Sacrilege I know, but now that Malo has won the wing world title on gong stock gear, is it time to ask whether those who have bought equipment often costing twice or even three times as much have spent their hard-earned pennies entirely wisely?

He's ripping and the foil looked great in waves. Suprised Gong don't mention the ypra as a surf foil just race and slalom ?????

If he'd been riding Duotone he would have been champion before starting in Taiba, like Novotna

Nothing wrong with any of the Gong kit I have seen friends on, you pay your money and make your choice. Being on the water is way more important than the kit holding you up and usually rider skill is more important than the kit.
I would love to have bought a Gong Zuma SUP foil but the shipping cost to the UK is prohibitive and makes the board more expensive than other brands. Might need a surf trip to France next summer

On a side note, it is interesting to see that quite a few riders are still using wrist and leg leashes rather than waist belts.

Whilst I'm obviously not at their level, it's good to know I'm not the only one not sold on the belts.

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Frankieboy said..
If he'd been riding Duotone he would have been champion before starting in Taiba, like Novotna

I'm suprised the Fanatic guys weren't using the Aero Free 800. Where Malo was better was his speed on wave which allowed sharper more aggressive turns.

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kersh said..
On a side note, it is interesting to see that quite a few riders are still using wrist and leg leashes rather than waist belts.

Whilst I'm obviously not at their level, it's good to know I'm not the only one not sold on the belts.

Also good to see that almost everyone wearing helmet and most also with impact vest

The top of the line Gong gear (Ypra front wing, HM mast,Titanium fuse etc...) is not that cheap.

The kid absolutely rips, no question about that.

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mcrt said..
The top of the line Gong gear (Ypra front wing, HM mast,Titanium fuse etc...) is not that cheap.

The kid absolutely rips, no question about that.

Fluid SH Front wing
Fluid H 42cm stab
HM 85 cm carbon mast
Pro Al fuselage

shipped to my house in the US, 1205 Euro

It's the Al fuselage instead of the Ti but that's still a pretty decent price point for the performance level IMHO. What does an Axis or Armstrong high modulus mast cost again?....

What setup exactly was he riding? Ypra is definitely a choice that wouldn't make sense according to their literature.

For surf stuff they all seem to use stock gear.

FYI for race stuff don't go by what the sponsor says they are riding, look at the photos of them while they are racing.

Ya

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Grantmac said..
What setup exactly was he riding? Ypra is definitely a choice that wouldn't make sense according to their literature.

YPRA-S Medium; 785 sq cm, 80 cm span, AR 8.3, 1.1 cm thick, volume 0.43 liter. Lower AR than the original YPRA racing shape. Described as a slalom wing so "-S". Not sure about the stab or even what length HM mast he was on.

The latest stuff is actually not so easy to get, multi month lead times for the most popular sizes. It also rather sucks that it's cheaper with shipping to my US address than to have it shipped to me in the EU

Gongs website has too much text..

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Dspace said..

mcrt said..
The top of the line Gong gear (Ypra front wing, HM mast,Titanium fuse etc...) is not that cheap.

The kid absolutely rips, no question about that.

Fluid SH Front wing
Fluid H 42cm stab
HM 85 cm carbon mast
Pro Al fuselage

shipped to my house in the US, 1205 Euro

It's the Al fuselage instead of the Ti but that's still a pretty decent price point for the performance level IMHO. What does an Axis or Armstrong high modulus mast cost again?....

I have ridden Armstrong, Takuma and Gong.
Loved&Hated each of them, i am not into fan stuff.

The setup Malo was riding comes at +1600eur just for the complete foil ,plus shipping.
Same as a Reedin Flight Attendant(KdMaui design) full carbon rig.

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Thatspec said..
The latest stuff is actually not so easy to get, multi month lead times for the most popular sizes. It also rather sucks that it's cheaper with shipping to my US address than to have it shipped to me in the EU

That's cause they take the vat off then you have to pay it yourself to us customs so will for sure be more expensive than buying in Europe

Gong gear works good, but I think the ratio performance/technicality is not great compared to other brands. On the other end of the spectrum a takuma kujira gives a lot of performance very easily accessible.
Just like surfboards.. for 90% of people you want the easiest access to performance possible. For the pros, anything goes as they can accomodate for the technicality.
Second point is.. Gong gear is mostly developped for winging, giving priority to robustness and rigidity, compromising on drag and glide. If you like proning, gong is physical to pump around in the waves.
Now to be fair, the new gear has not been tested much by everyday folks, so waiting on feedback there, things might change.

A small caveat: Bear in mind that the Gong foil line is extremely extensive, with very different models, I would be wary of sweeping generalities.

Plus, as for many brands, the compromises (robustness / rigidity / drag / glide / ...) can change vastly from year to year.
What was fast but too flexible one year can become rigid but with more drag the next year.
So generalities without specifying the year are even less relevant.

one things for sure, Gong need to pay Malo a lot of money if they want him to stay as every other brand must want him and rightly so I think as he's got great style and seems like a nice guy ??

