looking at how mass impacts performance lightening the foil does very little compared to lightening the board (or even the rider!). I’ve ridden heavier setups back to back with lighter and struggled to feel any difference (besides carrying it up the beach)
Mostly i come at it fromt the perspective of being 220 lbs and destroying every other foil i get my hands on. I’ve got nothing bad to say about the AFS other than it not being the best for me. I can’t really go off of a foil’s reputation or design features. I have to get my hands on it and feel it and assess personally and even then foils go bad for me.
I’ve been quite shocked by the consistent reports of breaking gear from the “big dawgs” since its something I’ve never experienced at 190lbs. It does make me wonder what’s happening to create that moment in time where things break, or if it’s a repetitive fatigue issue that plagues bigger riders.
690/790 Eagle with 160 carve are my go-to daily drivers. Had been kind of disinterested in the SK8 for a while, just felt like too much of a hit in speed/pump coming from the 690. I’ve revisited these recently and I love them now…650 and 750 SK8 with same 160C tail…really fun prone in decent conditions, especially if you’re staying closer to the pocket and not looking for max pump/glide.
Just picked up the 900 EagleX and it is really mind blowing. Running with the 145DW tail and just can’t get over how fun this is for a bigger wing and can’t wait until I’m able to drop down to this for SUP DW. Definitely going to pick up a few smaller sizes. It is such a lively wing for being a glider. Unreal construction too.
I don’t think the lightness of the AFS stuff is a design objective, but rather an outcome - they went thin on mast, foil, fuse, everything, and then went with UHM fiber to get the needed stiffness from such thin sections, and end result is a very light setup. They definitely could have gone up in core density to add some toughness, and that may have helped some with the brittleness of the UHM carbon. But at the end of the day, UHM is just less tough and more brittle than regular and HM fibers so you are definitely trading a bit of toughness for performance (hydrodynamic).
Edit: that said, they certainly talk up the lightness aspect as a performance advantage in their marketing.
I’ve had two generations of Zeeko foils (kiting), three generations of Cloud 9 foils, currently foiling on Unifoil gear and recently demoed the Omen Operator foils.
While I’m very happy with my Unifoil gear the Omen gear was also very impressive.
Based on my demo of a few weeks I’d say the Omen foils are very well engineered and the manufacturing appeared to be top notch. The connection between the mast and fuselage was very impressive with the stainless steel section.
If you are looking for craftsmanship, a well thought out design, and performance I would recommend giving Omen a look.
The full capture design for mast > fuse used by Code/Axis/others should last fine if it is well fit to start. My Axis carbon mast > fuse fit is still tight after 100+ sessions. No play before tightening the bolts.
Eventually I’ll probably need to glass the mast foot with 3/4 oz glass or something, but it’s showing no sign that is happening soon.
I don’t - haven’t tried yet. I’m still in early days of the SUP journey. Currently struggling my way through it on the Lift 180hax. Plans to get back on the f-one kit once I’m ready to drop down in size…
Coming from Cloud IX too - setting aside the new FS-900 that it’s pretty fast and controlled at high speed (but it’s not the fastest of foils), the AFS whole line of foils are quite impresive at high speed control.
I’ve put the SILK 650/132 stab at 45 Km/h winging - the 850 I think should hold to 40 easily, some people say it can go faster (maybe I’m not heavy enough to push it) - and the 1100HA being a “big guy” can hold me downwinding on really small stuff and going not fast at all - to holding the big bumps up to some 39-40km/h on some garming readings while downwinding - so the range of speed of these foils is huge. And it feels slippery and glidy.
I was able to test for a season the PURE 900v1 - great foil for winging - really good low end, but impressive top end control for it’s size and quite a good carver although the SILK holds better the carve/speed/control and rail to rail overall feeling.
So - talking about AFS models and purposes = lets say they all can do everything well at some point - but excel in something to what they were specifically made:
PURE HA - Downwind - lightwind glide
PURE - I think of them as the TOP perfomance WINGING foil - speed - pop - stiffness - super thin - I loved the 900v1 when I was able to pop it up for sup downwind
SILK - Best for Surf foil - carving rail to rail - glide and speed on the wave-
I agree with what have been said about the finish - but still, the connection it’s really stiff - and for me I’ve felt no wiggle or any degradation of stiffness on the few months I’ve been using my UHM 80cm mast for daily use allround (downwind - sup surf - prone surf - winging). And yes, the mast it’s quite another thing - really stiff and really thin
The only report I’ve heard about was with the JAM 1900 - it’s so big that it keeps damaging the screws - but it seems an issue on the old HM mast - too much pressure I guess.
Mikeslab are flawless. They cost more but you get what you pay for and they keep their value incredibly well. Most other brands loose at least 50% the moment you buy them and are worth virtually nothing after a couple of years.
Picked up the AFS Silk demos today, haven’t ridden them yet but I have to admit. I’ve never felt a foil so light, stiff, and thin.
The UHM 80cm mast is insanely stiff. Bummed that the demo mast has a significant ding in the trailing edge, hoping that doesn’t effect performance terribly.
We should have strong winds all week so it it should be easy to test the 650, 850, and 1050 here in the gorge. Will report back when I’ve got some ride time on them.
I have both Mike’s Lab and Chubanga foils. The Chubanga foils are next level in terms of finish. The are absolutely perfect. They are absolute masterpieces. The ML foils are excellent no doubt but Luca Filippi’s hand finishing is flawless. Haven’t you seen the pictures or videos of him? Skinny guy with messed up hair wearing jewelers glasses scanning for tiny pinholes with blackened hands endlessly sanding day and night? He is a true craftsman.
I just had my bolts sheer on my f-one today while prone surfing. Just heard a pop while laying down a carving turn on my 890 eagle. Fortunately the middle bolt held so nothing was lost at sea, but now I’m out of the water until I can get the old bolts extracted from the mast and find some new replacement bolts.