FLITELab* - Best Design and Ultimate Stiffness

We have spent a season on the FLITELab* gear now and we now understand the importance on uncompromising stiffness. When Adam Bennetts prototyped this system he had the advantage of riding many systems and bringing this product to market at the point in which Ultra High Modulus Carbon was available in the marketplace. Every component in the system is designed to have maximum stiffness.

When it comes to foil design, I have distilled it to 4 components: design, stiffness, drag and cost. In my mind you have to base your creation first on a purpose-driven intelligent design. The FLITELab* foils are surf foils. They work well for wakefoil, as do many of the surf foil designs. The foil section design of the FLITELab foils is special in mind because of the length of the cord carry in both the front foil and stabilizer. I believe this provides maximum stability when going straight and at speed. If you watch Adam Bennets and Caleb Pont ride, they have a unique style. They like to hit the wave and pick up a ton of speed as if they are shot out of a cannon. They carry this speed out into to the flats. Then they make the nastiest turn and head straight back at the wave, often riding it all the way to the crest and then turn the foil over in a second to be shot back out of the cannon.

The FLITELab foils carry that speed without issue. It is suprising how fast the 707 will go. My friend Richie tracked himself going 34 miles-per-hour on my 707 foil on his Chicama trip. The ability to carry speed allows me to connect waves and pump these foils well. The profile also has the anhedral design with an upturned mustache on the tips. It is an arcing design that turns up slightly and it is quite a genius foil section. This section design allows these foils to really crank a turn. The foils also ventilate tremendously well.

There is an awesome synergy going on here as well with the board design. The Austrailians typically ride an offset stance, as do I. The four foot, twenty seven liter raw board I ride is an absolute weapon. It is stiff. It is light. The design is impeccable. There is enough width at the nose to allow the off-set stance. This allows for a very dynamic stance. It also allows me to stand on the rails and pressure my turns like a demon. The beauty of the design comes in how they narrowed the board over the mast box. The board being narrow over the track means the roll rate on the board is epic. The stabilizer also allows you to crank turns.

The Austrailians are big choppers. They love to cut the tips off their foils. So I think Adam and the team wanted a factory-style chop on this gear. Less drag and more roll just gives better feels. When I got on this gear, I didn't immediately understand how special it was. It takes a minute to tune into this gear and feel the reaction you get from these foils. Stiffness enhances the feel or the roll rate and factory chop. What allows Adam to hit foam balls and have stability: the even cord carry. Absolute stability when you are over the foils. When you ventilate wing tips, if you stay over the foils there is no problem. Now when you want to go, the response in instantaneous. The ultra high modulus carbon provides instant repsponse times. The narrow section of the board, paired with the factory chopped tail and the anhedral mustache design, its absolute magic.

This thing also pumps like a demon for a mid aspect. The key is the amazing top end speed range. The aspect ratio of the range is 8.5 - 8.7 and that's reasonably high for a mid aspect. The upper speed range is amazing on this stuff. The stiffness allows for projection of energy. Something you have to feel to believe. When you pump you are essentially jumping forward. In this way you are retracting your legs, jumping ahead of the foil. The foil has no option other than to elevate and be dragged forward. When energy is not lost to flex, more energy is projected and it means more connections from wave to wave and longer pump times before stalling. I did not understand how important of a factor stiffness was in foil design until I felt the stiffness in every component of a system. The connection point of the mast is solid. No torsional flex. Zero. The titanium core is a great connection point for the fuse and conical wing. It is simple and intelligent.

Let me tell you how I configure my gear. I typically ride the Raw 4'0" board. I like to ride it at 5 centimeters forward in the tracks. When I pump behind the boat I like to use the 82cm mast. I use the short fuselage. I like my setup to feel loose and agile. I use the Flux 125 stabilizer. Smaller is better. Why? Less drag. Also, a better ability to crank turns. Behind the boat I like the Flux 808. It's nimble and as long as I carry speed I can complete every connection without issue.

I also like to use the Flux 1010 when I want to go further back. When I want to pump 10 waves back behind the boat the 1010 is my foil of choice. It is also good for beginner to intermediate rider trying to make their first connections. What's my weight? Good question. Around 175 dry weight. Now we also use the FLITELab* for airs. How do I configure my foil setup for airs? Good question. I use the 77cm mast. I use the extra short fuse. This allows for more pitch. I also increase my stabilizer size to the Flux 160. This allows me to re-engage the foil after the air. When you jump to foil you should allow the board to settle for a moment before re-engaging the foil. I typically run my back foot further back and my mast further forward when doing airs. I am still using the Flux 808 for my front foil in this scenario. I find the 77cm mast to also be a nice option for riding behind boats of a smaller size. Since the wave is smaller it is a bit easier to get powered back up when the the foil is closer to the surface. Using the 77cm and 82cm regularly has made me feel that a 72cm is a bit short. I think the smallest mast I would like to use is a 75cm. That said there are times when a shorter mast or a more low aspect foil is appropriate.

