F-One SK8 950 Foil Review

This is Tucker, and today I'm going to discuss a very special wing that F-One just released, the "Skate" spelled "SK8". If you're interested in a brand new foil from F-One that just rips it up in the waves and is a blast for wing foiling as well, check this one out.

The SK8 from F-One is available in a number of sizes, from 550 all the way up to 1050. I have been riding the 950 and I'm just loving this thing. It has been a bit of an addiction for me. I've loved the Eagle foils for a long time, so I was a little bit skeptical of trying something different in the F-One lineup, but this SK8 is a solid competitor as a go-to foil for me. I'll tell you why in a little bit, but first let's get into the nuts and bolts of this foil.

Characteristics of the SK8 Front Wing

As you might guess from the 8 in the name, this is an aspect ratio of 8 on this foil, so it sits solidly between the Seven Seas foil at 7 aspect ratio and the Eagle foil at around 9.5 aspect ratio. It looks eerily similar to the Eagle; it's based off the Eagle design because it is such a phenomenal foil. They kind of chopped off the ends and blunted them a bit, making the wingtip a little fuller. Compared to the Eagle foil, this SK8 has about 10 centimeters narrower wingspan. Without the pointy wingtip with the winglet, what you get is a little bit looser, more nimble-turning wing, especially in the roll since you don't have as much wingspan. There's not as much leverage needed to roll into a hard, banking turn, so it's very loose and nimble. If you're familiar with the Eagle foil section, the anhedral is pretty much identical, so you're just unlocking a little bit more rolling maneuverability and a more surfy kind of a turn than what the Eagle will allow.

Who Is the SK8 For?

If you're an aggressive wave rider wanting to rip and carve turns like nobody's business, this is the foil for you, for sure. For me, being such an Eagle lover, I love the idea that it's based on the Eagle. I love the blunted wingtips and I love the narrower span. I was worried about them killing the Golden Goose, so to speak, since the Eagle is so perfect, so it's great to still have the Eagle in the lineup. But the SK8 is definitely what you want for more critical maneuvers, especially on the wave face and in the pocket. If you're going in and out of white water frequently like advanced to pro level riders will be doing, the SK8 does offer you a little bit more performance in that scenario.

SK8 vs. Eagle: Riding Styles

It's always a give-and-take with foil design, so what are you losing? Well, you're losing a little bit of range on the top end and the low end, and you're also losing a little bit of glide. Not so much that it's going to bother most people, but enough that these foils are different enough to both warrant a place in the F-One lineup. The Eagle is what you want for rolling swell and downwinders, and the SK8 is what you want for breaking, critical waves and hard-turning, high-G maneuvers on the wave face. I would say the SK8 doesn't pump quite as well as the Eagle. I think a lot of that is just the component of the glide that's lost going to a lower aspect ratio, but it's still a really phenomenal pumper, especially for a foil of this size. I'm 200 pounds and I can easily connect waves on the 950, so I think it's worth the trade-off for me in breaking waves.

SK8 vs. Eagle: Sizes

I started out on the 990 Eagle and then quickly downsized to the 890 because this foil has a great low end. The 990 has a pretty big wingspan, and in the waves I'd really like a tighter wingspan so I'm not breaching as much. I went with the 890 not necessarily because I needed more speed, but because I wanted to bring in the wingspan.

On the SK8 that's not an issue because this has a narrower wingspan than the Eagle 890 anyway. This let me size up just slightly to maintain a good stall speed on the low end so that, when you're really pushing hard through a turn and you blow tail and stall a little bit, you can still recover without stalling and falling back down to the board. When winging, freeriding around, or doing little 360s and drives and tacks and all those cool little tricks, it always pays to have a little bit more wing under your feet as well. And for freestyle, having a wing with a bit more lift and a bit more surface area is going to give you more pop and be easier to recover when re-entering the water so you can land back on foil. So for me, it made the most sense to size back up to a point between the 890 and the 990, and that is what the 950 does for me.

The SK8 Stabilizer and Fuselage

If you buy the front wing as a complete plane with a fuselage and stabilizer, you're going to get the new Monobloc stabilizer and fuselage. It doesn't have that chunky fuselage on the stabilizer with the screws; it's just one piece. That stiffens up this whole connection and really gives you a faster responsiveness. It also lightens it up slightly, and it even lowered the price on a complete stabilizer/fuselage combo just slightly, so those are all good things.

The C200 stabilizer, which is what comes on the larger SK8 sizes, is one that I'm super familiar with. This is my favorite stabilizer on the Eagle, and it comes with the XXX Short fuselage, which is awesome for the SK8. On an Eagle foil this size, I would probably be on a XX Short for a bit more glide and pump-ability, but on the SK8 it really pairs well with that narrower wingspan. You get a little tighter turning radius and a little bit more pitchiness for those really tight, critical maneuvers and snaps where you need to redirect more quickly than you would in a downwinding scenario, so going a little shorter on the fuselage makes sense.

The carving stabilizer, as compared to the downwind one, has a little bit more of a bouncy, flowy kind of turn. It wants to transition quickly into the next turn, so linking hard turns left and right, heel-to-toe, feels really natural, agile, and dynamic, so I'm really happy they chose this stabilizer for this kit. On the really small sizes, you're going to get a carving 180 stabilizer, so that'll be a little bit smaller.

Construction

F-One always nails it, and this is no exception. I don't know if they leveled up the construction for this, but it does feel even stiffer than most of their foils with the connection of the front wing and the fuselage.

Tucker's Review

Personally, I've been super stoked on this. I'm really agonizing over the SK8 950 or the Eagle 890 in my lineup. I've loved the Eagle 890 so much, and that foil is phenomenal for what I do in our conditions, but the SK8 is a solid contender. I love to ride breaking waves; my favorite thing in the world is to go out when the waves are breaking and rip the waves like a surfboard would, in and out of the white water, in critical sections, just to see how far you can push it and make those flowing, ripping turns. The SK8 does that. It makes those really difficult critical maneuvers better and easier, so for those kinds of days the SK8 is the clear choice for me.

We do get a lot of offshore, kind of sideshore, mushy, flat wave kind of days where that glide really matters, so in that the Eagle starts to make more sense, but if I had to choose just one, it'd be the SK8 950 simply because, for the type of performance I care about on the wave face on those days where it's just cooking and awesome, that's where I'm going to want to really be focusing. Additionally, the SK8 has a bit more performance in freestyle, so when you're jumping there's less wingspan and more pop coming in and out of the water, and the blunt wingtips for safety is a no-brainer. So on those days where the waves aren't there and you want to go mess around with some jumps and spins and stuff, this is a really great option.

I've been really amped on this. It works surprisingly well, and in lighter winds as well. It's so efficient, and once you get it moving and skipping off the water and it starts to lift off, it builds so much apparent wind. It's good upwind as well, and it's surprisingly capable on the low end. I give the F-One SK8 two big fat thumbs up. If I had a third thumb, I would give it that thumb up as well. It's been one of my favorite foils I've ever ridden, so I have nothing but the best things to say.

If you have any questions, pick up the phone and call us at the shop or send us a message on our live chat or email and I'll be happy to help you out. We should have these at the end of April 2023, and hopefully we'll have enough, but if you know F-One products, you know that when things get hot, they disappear fast. A lot of people love this brand, so jump on our website and pick up a pre-order now and we'll ship them to you as soon as they arrive.

This has been Tucker with MACkiteboarding, and we'll see you next time. MACkite Subscription Links:

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