Where do I start?

Looking at building my own foil and I'm sure you guys have been asked this many times and excuse me if I have not found the relevant post (if there is one) but what are the basics or even golden rules when starting out trying to make your own foil. Are there any. I've been trolling the internet and have found so many different shapes out there and they all seem to work, some better than others no doubt but the principle remains the same.

Thanks in advance.

Welcome Payback!

Are you a total beginner on a foil, or already advanced?
The problem with hydrofoil is that riding with these beasts is tricky a the beginning!
Even for an advanced rider, some time is needed to get used to a new shape and adjust it.

If you're a beginner, I would advise to learn with something that you know that works
... while making your own in parallel.
You would loose a lot of time & energy trying to learn & adjust on the same toy

otherwise, Franckite24 put a good post a while ago in the French section, with dimensions:
https://kitefoil.forumactif.org/t864-petite-contribution-pour-bases-cotees
He's one of the most advanced

It's not too difficult to make one but it is very time consuming (expect 100hours min for board & foil!)
... especially if you are already used to working with the materials!
It gets more tricky only if you want something very efficient

Brilliant, thanks Cookie. I've been trolling the French section and already have a few ideas. On the building side I'm pretty jacked up it's the science behind it that interests me as well. There seems to be a lot of different foil shapes and they all seem to work. I saw a vide on YouTube of a guy that made one form old pieces of wood and it worked lol. not that I'd like to make one from old pieces of wood lol. It's would probably be AIREX and Carbon.

On the board side I have a old Connelly Skurfer that I'm going to breath life into again. I think it would be perfect for this project and could spend the time saved focusing on the foils and T-bar. Also love your see through boards. I think I followed your project on the Yahoo board builders forum many years ago. I'm JMF BTW on the Kiteforum.com Board Builders section.

Connelly Blade Runner Skurfer

hello payback
Your board seems to be OK (good shape for foil)
The T bar is the most important part of the foil ,it must be realy strong with a hard flex.
Good luck for your project
We folow you and Cookie as enough expérience to help you;for sure

Hi PayBack - I posted to you last week but for what ever reason the post evidently did not materialise... sorry about that.

Not much more to add to what has been said other than to reiterate welcome.

If you've already trolled through the french part of the site you'll find Franc's notes and calculations that give a great base to plan your foil. If you have any questions just throw then out on this side of the forum and someone will get back to you - most people on here are really helpful and happy to share genuine advice.

Good luck with your project and I guess we all look forward to seeing it finished.

Again thank you for the welcome guys, hope I can be of help in the future as well.

Was wandering if anyone could help me find a post in the French section (think it was one of Franks replies) that gave a basic/ruff break down on some different part dimension/sizes you could work off as a base.I found the info and thought I saved it but I can't find it anywhere on my PC. I've gone through all the posts I looked at on the French section can't find the info again. It was in reply (I think) to a person asking about T-Bar and fuselage dimensions.

Thanks in advance.

Lots of info in the link above from CookieMonster - cheers for chivers. Not sure where you're based in SA but Jay Furness was into Kitefoiling wayback 2007/08 if you know where he's at maybe worth giving him a shout - the ex-manager of Aaron Hadlow and Team Flexifoil, just a thought...