We change things up a lot based on the purpose of what we are doing. The cool thing is FLITELab and Fliteboard foils are interchangable. This is something the consumer is slow to understand. I have made videos showing me moving the foils back and forth. I also have made content showing the Flux foils on my Fliteboard. Maybe they should have marketed the unpowered foils as Fliteboard Raw instead of FLITELab*. Either way, it does allow us a bit of versatility to move things around.

I have sold an unpowered board, mast and a fuse connection to an efoil client. They can take their front foil and stabilizer off the efoil and now they have a complete unpowered foil. Also, the super gentle and forgiving Cruiser Jet 1500 front foil and Cruiser jet 300 stabilzier make a pretty great beginner unpowered setup for behind the boat. The low aspect foil is forgiving and the big tail provides a ton of stability. Pair that with a medium fuse and your will have a lot of success as a beginner. As you progress, you can move to a Flux 1010 on to both your efoil and your unpowered mast. I had a client that wasn't ready for a small stabilizer yet, so we left the 300 on the Raw setup but he was ready for the 1010 which made his setup more nimble and carvy.

These are quality products. The other thing to consider is the Fliteboard and FLITELab divisions are owned by Brunswick. This is a huge Amercian company. They stand behind their products. Also, they have a lot of staff and warehousing in America. As a dealer and a partner, I like having support and ownership in America. It is better for me and my clients.

If you haven't tried these foils yet please reach out to my shop. We have multiple demo locations. These foils are amazing and you have to feel the difference. The real difference when you work with my shop is we live and breathe lakes and wakes. We ride boat wakes every day. We efoil all the time. We are a performance shop. This means we are core foilers. We are working at the other disciplines like towing into ocean waves, winging and dock pumping etc. But at the end of the day, our roots are behind the boat and on a powered efoil, of which Fliteboard is the best, safest and most reliable product. As soon as you add power to a foil it adds stability and allows beginners to enter in what would otherwise be a very challenging sport. Wakefoil is also a discipline that is quite accessible to people who already have boats and understand how to do towed watersports.

What makes our shop special is we do stock the performance gear and we understand how to customize recommendations to the a lake rider. We can help you get on quality gear, in a quality system that will help you progress your riding. We can also support you with video and in-person coaching. At the heart of our business is a school that teaches beginner and improving riders regularly.

I started Kasota Sports after the frustration of not being sold the correct gear for behind the boat and on the lake. I needed opinions about gear and I needed testing done behind the boat. I wasn't able to get this from shops that specialize in ocean waves and wind sports. I was sold expensive foils that didn't work for my purposes. So I opened Kasota Sports to provide these opinions to riders like me who spend the majority of the time in a lake. Yes, I ride the ocean and I do sell to these clients as well. The majority of my business is centered on clients who ride fresh water. I will be headed to AWSI on Wednesday to try all the new foils and give my clients an opinion on how these foils work behind the boat.

The following week I will travel to San Diego to try the new Fliteboards and see what 2027 has to offer. There will be new FLITELab* foils to try behind the boat and on the Fliteboard efoil. If you want to know what I think please reach out. If you buy from my shop, you are helping support me so I can help you on your journey. You are allowing me to stay one step ahead in order to understand what is good, what works and why. I love this industry because we are all new. The oldest foilers are still young. We can all remember being newbies.

The efficiency of foiling also diminshes scarcity. Surfers are often dicks because they are battling in the lineup. They are all out there trying to fight for waves. They have been at this for a long time. Not foilers. There are plenty of waves and the stoke is high. A marginal boat wave is a blast and allows us everything we need to actually become pretty epic surfers. The only differnce is we surf the foil, not the board. The lines between surfing a foil and surfing a board are bluring as the gear improves. Watch Eric Geiselman make a nasty turn on a foil and it is definitley a surf manever. Turns are fun. Airs are fun.

Your boat is the perfect foil gym. it is 2 feet and glassy out there every day. The progression is real. My son Charlie continues to blow my mind and now I am learning from him. The groms who are growing up with this new gear and getting insanely good. I am excited for what the future will bring for this young sport. Catch me here on my blog or on social media. We are on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Our Instagram is @kasota_sports