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leepasty said..
one things for sure, Gong need to pay Malo a lot of money if they want him to stay as every other brand must want him and rightly so I think as he's got great style and seems like a nice guy ??

His Dad is the owner I believe

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mattllew said..

leepasty said..
one things for sure, Gong need to pay Malo a lot of money if they want him to stay as every other brand must want him and rightly so I think as he's got great style and seems like a nice guy ??

His Dad is the owner I believe

Ah yeah didn't realise I thought Fred the bear owned it

A long time Gong purchaser from the UK I feel that the costs have risen alot particularly with shipping and import duty. I don't buy their boards anymore because of cost and they are fragile. I only use their Foils but feel their new HM carbon mast at 800 euros plus titanium fuselage 250 plus shipping and import taxes it's not a bargain. The new HA wings aren't cheap either. I have liked Gong as it's enabled me to progress my gear in line with my improvement without blowing loads of money. I'm not sure how long I will stick with them as I can't test unlike my local shop. When it was a bargain I could resell without losing too much. Their mid aspect foils 6.1 AR are thin and fast and for me work great. I wasn't sold on the new HA I tried.

@lanlnca good to hear that you enjoyed a lot of wing foiling gear and thanks for sharing your personal experience (I think that is what the forum is for after all), I'm not a Gong fan boy, but I ride a Lethal and love it to bits, so I'm interested in what you mean by 'fragile', was your board an inflatable? what happened to it? my Lethal has been ace so far, I did drop it right on the nose on concrete and had to fix it but had no issues after that, coming from Starboard windsurf gear and JP SUP gear I feel that my Lethal is no stronger or more fragile than those other leading brands, I'm not questioning your experience but am just curious as to what lead you to forge this conclusion - happy foiling anyways (btw I ride GF foils which are rock solid but so hard to get front wings for, and so insanely expensive, ooof)

Well gong make some good stuff for decent price. Can't beat this for getting into winging:
www.gong-galaxy.com/en/product/gong-pack-wing-hipe-first/
So I guess it's good for the sport??

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leepasty said..

Thatspec said..
The latest stuff is actually not so easy to get, multi month lead times for the most popular sizes. It also rather sucks that it's cheaper with shipping to my US address than to have it shipped to me in the EU

That's cause they take the vat off then you have to pay it yourself to us customs so will for sure be more expensive than buying in Europe

Yeah, not their fault.
The taxes here in Germany keep me from purchasing anything 'new' though when the euro was 0.97 cents recently I stocked up. Brands like Duotone and F-one are cheaper here than the US. Purchasing power has leveled off with the weak euro, now at roughly where it should have always been. In the past 1 USD purchased 20% more in the US than 1 Euro did in Germany.

On the other hand, nobody's living in a tent on city streets either...

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leepasty said..
one things for sure, Gong need to pay Malo a lot of money if they want him to stay

Well, more probably, Malo will own Gong someday... like Patrice Guenole, his dad :-)
And I guess he is a very nice guy in part because his parents are great human beings.

Malo had his first SUP foil flight while 11 years old, on March 2017:

I wrote the (obnoxious) original post largely because I was bored at work but also because I find attitudes to gong gear interesting. I haven't tried enough gear to say how it compares on foilstate's point about access to performance and I'm not a good enough foiler to assess how the new high aspect stuff compares to other brands.

What I find interesting (and hard to judge) is the extent to which the historic negative attitudes towards gong are due to actual differences in gear quality relative to other brands. Or are they (at least in part) the consequence of the gong model, which cuts out third party distributors and shops and doesn't provide free gear to magazines for tests.

Over the last year or so views on the various forums towards gong gear seem to be becoming more favourable. I suspect that is largely because they have made significant improvements to their (already enormous) range but Malo's extraordinary talent must be playing a part.
MCRT is right that the newest high end gong foils are not that cheap and that is when this discussion gets interesting to me. I originally bought a gong set up because it was the cheapest way to try this new sport at a time when there were no opportunities to rent and I knew no one else who had gear.

Now I am completely addicted and am considering a high aspect set up. The obvious answer is to test gear from multiple brands but there are limited opportunities for that where I live.

Over the last six months I have had fun making my own foil wings which has at least allowed me to figure out approximately what I want in a new set up but I sadly don't have the skills or equipment to make something comparable to a production front wing. The feeling of flying on a piece of (s)crap you've whittled in your garage is pretty great, though.

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edham said..
I wrote the (obnoxious) original post largely because I was bored at work but also because I find attitudes to gong gear interesting. I haven't tried enough gear to say how it compares on foilstate's point about access to performance and I'm not a good enough foiler to assess how the new high aspect stuff compares to other brands.

