I made the choice to transition from surfing after 25 years to foiling and am hooked! I have been learning on a LA Naish 1250 setup to which I feel like I am ready to dip my toes into some of the more advanced set ups. I am around 190 pounds (85-87kg), surf knee to head high beach breaks in Australia predominately on the foil. Can turn the Naish but due to its LA, am unable to connect wave as I can only get around 15m pumping.
A couple of questions as I’m still very green with tech related stuff;
I have my eye on either the new Unifoil Progression wing or the Lift 120HA. I have been reading a lot of reviews to which I notice continually that people suggest the 120HA is a very technical wing and not amazing when there is choppy/turbulant conditions. When conditions are ideal, its an incredibly wing though. The progression seems to be a bit more of forgiving wing to for the intermediate foiler from what I’ve read and can handle conditions that arent glassy. If anyone has any insight into the comparison between these two and what you would recommend, I would be very appreciative.
If I went down path of the progression wing, what would be ideally the better choice considering my weight, conditions etc. 140 or the 170? Would the 140 be attainable coming from a lower end of the intermediate ability and coming straight off an entry level LA set up? If anyone has ridden both, what were the perks or either?
Buy the newest foil you can afford. Unifoil will be the winner in this case. It will make your life easier. The 140 would be OK, but the 170 will allow you to stay on foil longer which will let you progress faster. I say Unifoil Progression 170.
You’re slightly to heavy for the lift ha120 in my opinion. Lift ha120 is over 2 years old at this point.
Maybe if you got a Lift HA170 for really really cheap (<$750 complete or something) but the Prog 170 is in another league and will make you life much easier.
How is the progression 170 different than the 170ha? I realize that its older (4-5 yrs older) but the specs on it are similar as far as surface area, span, aspect ratio etc. What makes the Progression 170 so much better? How will it feel better for the prone surfer? (Thinking about switching over from Lift to Uni myself).
I have the 150haX and its great if you have speed but it has a pretty high stall speed. It’s also REALLY high aspect (10.1) which makes turning difficult. It sounds like the 150haX was intended to be the quiver killer for wing and downwind, not for prone surf foiling (why I bought it… doh).
Compared to the Lift 170HA the Prog170:
-Turns/rolls much better (quicker rail to rail)
-Glides much much farther
-Pumps much better/smoother and easier
-Similar low end
-Better top-end
-Less forward pitching during turns
-Feels better/slicker through the water
See if you can demo one, then you will not have any questions. The lift was good 3 years ago or whenever it came out but you’re just comparing it to the latest and greatest in a fast evolving field.
Bigger = more time on foil = faster progression = more fun