Unifoil Team Rider Adam Ayers downwind pro tips

Join us as Adam Ayers, a long-time Unifoil team rider and OG member of the Voyager Crew of Oahu, breaks down the differences between Prone, SUP, and Winging downwind. In this video, Adam lends valuable insights on technique, approach, and foil selection to match conditions. Don’t miss this informative session that will elevate your foiling game!

Follow Adam at @AyerSupply on Instagram and @ayersupply on Youtube.

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if you’re looking to get into downwind there’s more ways than ever to do it if you have a prone board and a place to chip into a wave you can get started that way if you have a longer prone board and hand paddles in the right technique you can get started out in the bumps obviously with a longer board and uh a paddle a stand up paddle you can get started that way and that’s you know kind of the way that most people do it uh but you can also get get going with the foil assist either with a jet ski and a tow rope or a step off of a ski or a foil Drive which a lot of people are doing these days as well you can do down Wingers with uh a hand Wing or you can also Wing up wind deflate and get going that way so there’s a lot of different options these days um and however you decide is going to be influenced by the conditions in your area you know what you have time for as well as you know what you already know how to do so I got into downwind you know on my prome board my 4ft prome board luckily on aahu here we have a pretty amazing Coastline in the Southshore where you can jump off these rocks chip into a wave and immediately you’re right there into some pretty decent bumps and then you can ride you know a couple miles down the coast and you’re only about 100 yd off of the surf brakes if you fall you can paddle in in 5 or 10 minutes so it’s a pretty easy you know risk not risky way to uh get started and to learn uh as we as we started to uh do some of these longer runs um I had some friends that that got in started getting into uh sand up paddle you know foiling and downwind and uh I initially you know resisted that at first because you know my background was you know kind of shortboard Surfing and and it really wasn’t something I was into but after doing a few of the longer runs and uh and hav’t in Falling uh we have a run that’s about 8 Miles you know it’s kind of in the middle of a big Bay and you know one point you’re about a mile offshore so if you fall on a little prone board that’s quite a paddle back in um by yourself and and some windy choppy conditions I’ve done it it’s not fun so after a while I finally decided to uh to bite the bullet and to uh learn on the sub so last year I you know got a sub and a paddle and uh to be honest it was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done it was a full Beatdown physically emotionally psychologically but one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever learned hands down there’s nothing like being a mile offshore going 15 20 mph on foil for 8 to 10 miles with no crowds no one around except for maybe just a couple of you know friends that you you went out there with um so it’s incredible I I highly recommend you do it if you have the time and and the conditions in your area in terms of equipment and gear uh if you’re getting started it’s helpful to ride a bigger foil either a bigger mid aspect foil or High aspect foil something in that depending on your size probably in that 170 to 250 range and that’s because those foils in general probably have a lower stall speed so if you’re if you’re doing um Su foil or or hand paddle something like that you know you can paddle that up with less effort you know to get going um it’s easier to paddle up something when you only need to get it up going you know 6 or 7 m an hour versus maybe 10 or 11 on a smaller foil so and also when you get up on foil it’s little bit easier to stay up on foil because of that low stall speed in case you you know still learning how to read the bumps and you make a mistake or something but as you get better and improve you probably want to size down to a smaller foil and when you do that you know that will enable you to kind of carve a little bit more to go faster and even Race So in these these size foils are maybe in that 120 to 150 range you know 150 square in uh for the front foil and you know you may go even smaller than that if you’re looking to race but you know one thing additional thing to consider on these smaller foils is you may need kind of a longer narrower board to keep that forward speed to paddle them up in terms of mass fuse and Tails I like mass in that kind of 70 to 80 cm range for a few different reasons I think that it’s for one it’s lighter there’s less Mass to get up out of the water uh and once you’re up and flying I find it a little bit easier to ride in that efficient area of the map kind of higher in the mass fuses I like a medium fuse now for you know with different companies it might be a different different length uh medium might be something different to everybody but that’s for unifoil that’s a 33 cm uh fuse where it connects to the fuselage and I like that because it kind of gives you a good blend of pitch stability and responsiveness for me if I go too short you know out in the bumps it gets a little bit too a little bit pitchy for my taste I know a lot of people like that feel in the long although I like that at times it can feel just a little bit laggy just for for my taste so for Tails if you live in a place like you know Hood River or Bay runs where the you know it’s really sick it might be fun just to kind of carve and and ride a surf tail something like the shiv or shunt by unifoil or even you know the progression tail I really like that one a lot if you’re trying to ride for a really long time you know you know you want to probably be a little bit more efficient and ride you know maybe a little more High aspect tail to kind of ease that you know Glide and efficiency for shims I like like a Zer degre shim so the you know the tail is just feels pretty neutral or I like a 0.25 maybe a negative 0.5 to me that helps us sort of counteract the the front foot pressure that you feel sometimes when you’re going really fast on the bumps and that can be kind of tiring it makes it feel a little bit more nose down and a little bit more ironically a little more neutral when you’re riding you know for a long time helps with fatigue and I think it’s just a little bit faster so down winning very challenging but very rewarding um and can be really addictive um for me learning how to paddle up was one of the hardest things I’ve ever learned how to do in the ocean but I was so psyched it felt so gratifying when I learned how to do it and could all of a sudden get up and the bumps you know on my own it’s it feels like magic like every single time uh so you know I I really like playing around with different you know testing different equipment combinations and and trying out um different size foils with different tails and infuses and shims But ultimately I love being out there in the ocean and downwind enabled me to have fun on days that it wasn’t fun to Surf well when it was hard to find somewhere to go out and to have a good time so after learning how to downwind I’m looking forward to these conditions these are the the days that I want to you know that I think about and dream about more than anything now and uh I mean I think it’s it’s pretty incredible that you know with with something like downwind you’re able to have fun on days that you would you never have fun um surf foiling so enjoy the process Embrace this Challenge and uh I promise you it’ll be worthwhile um if you stick with it [Music]