What I find interesting (and hard to judge) is the extent to which the historic negative attitudes towards gong are due to actual differences in gear quality relative to other brands. Or are they (at least in part) the consequence of the gong model, which cuts out third party distributors and shops and doesn't provide free gear to magazines for tests.

Over the last year or so views on the various forums towards gong gear seem to be becoming more favourable. I suspect that is largely because they have made significant improvements to their (already enormous) range but Malo's extraordinary talent must be playing a part.
MCRT is right that the newest high end gong foils are not that cheap and that is when this discussion gets interesting to me. I originally bought a gong set up because it was the cheapest way to try this new sport at a time when there were no opportunities to rent and I knew no one else who had gear.

Now I am completely addicted and am considering a high aspect set up. The obvious answer is to test gear from multiple brands but there are limited opportunities for that where I live.

Over the last six months I have had fun making my own foil wings which has at least allowed me to figure out approximately what I want in a new set up but I sadly don't have the skills or equipment to make something comparable to a production front wing. The feeling of flying on a piece of (s)crap you've whittled in your garage is pretty great, though.

I agree with what Foilstate wrote, Gong gear i have used performs fine but can be more finicky and require more skill.

I have just bought a Gong used foil setup for less than a used Takuma Kujira front wing would have cost me.
It is a Veloce M-T with V2 85cm mast.
It is a fun,fast foil...but the Takuma 980 does everything a little better with a little less effort.

Niggles?, the standard Gong fuse is a brutal square section block of Alu.Weighs a ton and drags like crazy.
Definitely go for the Pro fuse and stab if you buy Gong Mid or HA.



Some Guenolemanias i wish they changed:

-The foil stabs are fixed,you cannot shim them,which is a big bummer.Does not make sense at all for "Pro" stabs and fuses.

-Not publishing wing pressures.They had some trouble with exploding wings (like everybody in the early days).
So now they tell you to ping the wing and you will be fine.If it explodes it is because you effed the pinging tone.Mmm...

-Making a million options.Please... 3 foil/wing/board lines and no more.
It is plenty enough, focus on them and make them shine.And available :)

Other than that, thx a lot for making foil gear that works good at these prices!!

Sultan - Regarding Gong boards I've had around 6 hard sups and 3 foil boards over several years. When shipping was a fraction of what is now and no import tax they were a complete bargain. Now it's not a great deal different to a shop bought board. I have found Gong carbon boards to ding very easy, deck pads still come off (this has happened for years !!??!!), Rails chip super easy but the shapes are undeniably good. Patrice knows how to shape good boards.

Mcrt - agree with you and also the Veloce MT is my main wing.

*My local shop love Fone gear and always try and get me to swap to Eagle or Phantom foils . Several months ago I swapped my board/foil with a very good rider (pro coach). It was a light wind day. We were both on mid aspect foils, he was on a Phantom 1280 and I was on Veloce LT 1350. He was pretty blown away at the speed and glide of mine admitting that it would out perform the 1080 and perhaps the size down. He reluctantly conceded that the Gong foil is a gem. For me the Phantom felt like treading through mud.

Gongs business model has to be ... Sell significantly cheaper than shop bought goods. For beginner foil gear it's brilliant value, 999 euros for a board, foil and wing!!! Their advanced gear especially boards and foils I'm not sure (as a UK buyer) it's that much cheaper.

Btw, congratulations to Malo I have watched him via their social media surf, sup surf, foil etc..since he was a little kid and he deserves his success. Super talented and seemingly a super nice kid as well.

We are lucky people to have such a choice of gear.

I ride Gong foils and really like them. Recently stepped into the new HA and they are excellent, especially the new tail.
However the new spread tow carbon they are using is extremely brittle. I've destroyed a tail when I wasn't even riding, just touched something in the sand when walking in.
Of course this requires a whole new tail piece plus shipping from Europe.
I might machine my spare fuselage to fit other brands tails.

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Grantmac said..
I ride Gong foils and really like them. Recently stepped into the new HA and they are excellent, especially the new tail.
However the new spread tow carbon they are using is extremely brittle. I've destroyed a tail when I wasn't even riding, just touched something in the sand when walking in.
Of course this requires a whole new tail piece plus shipping from Europe.
I might machine my spare fuselage to fit other brands tails.

Oh my, thx...i was almost ready to click the buy button on a Pro fuse and tail...
Where did it break? , the carbon to alu sleeve or the stab wing itself?.

I am considering putting my alu fuse on a brutal slimming diet.
The good news is alu is reasonably easy to work with, the bad news is there is a ton of it to remove.And it needs to be somewhat symmetrical.
How thin can i go? , a Takuma alu fuse is super slim in the tail but maybe the alu is a stiffer alloy, i guess as thick as the male plug of the fuse should be plenty safe.

How far from the mast is the Pro tail (from back of mast to front of stab wing)?