I’m planning to buy a new mast and I’m hesitating between the Race and the Torque from Unifoil.
I weigh 74 kg and mainly practice prone foiling. I mostly use small wings (Prog 100 & 125, Evo 135, and a Prog 170 which I haven’t used in at least a year and a half).
I currently have a Katana 75 and would really like to move to a slightly longer mast, ideally 80. However, since there’s no Race in 80, my only option would be the Torque — but I’ve read that the Torque is mainly designed for heavier riders or large wings, which is not my case.
Is there a big difference (in terms of speed and stiffness) between the Torque and the Katana?
Has anyone tried both of the new masts, Race & Torque, and could share their feedback?
There’s very little information online about these two new masts…
The torque is 100 percent an upgrade from the katana. I’ve spent a good amount of time on all 3 masts. The torque is my daily driver for all the disciplines I’m involved in. It’s a really thin mast so it adds a noticeable extra efficiency to all your wings and it’s in incredibly stiff for how thin it is. The race mast is the fastest but it’s not a huge difference from the torque in terms of speed. I wouldn’t recommend the race mast to anyone who wants to fly wings bigger than about 170. The flex starts to become more noticeable and negatively affects the feel in turns. That’s my 2 cents for what it’s worth!
Thanks for that info, good to know.
I do wish Unifoil were a bit more in line with other brands in terms of the specs they provide for the masts.
I’m trying to work out which one to go for too, and having some details to compare would be good, like ‘this model is this percent stiffer than the Katana’ or the actual thickness of the mast at a particular point.
Without that hard detail, it’s all a bit vague, like this one’s a bit stiffer, but not quite stiff enough to run foils bigger that this etc. It’s all confusing.
Just my two cents, but we’re all nerds here, give us some data! :B
How is the comparison between the Progression 800 and Torque - I have a Prog800 now, and am considering Torque for DW. Been trying to work out if it could give much more speed. am more than happy with the Prog800 (and plan to keep it with my FD for surf) and find it pretty fast when one brings the mast up high.
My understanding is that the Race Mast and Torque mast have the same profile but the Torque uses a (different) high modulus carbon. I have the Torque 80 and Progression 800 and can confirm the dimensions of the Torque 80 (though I measure 14mm thickness but that could be my vernier not being long enough). Torque 80 very very fast, and worth getting - am really enjoying it. What surprised me is how easy it is to turn, and think it is because the mast chord is only 109mm, and is consistent for almost the length of the mast
I don’t think it is as stiff as the Progression (my basic test is to have a wing on the mast and twist it) - but think Progression must be stiffest mast out there. But when I am on the foil I don’t notice it flexing so it clearly is stiff enough - whereas on my original 83cm mast I can feel the flex. I have decided to keep the T80 for Foil Drive and I mainly use the Evo 155 (and 135 but have not had chance to use yet) - it is a lot faster (and bonus better turning on the wave - hopefully not exaggerating but feels like speed of a sized down foil so I feel it has given more range of my Evo 155), and my pumping has improved significantly - have doubled my distances that I can now pump I reakon. I am say 82kg, then add wetsuit etc. I am pleasantly surprised to so easily see the difference as tbh, was not expecting much difference. I am planning on using my progression for DW as have larger foils though think I would be fine on a 175 or even 205 for downwinding as it is not like one is carving a lot
IMO the evolution surf and katana are very similar. I have used them back to back with the same setup. I may even give the node to the katana.
I have used the evolution surf with an Armstrong 1880 a fair bit, and it’s far too flexible in my opinion. Too be fair it’s a giant wing. I wouldn’t recommend either mast with large span wings.
I’m 200lbs and 6’3”
PS - even the older aluminum cedrus is outstanding and worked well with that same 1880. My buddy just got their new aluminum mast and he’s says it’s outstanding. He’s my size
Any info on the race mast profile thickness? I doubt it’s the same as a torque, if it was only a different carbon grade the torque would be more expensive.
The race is thinner at the bottom and lower chord than torque as well. It tapers down like the katana. I saw them both in person to visually confirm but I didnt have any tools for measuring.
I dont really want a mast that tapers like that because I felt like the katana had inconsistent changes in speed as you ride higher and lower on mast which threw me off. Torque looks much more constant through the bottom 2/3 and is also both thinner and lower chord throughout the bottom than cedrus which is why im considering buying one. Its 1 lb heavier but i think the tradeoff might be worth it
a few of us know I’m not a fan of the evo surf mast but, giving credit where credit is due cedrus nailed the new aluminum masts those are rock solid, anyway, unrelated. I like the torq I’ve been putting some time on it and it’s a great mast, way different from the race mast, just looking at them side by side they’re not even close. torq is the hands down better all discipline mast. progression is great too, If i had a progression I wouldn’t run out and buy a torq unless I just felt like spending money, both are great. Seeing the race mast in person and being about 80kg i personally wouldn’t buy the race mast unless I was only using it for dw on small wings, I think I’d push on it too hard. torq is way better than evo surf, not even in the same class
Yes. I have a carbon evo surf and a T80. Both 80cm. They perform incredibly similarly. I honestly think 90% of riders couldn’t tell the difference on sizes up to 140. At the margins I do think the T80 handles bigger wings better but agin the difference is incredibly negligible.
Oddly enough for the name it actually had the lowest torsional stiffness of any mast we tested. But it had nearly the highest bending stiffness, almost matching the Axis UHM Pro. With our long reach calipers we recorded 105mm chord and 15.5mm thick for the piercing region, making it 0.5mm thinner than Evolution Surf and with a 5mm shorter chord length… which suggests about 4% less drag.
The surf mast has been “facelifted” with a new material and layup to improve torsional stiffness and make up for the shorter chord length. There’s also a UHM version which has more torsional stiffness than any carbon mast tested. The wind mast is thinner for a longer relative portion of the mast when looking at an 80cm length, because that model is optimized for longer lengths. For example, the surf mast is “thin” for about 50 of the 80cm, while the wind mast is thin for 70 of the 80cm. So if we were to test 90cm lengths of all these models, the results would be quite different and wind would look much stiffer. But we tested 80cm because it is closer to the more popular lengths of each brand.