Foiling Magazine publishes our test session in Annecy!

The latest issue of Foiling Magazine, THE reference for foil, is out! And once again, SROKA is in Foiling Magazine. In this new edition, Foiling Magazine has published our test session of the High Aspect S-Foil and pocket board in Annecy. The opportunity for us to share, in the “Red Day Letter”, our Wake Foil weekend on Lake Annecy with the whole SROKA team.

Foiling magazine is Foil’s number one international magazine. Available in digital and paper versions, in this magazine we talk about Foil and all the associated practices ( Surf Foil, Wake Foil, SUP Foil, …). Foiling magazine shares stories of unpublished sessions and interviews with athletes in the middle of photos that take us on a journey. It is a very comprehensive book. In addition, there are tests of specialised branded products. Readers of Foiling Magazine can discover innovative products, get inspiration for their next sessions or find advice on how to progress.

In September 2021, we went to test new products for Wake Foil. We were with our riders, Paul-Conrad Delaere and Gabriel Bachelet, both accompanied by Bruno SROKA. They made a series of waves under the lens of Jean-Marc Favre. Jean-Marc Favre is the photographer who has followed Bruno throughout the last 20 years. Especially during his adventure project: crossing Cape Horn in a kite. It must be said that Lake Annecy offers a unique spectacle. The sun rising behind the mountains provides a contrast of vibrant colors. It was therefore unthinkable for us to be there without immortalizing our sessions. For these sessions we boarded Emmanuelle Dumolard’s boat, which offers water sports lessons on Lake Annecy.

Annecy is the ideal autumn or spring destination. It combines pleasures: skiing in the morning and wake foiling in the afternoon, before ending the day with a good mountain meal. We were also able to try the famous Waves Garden in the Swiss Alps, Alaïa Bay. Only 1h30 from Annecy, it is the first surfing pool in continental Europe. A great spot that allows you to surf as many waves as possible right at the foot of magnificent mountains.

This trip enabled us to evaluate the performance of the new S-Foil High Aspect 1190 Lift in waves and pumping. It was also an opportunity for us to test our new SROKA pocket board. These are new development ideas for the 2022 season, always with the objective of combining the high performance of our products with accessibility.

The Wake Foil is a great way to improve your technique, especially for surfing foil. Towed by the boat at the start, you will generate speed very quickly and thus take off easily. A 20-minute session of wake foil is the equivalent of at least 2 sessions in the waves!
From a product development and testing perspective, it’s really interesting. You have time to observe and understand the behaviour of your foil under your feet. But also to work on your technique in order to progress and better feel your foil and its potential. All without having to worry about wind, swell or tidal conditions…

Riding a wave that never ends is so exhilarating. You can vary the sensations, make sharp turns, get away from the wake, go around the water and then come back on the wave. You don’t have to worry about waves, because behind a good wake foilthey’re the same all the time. Depending on their position on the wave, the rider will not have the same power and different characteristics of glide, handling or power may be observed.

The big difference between a boat’s wave and a wave formed by a swell is the boat’s ability to create, over and over again, the same wave identically. This allowed us to easily test different set-up options with a minimum of variables external to the product and thus validate our foils more quickly. Every second, the wave is identical. This is exactly what you are looking for when you want to test different profiles, different wing options, etc. It’s also a great way to progress.

As we mentioned, the advantage of testing the products on a wake wave is the regularity of the wave. This makes it possible to test all options under the same conditions, without any external parameters disturbing the test.

• Step 1: At first, riders need to get used to the wave to get to grips with this new way of surfing. The wave is shorter, so you have to adapt your surfing style. Compared to a natural ocean wave, you have to press slightly more on the back foot. Once this adjustment period is over, we start to change one variable at a time. After each modification, riders review how they felt, then compare each other’s opinions in order to choose the best possible option.
• Step 2: The objective: to test the different possible options. We started by changing the size of the fuselage, then the length of the mast, and finally we tested different stabilizers. Every time we changed an element, we tried to get an agreement on how everyone felt. If this wasn’t the case, we went back in the water to check and compare our sensations again.
  It’s a long and meticulous job, but it’s the best way of producing a perfectly accomplished product that meets all the objectives we set ourselves. It is for this reason that it is useless to produce 50 different fins without having done a lot of work beforehand to set a complete set of specifications and precise objectives.
• Step 3: Of course, we end up with validation. This type of test weekend is fundamental to validate the production of a new fin. We were able to fine-tune the foil to determine which combo was best suited to the different riders. wake foilfor different riders.

During these two days, we tested four different wing sizes, but also three sizes of mast and fuselage as well as two stabilizers. A productive day that promises new things to come!