As front wings are getting smaller it seems like we’re putting more stress on a smaller, thinner, piece of carbon.
is there any degradation of the material over time that could be causing a decrease in the spring, pop, or stiffness after a year or two of hard use?
Or as the front wings get smaller like you say - the leverage is decreased so overall the stress is lower/the same?
I think the answer is generally yes - which is leading to more mixed materials (Carbon/Metal) development (e.g. Axis Ti Link).
I’ve heard from one designer that they can feel the difference in an old vs new carbon mast, so there might be a there, there!
The leverage on roll maybe but when you’re just cruising down the line it’s all of your body weight being held up by a piece of carbon that’s whatever thickness the wing is. as things get thinner They become exponentially harder to keep strong and stiff.
I’ve had two pieces of gear degrade. One was a front foil. Cloud IX fs900. When new, application of 75lbs of force deflected the foil slightly before it reached a point where additional weight provided no further deflection. After a few hundred miles of use the performance dropped dramatically. 35lbs of force was now able to push the foil completely flat onto the fuse (these are monoblock style like Code/Lift). I contacted C9 about the issue and they informed me it was a layup issue, replaced the foil, and the new one never degraded.
Since then I’ve made a habit of noting this on all my new foils and I’ve never been able to verify any noticeable degradation, even over thousands of miles of use.