Hi Colas. You mentioned,(my interpretation), that company was putting weight that excluded the deckpad without stating it and i'm not convinced it's true.

Must abide with Colas , translate this screen shot . It's the same for every board , the weight , the -5/+5 % and in black print it is written : WITHOUT DECKPAD
AND ACCESSOIRES ! And its in english.
Check it out on their site .

Problem is... They do not hold the 5 %

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Driks said..
Problem is... They do not hold the 5 %

They hold the "contract"
If it is over 5% you can ask for a rebate or return the board and get a refund withing 15 days (the same in a lot of countries).
It is mandatory because of the French laws, as the 5% is specified explicitely on the site, it is part of the "sales contract"
Thus the problem is actually ... for the company.

A contract does not mean bad things cannot happen. It opens a clear way to get compensation when they do.

This is why some brands stay vague or use terms such as "small" that has no legal meaning.

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NordRoi said..
i'm not convinced it's true.

You mean you do not believe your own eyes when looking at the websites? :-)

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colas said..

Driks said..
Problem is... They do not hold the 5 %

They hold the "contract"
If it is over 5% you can ask for a rebate or return the board and get a refund withing 15 days (the same in a lot of countries).
It is mandatory because of the French laws, as the 5% is specified explicitely on the site, it is part of the "sales contract"
Thus the problem is actually ... for the company.

A contract does not mean bad things cannot happen. It opens a clear way to get compensation when they do.

This is why some brands stay vague or use terms such as "small" that has no legal meaning.

I guess you can, but that would mean skin down the deck pad.i guess that is a good strategy.

While we are at it, for a long time, the Gong SUP boards were delivered with the pad as a spare part that the customer could then apply himself, or re-cut creatively, or use another solution such as wax...

So I guess it is a kind of "tradition" for them to think of the boards without a pad.

PS: This is not a justification by any means. Just sharing what info I have.

For my part, Gong are fantastic for foils. I have ordered various stuff from them for around 7 years. When I sup surfed alot their board shapes are the best I've ridden.

I don't buy their foil boards as I think they are slightly brittle but good designs.

I had 1st generation wings which got me flying. I don't use their hand wings now as I have seen several hand wings pop for no apparent reason.

The foils are great and I love that you can experiment without losing too much money. I do not intend to change brands any time soon.

Customer service over 7 years has been brilliant. I'm UK based and they have been outstanding with every issue.

A contrast from a major "brand" it took them 6 weeks to replace a faulty wing under warranty.

No company is perfect but due to alot of entry users using gong equipment I think they have alot of moaning due to a fair bit of user error.

How much u Weigh? I guess one of this small Kites again? 70 kg! Sorry but for heavier guys this system is vulnerable. Maybe buy titanium directly.

For my part (1.5 y, ~ 300h), I am quite satisfied with Gong boards and foils (Lethal + Fluid / Fluid T / Fluid H (just ordered)).

After a few decades of windsurfing, it seems that boards are on the same level considering strength/brittleness as the modern windsurfing boards I used.

I didn't try Gong (hand) wings - I have second thoughts about non-specified PSI and I have found previous generation Ensis wings for a great price.

I am only 72 kg but have friends close to 100 kg and they are pretty satisfied with their foils, boards and (hand) wings.

As of now, the issues I have are:
- it is not convenient that I need to use Loctite every now and then to make sure my biggest foil doesn't start to wobble and I do need to use a lot of force to screw it
- new pro stubs are not compatible with the monoblock mast

From the beginning, I am using a carbon monoblock mast. However, I will soon switch to my wife's Al mast to be able to use the new pro stab I ordered and will probably buy HM or V2 carbon mast in the future.

I tried just a few other boards and foils, that I don't like as much as my own equipment - but that is probably just a habit.

If I had a wing foil dealer nearby and I was able to test before buying, I would maybe buy some other brand but currently, I don't plan to switch.

Same here. One year wingfoiling, approx 230 h on the water, 90kg in full atire. I bought full set of Gong at the beginning simply because it was great value for money: Curve foil, lance hard board, two neutra wings 2021 6m and 2022 4m. Board was quite sensitive and going down in volume I first switched to JP X-winger and afterwards to F-one rocket. The latter is a great board but every bit as sensitive as my first Gong. Still on same hand wings and they have been holding on quite well. I changed quite a few foil parts and currently I am on alu mast, fluid T and pro H stab. Obviously I have been quite lucky with my foils because I have never had any of the usual problems I read about on forums. Nothing whatsoever. So I'm quite happy with my Gong gear without being particularly loyal to the brand. But their pricing has been slowly increasing so it is not that far from competition anymore.

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branem said..
Obviously I have been quite lucky with my foils because I have never had any of the usual problems I read about on forums.

Well, basically, only the ones having problems will post on forums ...
Which makes it very misleading, as you cannot see the percentage of defects this way.

Suppose you see 10 reports of problems with brand X on the forums for 1 report for brand Y.
You may think that brand Y is 10 times more reliable than brand X.
Except that if X sells 100 times more gear than Y (which is something the forums wont tell), then X is actually 10 times more reliable than Y!

Yes, this is true, online posts aren't quality statistics. But there are design issues with the gongs that will cause issues for a lot of riders:
Fuse to front wing design. A rectangular hole that is intended for an easy slip on will never be a tight enough interface over all delivered parts. It should be conical. Going from M6 to M8 screws might also be a good idea to get a larger contact area for the heads. I guess the m6 might be to get a lower thickness to countersink though, an M8 would require more carbon.. The three screws is a work around but i don't think it would be needed if the front rectangular tap was designed similar to the rear wing pro fuse tap that is triangular.

i also have three different base plates from gong, all with too much play in them. It kills the ride so i have had to glue them tight with epoxy. Beats me why they don't design them with a grip fit, delivered already pressed on from the factory. I'd pay extra to get that since a wiggling mast is unacceptable - the mast to plate interface has the most critical function of them all.

