Indiana 4’10 Surf Foil Carbon

The Indiana 4'10 Surf Foil in carbon is a board designed to provide maximum comfort when paddling and the earliest take off ability with a responsive compact shape. It is available in 3 sizes: 4’5 (40L), 4’10 (49L) and 5’3 (58L). All the boards are delivered with a good quality tapered board bag. I tested the 4´10, and I am 186cm tall and weight 84 kilos. The tests were conducted in 3-5ft waves, and under the wing in winds of between 15 to 25 knots.

First up, the shape is that of a shortboard with a rounded outline and a very flat rocker, a completely flat bottom with deep, beveled rails, a light recessed deck and a lot of volume in the tail. The tail is beveled to push the board into the smallest waves, and the lightweight construction makes the board excellent at paddling, while also being comfortable and balanced at duck diving. The board glides well through the water and overall feels like you are paddling a bigger board. The volume distribution and rocker allow you to press the board down to build speed, allowing you to catch mellow waves in a heartbeat. The recessed deck allows you to naturally position yourself in the sweet spot of the board and it’s very forgiving in the take-off.  As soon as you’ve caught a wave, this board allows you to pop up slowly, which is a great factor for beginner foilers.

When your feet are on the board, the deckpad is smooth and comfortable, and the recessed concave deck helps you find the position of your front foot, although on the tail I would have preferred a 3D pad and kicktail instead of the totally flat pad. Up and riding and the board is relatively stable. We noticed a slight ‘sucking’ phenomena from the bottom when bouncing off the water, and it needs a little kick from the back foot to get up on the foil. Once flying, the board remains very neutral and very balanced under your feet. It is responsive and rigid for pumping. When touching down on the water the board doesn’t lose speed or bounce. This is a fantastic feature that will save you in many situations. At lower speeds when you lose lift, it tends to stick a little and you need to get the right technique to pop it up again. Once you’ve got it though, you're good.

As soon as you get on a set of footstraps and some good wind, the Indiana Surf Foil becomes a wingfoil machine! It is super stable under the water on a sunken waterstart – the perfect volume distribution helps a lot in the overall balance, with Indiana's V footstraps (which are included) and multiple footstrap options giving you plenty of choice in finding the exact stance and foil position that works for you. The board has a lot of buoyancy for 49 liters and will ease you into waterstarts in lighter winds than you might expect. The rocker line brings you out of the water quickly on a single pump from the wing and the board remains very stable on the surface of the water. The extra volume will keep you on top while looking for a gust and some good front foot pumps will get you up in flight easily.

Up and winging it is very comfortable and I found it more responsive than most ‘proper’ wingfoil boards. It will allow you to connect waves, downwind and freestyle with a very comfortable amount of control and plenty of buoyancy upon landings.

Overall the 4´10 Surf Foil Carbon is a very versatile board that’s incredible at wingfoiling. On the surfing side, it is a great board for beginner to intermediate foilers, allowing you to pop up slowly with excellent balance, catch a lot of waves, easily achieve your firsts turns and cutbacks, and then pump your way back to the next wave…