Review of GoFoils P180, NL220 & NL160.

P180:
Easy to catch small waves, plenty of lift but doesn't over lift. It will let you ride gutless wind swell with ease, and small waves become serious fun. I haven't done a downwinder with it yet but I can imagine it would be awesome for this. This foil is simply unbelievable to pump - this is where the P180 excels. It has a very direct feel to the pump. It's easy to keep high on the mast, and you can feel how super efficient it is when pumping compared to other foils. I can literally pump this foil more than twice the distance than any other foil. It has a really floaty feel to its glide, and because you get so much feedback from the foil it's easy to know when to glide and when to pump. It turns better than I expected - you can't turn it super tight (I'm talking cutback tight here) or it feels like it'll trip up, but it excels at smooth carves, and with the right tail you can get a lot more out of it in this respect. Although it's got good speed (considerably faster than the GL180), it delivers quite a chilled ride, almost like it's got a retro quality to it, but that's probably just me. It's a lovely foil for using in small waves and is amazing at pumping back out to connect to the next wave. In bigger waves it felt like it got out of control fairly quickly - but then that's not it's thing. Enter the NL220...

NL220:
If you like the feeling of speed this foil is frickin awesome!!!!!!!! This was in waist to shoulder high fat waves that would suddenly peak and break, then slowly reform and continue as swell, so not the easiest of conditions to use new a foil for the first time. Despite the conditions it was easy to paddle to get onto foil - no problems controlling the lift whatsoever. You can instantly tell there is an almost complete lack of drag, it's soooo smooth, and as a result the amount of glide it has is out of this world! It has great control as well - it gave me the confidence to make tight turns or super long carves right from the off. It pumps really well as long as you keep it's speed up - if you can do that then it'll keep going until your legs give out. You can generate a ton of speed when pumping to the next section as well - even more so than the P180. One slight negative is that I found it's quite difficult to keep high on the mast when pumping, much more so than the P180 and even the GL's - this led to a few board touchdowns which instantly kills your forward momentum, but I think this could be a case of spending more time practicing to get used to the different pumping style. Compared to the P180 it definitely takes more effort to pump, but the tradeoff is you go super fast while you're pumping. That was SUP foiling. For light wind winging it's a machine. Goes faster, glides longer and turns better than any big foil I've ever used. Loved it! The only foil I've found more exhilarating than the NL220 is the NL160...

NL160:
So far I've only used the NL160 for winging. First session was light wind and I was very pleasantly surprised how little wind was needed to get it flying: 12 knots, 7m Duotone Echo, Fanatic 5' wing board 75 ltrs (I'm 82kgs) - normally I'd need a much bigger foil to get flying in these conditions. Ok, it took a lot of effort to get flying in these conditions, but when up and flying its glide was out of this world - it wasn't until I made a mistake and came off foil that I realised how little wind there actually was and I couldn't believe how fast I'd been going. My next session was in stronger wind, but no where near overpowered. The speed of the NL160 was unreal - I overtook a friend on his GL180 so quickly it was embarrassing. Seriously it feels like it's supercharged. Despite its speed, it's very easy to handle and never felt out of control. I still can't believe the turns I was pulling off - you can push this foil as hard as you want and it performs beautifully. And then there's the glide.......... The name 'Next Level' is spot on. Alex Aguera is a genius - enough said!

Hey Dommo. Many thanks for this excellent comparison between the NL & P foils. Just curios to know the rest of your setup. What size mast, pedestal and stabilizer were you using? Also, what were the dimensions of the board you were using?

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DaHammerBDA said..
Hey Dommo. Many thanks for this excellent comparison between the NL & P foils. Just curios to know the rest of your setup. What size mast, pedestal and stabilizer were you using? Also, what were the dimensions of the board you were using?

For SUP foiling I have a custom Jimmy Lewis board: 5'9" 29" 110 ltrs
For winging - Fanatic 5' 24" 75ltr wing foil board
For wake foiling and flat water pumping - Sunova 4' 20" 32ltrs

I'm 82kg and 6'2" tall

At the moment this is all with the short pedestal as my long ped is being replaced on warranty as one of the threads pulled out, but I would always use the long ped for winging given a choice.

I'm using a KDmaui tail with everything at the moment (surf profile), partly because its the most awesome tail i've ever used (I've used the GoFoil 18W, then cut it down to 14.5", the takuma lol 270 tail, and the GoFoil 14.5" flip tip) and partly because I want to eliminate the tail as a variable when testing all these front foils - I've found that using a different tail can make the front foil feel significantly different.
The KDmaui tail is 14.5" and is faster and allows me to turn tighter and change direction faster than any of the other tails. My next favourite is the GoFoil 14.5" flip tip as it's really stable and is easy to control. I wouldn't mind trying the 12.5" flip tip but i'm going to cut my old 18W down further to about 12.5" or maybe 12" first to see what that feels like.

At the moment I'm using a 36.5" mast (93cm) for winging and a 27" mast for SUP foiling (24.5" tuttle mast + plate adapter is approx 70cm). I used to have the 32.5" mast (82cm) and loved it, but stupidly sold it when I upgraded from the GL's to the NL's. To begin with I found the longer mast very unresponsive in comparison. Now I'm getting used to the longer mast and like most things, if you spend enough time with it you adapt and get more out of it. I got the short mast ages ago and kept it as my local break is really shallow. I have to concentrate not to breech (and still do occasionally) but it's better than hitting the bottom all the time.
Having said that I'll probably get the 32.5" mast again at some point as I know how much better it feels.

thathanks for this!...i agree with everything!...especially for the P180 review i dont have one ...yet...but have decided i need to try one out...GoFoils!