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Piros said..
Can't comment on the Uni for Sups but for the prone they are a weapon , however they really are for very experienced riders to get the most out of them. We did a 3 hour test on the Vortex 175 & Ultra 170 (4-0 & 4-4 prones) , we swapped for 4 times and rear wings twice. If you are going to test these wings in the surf you'll need apx 10 waves to work out whats going on. For me at 85kg I was a bit heavy for the 175 a younger fitter guy same weight might deal with it but was just alot of work for me. It's so incredibly fast but will decelerate quickly if you don't keep the flow. The Ultra 170 was more for me , this thing has so much grunt for such a skinny wing (1100 cm2) . it boosted me on the take off for the first 8 waves straight until I changed from the down curved carve to the straight tail , and boom I was away.
Just amazing , it was so fast and still pumped amazingly well and turned really tight , the biggest feature of the super high aspect wings is the way you go through white water and foam balls. They just slice through and it's not like riding a skateboard on rocks BUT again like all super high aspects you have to keep the throttle on and your work rate is really high. The bit of mast flex was fine on the prone and wings are well made but you will have to be careful. Would I buy one as my daily rider probably not , I would definitely like to own one but it would be my second foil for the perfect days. As Jacko mentioned above it's pretty hard to past something like a Takuma 1300 as your daily rider. If you have the spare cash and own more than one foils then this is a must have. Definitely recommend you demo one first though and try and have one long good session if not 2 as quiet a few punters have tried and only caught 4 or 5 waves came in and couldn't ride them.
I tried the Sig Albatross 165 (pretty much same as 170 Uni) with chop flat stab 15''.
Like said Jako, it felt super wobbly and unstable at first. And like said Piros it takes multiples waves to get used to it.
I also moved the foil more forward (it was way a the back and I didn't have enough lift). It was a brand new board, alittle bit longer than what i ususally ride (4'1 to 4'4) so I didn't know exactly where to put the foil.
The more I've been using it, the more I like it, very fast, you can push hard on the turn it will hold but you have to find the right amount of pressure (very sensitive). It pumps great but once again super technical, you have to maintain your speed using a different technique (keeping really hight the foil at all time), but you can go so fast that you can push harder and hold longer on the carving turn while connecting. Turning ability, I think like most of hight aspect wing, it is good for carving turns and down the line turns but not the best for vertical turns.
I like the glide and the speed of the hight aspect wing, even if i loose some performance out of the vertical surfing.