Dave Kay talks AK Durable Supply Co’s foil range at the AWSI

Foiling Magazine's Contributing Editor Steve Sjuggerud joins AK Durable Supply Co's foil designer Dave Kay for an overview of their current foil range at the AWSI trade event.

Products featured:
AK Trek
AK Tracer
AK Plasma

For the full interview transcript, see below.

Steve:

Hey, I'm now here with Dave Kay, the foil designer for AK Foils. And Dave, tell us what's new in foils with AK for this year.

Dave Kay:

So with AK, we've developed a very modular range with our foils. We primarily have three performance levels. We have the Trek, which is a low aspect ratio, a very easy, very stable platform with a very low speed lift. So this is really the sort of foil that will get new foilers into the sport and have a very easy to ride platform.

We step up from the Trek series into the new Tracer v2. So this has had a complete new development for 2023. The Tracer is a mid aspect ratio foil. It's a step up in performance, sort of across the range over the Trek. It's faster. It's faster rail to rail and has a much more lively turn for that more progressing style of foiler.

And then finally we have our Plasma, which is our high aspect ratio series. So these are primarily designed for as much glide as we can possibly get. So the sort of foil that'll just go with the minimum amount of power.

Steve:

And so what sizes do these come in?

Dave Kay:

So everything comes in a really high range of sizes. So the Tracer is all the way from 700 to 1900 square centimeters. The Trek starts at 1000 and goes all the way to 2000 and the Plasma's from 1000 up to 1600.

Steve:

Oh, fantastic. And is this a new fuselage design for you guys? It looks unique from here at least.

Dave Kay:

Yeah, so we have three fuselage lengths for this year. In the past, we've had a 61 and 71 and we've added a 66 just to fill in the gap between those two. Primarily with fuselage length, it's about matching the cadence of your pump to the rider and the speed that you're riding at. And that mid-range 66 just seems to be working better for a lot of our riders. We've also done a bit of work on the nose shape on the fuselages for this season and we've managed to reduce the drag across the range.

Steve:

Fantastic. And it's the same fuselage for all sizes, so.

Dave Kay:

Yeah, it's the sort of primary motivation of having a modular system that all the front wings can mount on all the fuselages. We have five different back wings to cover all the sizes and different styles of riding.

Steve:

And even different shapes within the different sizes.

Dave Kay:

Correct. So we have a what we call a mustache rear wing, which has the turned up wingtips for more directional stability, and primarily that ships in the completes with the-

Steve:

Low aspect and mid aspect.

Dave Kay:

Trek and the Tracer. The Plasma has our arc down rear wing, which loosens up the tail of the setup quite a bit, especially for those sort of slack-

Steve:

Helps it roll a bit?

Dave Kay:

Not so much more, that's, Zane was looking for the big slashes off the top, so-

Steve:

Right, okay.

Dave Kay:

Is where that design came from, but it also allows the Plasma tail to actually rise quicker, which-

Steve:

Oh, interesting.

Dave Kay:

Which aids in pumping.

Steve:

Right. And so then you mentioned Zane. So what's Zane's favorite foil for his everyday use? And then what's your favorite? Because I mean I'm not trying to, you know Zane is Zane, so.

Dave Kay:

Yes.

Steve:

I can't ride Zane's gear, you know. So what does Zane like to ride? And then what would a more normal guy choose on a everyday?

Dave Kay:

Zane? The Plasma 1000 is his all day, every day foil.

Steve:

Okay.

Dave Kay:

Yeah, absolutely loves it. For myself, I prefer the Tracer. I like a little bit more stability than what-

Steve:

Little more user friendly or?

Dave Kay:

Absolutely. And so actually for kiting, I'm actually really enjoying the 850 this season.

Steve:

Oh fantastic.

Dave Kay:

Yeah.

Steve:

And then just one last thing. I see these two masts have different connections. Is one aluminum or what do you have going on here?

Dave Kay:

Correct. We have a full range of sizes in both an aluminum mast and a carbon mast.

Steve:

Oh, fantastic. So anything else you want to share? I think we covered some ground.

Dave Kay:

Just the one last thing very unique to AK is our adjust-

Steve:

Oh, a little trim, yeah.

Dave Kay:

Our rear stabilizer adjustment.

Steve:

Right.

Dave Kay:

This is, you simply loosen the screws and by sliding the wing forward or back, you can go from zero to-

Steve:

Adjust the shim, yeah.

Dave Kay:

Zero to minus four degrees on the rear-

Steve:

Oh wow, a huge range of adjustment.

Dave Kay:

Yes. Without the, no need for shims or bits of plastic or having that your stabilizer rear attack set fixed.

Steve:

And I think people don't realize how much of a difference that can actually make. I mean, it can make or break the performance of a foil really.

Dave Kay:

Oh, it's absolutely huge in that. And we will, even when testing, we'll keep an Allen key in our pockets. And back to the beach, a little slide, just a couple of millimeters will make a huge difference.

Steve:

Makes a difference. Absolutely. Yes. Well thank you Dave.

Dave Kay:

Thank you very much.