The Hydro is compatible with any freerace-race foil, we’ve specifically designed the inserts of the footstraps and mast track to give a huge range of setups. This also means as the foils evolve and setups change, you can always tune the board exactly as needed.

The longer length has multiple purposes, starting with stability, if you’re pushing speeds above 25 knots you need longitudinal stability.  That comes from increasing the mass inertia and gyradius of rotation. Greater mass inertia = damped oscillations.   Damped oscillations = less movement = higher speeds and control. 

The length also reduces the violence of catapults. Boards that are too short can cause serious injury from heavy touchdowns. If the nose does not have length and volume or length to support a heavy touch down it will partly submerge and cause ultra rapid deceleration often leading to severe whiplash injuries and broken equipment. 

Another benefit is it allows us to control the airflow over the board onto the rig, having a smoother transition to the rest of the board creates less air pressure build up at the nose and allows you to accelerate. 

You will notice on the 100 that the board is 218.5cm instead of 220. This is because 100 wide boards have lower top speeds and we deemed that in a critical race situation, every second to get back on the foil after a tack can be the difference between winning and losing. We, therefore, shortened the length a tiny amount to increase total flight time throughout an upwind/downwind race. 

With the Slalom Hydros, having higher top speeds on the reach is the highest priority.

Hyperglide from 5,0 – 8,0 work well, along with freerace sails.

The pantone code for the Hydro are 186C, White and Black.

You should tune the board to feel balanced at max speeds, where to put the mast track will depend on your foil and rig setup. But just keep the basics in mind, start in the middle and move forwards or back 1cm each time until your board is perfectly balanced at top speeds.

Start in the middle holes, if you feel you need more lift move them back 1 at a time. if you feel you have a very powerful foil and you need to have more weight forward, you can move them forward 1 at a time. 

On the back strap, you can choose between an outboard powerful setup or an inboard control setup. We would recommend starting with the outboard position and if you feel you need to take your back foot out on the reach due to being overpowered, you can move it to the control position inboard.

You can rotate the plastic inserts at each end of your footstrap to decrease its width for a tighter fit, as demonstrated in this video.