Progression tail surprisingly arrived from MacKite today. Stoked!
From the first wave it was exceptional… Fast. Stable. And shreddy. Crazy to put all three of those into one. Congrats Erik!
If you haven’t seen it… It has a family resemblance to the stock red tails in outline and curve in the tips. It’s thin, way thinner than a Kujira tail. It’s high aspect (low area for its span). Sharp tips. But whatever it looks like, it feels great. (Honestly I didn’t even check out the foil shape of it, I just bolted it on and went!)
Full disclosure, I’m in North Florida. I’m friendly with Erik. He’s been directing me on tails for the Progression, but he didn’t push me on the 14.5. Here’s the gist of our tails conversation the last few months…
Me: Erik the stock red tails are too flexy for my 100kg+ size.
Erik: Try your Kujira 178, it’s stiffer and super fun.
Me: Kujira is good for me when there are waves, but at my big size the pump is a bit of work in the tiny stuff.
Erik: Try your bigger Kane tails.
Me: Marlin doesn’t seem to be a great fit for me somehow. Kane Classic is good for me. Super easy!
I had landed at Kujra for average Florida surf, and Kane Classic for tiny surf.
But I only want to use this tail now… fast, stable, and somehow shreddy at the same time.
Stoked to get mine. How do speed and pump compare to the others? Which foils are you using it with (assume progression but what sizes)?
I actually have good familiarity with all the tails you reference and similar feelings about them. Hoping that the progression tail is the unicorn that feels like the 178 but unlocks additional top end.
I hesitate to come across as any kind of expert here… I had about six good waves with it… Then pulled a muscle under my rib. Ugh.
Progression 14.5" is the fastest of the tails mentioned. I would bet the thickness of the Kujira 178 is a limiting factor in its top end. I did not physically compare it to the other tails, I just unboxed it and got on the water. But the 14.5 is probably the thinnest and the highest aspect (shortest chord length) of the tails mentioned. So it on paper it should be fast! Somehow it’s more stable than the Kujira as well. By a good amount.
For its pump… how do you define it? As far as distance covered at speed, the 14.5 is great… But if you define it by pure pumping around, the larger Kane Classic tail has so much more area / lower aspect / longer chord that I can probably stay in the air longer, at a slower speed. But the upside for fun with the 14.5 is much greater… higher speeds, better carves, and still comfy pumps if you have some technique. Depends on what someone is after in their pumps.
When I took the 14.5 out of the box from MacKite, I was actually a bit worried… I thought this might be not enough tail for my 100+kgs. It’s so thin… and the cm2 is, well I don’t know, but not much. So I put a +1 shim on in case I needed to dig out of holes. Didn’t feel like it was shimmed. Didn’t feel like I needed to go to zero. Plenty of everything with the +1 for me.
(Rest of setup: Short fuse. Big Progression foil. Cedrus 75 mast. Amundson Uncle Nubby. Foil all the way forward in the box.)
I also brought my big Kane Classic down to the beach as a security blanket in case the 14.5 was too small for me. But I didn’t even think about it, the first wave sold me.
Again, I don’t want to be the expert here. I’m just the first kid that opened the box Christmas morning, and sharing my thoughts.
Wonder why the Marlin doesn’t work? For me so far it is the best tail in clean conditions. Edit obviously excluding this! One thing is maybe I like the skatier feel of the marlin, which Eric suggests removing the tips of this to get that feeling if you want it
I wouldn’t say the Marlin “didn’t work”. It did great things.
As an XXL dude in weak Florida waves, low end performance is particularly a top priority, that’s why the Classic won for me among the Kane tails. I was surprised on the Dawn Patrol app that the theoretically slower Kane Classic was delivering for me the same speeds as the Marlin on a wave and the Classic was pumping with easier use than the Marlin. Maybe my confidence with it allowed me to foil with authority. Less wobbles chasing a set.
So the Classic gave me excellent stall speed performance and pump stability to allow aggressive chasing down of outside sets. Those are important to me at my size in my conditions. The big bonus was that it competed with the Marlin in speed as well on Dawn Patrol.
I haven’t pulled out the Marlin in a bit. But yeah a more slippery feel is what I remember. Should be more high performance on a wave. I can see the comparison to a chopped new Progression tail. We spend a lot of time in Florida hopping around as opposed to shredding. The big Classic was better for me at the low end pump. The trade off for that good low end is that you end up nursing the Classic through turns a bit.
Again, I am no hotshot foiler. And keep in mind that what works for my XXL frame and average skills in micro waves might not be useful feedback if you are 140 pounds and shredding all day in Hawaii or Australia.
