Does anyone have any favourite YouTube channels for gear reviews? The Foil Shop channel recently had a great one on Cedrus vs Katana vs NoLimitz vs Progression Project masts and I’d love to see more.
Dominik Hoskyns, Oskar Foil and Wake Thief used to put out a bunch of reviews, but they’ve all been snaffled up as team riders and seem to do more promotional reviews now.
Any links would be appreciated, and Foil Shop, if you’re here, great work on that mast review, keep them coming 
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The YT channels of the major foiling magazines post some good reviews.
As do the major foil sellers in the US, although they’re limited to the brands they stock. Still useful though!
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Note the foil shop does business and sells cedrus so take the review with a small grain of salt
Ah yes, I guess everyone has some bias or loyalty eh? I enjoyed that review though.
I am posting reviews of gear I ride, limited amount of gear but no affiliation whatsoever Remy (@foilstate) • Instagram photos and videos
Adam bennets, Hadou brunner, and Kane de wild are consistently reliable when it comes to feedback on gear. Try to match the reviewer’s conditions to your local conditions though.
I think its hard to stay unbiased because if you test a lot of gear at a high level the natural tendancy is to become involved with the development of foils for a given brand.
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They also sell NL, Uni (and Patrick is sponsored by Uni), and pretty much everything else, so I consider it pretty unbiased.
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I personally know the foil shop guys. It’s as unbiased as salesmen can be in my opinion.
Of everyone listed so far in this thread I would say Kane is the most unbiased, just because he can’t get his own brand out yet. The best reviews he has done are for very old foils. Namely the Kujira 980 and OnoFoil m800. He has explained how to tune them exactly and said 90% of people won’t need anything that those foils don’t provide. I agree with him haha.
The rest of the people are of course biased. This sport is expensive. Creating content is an annoying amount of work. As long as I know what the persons bias is, I enjoy watching review videos.
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Surf FX; Hoppline, poseidon watersports, tonic mag, foiling magazine
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That’s exactly it, and I guess the people who articulate and present well are exactly what brands are chasing!
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and foil gear is super expensive so there is a natural incentive to get sponsored and get free gear.
This is the benefit of rich people foiling and reviewing gear (ie. Adam Bennetts who owns a lucrative bikini company) because they can’t be bought and therefore ride whatever is best.
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Oh he can be bought. He just asks for astronomical amounts of money. He also rides for Flite boards. So he’s not altruistic (Edit: I’m bad at words) in his foiling career.
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True. I think there is also a question of priorities, what a rider is interested in. From what Erik was saying, when testing prototypes you don’t progress as much as when you stick with a production foil, get used to it and push your limits. Learning about foil design vs pure progression
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This is true. It’s even true when relating it to demoing production gear. It’s really hard to ride well on demo kits so you need to have specific tests in mind when you demo so that you can give yourself a reference point in relation to your own gear. I also watched a beginner/intermediate shop guy demo gear all summer long this year, something different the entire season from start to finish. He never progressed at all and walked away with little to no useful knowledge on the foils he tested.
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I think Kane being unbiased is past tense he is now working on his own soon to be released foils. Which is why the reviews you refer to are older. Just to be clear it’s not a knock on him it’s just reality it’d be super weird not to think your own design is best.
Everyone here is chasing a unicorn as we all ride differently in different conditions so an unbiased review is irrelevant as the reviewer may ride totally differently than you. Take Chipri and the silk or even kujira before he prones better than 99.9% of people who chop the tips and yet all the choppers claim it’s better without. If he thought it was better without he wouldn’t have them on there. But with his power quads and offset stance it works really well for him.
The answer lies within demoing whether at the foil shop if you’re in socal or mackites weekend extravaganza in October if you are in the mid west. And if your shop doesn’t demo keep requesting it because an “unbiased” YouTube video won’t be what helps you find the foil you love.
