I’m an intermediate using a backpack foil assist (10s3p) and this is a comparison of two Amos board/KT foil combos with the KT Apex 77cm mast:
Amos Sultan Prone, 5’ x 18” 55L / 980 Nomad/ 155 Nomad rear
Amos Kruzer v2 5’9” x 21” 37L / 830 Nomad / 155 Nomad rear - first session on the Kruzer. I bought it to help with paddling into waves, hence the extra length, but my shoulder injury wasn’t up to it.
The difference in one word is… astounding (did I mention that I’m an intermediate? I’m prone to gushing)
I normally use the 980 in small onshore wind swell in 15-30 knots. Yes, it’s ghastly. I’ve tried the 830 with the Sultan and standard carbon KT 13cm chord mast,but it was too much work to keep on foil in these little waves and horrendous chop. I could paddle it up on the flat but worked pretty hard to do that so I’d usually pop-up on a wave, and maintaining speed on foil really sucked the battery.
The addition of the 9.2cm chord Apex mast made a big difference in pumping, grave digging and speed on the wave and felt like a great investment. I was extremely pleased!
The Sultan had leaked some water through foot strap plug holes (argh!) so I thought that I’d give the Kruzer a run, even though at 5’9” I thought it would be a bit of a tanker.
Surprise!
I used the 830 because why not confuse yourself testing two things at once?
10-15 knots onshore, 3-4 foot faces
The Kruzer accelerated much harder than the Sultan, the 830 popped up on foil effortlessly on the flat and I’m sure that I could have used the Nomad 700. (It’s time for a demo of that).
Super fun wave-rides whereas previously the 830 always felt underpowered.
Pumping and gravedigging the 830 is now a thing, whereas my meagre-ness always struggled with that in the past.
I had my most fun session ever in Wellington, and I’ve been doing this for a few years now. The good sessions are always Somewhere Else.
I even tried the same combo in 30 knots onshore the following day.
It was still horrible heading back upwind, lying on your belly and taking spray in the face like a pornstar, but the wave riding downwind was much more fun than normal.
The reduced span of the 830 (86cm vs 95 on the 980) and the Apex mast’s much smaller chord (9.2cm vs 13cm) feels much less affected by cross currents and chop on wave faces. It’s extended the range of the 830 at the bottom end by a huge margin.
It also extended battery ride-time. Once I’m on foil I can throttle-back quite a bit. Previously the little foil needed plenty of gas to stay on foil.
The bigger board touches down in mega chop more often but bounces back quickly and the overall board/mast/foil means that it doesn’t seem to matter. I thought the mast/830 combo might have been a bit twitchy after reading some comments online, but the swing weight of the board probably calmed that down.
It’s all super controllable, really fast and really fun.
The combo of board/foil/mast worked so well that I now prefer to call it an ensémble.
So, yeah!
Happy boy!
