Would be incredible to have opportunities to demo boards or foils prior to buying. Does anyone have a singular place where they find upcoming demos? Perhaps this could be a place to note them if you see them upcoming.
It’s so hard to commit to a $2k purchase without having ever seen it in person, let alone tried it. I’d be willing to drive a few hours… seems like this only really happens in hubs like Sydney, Maui, Hood, etc.
Every day at the foil shop in Seal Beach, CA.
Ask the brands if they have ambassadors that offer demos, that’s one route to go down.
I have a full quiver of Cloud IX foils for demo and am building out a Sunova board lineup.
I’m working on crowd sourced demos in the Gorge. Not formally launched yet but the facebook page is up. Gorge Foiling Library. The idea is as follows: Anyone and everyone can put their gear up for demo, rental, buyback. For accountability (people destroy demos, I’m convinced this is why we don’t get more of them) you are expected to pay for the gear in full up front. If you lose it, destroy it, decide to steal it then no big deal, because you already paid full ticket. You and the gear owner decide on a timeline and reasonable “buyback price” where they buy the foil, board, wing, whatever back from you for that price if you bring it back.
I expect some people will throw old beginner foils up in there for free to try, others will try to create a small demo fleet to make money for themselves, I personally plan to turn any money made into new foils to build out a bigger and bigger demo fleet.
Still hashing out the details but I like the idea and it doesn’t hurt to try.
I organized the last one here! What do you want to demo? Call some brands and organize that shit!
Selfishly, I want to test some of the new downwind boards for SUP foiling, and easy winging in light wind, as my back is still jacked up and making foiling prone about impossible. Bigger foils for that as well, Uni Prog 200s, Armstrong APFs, etc. etc.
I love the @Bwalnut idea. I hope it takes off in Hood. Wish it could be a national thing, but probably only works in a market like Hood with a deep pool of gear. I threw out a foil demo subscription idea a few months ago, but this definitely makes more sense.
Well @Velocicraptor maybe this will serve as a pilot program for the world? I would love to be able to travel to new locations knowing this program was live globally and could provide better gear options when I traveled to new places too.
I think we’d all like to get hands on the new new without coughing up unlimited cash. We’re all in an expensive hobby and I’ve dropped over 4k on gear I absolutely hated. I don’t ever want to have that happen to myself, or anyone else again.
I think you have a great idea. I have so many surfboards in my garage that just sit. Similarly would be nice to make a little money and share the stoke. It’s a tough problem to solve.
The cost of foiling is one of its biggest growth limiters. I imagine it is going to get better w/used gear that is worth buying though.
You’ll never get a brand to demo those boards. They just suck too much to ship. We have 2 riders here on em, dragonfly and barracuda. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind you trying them out!
There is a company doing this with all kinds of gear for rent and for sale called SENDY. Not being used yet for foil gear but could be a great resource with the tech in place.
Is there a reason it’s not used for foil gear? Or just no-one places foil gear there?
Wing demos too! I just spent too long on an old wing not knowing a new one could be oh so much better!
It’s a new service… people can rent or sell just about anything. Could be a good platform for sharing gear since it seems buyers/renters get screened and are required to have credit card etc on file hopefully keeping scammers away. Just a suggestion since the system looks set.