Air Chair / Hydrofoil

pmccook1 - there are bunches of foilers in Georgia, depending on where you are in the state you could easily get hooked up with a ride. I know of some on Lake Lanier, I'm on Allatoona (know of a couple others on Allatoona too), some in Villa Rica, group on Lake Oconee.

As TxFoilhead suggested, getting on foilforum.com can assist you in getting in touch with riders no matter where you are.

pmccook1 wrote: I don't know of anyone in GA that has a foil to try out. But I'd sure like to try it before I buy it. a used one of course

Runnig a wing into the ground where Ryan had mentioned it was shallow - $0 and a few hours worth of work.

Slicing open the wrist seal on my drysuit while checking on that wing. - $50 and another few hours worth of work.

Listening to excuses about how much foils cost and how they will beat you to death, and then seeing the same barefooters take a few pulls and falls. - pricless

We're still laughing at all the excuses we heard, the conditions were amazing after the rain stopped on Friday and while the foilers tried our best the mess up the water, I still had a few inverts where I was having a hard time spoting my landings because it was too smooth. Ryan and James were able to foot in the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday. We'll get all you coverted over one of these days, you can even keep using your barefoot suits for protection.    

Ryan, thanks for hauling us around all day Saturday, were trying to figure out how to make it up for the Reunion next month, hope we can rearange the scheduals.     

In case someone is watching this instead of the tornado thread, we are at Laake murray this weekend, looks like we will be dodging rain, but have the place to ourselves so come on out.

For anyone looking for a foil I have seen a couple list on foilforum in the past week.

I won't tell anybody but is an awesome lake. I am going back when it gets really hot down here.

Ryan,
    Lake Murray is great. The water was very clear, I was impressed. The water temperature is very comfortable but a bit chill. During the day it warmed up very nicely. I was not able to do a hole lot. It was really windy the whole weekend, white caps everywhere. It think it was a sustained 18+mph wind. You were right about the park rangers around the park, two of my friends got speeding tickets. The floating cabins my friends stayed at were awesome. We camped at Tipps Point, nice place. The Marietta Landing camp ground looked a lot better. We wanted to be close to the cabins, so we stayed at Tipps. It rained on Sunday morning. I look forward to go back. I won't be able to make it next weekend.

Well, after tonights storms there is no question the lake will be up for you guys if not at capacity. Water temp is 77. I'm still trying to make it. Anthony was up there this last weekend, but have yet to here how the weekend went.

Yep, looks like about 15 or 20 people and we've got 3 or 4 new wings to play with that are new to the market. Most people will be getting up there by lunch time or so on Friday, some Thursday night. Give me a call so I can get your friends info and I will fill him in on the details and tell him how to get ahold of us when he gets there.    

Thanks for your input, I wouldn't have thought there would be that much difference.   now to hunt down a skyski I can afford.

What exactly is the difference in the sky and Air foils ?    They seem to look exactly the same to me in the pic's. The air chair comes with 3 wings.   I found a air chair not to far from me for a fair price. its a 2008 model.   Should I go look at it or keep looking for a skyski ?

   And why do they need such a polished surface ?

So you saying if I can find any year model skyski it will be a good one ?

If you learned to get up on it quickly, that's great. We have found that people who slalom a lot seem to have the most difficulty. They want to tug and push and pull on things and it really just requires that you sit still and follow the boat.

The next major lesson is to not push on your feet, it's a natural reaction to avoid danger but on the foil it causes it. That lesson is learned fairly quickly and the worst of the crashes are done until you start to jump.

If you have learned the safety position (arms out, bend forward at the waist to set the board on the water) well then jumping shouldn't cause you much if any pain. Try to take everything bacerds and you will avoid the faceplants.

Speaking of the faceplants, they will get your attention, but really it is just the same old slap on the water and getting water in your nose and eyelids that seem to happen from learning anything new behind a boat.     I have taken similar falls on skis, wakeboards, kneeboards and tubes. With the foils you can slow the boat down below 20 and minimize the impacts while your learning. I think the record for the slowest roll is 7 or 8 mph.

They do take up a bit of room in the boat, but we found that the are be hind the driver in a direct drive is usually unused, the other side of the motor works for the next one, and there is room for 2 more in the back with the seat removed. In my Excel I have had 6 with 6 riders.

As for the cost, anyone can ride any foil, and most tricks have been done on all variations of the the Sky Skis. The more expensive foils are lighter, smoother, and more responsive, but require no special skills to ride. If get into it you will end up with the high end equipment so purchase all you can afford and upgrade the rest as you can.

That's about all the rambling I have tonight, but for anyone interested in foiling go over to Foilforums.com and have a look around, we have just about all the info you could ever want on hydrofoiling.

Had a chance to try the skyski this weekend thanks to a pull and some tips by JoeinNY at White Lake. It's definitely unlike anything I've ever been on. Ever. To paraphrase Joe, "Very subtle changes in rope/body position have dramatic effects on your success and/or failures."   Having said that, it was a lot of fun and I'd like to have one. Took me a couple of tries to get up and then a few more to figure out how to keep it down. Most other water toys seem to be challenging to figure out how to get up. This one, for me at least, was more challenging to figure out how to keep it from riding up high on that foil, which for a beginner is the very first part of an incredibly massive face plant.

There are 2 things that I didn't like.
1. It's huge. If you have to carry it around in your boat all day with all your other gear (as i do), that alone would be enough to keep me from getting one.
2. Expense. This would definitely be a water toy that I'd be going in with my regular ski buds to split the cost on. No way I could swing a grand or more for one by myself.

Still, really cool toy and easier on the body vs. wakeboarding etc... As long as your not falling.

Water temp is 69 degrees right now.

Is really that cold?

Ryan, I got your number. I will call later in the week.