Gear combos that DON’T work together

Hi y’all, a little less than a year ago I bought an armie FG wing/surf board for getting into prone. I ride takuma, and after way too many sessions of launching I ended up trading it for an “OG” armie surf board. Immediately I was consistently standing up and now I’m looking to exit the wave instead of not standing up.

I’m sure that as time goes on I’ll be putting the mast farther forward, but for learning I needed it back, and the track opening on the fg is so far forward that it prevented me from putting it the necessary ~2” back, even with shimming the tail for less downforce, and the mast for less aoa. So I’d say for learning, armie fg and takuma is a combo to be weary of.

Any others? Since there are so many good products it might be more helpful to know what combos to be aware of?

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a friend is on armstrong HA foil and complained bitterly about mast never being far enough forward on every board he tried. Until he got that FG board … and his mast looks to be more than third forward from the tail. It looks bizarre but sure works for him.

I think that board has some pretty extreme tail rocker and a unique design compared to pretty much everything else, including prior Gen Armstrong boards. Might not be for everyone or may take a lot of getting used to.

What in the Armstrong dimensions make it such an outlier? Is the mast super close to the front wing?

I think it is the angle of attack of the foils in relation to the fuse or baseplate and between the angle of attack between front wing and stab.

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I have an FG wing board which I like, but for prone it’s a different story for sure.

I have a slingshot Skywalker 5’10" that’s pretty good for learning on a budget, they’re discounted to $300 right now, but the foil box is also very far forward. Sky Walker | Slingshot Sports

By the way, this works as a pretty decent intermediate volume wing board too.

I used slingshot’s original surf foils(infinity 76) with it that have the option to put the mast on the fuse or onto the wing where it connects to the fuse. I found it only worked for prone at the mast into the wing option(A). Otherwise I couldn’t ever keep the nose of the board down and not stalling when starting to catch a wave, even when ultra far forward paddling with maximum back arch to start. The mast into the fuse position in these foils sets the wing pretty far forward, so not sure how this board would work with another brand foil, could be ok especially with the option to shim.

San Diego has had the craziest amount of kelp this summer. Way more than I ever remembered in the last decade. I have quickly noticed Takuma foils catch kelp way easier than other foils. The upturned winglets hold the kelp and sea grass on the ends.

Guessing that friend is me. I had a Sunova Aviator initially to learn foiling on and it was fine in most respects, but when I started trying to pump to connect waves it was way to much work and my back foot was all the way back on the kick/stomp pad. It felt slow and extremely nose heavy. The FG board was a revelation though and the swing weight/balance point was improved dramatically. Got my first 2 for 1s on it. The initial mismatch slowed my progression down a ton. I also have a 4.11 KT board with the mast slammed forward with my Armstrong foils and still wish I had more track 3cm further forward. Seems like so many board brands bias the tracks aft, but it would be nice to have either longer boxes or at least a slightly more forward bias as the market seems to be moving more in this direction. It would still allow a single board to accommodate rearward biased Axis/Go Foil rigs and Armstrong/Lift forward biased foils.

Observation… Our best downwinder up here has drilled his Lift 120 mast to get the mast forward enough on the 5’9" Kalama E3. It’s a bit sketchy to look at but it works! :star_struck: so rock on. He’s already ordered a new board with mast tracks that start 16" from tail.

Now, is any user needed a mast more further back? It seems all company could move their boxes fwd without worrying much!

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I can make my Lift gear work on some Naish boards, at the very front of the tracks. But my Starboard board I needed foil track extenders to get the mast far enough forward to feel balanced. I’m too afraid to drill holes in my mast base. So far, JP has been the best board brand with track placement that matches where Lift foils (and Armstrong) like to ride.

Many people talk about setting up Takuma mid or back in the tracks. I have mine almost slammed forward on an Appletree board and I’m riding with a 1 degree tail shim!. My strap placement is pretty far forward, but even if I moved the straps all the way back my foil position would be forward of center.

While I haven’t used the specific combo, I think the board would be challenging to use with Lift or Armstrong due to the track placement and my knowledge of those foils relative to Takuma.

Or maybe I just prefer a lot of front foot pressure relative to others.

That’s the board I got when I wanted a smaller board( apple tree pro foil v2 4’6” 33L) because of the track positioning. It’s pretty sweet.

I went through the exact same experience as the OP. Had a Takuma LOL 1300 and Armie v2 board and could not balance the setup. I’d get boosted on even the tiniest waves. Tried tail shims, reverse baseplate shims, smaller tail which neutralized the early lift but the feel was terrible.

I wound up trading out to a v1 board which rode great. The guy I traded the v2 board was on an Armstrong foil and loved that combo.

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