So I have two 2022 units, 6.5 and 5.5 and overall like the wings apart from the fact:
- when walking to and from the water the wing is very busy and unstable and goes left to right, not stable at all
- as soon as you let go of the leash on the water, crash, knee start etc it's default position is on it's back which is a real PITA in gusty shifty conditions

Oh not a fan of the windows to be honest, wish they gave us options with/without windows

My question is to other unit riders, do you experience the same?

I wonder if moving to the new slicks will prevent this and have a similar behaved wing once flying, and upwind performance.

Have anyone moved from the units to the slicks?

It's the down side of rigid/tight canopies I reckon, V1 Units and Slicks had floppy canopies so didn't generate enough lift lying on the water to fly and flip. New rigid canopy wings generate enough lift to fly off the water and flip over. New SLS wings like to flip too. Dunno about other rigid canopy wings though but my guess they will do the same.

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north_kiter said..
So I have two 2022 units, 6.5 and 5.5 and overall like the wings apart from the fact:
- when walking to and from the water the wing is very busy and unstable and goes left to right, not stable at all
- as soon as you let go of the leash on the water, crash, knee start etc it's default position is on it's back which is a real PITA in gusty shifty conditions

Oh not a fan of the windows to be honest, wish they gave us options with/without windows

My question is to other unit riders, do you experience the same?

I wonder if moving to the new slicks will prevent this and have a similar behaved wing once flying, and upwind performance.

Have anyone moved from the units to the slicks?

Original Slicks almost never flipped, but would do a "bucking Bronco", pogoing up and down in strong wind until reeled in. The SLS Slicks don't do this, but flip all the time. OTOH, they are much easier to flip back (thinner leading edges).

My quiver is new units, and also was annoyed at first, but have gotten used to it. One trick it the stink bug variation where you straddle the board before and during the duck under the wing. while straddling it's no biggie to flip it. I also always rotate to the wing tip for the flip. It's just become normal.

Yeah I can flip it back over no issues there, but where I go at times, to get to deep water have to paddle the board 10m or so and the wind direction is side on to me paddling so have to let the wing go, and straight away 100% of the time it flips which creates more drag whilst paddling, very annoying. Luckily it's only this one spot, other places I don't need to paddle out.

Wonder if they'll fix it for v3 or it is a price to pay for this sort of design. Appears the slicks are the same now by comments above.

The Strikes I used before were worse. Very stable is freefly but flipped over all the time.

I have another problem with the Units: the handles damage the bladder in the strut. I think it is because I use harness lines attached to the end of both handles. It make tiny holes on the strut.

I really like the way the units go upwind, 5.5 is better than 6.5 for that.

Handles are great, but could be not as hard or more protected to prevent board damage, and remove the gap where your fingers can get caught. I was looking at slicks only for the ability to ride one handed, not possible on unit handles (unless I'm not good enough).

Didn't know about causing problems with the bladders using a harness

my old slicks did this. my new slick sls does this. it IS very annoying. no other wings i've tried have this same propensity to want to flip over. the extremely flimsy front handle on the LE doesn't help as you may as well be holding it by a leash. if it weren't for the boom, i'd avoid these wings.

Yeah 100% agree the cost saving on the flimsy front handle design is ridiculous - surely the people who design and test these wings would've had told them that they are rubbish, if not they need to get better test riders.

I hope true feedback get to the ears that matter at duotone so they can improve for v3 or else people will look for an alternative wing imo

Granted- I'm only one session in- and coming from an old ozone v1 wasp but I was completely satisfied with my 6.0 v2 unit. I did notice a propensity to flip if I wasn't mindful, but found I could mostly avoid it by quickly tending to the wing, steering/applying downward pressure with the leash. I'm sure in much higher, gusty winds it could be more of an issue.

All that said- after day 1, I am totally stoked with the rigidity- instant feedback, ease in handling transitions, flags out nicely and.... WoW- the ability to pinch high angles upwind was a freaking joy.

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north_kiter said..
Yeah 100% agree the cost saving on the flimsy front handle design is ridiculous - surely the people who design and test these wings would've had told them that they are rubbish, if not they need to get better test riders.

I hope true feedback get to the ears that matter at duotone so they can improve for v3 or else people will look for an alternative wing imo

The front handle on the Slick SLS was made looser on purpose, I believe, to prevent chafing on the knuckles.

What's the common theme or characteristic with wings that flip over? I think it's dihedral (lifted wingtips catch wind and flip) but maybe someone with more insight can opine.

would leashing to the front handle on the strut help?
FWIW the OR Glide is upside down more than right side up. I just try to grab the leash as soon as I can and pin it down.

It's called the Duotone flip, happens to all their wings. I had a V1 Unit and it was always flipped over.

My Ensis & RRD wings like to flip - I thought all wings do that. I made a habit to take more care to avoid it if possible (holding a leash more close to the wing or holding the LE handle) and flip it back when it happens.

Both my Unit 2s and SLS seem to like to flip over. I don't mind. I just got used to straddling the board first, flip the wing over, then kneel and go.

This is repeat of what I previously posted in some other threads. That annoying habit of wing flipping when you don't want it to, also generally means that the wing will roll over much easier when you are tacking. I always find it strange that hardly only one ever mentions that point. I tack constantly during a session; toeside, heel side, handle-pass-behind-back. The tighter your turn the more you want the wing to readily rollover on its own without having to help it with a free hand during the tack. With a handle pass tack you don't even have a free hand to help roll the wing, so it better have some decent roll properties or you'll get frustrated quickly. I also like continue a jibe or a tack right into an immediate 360 (different from a backwinded 360) and having that built-in roll ability helps tremendously along with a "no-think" SLS boom re-grab since you are releasing and re-grabbing the boom very quickly on those types of 360's.

I think it also helps with Heineken jibes or just flipping the wing from backwinded riding stance over to toeside riding stance. Right now I'm working on flipping the wing in reverse; from a toeside stance to a backwinded stance then going right into a jibe. To me the whole idea of a boom wing is to be really good at freestyle moves as opposed to flagged out wave/bump riding. I'm actually a bit surprised they didn't make the new Units more roll (flip) resistant compared to the SLS Slicks.

If all you want to do is jibe and flag out the wing on waves/bumps then by all means stick to handle type wave wing that doesn't want to roll...or flip quite as easily.