I took the 155 Evolution out last night for the first time and here are some things that stuck out to me right away. Let me start by saying the waves were absolute garbage. Thigh high and onshore slop braking pretty shallow.
On my first wave, I was very surprised at the amount of lift right off the bat. It reminded me of how the GoFoil RS850 takes off; which makes sense being a very similar shape. Once I got a decent chip I could really feel the high aspect glide. The foil lived up to the glide claims. The pumping when high on the mast was great. It was a better pump than the P140 and seemed to be a similar rhythm. I did notice that grave digging was not as good as the progression wings. The times I couldn’t dig it out in the junky conditions, it gave me a little warning instead of dropping out out of nowhere. The turning felt really natural, possibly a little more like a traditional surfboard that you lean over the rail. For such a big span, it sure turned nice.
That’s about all I can say before I really dial it in. I just wanted to share some feedback while those sensations were fresh in my head. I’m looking forward to riding this wing a lot for small prone waves, sup surfing, light wind winging, and for good DW conditions.
I tried the Evolution 155 with the 13.5 Progression tail and medium fuse (no shims) for the first time in the surf last week. I had used it behind the boat a few days before and really liked it; however, my first impressions in the surf were disappointing. I’ve been riding the Progression 125 and 140 for over a year and love them. Great pump and glide. At 190 lb I have no trouble pumping them around for multiple connections in small east coast surf.
I expected to be able to pump the 155 even better than the 140, but did not find that to be the case. I felt like I was kicking out of waves with plenty of speed but I still kept stalling. My friend borrowed my setup for a couple waves and said he felt like he had no lift. I was shocked at this given the reviews by others and the fact that it is larger than the 140 and others have described it as a great light wind downwind wing.
One caveat is that I was out of the water for a couple months after slicing my toe on my mast, so I’m more out of practice and out of shape than usual. I haven’t given up on the wing yet; just curious if others have had similar experiences. I suppose it’s possible I have a tuning / setup issue.
Do you have room to move it forward in the boxes? I had the same thing on the P200, and when I rode it further forward on another board, it worked fine. I surfed the 155 last week on Hilton Head and thought it went really well. The pumping was fine when it was high on the mast. It seemed to latch onto waves outside much better than the 140.
One thing to keep in mind is water temp. I was just reading a post from a pro level dock-start rider. The same exact setup in the summer he can flat water pump for 25 mins, in the winter he can only pump it for 4 mins.
I used my buddies 155 with the 13” shiv tail and found it easy to pump. I was going back to back in the water with my 170p w/ 13.5p tail. I found it had more early lift and seemed slightly easier to pump.
Yes, sure- for ambassadorships and small sums of money, I’m sure, just like in all foil disciplines.
A lot of people don’t appreciate endurance sports. It’s a mental toughness competition.
P.S. This is the guy (axis rider) who originally commented about water temp impacting pump his times. Here’s what he was doing before pump foiling- gnarly guy
I feel pretty confident if you went to a short fuse it will really open up for ya. And even a .5 red shim. And the Evo was definitely designed hand in hand with the more HA tails. That extra efficiency on front and back paired almost accelerates twice once you get high on the mast. I did feel it takes a higher frequency of pump compared to the Progressions that have the lower stall speed.
