Not a ton of discussion regarding what the best front foils are for advanced beginner/intermediates (mostly thinking winging here)…though early lift, low stall speeds, with less drag and more glide and more playful/aggressive turning than most starter foils seem to be what I’m looking for as I start my second season winging at 63kg on a 70L Appleslice V2…
My challenges mostly center around getting up in lighter conditions, then staying up and in control to work on jibes and carving turns and handling the variations in wind from under to over powered, and they dynamics of chop/swell, along with learning to pump…
So…moving on from a Lift Surf 250 V2 to…what exactly and why??? I have efoiled a fair amount using a foil drive and the Lift 150 hax and love it - aside from the higher stall speed. I’ve also been on a Sab Leviathan 1150 and that is no bueno on turning for me so far, and tosses me around quite a bit in bigger chop.
Could the Prog 170 be the answer?
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I’ll be honest, I don’t think it’s worth switching brands if your just wing dinging. I think anything works winging. I’m convinced I could wing on my old LF foil fish from 2016. I once broke off half of my stab winging and it barely affected my session. Prone is much more critical of gear. Everything has to be almost perfect.
You should just get a lift HA 170 if that 250 feels like a dog and you want to keep that light wind.
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Based on the things you want to learn, you should stick with your lift gear. It isn’t the best setup once you are more advanced but it’s totally capable of the things you want to do.
The Progression might be slightly better at those things, but it’s not a great winging setup once you have andvanced past that stage.
Once you’ve learned the things you want to learn you should move to a more advanced foil that you can grow with more, but it’s not worth switching now.
I don’t totally agree with TME and I think foils are very important in winging, but I do agree that at this stage in your progression (and based on the gear you already have) it isn’t really beneficial for you to change.
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Don’t necessarily disagree with the above advice, but some additional perspective from someone with a progression quiver for winging.
I will say right off the bat that the biggest strength of the progression foils is their insane glide, as good or better then any foil I have ridden. And yet they are still totally rippable turning great with low stall speed so very forgiving. That glide and low stall speed makes jibes incredibly easy.
The 170 is my grovel wing. If it’s light wind it’s my goto. But as soon as I am powered I want to be on the P125. And that’s because as fun as the 170 is, it’s noticably slow compared to other foils for winging. It just seems to hit a top end some times. The 125 is much faster and does not ever feel like it hits a wall.
But if your aim is to get better at transitions and you crave unpowered glide from your foil in the waves or swell the 170 is hard to beat. But if you just want to cruise in flat water there are probably better foils.
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