I know, I remember your tale and it does sound like it sucked! I just want to add the other side of things, I’m seeing all of the gear with new eyes and no bias and am simply voicing my opinion based on experience over the past few months. I actually bought some other brands just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything after reading you guys bagging on the Armie stuff, but after evaluating the gear for myself I’ve found I prefer the Armie over the others I’ve tried. I can see how that nose taper could be a problem with the old fastener arrangement, but I think they’ve got it licked. I’ll let you know if mine start wiggling, but for now they are tight as can be.
I am of the same mindset.
Read horror stories about Armstrong connections, flexing etc. It steered me clear for a long time.
I took my “old” Axis gear with me to Fiji. Then while there I got to ride everything under the sun on all different wave sizes, shapes and speeds. As an all round setup, I was sold on the new Armstrong HA wings. The connection seemed ultra tight with no play.
I have had my new Armstrong gear out to prone 3 day since receiving it, and just got it behind a boat this week for the first time this week.
Nothing but good things to say…
I will say that the AFS Silk felt the best by leaps and bounds on bigger wave with higher speeds.
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Couldn’t help but notice the foil in kd’s hands in a kt video recently is one with a fuse to foil connection. Listening to him right now on generic talk about how important it is to get the connection right, not surprising given it isn’t his first day thinking about foils, but that fact about that foil IS interesting I’d say. Ei it’s a vote of confidence for that style setup.
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Bolts mounted athwartships like axis, but that hole looks too small to accept anything that those bolts could fit into? So maybe similar to axis, and no carbon around prong??
Thanks for the correction, but Monoblock is a term used by F-ONE for their products.
“And if it’s not obvious even after the launch of Evolution, frontal area is not the primary driver for drag. It’s wetted area.”
The vast majority of brands are chasing thinner masts. Are they all wrong?
Yes, they are all wrong.
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Hard to say if they’re wrong or not. 
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Some brands seem to also take into consideration chord for their low drag masts, the new AFS 75cm uhm is super thin at 12.8mm but also has quite a small chord at 100mm.
For comparison I ride GoFoil and chord is at 137/140mm depending on versions and 14mm thick so the difference must be quite noticable.
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Nobody asked me, but if I were starting a foil company, I’d, and this is going to sound crazy, do a blend of new and old takuma, but the bolts pull the surfaces in red together, the blue area does not touch. So wide contact, and fibers in foil in a strong arrangement.
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I like the drawing and idea, but the Axis system makes sense to me because the bolts off the centre line directly resist the twisting force, rather than simply clamping two shaped surfaces together and using those shapes to resist. You see Armstrong bolts shear off because of the sideways force applied to the bolts, which I don’t think you get with Axis. To me the best way is clamping two flat surfaces together with bolts as far off centre as possible, and the worst would be smooth tubes with bolts along the centreline; any shape in between, be that square or hexagon, is just getting further away from the ideal.
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12.8mm x 100mm are some impressive specs and should be immediately noticeable to anyone compared to a Go Foil mast. I also have three Go Foil masts and even I (as a famously insensitive person 
) feel the drag, mainly over about 17 knots (the GF mast is 14mm if I recall).
A lot to unpack in this thread but I’ll give the below anecdotes.
Monobloc may not be the right word but it is directionally correct “cast from one piece”.
Monocoque is still not the right word “one shell” afs at least are not a shell but full carbon.
I’m no scientist nor am I an expert in hydrodynamics etc but the afs mast range for 2024 all have the same stiffness. The difference is that with hm carbon they were able to go skinnier and shorter chord, then with uhm they were able to go even skinnier and shorter chord. Then on the shortest length uhm mast (75cm) they were able to go down to 12.8mm thick and 100mm chord. Isolating mast length so taking an 80 cm HR, HM and UHM the skinnier and shorter chords feel faster in acceleration and maneuverability, also isolated wave/power differences by using a wakeboat wake. So it may be wrong but it certainly feels right.
Same thing with the monobloc it’s not just stiffness but the foil and fuselage profile you can build/design with the monobloc is inherently different as you are no longer limited to a hole pattern or shape. Afs loses a lot of sales because foilers love to travel and the monobloc is more cumbersome than dismountable so if it’s a marketing gimmick it’s a terrible one.
We’re fortunate that there is a lot of great product from different brands doing things differently and with great results. Looking at the gear landscape there doesn’t appear to be a right or wrong way to do something just different.
Go visit your local shop and demo, if you don’t have a local shop ask people at your spot, if you ride alone go check out somewhere with other frothers. Foiling is so unlimited there are fun friendly people all over that are willing to help.
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I think we are going to see companies attaching some sort of lifting, mini wings to masts soon. Going skinnier and shorter chord can only get you so far and AFS is probably close to that point. I want an adjustable, shimmable mini wing that is mounted similar to a foildrive on the mast that would aid in early lift and then come out of water while foiling, and help remind me to stay high on mast. KD Maui please design this and send me proto asap.
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Someone shared this on the board builders group. Unfortunately they didn’t know how foils worked
We are probably a local maximum in terms of surf foil designs, we need some innovation ideas from other disciplines:
- two masts like the Betafoil but for downwind
- Flaps to increase low end, maybe with a wand like foiling boats
- Multi-plane foils like the above
- Curved sailboat style foils?
- Auto stabilising ride control breach prevention foil??
- ??
I was dreaming up a “chord-extender” something like a set of flaps that snap onto the trailing edge of the wing that increases low speed lift and flatwater pumping. They could have a set of fishing line up to the rider and the rider could yank them off once in the swell for real. Basically just the first and last mile of the Molokai-Oahu race.
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Listening to this I did wonder about the need for another well behaved middle of the lineup foil. I kinda understand why you’d do it, but as a buyer with a bit of research you’d end up with a cedrus mast and then you’re spoiled for choice.
It feels like many of the top end companies are using monblock with mini tuttle mast connection (Levitas) OR monoblock with mikes lab mast connection (Mikes Lab, AFS, Chubanga). Duotone also uses very clever ‘mono block with scarf joint’ Mikes Lab mast connection. The connection feels really solid and streamlined. I haven’t owned a Levitas but there must be a reason they are so popular with the worlds best racing kiters and wingers.