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Air Chair


Air Force 1

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Looking to buy an Air Chair when I can scrounge up the cash. I have seen videos of it being pulled, but can't remember ever seeing someone get up on one. Anybody on here ride one? Any recommendations on brands to buy? Tips on usaing? These things look like crazy fun!!! Looks like you could also eat $hit pretty hard if you don't know what your doing..... The guy in the video I linked to is doing some crazy stuff...

http://www.airchair.com/gallery/GenoYauchl...chAllOneRun.wmv

Thanks in advance for your input

AF1 Rockon.gif

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First, I want to thank the guy who stole my Air Chair. I replaced it with a SkySki and was amazed at the difference in performance. Check the hydrofoil forums for opinions and used gear. You may be able to find a good entry level ski for 800.00 or so.

A beginner video will get you up and riding, but there is no substitute for an experienced instructor. Check the forums for a rider near you. How fast you will progress depends a lot on who you ride with.

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That would be Geno..... he's the worlds best these days. He holds several records for most flips on anything.... 1416, most flips in an hour (529) plus he does TV appearances & other promotions. Geno has his own site where he sells his own brand of AirChair: FoilTime. Be careful though.... Geno's AC is a far cry from the regular AC sold by AC themselves. Frankly they are more like the SkySki, which is a good thing.

I've been riding foils since about 1993. My latest is a B39 SkySki with the Evo seat & MaxAir front wing. I have a history of bending &/or breaking the t-bars & seats...... but this baby is stout & gets big air. At 220 lbs & 42 yrs old, I can usually give any of the young guys on wakeboards a run for their money.

As for getting up, it's just like any other water ski discipline only your sitting down. Lean back, handle out in front, let the boat pull you up over the board. For beginners, the trick is learning when to shift from leaning back to leaning forward so you don't climb up on the foil right away (or launch it out of the water!). Once your up, lean forward & hold the handle out & up.... this will keep the board down on the water. As you learn to steer (pointing your knees), and balance (kind of like a bicycle), you can lean back a bit & get it to climb up on the foil. This is where it gets crazy! The crashes can be pretty wild, but no worse than the faceplants you can take digging an edge on a wakeboard.

A couple more sites for you to check out:

SkySki.com

AirJunky Hydrofoil YahooGroup

Foil Forum

I have ridden with the San Antonio Sea World team out at Canyon Lake. Great group of riders & pretty talented. Might be an easy place to see some tricks & meet the riders.

Also, check out the Texas Fly-In website. The event is coming up & held west of Ft Worth. Definitely worth the trip!!

post-821-1211309805_thumb.jpg

post-821-1211309805_thumb.jpg

Edited by Bill_AirJunky
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That would be Geno..... he's the worlds best these days. He holds several records for most flips on anything.... 1416, most flips in an hour (529) plus he does TV appearances & other promotions. Geno has his own site where he sells his own brand of AirChair: FoilTime. Be careful though.... Geno's AC is a far cry from the regular AC sold by AC themselves. Frankly they are more like the SkySki, which is a good thing.

I've been riding foils since about 1993. My latest is a B39 SkySki with the Evo seat & MaxAir front wing. I have a history of bending &/or breaking the t-bars & seats...... but this baby is stout & gets big air. At 220 lbs & 42 yrs old, I can usually give any of the young guys on wakeboards a run for their money.

As for getting up, it's just like any other water ski discipline only your sitting down. Lean back, handle out in front, let the boat pull you up over the board. For beginners, the trick is learning when to shift from leaning back to leaning forward so you don't climb up on the foil right away (or launch it out of the water!). Once your up, lean forward & hold the handle out & up.... this will keep the board down on the water. As you learn to steer (pointing your knees), and balance (kind of like a bicycle), you can lean back a bit & get it to climb up on the foil. This is where it gets crazy! The crashes can be pretty wild, but no worse than the faceplants you can take digging an edge on a wakeboard.

A couple more sites for you to check out:

SkySki.com

AirJunky Hydrofoil YahooGroup

Foil Forum

I have ridden with the San Antonio Sea World team out at Canyon Lake. Great group of riders & pretty talented. Might be an easy place to see some tricks & meet the riders.

