Rou Chater catches up with Noah Hoffman to get the lowdown on Naish’s latest release, the Chimera. Built as a true hybrid, the Chimera blends the best of prone wingfoiling and downwind surfing, giving riders a versatile, all-in-one board for any foiling adventure. Noah shares the story behind the design, some technical insights, and why he thinks mid-length boards like the Chimera are the next big thing in foiling. Tune in!

Hi! It’s great to have you here, and we can’t wait to hear all about Naish’s latest release, the Chimera. Looking at the dimensions, the new Chimera boards seem to be right on the money for riders looking for a prone board. Was that always the design goal?

Thanks for reaching out. I’m super stoked to share! The Chimera was always to be a prone wing foil hybrid, taking the best elements of both and putting them into one board. The goal of these boards was to allow for a single board to be used for all the foil sports. Here in Maui, most of our team does a bit of everything, such as winging, prone foiling, and tow foiling. Riding one board consistently helped us up our foiling game tremendously. When we designed these, we took elements of our prone board with the wider nose and narrower tail and incorporated elements from our downwind range to help the boards get up easily for winging even with the low volume. Overall, the design of the Chimera Range was for waves regardless of which avenue you took to get onto them.

The three smaller boards are quite similar in shape, while the 5’8” takes on more of a mid-length feel. What was the reasoning behind this?

The 5’8 was something that started out as a proof of concept. I had seen some videos of people prone foiling on a mid-5-foot board and absolutely ripping! I previously had always been a 4’6 ~ 30L rider for everything, but when we got the first sample of the 5’8, I fell in love with the feeling and knew that this had to be in the range. The longer board just made everything easier; the feeling of turns was smoother and more controllable; getting up on the foil in marginal winds was not an issue anymore; everything seemed to work. The idea behind the dimensions of the 5’8 being still lower volume and narrow was to allow more people to have that perfect cross-overboard. Even though the dimensions were different than the rest of the range, we felt that this board was the best representation of the Chimera Target and that it was necessary to keep it in.

The boards’ volumes are quite low, which is great for prone riding but not so good for winging. How did you make the shape more user-friendly to negate the lower volume needed for prone riding vs. winging?

The lower volume was necessary to keep it more oriented for the prone range as the Chimeras were replaced, and we didn’t want to overlap with our standard Hover Ascend boards. To keep the boards wingable, we did two main things to the shape to accomplish this. The first was to keep the volume distribution just forward of centre so that the board floated very flat underwater. Making it easy to control when sink starting. The second was to maximise the water line with the bevel going from the nose to the tail of the board. Keeping the bevel the entire length and ending it with a sharp release helps the on-the-water acceleration; this shortens the time to engage your foil, which helps when the gust to get you going is short. Although they are lower volume than are standard range, I tell people to drop 10L from their usual boards because of how much easier they are to get you up.

Foot strap inserts come as standard; what are the advantages and disadvantages of adding these?

For us, the advantages outweigh the downsides of the additional weight. We wanted to make these boards universal and to do that, foot stap inserts were necessary. The only downside is that we couldn’t get the weights to the point of the custom-prone foil boards. But having a board that you could do wing freestyle and tow surf on was much more important to us. We tried a bunch of different configurations for the inserts, and in order to minimise the weight gain, we went with a Y configuration with 2 inserts in the centre.

Are you seeing many riders use straps for prone foiling, or is this mainly for the wingers?

Most of our team riders also use straps for prone because they are doing rotations and flips, but most prone foilers won’t. When we designed the chimeras, we also made low-profile straps to be used for wave riding and prone foiling, which have less padding but lay flat and are much more comfortable to lay or stand on. If I ride straps prone foiling, I only use the front because it helps get extra momentum pumping out, helps me turn a bit harder and try to land baby airs!

What size mast tracks are on the boards, and can any foils work with them?

The Mast tracks are standard length. We positioned them so that most brands’ foils fit in the centre of the box, and most Naish foils sit forward in the centre. We opted not to go for the longer boxes as they require a lot more reinforcements on boards that are going to be jumped. Most brands’ foils all fit in a fairly close range, so we prioritised keeping the weight down for these boards.

You’ve gone for a carbon construction; what benefits does this bring to the Chimera?

For the Chimera, we did a full biax carbon deck and a combination of 3K and Biax glass on the bottom of the board. We did this to keep the stiffness on the deck of the boards and over the foil boxes, giving a straightforward connection to your foil. We also added a “pass-through” window on the Chimeras so the carbon doesn’t interrupt the connection on the newer foil drives. This also helps keep the weight down as you don’t have to pack lots of layers of glass to obtain the same stiffness. 

Mid-length is a hot topic right now in the wing world and in prone. Will more sizes be coming in the future?

There will definitely be more from Naish moving forward. The mid-length style allows people to ride a smaller-feeling board without the struggle that stepping down in volume adds. It is now all I ride these days: light wind, Strong wind, Waves, and Prone, a true one-board quiver. To me, it’s the future board for most wingers, and we already have some stuff in the works to keep an eye out for!

The Naish board range has grown a lot recently; where does the Chimera fit in, and who should be looking to buy one?

The Chimeras are for people who do multiple disciplines and are looking for a single board to put in their car. They are a lower-volume option for intermediate to advanced riders, lighter ones, or people with windy conditions. If the Chimera Range is too low-volume, you can step up to the Hover DW Crossover range, a hybrid Wing/Downwind Board starting at 85 L.

What does your ultimate board quiver look like?

My ultimate board quiver right now consists of a 5’8 Chimera for Prone and Wing, a 110L DW NVision for paddle runs, a 9’4 longboard, and a 5’8 short board for surfing. With this setup, I never miss a single day in the water!

Thanks for taking the time to chat to us!

Thanks for reaching out! I’m looking forward to chatting about more new gear in the future!

 

Videos

NAISH CHIMERA 2025
CHIMERA 2025 TECH TALK W/ NOAH HOFFMAN
By Rou Chater
Rou Chater has been kitesurfing for over twenty years, paddleboarding for the last six years, and was there testing the first wingsurfer from Naish in Tarifa when it arrived on the continent. He is passionate about riding waves and exploring new places. As the publishing editor, he oversees everything at Tonic but also our sister magazines IKSURFMAG and IMB. He's been on the water since he was born and has never looked back, in the winter you'll find him chasing swells in the Caribbean and during the summer he can be found all over Europe at various SUP, Kitesurf and Mountain Bike events getting features for the magazines.

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