For those who have been able to ride many brands, what 3-4 front wings would you have if money was no limit across all brands and for what conditions? Focused purely on prone foiling also.
Brands top of my mind are Lift Havocs/HA, Code S series, AFS Silks, Unifoil Progressions, F One Sk8s.
Potential Quiver Ideas(170 lbs) (format stolen from @exiled):
Groveler: Progression 140
Powered up/Steeper waves: Silk 650 or Sk8 650/750 (Sacrifice pump for the ride)
Daily Driver: Code 850S or AFS Silk 850
HA when I’m feeling it: Lift 120 or P125 or F One Eagle 790
I’m currently on a P140/P125 quiver and looking to expand mainly with some mid aspect low(er) wingspan wings. I will definitely keep the P140. I’m also curious about other HA wings outshining the P125. Unfortunately it is not feasible to demo all of this stuff.
This is a good question because making a quiver within a brand is mostly useless because of brands doing “change everything but the AR sizing”. Looking at the code S range on paper the 850 is a surf wing but the 980 is DW pretending to be surf. I feel like i really like the conecpt of loosely anchoring it to span so thing bigger wings still surf (at the expense of pump) and the smaller wings pump a hair better at the expense of turning but very few brands do it so whatever.
I’ll be honest. You gotta just ride stuff. I had a progression 140 and it never really worked for me and i kind of hated it. Now i have an almost identical but far inferior on paper North SF 930 and it feels better in almost all ways - and i don’t really know why. But also i’m not asking it to do as much.
I’d say the Silks are the most amazing thing i’ve ever ridden though but i just couldn’t deal with the wierd construction. Lift is in a wierd place with the havocs/HAs i feel like the the HAVOCS are a ripping low span powered foil for super powerful surf or winging and the HAs are DW wings but neither is a good “pump and surf” for prone.
What do you mean “weird” construction on Silks? I’m mainly looking for a Havoc/Sk8/Silk < 80 CM span for exactly what you just said - I’m expecting a tradeoff for pumping.
Riding the sk8s, I would say the 750 and 850 are the best of the range. Prog are a good complement for weaker waves. From what I heard sk8 850 vs silk 850, the silk turns better, the sk8 is more stable at speed and breaches better. Silk would fit rather slower waves and sk8 rather faster waves.
From what you describe I would say sk8 750, as long as you are fit and rather light (<80kg). If your conditions are usually clean the eagle 790 is a great option to have more glide while loosing a bit of control on chops and breaches.
The trend I see is that you want to tune the AR depending on how clean the conditions are. 2 foils in small size (700-800ish) for chest high waves, one AR 10 for clean and one AR 8 for choppy conditions. 2 foils in bigger size (900-1000ish) for knee high waves, same AR difference.
Also if the beachbreak is “compact”, meaning the waves break rather steep over a short distance, lower AR do better. If the beachbreak is “broad”, long running waves, mushier, higher AR do better.
Foil section has to be adapted to the period of waves you are surfing. These days same specs wings can be very different with their speed range. In speed what I hear : Prog < New Army HA < Silk < Sk8 (?)
Honestly, don’t read too much into my construction thing. It’s really just a vibe. Each one of those things is this thing hand made by a Frenchman complete with all these weird little hand made imperfections and whatnot. I’m really hard on gear, so maybe I was a little nervous about one of those imperfections biting me or maybe I just didn’t want to be running the Mona Lisa of foils into the sand every day. If it’s any indication of where my priorities lie, I am now riding the north SF of which every part is 100% disposable.
Also, it’s a little different from every other foil in just the finish or and surface of it. It’s like there’s no hot coat and it’s just fiber on the outside I don’t know it was very different and maybe it’s changed now.
Really like this thread. I don’t have ton of experience on newer foils but I love my quiver of progression foils. Unifoil seems to be coasting a bit on their success though with nothing really on the roadmap beyond the p100.
I have the 125, 140, 170, and 200. Definitely interested in the 100 but living in Florida and weighing in at 195lbs i don’t often feel over foiled on the 125.
Mostly wing and lately foil drive. The 170 is an great all around wing for me, but it’s definitely slower than other foils like the FOne Eagle. Trade off is it can grave dig way better than higher aspect foils like the eagle which requires you to maintain a higher speed. The 200 definitely has its place but it’s even slower than the 170.
I love the 140 and 125. 140 is now the go to for foil drive for waist high and above. But if I wasn’t on the FD the lack of pump would probably raise that to chest high for prone. The span on the 140 makes it really fun to carve which is likely why it’s probably the most popular in the range.
