Gorgo said..
Alex has pretty strong opinions about foil size and tail size and rider weight and usage. Some of it is a little counterintuitive. For example, he's says everybody should be on the GT foils (which makes sense) and should be riding the 20" tail for all but the smallest wings.
It's a pity they don't offer all this on the web site. It would make it less of a lucky dip when you're trying to decide which sizes to buy.
I think he's way off base on that. Being on the island, with good waves, they're riding the GT/NL type stuff thats slower inorder to keep from outrunning the power on powerful, organized, waves. I'd also say that their waves are more geard to big drawn out turns, hence the giant stabs. When you ask them about what to ride for less fantastic surf they recomend the bigger sizes of that stuff because they assume the smaller, more garbage wave is going to result in "less performance", however the reality is the opposite. In garbage conditions your rarely staying with one line for more than a few seconds so speed is more valuable to connect multiple sections and makr it out of bad situations. Alex would probably say i'm working too hard on my RS 1000 and 13in tail at 220 lbs, but i'm making sections that i wouldn't on a slower wing. Speed generation (RS) vs speed control (GT).
I would also say, that pumping around and connecting on a small wing like the 1000 is only dooable after being a pump master on the bigger high aspects. You can't just jump to it or skip steps. The bigger, HA, pump monsters were a necessary step to really dial in pumping to get there and the big low aspects are a necessary step to get to the big HA stuff. He might also be assuming that if your asking for advice thats a sign your not ready for the faster stuff.
Maybe its just island elitism. The guy acts like he INVENTED foiling.
The 460 tail is money for pumping the 1010 as noted on the Axis website.
