I think it’s all in your head 
… If you’re not completely disassembling your foil every session, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the Armstrong connection system.
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The Armie connection system is solid, it just has a lot of fasteners. I have had a few other systems while owning Armstrong and I keep coming back because the Amie is way more solid. Less flex, less wear on the mating parts, and no corrosion. I also really appreciate that you can run the foils into the reef and they don’t take major damage unlike some of the super thin profile foils I’ve owned.
I’m currently on Hydrocraft just because I wanted to try something different and the whole system cost just a little more than upgrading to the latest Armie skinny mast, but honestly I am not feeling like it was a huge upgrade, just a different flavor. Armie is great, and there are a ton of foil options for whatever style of riding. I’m keeping my kit so I can try whatever they drop next. The person you are replying to has a hard on for talking negatively about Armie any chance he can due to a situation many years ago, you can take his comments on the brand with that in mind.
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Assemble the foil on the board, grip the mast/front wing connection with one hand, torque the wing tip with the other hand(10lbs of force on the wing tip). If there is movement you will absolutely feel it in the hand gripping that connection.
I’m not saying they are all bad but every armie foil I’ve ever put my hands on had a big wiggle. Maybe in the last few years they’ve gotten better with their tolerances, maybe I got a dud a few years ago.
I do know that it’s not a good design. It’s expensive to build and requires exceptionally tight tolerances to produce a stiff connection.
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If you put your fingers across the joint to the front wing so your fingers are feeling the wing side and the fuse side you will feel the movement when torque is applied to the foil tip. You can also put your fingers across the fuse joint and feel the same thing. Most people don’t even know there is movement there in their setup. I haven’t felt an Armstrong connection without that movement. You might feel the same thing with your fingers on many other brands also including axis commonly.
“The Check” is part of my process every time I get in the water. If there’s even a hint of movement, I’ll re-torque everything and recheck until it’s gone. If at any point in the session, the foil isn’t behaving the way I wanted to I’ll recheck a mid session.
No manufacturer should be building a system with any appreciable connection movement. Big props to F1 for realizing the weakness of their legacy system and retooling.
i’ll absolutely be willing to revise my position on armie if I ever feel a slop free connection from them in the wild and they return the $350 that I had to spend to ship that piece of shit back to Hong Kong!
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I read a lot of criticism online about the Armstrong system but ultimately it is about the ride. The efficiency of the Armstrong UHA combined with their Performance X mast is truly mind blowing. Don’t demo unless you are ready to spend a bunch of money. You have been warned.
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Sorry, this Armstrong critique seems out of date to me. One of the main reasons I’m still riding Armstrong is how solid and stiff the overall system is, especially with the new X mast. I demoed another hot brand this summer that I was very interested in and I was shocked how flexy the mast was (and thus the overall system). And yet that brand is really popular, which made me realize how good I already had it in terms of flex. The next day I demoed the Armstrong X mast and it felt like it was seriously years ahead.
Anyways, I have no brand affiliation or loyalty, I just find some of the discussion on this forum to be out of alignment with modern reality and thus unhelpful to normal people. I actually had formed vague anti-Armstrong ideas in my head a few years ago from reading these same posters making these same comments on this forum, then I was surprised to notice that about half the rippers on the water were riding Armstrong, then I randomly demoed the gear one day and loved it immediately.
My personal takeaway is to demo gear for yourself, talk to real people on the beach who you can watch ride, and not take this forum too seriously.
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Haven’t ridden Armie foils, but watched real people on the beach whacking away with a mallet and banging their foils on fences to try to get them apart more than once.
Loved the new Armie midlength I demoed this summer…very nice!
I think the back and forth with Armie stuff is in part due to the history of the hype machine, which some get caught up in, and others are repelled by…it also seems to create unrealistic expectations for those just looking for great equipment. Obviously not unique to Armie, but an issue they have contributed to
Nearly all my friends have Armstrong and I have ridden it plenty.
My comments are about the performance of the outdated connection and its design as an engineer. My comments are were not about the characteristics and performance of the foils but I do think you are only getting catch up at best with new Armstrong gear.
I take the responsibility of commenting here very seriously and do so to ensure there is some balance for people making expensive purchasing decisions. Demo demo demo and if it suits your world at the time then go for it with whatever brand you choose.
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Does anyone know what happened at North and what the situation is with their consolidation in terms of what happens with the foil range?
Agree. You should put your whole weight on one side of the foil while standing on the board with your feet either side of the tracks. If you feel ANYTHING but mast bend then it’s suboptimal. Nothing should move under your fingers on the fuse/mast inteface, there shouldn’t be any movement under your feet. Just the mast should bend (how much is a question of how much money you spent)
Seemingly they have some nice foils planned for next year
These are still the designs from the old NZ team. Took their sweet time releasing them a year plus after they were finished and the team sacked
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Unifoil… what’s going on with them and who runs and owns them…!’
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@Erik is the answer to all of those questions. 
Which Erik?
The one that OWN’s … this site.
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The x foils mentioned this thread , it made me realise small companies operate like board shapers where they are closer to their customers, more responsive to their needs and generally have an advantage. Compare with big companies who must plan years in advance for a market that keeps changing what it wants.
Also somewhat interesting to see the UK used markets whatsapp groups, which show a rough approximation of “what is popular in a relatively open quiet foil market” (North is hidden at the bottom)
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Yep - it seems like there’s no one at Unifoil these days. Ask a simple question via email. -0- response. Question wasn’t derogatory just hopeful that they’d be coming out with a solid carbon mast with the integrated Foil-drive pod. -0- response. Easy solution…Stringy adaptor to a different brand.
They are. They do “office hours” zoom calls that are fun chats. They’ve discussed that mast on those calls. But I forget the answer. It was still a couple months away I think.
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