If I am powered on a wing I am always on my 125 now. It just has so much range, honestly feels more similar to an eagle than a progression wing, yet still feels very familiar to the series if that makes sense.
Feel unqualified to answer the dream quiver question but I am overall really happy on my progression foils. It’s a good feeling not wanting to jump ship. Just wish Unifoil would add some true HA foils to the range for downwinders.
Definitely interested to hear more about the new KT foils when they are released though.
I was out today in Florida waist to chest high glass this morning (3.5ft @ 9 seconds and DAMN the progression 140 is a great wing. My daily driver is the p170. The p140 just feels so good. I can only link a handful of waves on it, but it’s just so easy and predictable. It’s hard for me to imagine anything working better in my typical prone conditions.
I’m 6’3” and about ~200lbs
PS - my 1st priority is pump and 2nd priority is turning
My current prone quiver at 210 lbs is:
Groveler: Eagle 990
Daily Driver: Sk8 850
Wild card: Eagle x 700
If I wanted a 4 wing quiver and wasn’t locked into a system:
Groveler: Progression 170
Daily Driver: Code 850
Step up: Sk8 750
Wild Card: eagle X 800
I like the P140 a lot also and will definitely keep it, however this is a dream quiver, we don’t have to be limited to just Unifoil Progressions lol. Its wingspan is 900 at the 125/140 sizes and Unifoil has zero mid aspects (ignoring Vypers) that let you roll harder.
Surely we cant all be satisfied to just have progressions for all conditions?
I feel like this topic should be changed to “what foils do I absolutely need to demo in 2025”. I thought there was stuff out there that was enough of a known quantity to buy before trying but ended up burning a bunch of $$$ with things not really working - not because of any deficiencies in the gear just my own preferences.
You gotta try stuff - even if it’s the #1 most hyped whatever. Esp if your a poor person who has to sell the old gear before buying the new new.
Well the original description specified for those who have extensively ridden many foils - what would you choose if money wasnt a limit. So ideally people are explaining what foils they would add to their quiver given they arent locked into a vendor and have actually tried it and found it gave them a new feeling they liked more than their current set ups.
This is it in my opinion, none of us can really opine about stuff we haven’t ridden. I will say that I started on Armie and got so convinced that I was missing out on “better” gear by reading threads here that I went and “upgraded” to a Uni Progression 140. It only took a few months for me to determine I far prefer the Armie 880HA to the P140, and I find the Armie connection preferable to the Uni, so I sold the Uni and stuck with Armie.
That said, I am curious and hope someday to try some other brands, but I’m totally happy with what I have. To anwer the original question as best I can, I think for me the four wings wouid be an Armie APF 1350 for pumping, light wind wing, and learning DW, an HA880 for general wing and prone use, a DWP755 for high speed downwind and all super high aspect applications, and a small HA 580 for towing and big winds/surf.
Out of all wings, keahi is still on the eagle 690. I can attest on the 790, amazing as long as not too choppy. Wondering if the small eagle x (500-600-700) could have some magic in the surf
The best way to put it is that I ride the eagle x when it is big but not steep. The SK8 can stay in the pocket of the wave, but some waves don’t have a pocket worth staying in. Right now I don’t have a step up size foil but the 700x kinda fits there since it doesn’t get over powered as easily as the 850. I think the 800x would probably give me more range in bump riding and I would go to the 750 on the really big days.
Super interesting. Same can be said between the eagle and sk8, seems like the x is one step further. The steeper the wave the lower AR will do best, and vice versa. I would also add that steep waves usually break over a shorter overall distance so the pump back out is also shorter than fat waves, fitting a lower AR reduced pump distance ability.
Keahi was saying that he sees the sk8 as a thruster and the eagle as a quad, really fits the idea here.
690 is a killer wing. 790 when you need a bit more pump. 750/650 sk8 when full bore carves are what you’re craving. Finding the 800x actually turns decent…and definitely a nice bit more glide than the 790. Chases the tiniest wind chop as well. Haven’t tried the 700x, but the Xs really just feel like downwind is where they belong, or when you’re just wanting to mix it up for a different feel.
The eagle x is a much bigger step than the eagle and sk8. riding it in the surf is much more technical. With the Eagle I can just slap my favorite carve tail on and go. The eagleX really seems to need a long fuse to pitch stability. In the surf it accelerates to such a high speed so quickly that you really have to be on your pop-up game because you wont have time to adjust your feet. The upside is that its fun to go fast, you connect waves without pumping, and the glide opens up lines that you didn’t see before. But man, it is not an easy foil to surf.