We try to keep up to date when it comes to new products and innovations in the windfoiling world, but it’s not always that easy! Things are moving so fast with many new products being launched these days, whether it’s foils, boards, sales or accessories.
Here is a list of new products we have discovered throughout the past month.
FOIL ACCESSORIES
Who has never lost a screw in the sand before? Especially after removing the fin from the board. Foils have so many screws and small parts, and it getsdifficult to keep them safe and organised until the next session.
Horue had the brilliant idea of launching what they call the “life box”, a small toolbox which is ideal for keeping all your small screws in one place and avoid losing them between your sessions. The “life box” is very small and only 500 g, but it’s a real life saver (no pun intended!).
It is sold with all standard screws and you can choose between Allen heads or Torx heads.
€45 + shpping to save your next session.
FOIL TRACK MOUNT
Andrea Pagan of Seatex Boards is known for converting old windsurf boards to foil-ready boards by shifting the old fin box with a reinforced one.
He has now come out with a new product: a reinforced foil track system for foiling. The fact that it is very thin gives you the possibility to place a foil on boards with a thin tail and convert them into a foil-ready board.
Price: €99 / €109
More information on Seatex’s website.
WINDFOILS / HYDROFOILS
Some of the biggest innovations that we’ve seen concerning foils over the past months have been in regards to the size and shape of the front wings. While 2018 was all about racing and thin wing profile, the trend for 2019 is to sacrifice a bit of the top speed to improve how early the foil starts to lift.
Now we see all major brands coming with large front wings, not only Naish and Slingshot, who were the first one to believe in this concept.
Slingshot's Hover Glide Infinity 76 front wing
These foils with large front wings make them easy to access and contribute to maximize the time on the water by enabling foiling in very light air. It’s a new style of foiling: manoeuvrable, smooth, and super fun. This new trend is likely to continue as the majority of windsurfers are more into freeriding than racing, and this concept fits perfectly people’s needs. We can therefore expect that most of the brands will launch their own version going forward. Here are some of the new products launched this month:
Horue again, is launching an XXLW (Extra Extra Light Wind) front wing for its flagship Vini foil. It has a 121 cm span and 1349 cm2 area.
The main difference between Horue and other brands is the shape of the wing. It has a very high aspect ratio (small width, large span) and the profile remains relatively thin. The goal is to have a very early lift, 7 kt, but keep a relatively high top speed.
Horue products are available in our online store.
Neilpryde has recently launched its “Glide foil”, an evolution of the RS:Flight aluminum foil.
Same concept as before, but the front wing is inspired by the shape of surf-foils: Thick and small aspect ratio.
Two great features with this foil are: The wings are compatible with the pink 2018 RS: Flight aluminum foil, so you can easily upgrade your old foil with the new 2019 wings. The other cool thing is that you have the choice between a deep tuttle head, plate system, or powerbox head.
Neilpryde does not want to give any guarantee in case your board breaks with the powerbox system, however it seems to work well thanks to the load plate spreading the weight on the larger area of the tail.
Starboard also launched the “Supercruiser” which is a surf-foil wing compatible with their modular windfoil system. The Supercruiser is available either with a carbon mast or with an aluminum mast, both of which are 85 cm long.
The front wing has a similar shape than the previous Glide from the Neilpryde product line, inspired by surf-foils: thick and small aspect ratio. The front wing area is 1700 cm2!
AFS on their side are launching a new “big wing” compatible with their foils.
The new R1000 wing is the largest of the AFS range, and this time it is dedicated to racers. 1000 mm span (1 meter) for 800 cm2.
Construction: Full Carbon Prepreg T700 + UHM M46J. Made in France.
It’s a wing for foil experts and will make you fly from 6 to 20 knots.
Fanatic just announced that they made a revamp of their Flow hydrofoil. It is meant to fit both beginners and advanced foilers.
2 different front wings are available: 900 cm2 for freerace foiling and 1250 cm2 for light wind. Both mast and fuselage are 90 cm and in aluminum, while the wings are in carbon composite.
Head: Plate system, but tuttle or powerbox adapters are available
Price: €1299
WINDFOIL SAILS
Many new foil sails are also entering the market, in particular for racing with Gaastra, Neilpryde, and S2Maui launching their “blade” sails with high aspect ratio.
Gaastra is finally entering the foiling game with its new Vapor Air. We have discussed with Peter Munzlinger, Head designer of Gaastra, and here are his words to describe his new sail:
“The Vapor AIR is our PWA Hydrofoil racing sail, a no-compromise design aimed at podium performance. The Air already showed its potential during the development for all last season, culminating with Sebastian Koerdel’s vice-world title at the PWA and his victory at the Azores Challenge.
Foiling is so different from traditional windsurfing that we had to explore completely new solutions. The result is radical and our successful 2018 foil season with the prototypes shows us we went in the right direction.
To design the Vapor Air, we started with the Vapor as a base, but ended with a completely different beast. A Radical outline with an extremely high aspect ratio and short boom. It is developed for maximum performance on the foil, which is completely different than slalom sailing:
The foot is super low to close the gap perfectly between the sail and the board and the flexibility of the rig is reduced as there is no need to absorb the chop. This enables extreme upwind and downwind angles with maximum control in a wide wind range. 4 camber inducers and a wide mast sleeve create great aerodynamic. The Vapor Air looks more like an airplane wing than a windsurfing sail.”
One of Gaastra's main competitors in racing, Neilpryde, is also releasing its latest version of the Flight EVO sail. This sale is in many ways similar to Gaastra’s, featuring a high aspect ratio, and also looking like an airplane wing.
Antoine Albeau with the flight evo windfoil sail
S2Maui: The Venom-Foil Race is about to be launched.
Also a high aspect ratio sail with a long mast to increase the moment of inertia of the rig, to stabilize the sail position and reduce movements which can disrupt the flow of the foil. The shorter chord length and boom, together with a foil-specific twist profile are maximising speed.
Duotone (previously North Sails) is also releasing a new freeride sail for four wheeling, the F type. It is a light four battens sail and two soft cans. They will soon release a full test of the sail. Stay tuned!
WINDFOIL BOARDS
Patrick boards have been foil-ready for a while now but this year they are also launching a foil-specific 91 cm board for racing. (91 cm is the maximum width authorized in PWA foil races)
Exocet RF Limited edition.
It’s a limited edition of the RF foil-board model. The carbon structure makes the board lighter (respectively 8.1 and 9.2 kg for the RF81 and RF91, 700 g lighter than the carbon sandwich board).
Price: €2550 for the RF81 and €2650 for the RF91.
THE FUTURE OF FOILING? This month we have also seen some eye-catching stunts around foiling. The first one came once again from the creative Kai Lenny who was seen foiling on a surf foil with a custom wingsuit on.
Here's Robby’s comment
“The Wing-Surfer is not designed to replace Windsurfing or Kitesurfing. You may not sail as fast, jump as high, or hit the lip as hard.... But there is beauty in the simplicity... and enough potential on the performance, accessibility and thrill side of things to make it an absolute blast and a great addition / complement / alternative to these wonderful sports !”
While it’s impossible to know yet if Kai Lenny’s bat suit or the kite wings will be a commercial success in the future, we can only be glad when we see the enthusiasm around foiling these days.
Trying new things as this is the best way to drive innovation in the sport, nothing new comes from doing the same thing over and over again.
Kudos to them!
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