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This is an interesting topic. I can tell you as a small brand without the resources to sponsor riders, at least at this time, that it is hard to break through the noise and get exposure. I’ve had quite a few great foilers decline the opportunity to ride Evolution due to “contractual obligations” or just not even respond. All people mentioned in this post. I get it. The amount of work that goes into these reviews/videos is insane. If I were a social media influencer, I too would be far more inclined to have a contract with a major brand and get a paycheck than to spend hundreds of hours editing footage to try and get youtube views/clicks. It’s sort of the natural progression: Get into gear reviews for fun, gain exposure, start getting free gear/demos, then partner with a brand you like to get at least some compensation/reward for your hard work. Pretty much all of these riders that do reviews are getting free gear, despite what they claim. And again there’s nothing wrong with that, I’m trying to make a living in this industry too and definitely not attacking anyone. Just offering another perspective on this topic.
One thing I find a little odd about this industry, and perhaps this is because it’s so new, is how reliant everyone seems to be on these reviews. Or perhaps it’s a symptom of how quickly it’s evolving. I look back to when I launched Evolution Cedrus in September, and all of the engineering/analysis that I published with it, which was completely sound. A lot of people were like doesn’t matter: I want on-water reviews. And now we actually have some on-water reviews, which completely validate the science behind the mast, and some people are like oh it may be biased because The Foil Shop sold a few Cedrus masts a while back 
Consumer behavior is fascinating, and one of the things that makes this business really challenging for me. People who claim to be unbiased are absolutely biased. I am biased! I can say coming from the kite world, that we are brand loyal. I for example was a big Ozone rider, and would buy the board and harness and accessories just to match the kite. The surf world seems a bit more brand agnostic, and open to trying new brands, which is part of why I think Cedrus has found success in this market: Surfers want the best foils, and a mast that enables that provides more value. But that’s definitely changing. Surfers/foilers are becoming brand loyal, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
As a skier, cyclist, mountain biker, kiter, foiler… I have never bought something based on reviews. Sure I have watched them or read them, but it’s just one data point. I buy based on demos, what I see on my local trails/runs/mountains/beach. What my friends are riding. What I read on the company’s website, the ethos of the brand. I think @FoilATX nailed it: decide for yourself what works for you and find the shops/events/people who can help you make that decision. The reviews are going to be biased, either in their nature or in the fact that they don’t exist. Part of the reason there are so few reviews on Evolution right now is because I can’t afford to give them away or because a lot of the influencers won’t actually accept the demo offer. The mast in that video is at The Foil Shop and anyone is free to demo it. I hope to have more demo masts out in the world soon, because I do think that’s more valuable than giving them away for YouTube reviews.
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I’m in windsurfing since the late 80’s.and now in foiling world. I also do snow/mtb/surf…but windsurfing I really bought all magazine…was in groups…fb page etc. Foiling is not different, what is killing me is reading someone/magazine/crew giving so much positive feedback…then you try the thing it’s rubbish…you are saying to yourself…man am I crazy??? Then a year after…you are reading by the same guy/magazine ambassador…how that piece was hard to ride…this year it’s much better…
I would say @ProjectCedrus, I think your biggest mistake is providing too much information for the goldfish person(I’m including myself in there) who can only concentrate for less than 9 sec. I really like your nerdy tech document…but most of the person prefer a rad image. I do really need to have nothing to do to go read tech stuff.
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I saw a rider who has a contract with a brand on it and he really liked it. I wasn’t allowed to GoPro him that day haha. 
Thanks. We are working on new media to communicate the technical nature of the products in a more digestible way, but this is low priority behind building actual masts. I wouldn’t say our blog is a mistake, we got lets of our clients through backlinks to the blog which is a full of a lot of good, honest, accurate technical information related to foiling and the equipment. Right now we have more demand than we can build for, so no need to spend money on marketing.
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The video review sale is the way of the world now.
If you are at an airport, take a look around at everyone. Nobody is talking to eachother, they are all staring at devices….
I could care less about what Joe Blow says about XXX FOIL. I hate internet shopping anyway. I like to put my hands on, feel, and look over in person. Not to mention ride the thing. But I fear I am a minority these days. That option is ultra limited when some shops only carry one brand and hardly stock anything at all. Manufacturers have started drop shipping programs that prevent inventory.
I rode the same Axis gear since late 2019 because I never really had the opportunity to try other setups.
On a trip recently I got to ride almost everything under the sun and really identify what I liked/disliked.
Even riders that are unbiased will be biased based on riding styles, home surf conditions etc.
I believe if you are proficient in any type of sport, you have to try the gear yourself.