Foilboarding Video: Completing Slingshot’s “Foil Flight School”

Learning to Foilboard Using Slingshot's "Foil Flight School"

Foilboarding is an experience unlike anything else in kiteboarding. No matter your riding or your style, there is nothing like gliding silently and efficiently across the water (in fact, it's almost addicting). But learning how to foilboard can be a difficult experience, and it can take months or years to become proficient in riding. To some, it can be intimidating, painful, and frustrating. Sometimes people do not take the plunge due to their fear of failure. If you're able to get passed your fears, Slingshot has provided an awesome tutorial on how to use their "foil flight school", which we've transposed here. 

Foiling Flight School - Introduction

Slingshot wanted to introduce an opportunity for novice foilboarders to enjoy progression at the rider's personalized pace. To do this, they created the Foiling Flight School. This is the industry's first multi-sized mast system designed for progression. 

Much like learning basic kite skills on a small kite first, the Foiling Flight School allows you to start with a shorter mast. Then, you can increase in length as you develop skills and confidence.

Foiling Flight School is exclusive to  Slingshot's new Hover Glide Foil . It features supplemental masts of 15", 24", and 30" lengths. They can be purchased individually or as a package in addition to the 35" Hover Glide. 

Step One: Taxi Stage (15" Mast)

Getting a better feel of foilboarding is more manageable and safer with a shorter mast (15" in this case). Step one of Foiling Flight School is called the "Taxi Stage". Starting with a 15"mast will help you develop the basic foilboarding skills, like how to properly carry your foil, how to swim and body drag with your foil, how to get your foil in position to water start, and how to get it under your feet and moving through the water. 

Once you're able to taxi back and forth on your board and can ride short distances out of the water using your foil, you'll be ready for step two.  

Step Two: Touch & Go Stage (24" Mast)

The 24" mast is an invaluable tool for pushing your first controlled foil rides. As you rise and fall from the foil, you will begin to rider longer in between. You will appreciate the smoother handling a shorter mast provides, and you'll be amazed at how well you progress in balance and kite control that foiling demands. You'll soon fall in love with the sensation of gliding more smoothly and silently over the water. 

Once you're getting extended and controlled rides without touching down, you'll be ready for the 30" mast.

Step Three: Solo Stage (30" Mast)

After working your way up to the 30" mast, you'll appreciate the Foiling Kite School Program and easy progression it has provided. You'll know how to get into the foiling position, how to get up properly, how to maintain balance, and how to have longer rides. You'll begin to understand how to carve upwind, cruising downwind, and controlling speed and power needed to be a proficient foiler. At this point you'll be hooked on foiling. Best of all, you will have skipped much of the frustrating and (sometimes) painful process of learning with a full sized mast. 

Foil Flight School Riding Tips

The 24" and the 30" are good options for kiters who want to rider in shallower waters and who want a little extra room between their foil and the ground.

Hover Glide NF2 Foil

Refined by legendary Slingshot designer and foiling aficionado, Tony Logosz, the Hover Glide is a high-performance foil that delivers early takeoff, stable handling and smooth maneuverability. With decades of R&D experience and an intimate knowledge of foil dynamics, Logosz is an authority in foil design. He developed the Hover Glide for all-around performance freeriding, using aluminum mast and fuselage and composite components that make this the most affordable and robust foil of its class and caliber on the market.

The Hover Glide features a classic front-J gullwing shape with swept wings, mild winglets off the front and arching rear wings. The result is an incredibly stable foil with a medium top-end speed and a solid all-around feel. It can be mounted on any of Slingshot’s foil-specific boards and features separate fuselage and wing components that can be broken-down into three parts for easy storage/transport and replaced if needed.