With the new Starboard Hyper Nut 4 in 1

We are living in interesting times. Everyday there are new inventions popping up and we can decide for us if they might improve our life or if it’s just another hopeless marketing campaign.
Like for a lot of people, foiling is something completely new for me and it’s was about time to give it a try.

I was about to escape the winter to Cape Town, where I finally wanted to learn how to “fly” over the waves instead of just riding them.
I didn’t wanted to take an extra foil board as my bags were more than packed having all the new eco test board with me. I needed a board that I could use for various discipline and found the new Hyper Nut 7,4 ( 4 in 1) in the starboard range. It‘s a board that can be used for Sup Surfing in Waves, Foil Sup, Windsurfing and Foil Windsurfing. It comes with a Tuttle box, FCS Fin boxes, a Mast track and foot strap plugs.
In addition I choose a freeride foil, that gave me enough lift for SUP Surfing as well as for light wind sailing.

Finally settle in Cape Town, I waited for a day with small mushy waves to try my luck on the SUP foil setup. First of all it was a pure struggle- I was about to learn a total new sport which I didn’t expect. Its’ not easy to find the balance when suddenly the board lifts up. I also had a few gnarly crashes where the board suddenly flipped. It’s kind of comparable with learning how to windsurf when you constantly make catapults. The foil is not as sharp as a regular fin but the edges can give you quite a few bruise as well.

Sooner or later I realized that foiling is all about using the legs as kind of suspension. You have to lean more forward than on a conventional board and push the nose down to keep with the board horizontal over the water.
As soon as the wave generates enough speed you can glide weightless over the water, kind of flying in a really slow paste. It is a dam good feeling when it finally works. I didn’t do crazy turns but had the feeling to go in the right direction.

Foiling with a Windsurf sail against was way easier as the wind gives you all the power to lift the board. In the beginning the boards tends to jump out of the water and than suddenly drops down when the front wing gets air. Sooner or later I also managed to work that out as well by shifting the balance from one leg to the other while trying to keep the foil in the water. Once the board is up in the air the pressure in the sail disappears and everything gets really smooth. It feels a bit like snowboarding in fresh powder. I still didn’t manage to jibe properly but I was stoked with making some progress.

In conclusion I have to admit that from now on I am pretty hooked with foiling. Even though I am not keen to carry more toys with me around the world, the possibilities with a XXL fin in the bag are pretty amazing. Especially if you had an “all in one board” that also works with regular fins for SUP and Windsurfing. Foiling definitely extents your time on the water, when you usually would have stayed on the beach. You don’t need perfect waves or strong winds anymore. You can have fun with almost anything.

Go out there and try it yourself.

“Cape Town, March 2nd – Professional Windsurfer, Ocean Adventurer and Environmentalist Florian Jung visits South Africa to enjoy some of the fantastic windsurfing conditions Cape Town has to offer while escaping the cold European Winter. While Flo has been enjoying the great windsurfing conditions Cape Town has to offer, the fresh drinking water crisis has been a very bleak contrast.”

The water situation is quite dramatic here in Cape Town. The so called Day Zero, where all the water dams are going to be empty is now scheduled for the 21 of April.

At that day there will be no water left in the pipes. 200 mobile water stations will be set up around the town where citizens can collect 25 litres of drinking water per person a day. Approx. 4000 people will be waiting each day for hours to get the needed water. At this stage, every person is allowed to use 50l of water per day. In most restaurants, the water in toilets is already switched off and the water prices per household have been gone up tremendously.

I attended one of town meetings in a suburb close to the city, where preparation have been made to keep the situation in control. Hospital staff, fire fighters and informal settlements have access to a certain volume of water at all time. In residential areas, there will be a water chief for each street, that will organize water supply for the handicapped and elderly, and check that no water is used for the wrong purpose.

The city expects to have this situation resolved in 6 months time, when the winter hopefully brings back some rain and a new infrastructure with new desalination plants has been set up. Even a few days with such limited access to water will already be a challenge. Time will tell how people deal with it.

It is fascinating and scary at the same time to see how much we depend on water. Its not only about drinking water, we need water for almost every sector in our life. It is one of the most precious resources we have and we will probably experience this kind of situation more and more in the future with a growing population and the consequences of climate change. It is quite a new problem of our modern society if a big developed city like Cape Town with 5 Million people is running out of water.

A tourist like me has to adapt to these regulations while I am here. If the situation gets worse, I can just jump on a plane and escape to rainy Germany where we ironically have too much water, whilst most people that live here in Cape Town dont even have the funds to take a bus ride out of town. I guess drinking a glass of pure water is something I will see with different eyes from now on. Its a more than privilege to open the tap and enjoy a cool zip of fresh water!

To me, this is a lesson of how important it is that humanity finds ways to work with these challenges and finds ways to respect the laws of nature. We only have a limited amount of certain resources and the sooner we realise that, the better it will be for all of us. One thing is for sure.

It will affect all of us.

This post was originally published on https://star-board.blue

After days in the studio kSB collective just released the video clip of our recent trip to Java in Indonesia. Enjoy 4 minutes with  100% windsurf action with some pretty big aerials.

August is a month when we have time in between events to go travel to destinations off the beaten tracks.

I joined forces with Camille Juban and Leon Jamaer to check out the South coast of Java in Indonesia.
Apart from Surfing every single day we found a dream spot, pure down the line waveriding with just us out in the water.

What an amazing trip. The travel story will be soon out in all magazines.
We will also produce a Video clip to be released in the next couple of weeks.
Stay tuned… Flo