Foil maintenance and assembly advice

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Your foil requires special attention, especially regarding the risk of corrosion on the screws.
Presumably, the risk of corrosion is low, since many foils have aluminum parts and the hardware is made of stainless steel, but this is completely false. These metals have different electrical potentials, and when in contact with conductive water, the metal with the lowest potential (here aluminum) becomes anode, while the metal with the highest potential (the screws stainless steel) becomes cathode, resulting in accelerated galvanic corrosion.
Galvanic corrosion has the effect of welding the screw to its thread, making disassembly of the foil impossible. What is the solution to avoid this kind of disappointment? Some choose to dismantle and rinse their foil after each use, but the operation is tedious, and repeated screwing and unscrewing actions can end up damaging the screw heads or threads.
The best solution is to coat the screws with grease or gel, this greatly limits corrosion. Be careful not to use any grease, you need a grease that has good hold and great resistance to water. Lithium grease is the one I recommend, it has all the qualities to protect screws and inserts.
For wingfoiling as for sup and surf foiling, we use foils with large surfaces, the stresses are important and the vibrations more pronounced. The other advantage of lithium grease is that it fixes and reduces vibrations, so the screws loosen a lot less when using your foil.
Although protected with grease, regular maintenance of your foil remains necessary, disassembly, rinsing and lubrication must be done at least every 2 or 3 months. For information lithium grease is found in DIY stores, the 750ML jar costs around € 10, it will allow you to maintain your foils for years.


coat all the screws of your foil with lithium gel

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