Almost every foil buddy I know has a collection of foil relics sitting in their garage. Old masts, front wings, tail wings, fuselages, adapters, and complete setups that haven’t seen the water in years.
At some point, a foil gets old enough that people don’t even bother trying to sell it anymore. It isn’t necessarily broken or unusable. It’s just been surpassed by several generations of design.
What’s interesting is how completely some of these products disappear from the marketplace. Early generations of Cabrinha, GoFoil, Naish, Takuma, Armstrong, Unifoil, SPG, Delta, and others are rarely even listed anymore. They seem to enter some kind of hydrofoil afterlife where they just live on garage shelves indefinitely.
It also makes me wonder if this is unintentionally slowing the growth of the sport. If all these old but functional setups started showing up locally for $150 to $250, would more people get into foiling? Once equipment drops below a certain value, it seems like many people don’t think it’s worth the hassle of listing, selling, packing, and shipping.
My guess is there are thousands of old foil components sitting in garages around the world. Carbon wings and masts that once cost serious money, now effectively retired from circulation.
Has anyone else noticed this, or am I the only one thinking about the hydrofoil graveyard?
Yeah I think some foils just get to the point that it’s not worth the price to go to the effort of posting it. I’ve accepted that anything I buy in windsports simply won’t hold its value. I’m okay with it as long as I used it and enjoyed it. It’s an investment in happiness and mental health, not monetary value.
Around here people are selling old setups for sure, there is a strong secondhand market. Some really cheap, some asking prices can be outrageous.
Just today saw a very complete Takuma setup with 4 wings and a Cedrus classic mast for €750. It is not the bees knees anymore, but surely a great entry price for a beginner?
A lot of those are not worth riding. Who is going to buy a Takuma LOL series for instance. It’s more of a disservice to sell those old foils to newbies.
I gave my old Takuma Kujira setup (all carbon), with multiple front wings to my daughter in AK. They tow foil occasionally during the summer. Still need a thick wetsuit.
I’ll try a tow assisted downwinder on my next visit.
I think people in SF bay area are too rich or something. I have so much old gear that still works perfectly well. I’ve even taken the trouble of listing it and replying to people who want to buy it. And I am trying to sell it super cheap. Yet it is almost impossible to sell.
That said, I haven’t bothered to list my old gofoil IWA. Its a complete setup ready to use, but I would feel bad charging someone money for it unless they specifically wanted it for the historical interest.
No, they get sold to someone on the fence about foiling who never picks it up and doesn’t understand that it’s no longer worth $1000 so they keep it thinking eventually they will pick it up.
In the US, riders are older, wealthier, don’t have a lot of time to waste, the marketing about this year’s gear being a total game changer is too powerful (on this forum too), compatibility across parts is poor, it’s easy to get stuck and make no progress with the wrong gear, the sport is already hard enough, there’s some early generation land mines out there. I learned to wing on the IWA because Mackite had it on sale, I eventually got there with a lot of cursing
I’m aggressive about selling my gear before it ages out too much. Although I managed to sell my Moses 633 well after its time because it was just that good for kite foil.
funny you say that, I found the IWA a very nice option for my early days on the wing. And I’d still happily recommend it to cash-strapped beginners (with the smaller red Kai tailwing though). And the Kai had also delivered shitloads of fun for kitefoiling. What was capable of delivering lots of fun 7-8 yrs ago is still capable of doing the same. It’s not like they perish like the valves or bladders of kites.
The caveat is that when chosing between that setup and the next version (GLs), which despite being a substantial improvement, is also considered obsolete by modern standards, the difference in price is very little, so it makes it hard to go for the absolute cheapest.
I’ve repurposed a Zeeko foil into a dual bass guitar stand, and I’m working on a shelving unit based on Kai wings…
My foiling journey has taken me way further down the path, but I’m still grateful to have had the IWA at the early stage.
I’d buy it again for a handful of dollars for interior design purpose, but shipping to my part of the word ain’t cheap
Still plenty of equipment within those brands that are fine for learning, some even nice for more advanced riders. I still ride my Cabrinha H-series and Takuma Kujira, they are fun foils and for a beginner most AR 5-8 1500-2000cm2 should work…
Pretty much true. Primarily due to the mast improvements. Bad advice to buy these in most cases as all the critical elements will be wobbly mess
Same with kites, windsurfs and old boats. At some point you have to pay someone to scrap it. Buy an old kite or windsurf rig for $100 and you get what you pay for
Axis in the UK is the predominant candidate. Would you pay $200 to ride an Art v1? I would not ride an old axis, but maybe weld an old uni or takuma together.
I think this must partially answer the question, these are the true gear sinkholes, frothers dump old gear well before it loses its residual entirely if it’s getting in the way, maybe save some icons for nostalgia (not me) but it’s the maybe someday crew that seem to accumulate the relics
Also often see a 3 gen prior unused foil listed above current latest gen tech “unused top of the line, not for me”
I would similarly give props to Lift, their classic carbon mast is quite good in my experience. Especially among masts there are some noodles out there, I learnt wingfoiling on a Cabrinha gen 1. Honestly, for a beginner, it’s fine. It’s just that once you are up and riding both ways, going to higher speeds and stronger winds, it’s time to upgrade.
Lift is cheap on the 2nd hand market here in oz these days. Classic masts and good wings in the 400 dollar au range. Great foils still holding their own. 90, 120HA etc. if you can afford a surfboard in Australia you could afford a good 2nd hand foil set up no worries at all.
and for a beginner most AR 5-8 1500-2000cm2 should work…