Next level foil freeride
Being an early adopter of windfoiling in Italy Roberto has seen the development of equipment from the early days of using foils in existing slalom/formula boards to having dedicated windfoil boards such as the Severne Alien board range, and dramatically changing the foiling experience.
Here is his account of the development of windfoiling and his experience on the Severne Alien foil board range in his own words.
Early adopter
I was one of the first Windsurfing Foilers in Italy in 2016. I made the whole process of having Boards with no specific foil box and had no specific foil board. I just used an old slalom board. I lost the box and the foil a few times. Then I got really into foil racing. I had a full racing setup with a 95 cm wide board and the Olympic foil setup. I was using a 9m sail in all conditions but could only go upwind or downwind. I won the first Italian Championship in 2019 in Italy (FOIL against FW) by winning all races. But then I was always alone on the water because nobody was really doing upwind/downwind sailing and I could not really sail against my friends on Slalom gear, because I could not really do reaching on the big foil racing gear.
So I decided that it makes no sense to be out on a bigger sail than my friends with slalom gear and I decided to go on freeride/freerace gear.
When I had the opportunity to try a Severne Alien 125 and RedWing Foil combined with a Severne FoilGlide 7.0 in Silvaplana in 2020, a whole new world opened up for me. No more huge sails, and super powerful foils, but super early planing, easy control, and super easy gybing gear. The new technology that Severne offers has opened new horizons to windsurfing, and freeride foiling.
Alien 155
Last year I used the ALIEN 145 for the whole summer and nothing seemed easier than foiling from 8 to 18 knots with one board, one sail (7 m FoilGlide), one foil. Then I had the opportunity to jump on the new ALIEN 155 and once again I was just amazed how easy a “big” board can handle all wind conditions.
First of all, you always have enough volume to float when the wind is super light, or when it totally drops. The position of the straps makes you stand super comfortable so that you can make long upwind and downwind legs without feeling any stress in your legs. The gybing is really easy and getting to the point of sticking your flying gibes makes you really satisfied.
So for me, the Severne Alien Board range is the best sportif freeride kit you can get right now; easy take-off, balanced flying, and easy gybing are the correct mixture to enjoy every minute on the water!
I always used the RedWing foil, and just at the end of the Summer I also used the new 1000 front wing, which makes the whole setup even more sportif. The most used sails for me are FoilGlide 7.0 in 8 to 13 knots, and 6.0 in 10 to 20 knots! Using the Combo: Alien 155+ Redwing Foil + FoilGlide 7.0 allows me to spend more time on the water than ever before when I was not even considering going on the water below 10 knots!
See you flying out there!!
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