Amer and I headed to the West Coast of Michigan for a Kitesurfing day. The forecast called for a light Northwest switching Southwest which we thought would be perfect to go ride foils. Our first stop in the morning was over to the Mackite boardroom where we caught up with the guys and combed through all the different wings and boards that they had in stock. It was incredibly helpful to be able to compare and contrast the boards and wings in person you really got to see the differences right there in person.
After chatting for a while we left Mackite ready to ride. Which was good because we raided their demo room and filled up the box truck full of all the gear. We drove down to city beach in Grand Haven for a foil demo day. We drag all the gear down to the beach. Then rigged up our 9 and 12m kites. By the time we made to the beach the wind was just about straight on shore with some small waves coming in. This made it particularly difficult to get out deep enough past sand bars where the wings didn’t hit.
Body dragging through the sandbars was a good approach to get out as the foil can help keep tension on the kite and help you get upwind. But as soon as the wind got light the waves over powered the wind and made it impossible to keep the kite up in the shore break. This was pretty frustrating because you knew that if you could just make it past the sandbar with your kite in the sky you would have more than enough power to ride.
We packed up the gear after good session testing out a few board/foil combos and headed back to the shop. Just before we packed the last foil in we noticed the wind shifted SW.
As we arrived back at the shop the wind was starting to fill in. We grabbed some gear and bolted up to the pier heads for an evening session. There I rode the:
– Liquid Force Galaxy with the LF Impulse
– Slingshot WF1 and the H5
– Naish Hover 112 and Liquid Force Impulse
– Liquid Force happy foil with the thruster
We had the best time ripping through the flat water and playing on some small rollers. It was amazing to get to compare the boards and foils side by side. I rode the 9m Liquid Force Solo decently powered for the first half and then very powered for the last part of the session. We topped the session of with a quality BBQ dinner on the beach with the sun setting. Looking forward to our next demo session to get on a few other wings and boards I have my eye on.
