For the top brands, they are all so close. We get confused because they are all pretty darn great in their owns ways now we just talk about personal preference. We get a review glowing about Cedrus, and then we get a review saying they liked some things and then sold it. That’s not surprising to me, and the way I personally read both of those reviews in context is that Cedrus is right up there with the best.
And I have personally spent dozens of sessions on the Cedrus evolution in a variety of conditions on a variety of foils. It really is great and it is for sure up there with the best. Does it do everything the best? - No. Let’s not be arguing about person preference, instead doing our best to peel apart the unique awesomeness of any given choice.
Cedrus Evolution unique awesomeness:
Founder dedicated to building local, small business, sustainable methods
Super low drag in the water, maybe the best you can buy today
Adaptable to any foil system without buying a new mast
IMO it’s highly lacking in torsional stiffness. makes it feel sloppy / delayed and soft. I got used to it but going back to a “regular” mast then trying it again showed me how bad it was. it would visibly twist while I was tightening the bolts from mast to foil. I prefer a direct predicable feel over the efficiency gains. code mast is faster than the katana but still a lot more draggy than the cedrus, again maybe the wind mast would’ve been a better choice.
Would be great if you can get your hands on a wind mast, try it and let us know.
I’m thinking about getting a second shorter Cedrus (currently wind 87cm) and wonder about Surf vs Wind. I haven’t tried the Surf edition.
I love my Wind one, the best? I don’t know but surely I don’t give up much esp for the versatility and before& after sale service.
I think the wind would offer better feels and I’d love to try one, I think they likely nailed that mast but the smallest one being 80cm is a little bit of a turn off for me as I’m mostly down winding and proning second to that so a true 75-80cm mast is a little more ideal. I had the 77.5 so it was just shy of 80cm with the uni adapter on it. I think I would’ve been a lot happier with the classic cedrus
I tried my friend’s classic and I kept ventilating it with winging, the problem went away after I paid attention not to put excess pressure on the back foot at speed going upwind
on a side note, wonder why we dont see much of the ultra axis mast with code adaptor vs code+ mast comparison much these days. the only area axis was ahead of its time was the original HM mast, and the ultra is also very good (heard this from a m2o winner), so is the code+ just easier and similar enough to the axis ultra. i would like to hear some unbiased opinions regarding this, though i would never spend that kind of moneyon axis anymore.
At the end of the day, mackite is a shop which wants to sell gear and maintain relationships with vendors, so reviews will be censored by that. They’re still useful, but maybe as “overviews” more than reviews. Also I can think of several “negative” reviews from mackite if you understand the deal, like @joeballow said. Why I can’t blame mackite is that I can’t think of anyone else that does critical reviews either. They’re all pretty much shops or industry magazines or sponsored riders or wannabe-sponsored influencers who have all the same incentives as mackite. And this isn’t even unique to foiling, there’s no financially viable way to run a critical reviews business, every other product category is the same.
The new uni torque mast is $1600. Axis has a $2800 mast lol. The cedrus has a lot more going on than these masts and the cedrus is also manufactured in the USA. I think it’s very fairly priced especially after seeing and holding the mast, it’s beautiful.
The cedrus evo surf blows the katana out of the water for me. The glide and pivot are insane and I hope more of you guys get to try it out.