Also, check out the Texas Fly-In website. The event is coming up & held west of Ft Worth. Definitely worth the trip!!

\

Thanks for the info..... I have to get one of these things! Little Bush just might help me out with his stimulus payments...lol. I am 35 years old, 225 lbs. and pretty skilled on wakeboard. No flips, but can get some pretty decent air and some grabs. I will check out the links....

Thanks again

AF1

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Wow. That Geno is freakin nutz! Very nice!

Plus1.gif

Yeah, imagine the hours he's put in to get that good... insane......

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Wow. That Geno is freakin nutz! Very nice!

Plus1.gif

Yeah, imagine the hours he's put in to get that good... insane......

Yeah, I'd love to see his blooper reel! I betcha there are some real winners in there.

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I want one but just don't know if I want to spend the money now. I just can't get a cheep one. If I get into it it will need to be pushed. Crazy.gif

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Yeah, I'd love to see his blooper reel! I betcha there are some real winners in there.

I rode with Geno a few years back when we talked about going out and working on stupid stuff. We had ben partying through most of the night, so for most of us, it was the beer talking. But we decided we'd meet the next morning at 9:00am to work on double back flips.

And Geno was out there at 9:00 on the nose ready to ride. He was hungover, and still went out and threw some amazing attempts. He crashed so hard once, there were pieces of the ski/gear all over the water (yard sale). He picked everything up, put it back together, put his helmet back on and said hit it and tried again. He is a frikken animal; there is no doubt about that!

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I want one but just don't know if I want to spend the money now. I just can't get a cheep one. If I get into it it will need to be pushed. Crazy.gif

I can't begin to tell you how many foil riders have been in your shoes when they were thinking about getting into a foil of some kind. Damn near every single one of us started in some other discipline & thought about trying this contraption out, only to get sucked into it & spend a ton of money on it. I had been wakeboarding for about 3 or 4 yrs. I had stuck a couple of wake backrolls, done body slides, jumped the wake heel & toe side, wake to wake 180s, etc. But then my brother was given an AirChair to check out. I ended up trading a computer to one of the guys at HO Sports for an AC. And it was downhill from there.

Everywhere I go, I run into groups of people who were into some other discipline, then one of the guys got a foil, everyone loved it and then everyone had to have one. A few years ago I spent a week or so with some friends at Lake Naciemento (sp?). Their all old barefooters & now they all ride foils. They still barefoot occasionally, but they ride foils daily. I think a few of them are Crew members too (Dan?).

Get with a friend who you ski / board / foot with, and talk about going in on a foil. As long as your similar in size & weight, you won't have a problem sharing a foil. And it might take the pain out of buying a $2000 toy.

Check out the sites I listed above for used gear. Or Ebay is good too.

It's funny, we buy $60k+ boats, but have issues with a toy to drag behind it that is less than 10% of it's value. For some odd reason, guys into computers & hot rods really get into this thing..... something about the technology of foil dynamics that really gets us.

I warn ya.... don't try it unless your willing to go in with both feet! Remember the addiction you felt when you got into boarding / skiing / footin........ it's the same addiction, maybe even worse.

And good luck!

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I TOTALLY agree with Bill on everything he said! When I got my first AirChair back in the day, it was VERY hard to justify spending $1000 on a water toy. After all, how much fun could it be??? There was no way I could justify any more than that for an upgraded model, but I took the plunge on the entry level ski.

It took me a year - got my first invert, and I put down another $3K and sold that first AirChair so I could get the latest and greatest back then.

7 years later... Now my son's ski (8 years old) has more custom parts than a hot rod at probably about the same price. Thumbup.gif But he's determined to land his first invert in the next year to beat the world record of the youngest inverter on a hydrofoil.

