rigid alloy masts. In the past, rigid alloy masts were much better than standard carbon masts. Heavier riders and pilots of bigger front wings would definitely be looking here. Stiff alloy foil masts are very much still products that get used everyday. And they can work fine with these new generation wide span alloy masts. But the fact is: now high modulus is available the performance gains are so superior that if you want the upper echelons of foiling prowess you need to go down the high modulus carbon route.

What about if I don’t want to go high aspect?

At time of writing (March 2023) there’s another foiling industry trend shift back towards mid-aspect foil wings. If 2022 was the year of extreme high aspect then for the mid range of a rider’s foil quiver the trend is for middle of the road.

Of course, we’re also seeing these gigantically wide pump orientated wings being released. As yet, however, it’s not obvious how some of these will get their correct foil mast support so we’re watching with interest.

For every day riding, mid aspect foils will be a more palatable option. These won’t require high modulus carbon foil masts as a necessity. Although they’ll still benefit if you decide to stump up.

In general, though, having plenty if choice and ways to tune your foiling performance is a good thing (if a little confusing at first). Whatever foil set up you go for make sure it’s from a quality, well respected brand. With regards to foil mast ensure it’s as stiff as possible and able to support the foil you get hold of.

For any questions or queries relating to Axis foils or other foil products, we sell get in touch here.

Don’t forget to check out more foiling knowledge here.