Long story short..... after 20 years of living in Western Australia, Geraldton, I am moving back East to Tasmania where unfortunately the wind is fickle and the everything is much colder.
Due to the lack of wind strength I am looking to foil to keep on the water and maintain my reflexes and technique for the odd W.A windsurfing holiday so I can hit the water running

There seems to be a few reasonably priced learner setups in Perth, Slingshot 125l boards with foils for around 1G, but they appear to be a few years old, around 2018'/2019'ish.
Understand the current boards use tracks for more mast adjustment, no doubt wing/foil technology would have come a long way in the last 5 years and even footstrap placement has changed.

Are these setups still OK for entry level foiling if you have pretty solid windsurfing experience (30 years) and have the patience and perseverance to learn on a not so modern setup ?.
Are you still able to get parts freely for equipment of this age and would you be able to upgrade as you progess to an intermediate level before updating to the current gear ? .

On a bit of a budget so cannot justify dropping big coin on the current up to date gear out there especially if I have not tried it before and unsure how many days a year a foil would even get me on the water.

Any help greatly appreciated.

The slingshot wizard with tuttle is perfectly fine if you combine with a slingshot foil. And the hoverglide system is still in production so parts are no prob.

Fairly easy for any board repairer to add a couple of tracks either side of the Tuttle box. All the reinforcement is already there so no real issues if you progress to a foil requiring tracks.

One of those for sale is mine (complete 125 with foil - $1000).

I'm similar to you - lived in Gero for some time years ago and total >30years windsurfing. First day trying foiling I was flying for 100-200m at a time before losing height control. Within another 3 or 4 sessions was able to sail all the across the river from Pelican Pt no problems.
Within 10 sessions had pulled off several foiling gybes. Still have good and bad days with gybes.......

Can't answer the new vs old question, but the i76 foil is super-easy to use and seems quite robust. Takes off at very low speed and stays up in a lull. Downside is that it seems to max out at 20 knots of board-speed, - fine to use in >20 knots wind-speed, just make sure you have a 3.5m2 sail as that's all it needs. I'm only selling it as I want to get a smaller board for some foiling freestyle, and I don't need as much flotation as the 125 as I generally only sail when there is plenty of wind. That volume is good for slogging out to where the breeze is, and you can (wobbly) uphaul on it. I'm about 90kg wet.

Try before you buy if you can and same branded will likely work perfectly together. Some brands have a range but it's not interchangeable so bigger/smaller might prove to be a headache. Newer will be user friendlier. You will ultimately get what you pay for too.

2017 - 2020 were mainly the years that wind foiling went through a pretty big evolution, so yes, the 2018/19 equipment was how most of us picked up and discussed boards, foils and rigs. I tested a bunch of different board brands between 2017/2019.

A large number of foilers began their wind foiling journey using tuttle box boards and the slingshot hover glide foil, because the hover glide has 3 fuselage positions to choose from and then of course you could dial in your rig mast position as well. Wizards then were white/green/blue.

Since then, we have realized how much fractional foil adjustments can make an OK session into an epic one, so my point is try and find
a board with twin tracks that allow the foil to be adjusted 1/2cm at a time, the tuttle boxes are fine but IMHO having something like a slingshot Wizard 130/114 (orange boards) with the twin tracks will give you less frustration for a few bucks more.

To get started, the older gear should be fine. But start saving to get something newer once you get better.

I would not worry about tracks until you get the hang of it. For most beginners, it is difficult to fine-tune gear by adjusting the mast track by small amounts. If you get board & foil from the same manufacturer, a tuttle box should be fine. Problems start if you mix & match, then you may definitely need tracks.

Select to expand quote

Poley said..
Long story short..... after 20 years of living in Western Australia, Geraldton, I am moving back East to Tasmania where unfortunately the wind is fickle and the everything is much colder.
Due to the lack of wind strength I am looking to foil to keep on the water and maintain my reflexes and technique for the odd W.A windsurfing holiday so I can hit the water running

There seems to be a few reasonably priced learner setups in Perth, Slingshot 125l boards with foils for around 1G, but they appear to be a few years old, around 2018'/2019'ish.
Understand the current boards use tracks for more mast adjustment, no doubt wing/foil technology would have come a long way in the last 5 years and even footstrap placement has changed.

Are these setups still OK for entry level foiling if you have pretty solid windsurfing experience (30 years) and have the patience and perseverance to learn on a not so modern setup ?.
Are you still able to get parts freely for equipment of this age and would you be able to upgrade as you progess to an intermediate level before updating to the current gear ? .

On a bit of a budget so cannot justify dropping big coin on the current up to date gear out there especially if I have not tried it before and unsure how many days a year a foil would even get me on the water.

Any help greatly appreciated.

What's your eight? If you are under 80kg That slingshot 125 board is a pretty good board to start with. Same with the slingshot hoverglide foils, especially with the infinity 76 front wing. you won't need tracks for now if you are using the same board/foil brand (as long they are kinda the same generation and you are not mixing disciplines, for example an old compact foilboard with an old race foil)

There's a naish board and np foil for sale on the tasmanian windsurfing Facebook group for $700. Save you the trouble of carting it over here