There are so many benefits to riding a foil. You won't blow out your knees. It's ok to wear a helmet which helps from blowing out ear drums/concussions which is taboo in other sports. You get SOOOOOO much higher than anything else towed behind a boat without a parachute. You can ride in rougher water. Everyone always stops and watches. You can do tricks outside the wake - and even do tricks behind a seadoo/pontoon/anything that can go 25mph. Kids learn how to ride very quickly (usually quicker than adults). If anything every happens, the ski automatically puts your head above water the way it is weighted and the way it floats. There is so little resistance in the water when "flying" (board not touching the water) that you can hang onto the rope with 1 finger.

Plus, there is no other feeling that matches the first time you "fly" the foil (bring the board off the water). There is a reason we all become very addicted very quickly!

Good luck with your decision - and jump on those other sites Bill mentioned. They will help you a ton!

Bryan

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How tuff is it on your body? Lower back, knees, hips?

That's the beauty of the sit-down foil - it is VERY easy on your body until you start doing stupid things like front flips, huge wake rolls, etc. And that's just from the imact of landing from 15 feet in the air.

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Looking to buy an Air Chair when I can scrounge up the cash...

To each his own but I'd say "ride one before you buy one". Yes.gif I rode one (a friends) for a while after knee surgery. Picked it up quickly, all you need is a sense of balance. If you don't have a good sense of balance... PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, take a video cam with you. Whistling.gif:lol:

Seriously though, demo first. I thought it was amusing for a while but so is an inner tube. It's a lot of money to plop down on something you're not sure about. No way near fun enough for the investment required. No.gif IMHO of course. For that much $$$ I could buy a couple of new rippin' sticks. Thumbup.gif Maybe when I'm older and can't run the skinny stick anymore (somewhere in my mid-90's :lol: ) I'll consider a foil but not right now. Like I said though, to each his own. Some people do love them...I just wasn't one of them.

Edited by NorCaliBu
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How tuff is it on your body? Lower back, knees, hips?

Very low impact on the knees & hips. Lower back can take a beating when you start getting some height in your tricks...... and when your getting older. I have had both problems. SkySki has a Shock Tower that has 4" of suspension built into it. And they have the Evolution tower that has about 1" of flex in the seat. The Evo is considerably lighter, less expensive, less moving parts and an inch of flex is good enough for most riders.

Evo Seat

EvolutionTower1.jpg

Limited Edition Shock Tower - anodized, more adjustments.

LimitedST.jpg

Standard Shock Tower - slightly heavier, powdercoated.

GreyST1.jpg

The Shock Tower is based on a mt bike suspension, and really works great. I've been using one for about 5 yrs & love it. I only upgraded to the Evo to reduce weight....... and the Evo has a bit more bling.

Or you can just bag the sit down version & stand up on a foil.

SkySki Ripper

product-RipperFoilboard.jpg

Personally I like sitting down. It's a bit safer as I have less chance of the foil hitting me on a crash..... add your knees to the mix & it gets pretty crazy. And there are more tricks possible sitting down these days. Riding sitting down reminds me of riding a dirt bike or quad... just the position your in, some of the tricks, etc.

While SkySki has the largest assortment of seats, boards, foils, etc. there are several other brands of components available too. Extreme, FoilTech, AirChair, FoilTime, etc. The sites I mentioned before will have links & discussion about a lot of that. It's very much a custom sport, sort of like Harleys are in the motorcycle world. Get to a Fly-In & you will find a LOT of different designs, some home made, some really trick, some just crazy. There was a guy a few years ago making them out of wood!

Edited by Bill_AirJunky
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Looking to buy an Air Chair when I can scrounge up the cash...

To each his own but I'd say "ride one before you buy one". Yes.gif I rode one (a friends) for a while after knee surgery. Picked it up quickly, all you need is a sense of balance. If you don't have a good sense of balance... PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, take a video cam with you. Whistling.gif:lol:

Seriously though, demo first. I thought it was amusing for a while but so is an inner tube. It's a lot of money to plop down on something you're not sure about. No way near fun enough for the investment required. No.gif IMHO of course. For that much $$$ I could buy a couple of new rippin' sticks. Thumbup.gif Maybe when I'm older and can't run the skinny stick anymore (somewhere in my mid-90's :lol: ) I'll consider a foil but not right now. Like I said though, to each his own. Some people do love them...I just wasn't one of them.

