I’m a bit lighter than you and have been learning with a Starboard 5’8” 88L, 6m Duotone Echo and Fanatic Aero 2000(not the HA). So far I’ve been very happy with this setup. The foil provides a lot of lift at low speeds. I’m considering Fanatic HA for myself as well. Leaning towards the HA 1500 but wondering if I could get by with HA 1250.

Fanatic has a forum that you can post these types of questions on and they are usually quick to respond. I would suggest checking with them to see what they have to say. My guess is they will say 6m Unit is a good choice for a wing and 1750 HA would be good for a 1 foil solution. (Are you looking the new 3.0 Aero? What mast and fuselage lengths?) I’m also guessing they will suggest the best option is HA2000 to start on and then eventually add the HA1500. They might question the board. As a kiter you are probably used to small boards so you will likely outgrow the 5’8” sky air pretty quickly, depending on how often you are able to get out in decent wind. The 5’4” sky wing hard board seems to be held in high regard by some folks. It has a fairly flat bottom without the concaves of their other sky wing boards and is said to glide really well for its size.

Coming from a windsurfing background with no foiling experience to speak of, I used a Kona longboard with the wing a number of times and then a couple of times with a 112L windsurfboard before I got an actual wing foil board.

I found flat water made it much easier for learning if you can find some. The first couple of times I tried foiling was in the small cove in between Van Pugh North and the Van Pugh campground. There are other spots on Lanier, depending on where you live, but Van Pugh, Vanns Tavern, and Old Federal are your options for winging with other humans.

Al

Great input from Al. I'd just add that Old Fed tends to be a little flatter than Van Pugh. Also, Plan B there isn't quite as bad as it is at Van Pugh (ie what happens if you get blown downwind and it's too far to paddle back). Perhaps Tony can chime in as he did a lot of learning up there. Neil pretty much learned at Van Pugh so it certainly can be done.

My top favorite for flat water is West Point lake at the parks down by the dam on anything with East in it, though. Pretty long fetches but the difference in boat traffic is significant.

Paul, now I have to go out and get wet, too, before the water cools off.

Al wrote:

"Coming from a windsurfing background with no foiling experience to speak of, I used a Kona longboard with the wing a number of times and then a couple of times with a 112L windsurfboard before I got an actual wing foil board."

You don't an windsurf board. Most any SUP can be used. It help learning to use the wing and to get upwind. You do need to make a simple and cheap mod on the board though as shown here. Works with an inflatable or hard board.