Ezzy Hydra Windsurf Foiling Sail

With the lack of South Westerly winds so far this season at 2XS we been out on the water lots still both wind foiling and stand up paddleboarding – so its all been good in West Wittering!

We have been testing the new Ezzy Hydra one of David Ezzy new design creations – a development that has 12 months of on water testing on foils in Maui -Hawaii. I had been using my Taka 4’s up until now 5.3 and 4.7 to power the foil but was very interested in hearing Dave Ezzy had developed a specific foiling sail.

I am 12 months into my windsurf foiling experience and have been really enjoying getting out in sub 20 knot winds.   For me planing on a foil in just over 10 knots is a dream and the new light weight Hydra I reckon is the answer.  I am not sure that big race sails are the right option for foiling  – it sort of loses the appeal.

The Hydra was kindly sent from Dave Ezzy and Wouter at Seasprite  – its a 5.5m size sail – when I first saw the out line and super long bottom batten I was bit surprised – it looks kind of whacky – wasn’t quite sure about the whole concept. However, after having chatted to Dave and being reassured it is a son of the EZZY Taka 4 (one of my favourite pieces of windsurfing gear) I had to trust the EZZY design process. Before using the sail its worth watching the rigging video – tips like dropping the boom on from the top of the sail and it comes with a superlight wind setting and normal wind settings on each sail (setting tabs to bottom of mast min 1 and 2 and med 1 and 2) you notice on the super light wind setting the sail rotates more on the foot long batten more than any other EZZY windsurf sail.

When I had it on the water it felt super light – the long batten helped pump the rig on the water really quickly, soon as you were on the plane you fine tune the sheet angles and get a real feel of the foil and control its lift –if the wind dropped a couple of pumps of the sail keeps the foil gliding.

What I did find on the water, once I was settled, was I could control the lift of the foil but gently sheeting in.  Even when stronger gusts came through the Hydra was easy to manage as the sail didn’t distort and the centre of effort was locked forward and low.

It feels like half flying, half windsurfing its truly an epic feeling on the water!

Dave Ezzy sent me over the wind range of the Ezzy Hydra sails so depending on your body weight, board size and front wing size you can get max usage of your foil.

6.0: 9 to 15 mph, 5.5: 10 to 20 mph,5.0: 15 to 25 mph,4.0: 20 to 30 mph,

3.0: 25 to 40 mph (not in production)

I used a Slingshot Wizard 125 ltr board, with the Slingshot Hoverglide Fwind1 foil,I also used it on the Fanatic Gecko 133 foil specific board and Fanatic H9 Flow windsurf foilplus also tried the RRD WH Flight ALU Hydrofoil 85.

I weigh 79 kg and was testing the Hydra 5.5m in wind speeds of 9 to 18 knots onshore and gusty offshore winds –if you fancy a lesson or test drive please get in touch simon@2xs.co.uk 01243 512552.

“interested in wind foiling, check out www.windfoilzone.com for more info”

We expect pricing and availability soon.