Agree I have old Neil Pryde setups, Liquid Force setups, Cloud 9 setups, Axis setups all that never get used anymore. Same with lots of old kites and wings.
Windsports and foiling is a technology game, noone wants an Iphone 3 except for collector purposes, same with a Neil Pryde Glide Large foil setup. The technology is antiquated and in the case of foiling will definitely slow your progression massively and may be actually dangerous. It used to take 25-50 sessions to get decent at surf foiling, now all you need is a single afternoon on a foildrive and you are having a blast.
On the other hand selling it for very cheap to teenagers or giving it away is a good idea since they otherwise can’t participate in the sport
I rode a Takuma LOL setup today for winging. My wing level is beginner.
I have a gong sirus xl that I use for dockstarts and ocean ladder starts, and eventually I will switch to it for wingfoil, but I want to do 5+ sessions without smashing against the lake bottom on the takuma before I risk my sirus.
I come from a surfing background and various trips to indonesia have had a big impact on me. One really wholesome thing that happens in indonesia is that tourists will donate their “hospice” surfboards to local kids. There are Facebook groups for buying and selling surfboards in Indo, and whenever somebody tries to sell a clunker surfboard, lots of people will comment “just donate it to a local grom”
I think it would be nice if people did the same thing with foils. Give it to somebody’s kid, or sell it for $100-$200 and think of it as a halfway-donation to somebody who simply isn’t going to foil if the price tag to start is too high.
It sucks to admit that we paid a lot of money for something that isn’t worth much now, but it feels good to spread the stoke, so I think we should focus on spreading the stoke!
The secondhand markets are so extremely different in different parts of the world. I live in East Asia and one of the “best” secondhand foils I’ve seen for sale was a takuma helium 1750 for $600. Just the wing and the stab. This was 18 months ago.
I think San Francisco actually has a pretty good scene for used gear! Folks that are paying $3,000-$5,000/mo for a 750 sqft apartment aren’t going to hold onto that 120L beginner board for that long, and we regularly see modern relevant gear being transacted through FB Marketplace in a manner of hours.
Where gear seems to get ‘stuck’ is when it’s held for too long, and there’s too much sunk cost and perceived value, or a funky location. When you buy your first wing foil setup for your remote lake house in Nebraska, and then potentially quit the sport 3 years later … finding a buyer where you are not underwater on the shipping cost might be nearly impossible.
I also don’t think we are creating that many “new” riders - I can only think of 1 family who has gotten into foiling without a Kite/Windsurf/wing background.
Teenager here! I watched and wanted to get into foiling for about 5 years before I was able to get into the sport. I’ve been able to pick up winging quickly, and was done with my beginner foil after my first 5-10 sessions. I know that others like me would benefit from old bad setups just to learn the basics of foiling before going all in on a newer setup.
Fully agree (except that not all old setups are bad - some actually have a use-case past the learning phase). And it’s not just for cash strapped teenagers. Older gear definitely lowers the barrier to entry for most foil sports. Perfect example for me is the sudden boom in kite foiling at my local spot. For about 6 years I’ve been the only foiler here (prone and kite). Then one of the wave kiters borrowed my Unifoil 170 Vortex (a design from 2018) on a flat light wind day iland was instantly hooked. Now theres up to 6 guys kite foiling on an an assortment of relic foils whenever theres a puff. Some of these guys will buy new gear but most are happy to cruise around without breaking the bank
On a different note, i recently took this old Unifoil Hyper1 150 for a prone session. I believe this one was designed in 2019. I paid $50 for it. Very forgiving and fun prone wing that i actually prefer over newer HA wings when it’s low, backwash, messy.
Counterpoint, I bought a 190 hyper for £100 a few years ago on a whim, but it was after they’d changed the tolerances on the mast foot or something because it was completely unrideable in any kind of chop and I gave it away after losing it a few times. A beginner would think that foiling is 100x harder than necessary if they picked up a bad combo of foil/mast or something loose and wobbly. I had the same experience with a well used gen1 uni carbon mast that was a complete nightmare.
I would never recommend buying this old stuff, keeping it around to lend to someone sure, but often actually harmful to a beginner prospects… my 2c! (I have a broken foil and waiting on a warranty, I’d rather surf than ride something old lol)
Ive had no issues with 150 and 190 on 3 generation of masts. Maybe just lucky. That said, any gear that’s been well used could require some form of maintenance, tweaking or fixes. Mast foot bottoming out - just sand 1mm off the base. Bolts bottoming out - get shorter bolts. Helicoils for stripped threads. Shim or pot worn saddles. Chop or replace old slow stabs. I think buyers who insist of plug-and-play should not buy (or keep) old gear.
When I bought my first unifoil kit, 2nd hand, very cheap, it had slop in the fuse connection, and slop in the mast to wing connection. No big deal, tailored slices of beer can, and aluminium tape and I got it nice and solid. Of course I would have appreciated if the seller had warned me about it, but it’s kind of expected on any foiling gear to have to eventually compensate for wear. I see lots of Axis gear with slop here and there. No brand is impervious to that.
Whenever I sell something, I try to bundle a few bits of wisdom with it, that should be the norm.
Yes agree on both it takes some tweaking and know how. Exactly what a beginner won’t know to do. To start sanding or potting mast foots to get it rideable is unlikely.
My first foil was a used axis and man it was a slop fest. Eventually had the mast foot and baseplate shimmed with foil and cans, but looking back I wonder. Given my now very strong opinion that a wobbly mast is just not worth the time, I think a cheapo mess foil is a gamble unless you have someone to service it once or twice.
Well, as an owner of a somewhat wobbly mast, I did not like reading that haha. I’ll have to look into how i can make it less wobbly with alu tape or something.
I was happy with my Kujiras but the bad interfaces fuse/foil and fuse/mast made me epoxy pot them and keep them assembled all the time.I do travel from time to time so i had to move on.
Hard to sell a one piece foil.
Removing the mast means the epoxy potting in the fuse cracks away ,so it becomes wobbly again.And removing the wing from the fuse is very hard work,with lots of pulling,twisting and swearing.Plus getting it back in can be fun too…
So selling this to a beginner is a bit of a poisoned candy, not to mention the finicky stab and mast plate shimming requirements of the Kujiras
Do they work?,perfectly fine…i keep them as backups in case i destroy my current.
Sold my slingshot big orange setup with plate Tuttle and two wings that I got for free for $50 to a local group of teens. They were beyond stoked. I vehemently disagree with anyone saying old foils are bad to ride. If you are a beginner I think you would have to be sort of an idiot to pass on a 0-250$ large full setup you are going to want to pass on in a month or two. Big beginner boards are more of an issue to source.
Any beginners out there reading this - go to your local spot and talk to 3 people I would give you a 80% chance of score a full setup for free. People don’t bother listing it online.
I used it to teach my girlfriend and it happened to be the same setup I learned on in 2020. I had to ride it back upwind one time and I found it to be incredibly forgiving, impossible to stall and turn amazing (84cm wide 2,00cm2!). Top speed and glide was a turd but hey, you’re foiling regardless!