Yep, exactly - to each his own. So definitely try one. I'm just not a "stick" guy. I do that for about 1 minute a year to remind myself why I got bored with it years ago. Now I do this:

WBR.jpg

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wow that is big air!!

thanks for posting the pics of the seats, those are nice. I will have to demo one some time and see what the hype is all about.

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HEhe, Bryan gets some air alright.

A while back one of the foil companies had a slogan that said something like "Skiing in 3D". That really hit home for me. Even if you never get upside down, it will had an upper dimension to your skiing that you just don't get in other disciplines.

Heres a shot of JB from the Foil Forum I thought was great. I don't nearly this kind of hang time, but even I get these amazed looks from people on the lake.

post-821-1211391729_thumb.jpg

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I saw some guys at the lake last weekend tearing it up on these. Looks like fun and wouldn't mind trying it, but I saw some nasty faceplants like I've never seen before.

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Looking to buy an Air Chair when I can scrounge up the cash...

To each his own but I'd say "ride one before you buy one". Yes.gif I rode one (a friends) for a while after knee surgery. Picked it up quickly, all you need is a sense of balance. If you don't have a good sense of balance... PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, take a video cam with you. Whistling.gif:lol:

Seriously though, demo first. I thought it was amusing for a while but so is an inner tube. It's a lot of money to plop down on something you're not sure about. No way near fun enough for the investment required. No.gif IMHO of course. For that much $$$ I could buy a couple of new rippin' sticks. Thumbup.gif Maybe when I'm older and can't run the skinny stick anymore (somewhere in my mid-90's :lol: ) I'll consider a foil but not right now. Like I said though, to each his own. Some people do love them...I just wasn't one of them.

Yep, exactly - to each his own. So definitely try one. I'm just not a "stick" guy. I do that for about 1 minute a year to remind myself why I got bored with it years ago. Now I do this:

WBR.jpg

Holy #$%^! That is some major air!

I've a SkySki Pro, we don't use it much, but maybe I should get back on it this summer. My wife really enjoys it as well.

I took a major header once and the ski went straight down and eventually ripped out from. The back of the seat tore up both of my calf muscles as I was being ripped from. Needless to say, I've been a little gun shy riding it. Usually just end up riding it MMD, WOW and Labor Day when the water on the lakes are chopped up.

My biggest thing on the Sky Ski is the seat strap is a little short and I have still have the rubber boots on the ski. I have seen straps replace the rubber boots, but because of the above mentioned crash I am a little afraid to be more secure to the ski.

Any recommendations?

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I've got three:

Kids Skyski

Skyski w/shock tower

Skyski w/standard tower (the only one I ride anymore)

I should upgrade to the newer lightweight ones but we surf to much now. Most of our crew rode them for a while and now surf mostly too. It's hardly worth it any more to take it out if no one rides it. Count on a decent tower mount for it, it's too big to lay in the floor of the boat with any amount of people onboard. Plan on getting at least a foil cover to keep the upholstery tears to a minimum. Plan on adding a better belt and foot stays. Plan on spending $$$.

It's very addicting and loads of fun. You have to really watch for other boats when you are out because they will follow you down the lake/river just to watch.

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Hey Stewart,

The fall you described is not terribly unusual for riders who have been on a foil for any length of time. It happens. Because of that we went thru a number of different kinds of bindings to find something more secure. Lonnie at CinchMax came up with what has turned into the most accepted heelstrap used on a foil, the FootStay. It's a nylon webbed belt, that velcros around your ankle to hold you in. As long as you don't come out, the ski can't come back to bite you. Plus it works great for people with different sized feet. And their a LOT easier to get in & out of.

I have used them for 6 or 7 yrs. It's pretty much the first thing we do to modify any foil before we ride them. He also makes good quality belts. It's absolutely important that you get good engagement on the belt on these babies. The velcro belts that CinchMax & SkySki make are the most popular. The old buckle belts are nothing by garbage.

Edited by Bill_AirJunky
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Thanks Bill. I spoke with Lonnie and ordered the FootWraps and FootStays.

Git-R-Done.

Edited by stewart
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