If you are a regular reader of the Stand Up Magazin you have seen our series on trying to unlock the SUP Foil Flatwater start. If not check out our foil guide here.
We started with the challenge to paddle in a straight line, then we moved on to try to get into wind swell escorted by a jet ski. The success was minimal, so we decided to forget about the paddle for a while. Instead it was time to figure the Downwind Foilboard out with a wing: That presented its own challenges. After that we went back to paddling and sought help from Jeremy Riggs and attended one of his pop up classes.
All of these attempts were made with an Armstrong HS 1850cm2, a foil with incredible stability and extreme low stall speed. The set up was a 72cm mast with the old 232cm2 stabilizer and the 60cm fuselage. It seemed impossible to get the downwind foil board out of the water with muscle power only. Then the APF 1675 came:
Blaming equipment on initial failures and success is always easy and I like to steer clear of such claims. I was not able to paddle the HS 1850 out of the water but other people could. Nevertheless once I switched to the APF 1675I felt a clear difference. In fact, I was astounded, that after putting my last breath into paddling and pumping my board, I actually got it out of the water for a split second. It was a one time success, but a big step into the right direction in the journey to unlock flat water starts by stand up paddling.