I would argue that listing the board weight excluding a part that is glued onto the board at the factory (the deck pad) is borderline useless for weight verification unless they also list the weight of the pad (with glue), so you can add the weights and compare to what was shipped to you.

I don't have any Gong gear yet (I have a Cruzader Diamond 6'0" on pre-order). I always weigh boards when I get them so I can check for changes over time, if I'm worried (or paranoid). I certainly hope it will be well under 8kg.

We need an open standard for front wings to fuse and stabilizer to fuse connections. The current situation is just bad and a lot of brands seem stuck with less than ideal designs just to maintain compatibility with their old products.

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JuriM said..
I would argue that listing the board weight excluding a part that is glued onto the board at the factory (the deck pad) is borderline useless for weight verification unless they also list the weight of the pad (with glue), so you can add the weights and compare to what was shipped to you.

Just mail them, they will tell you the pad weight.

FYI it is around 600g for a 8'6" SUP (but it depends on the year).
You can deduce by a proportional rule an estimate for your pad, a precision sufficient to check the stated weights.

But you are right to always weight yourself the board once equipped (especially with hexatraction or wax, railsavers, etc...) to the gram,
to have a reliable figure to detect any water entry.

My board arrived today. Cruzader Diamond 6'0" at 6.66kg (including deckpad) with a factory target weight of 6.4kg (sans deckpad).

The new site still doesn't list my order of the board and I never got a shipping notice or tracking code for it. On the other hand, their email support answered quickly and gave me a temporary tracking code (it worked for a few hours and then went dead) last week when I asked if there were delays because I hadn't heard anything about the board. Transit time from France to Helsinki was just under 2 weeks.

When they shipped the board bag in March (before the new site went live), I got maybe half a dozen emails about the shipping & the progress of the shipment. I guess the problem is that the order was made using the old system and the data just hasn't been migrated yet to the new one.

I've used gong from the start. It's grown with me and I've tried a bit of the new axis gear, the gong HM stuff is better. I just purchased an Aramid x to try their wings but still waiting. I'm currently on titanium fuse, smallest pro stab and a 220 fluid pro stab, never use it, standard carbon mast 85, curve wings from 900cm to 1500cm. I have a couple of HM fluid front wings as well but I don't like them at all, my curves have better drive, pump and transition control, the fluid does glide a bit better but looses that edge when pumping is required. Im at the point with Gong where I won't upgrade to better Gong though as the cost benefit is no longer there, prices are pretty much on par with more accessible brands now, this and postage and import duties it's not worth it. the other issue we have is you can't sell it secondhand, there is zero market here in Australia so if you buy the wrong thing it just sits in your shed. Total loss. Shame as the newer GONG products seem to equal or beat the other brands I've tried in most areas of performance.

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Grob said..
I've used gong from the start. It's grown with me and I've tried a bit of the new axis gear, the gong HM stuff is better. I just purchased an Aramid x to try their wings but still waiting. I'm currently on titanium fuse, smallest pro stab and a 220 fluid pro stab, never use it, standard carbon mast 85, curve wings from 900cm to 1500cm. I have a couple of HM fluid front wings as well but I don't like them at all, my curves have better drive, pump and transition control, the fluid does glide a bit better but looses that edge when pumping is required. Im at the point with Gong where I won't upgrade to better Gong though as the cost benefit is no longer there, prices are pretty much on par with more accessible brands now, this and postage and import duties it's not worth it. the other issue we have is you can't sell it secondhand, there is zero market here in Australia so if you buy the wrong thing it just sits in your shed. Total loss. Shame as the newer GONG products seem to equal or beat the other brands I've tried in most areas of performance.

Hmmmm, curious how import duties and postage to Australia compare to the US? Long time US Gong foil user here as well (no boards or hand wings). My total delivered cost for a new V3 rig (V3 Fluid H med front wing, V3 Fluid H med stab, V3 Aluminum fuselage, V3 HM 85cm mast) comes out to 1300 Euros or $1423 usd. I do need to split the purchase up to avoid duty fees. Still a pretty good deal compared to the competition. Resale is a bit tougher than it used to be but I think that's true of all brands at the moment

I've always been a bit turned off by the French only fanboy club, but like you say the gear performance speaks for itself as shown by team riders in competition. I'm currently on V2 Veloce's with freestyle stabs and a V2 HM 85cm mast. I've owned/ridden SAB and Axis and demo'd others. Lots of great options but Gong just gives me the most bang for the buck.

Side bar: I think the gear performance level far exceeds the skill level of so many wingers today. I hear people dissing one brand over another while barely getting past consistent tacks. Food for thought

How much does a deckpad weigh? (depends on board size), I actually sanded about 1-2mm off of mine on the Lethal. Bought used, 3 years in and good as new.

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Dspace said..

Grob said..
I've used gong from the start. It's grown with me and I've tried a bit of the new axis gear, the gong HM stuff is better. I just purchased an Aramid x to try their wings but still waiting. I'm currently on titanium fuse, smallest pro stab and a 220 fluid pro stab, never use it, standard carbon mast 85, curve wings from 900cm to 1500cm. I have a couple of HM fluid front wings as well but I don't like them at all, my curves have better drive, pump and transition control, the fluid does glide a bit better but looses that edge when pumping is required. Im at the point with Gong where I won't upgrade to better Gong though as the cost benefit is no longer there, prices are pretty much on par with more accessible brands now, this and postage and import duties it's not worth it. the other issue we have is you can't sell it secondhand, there is zero market here in Australia so if you buy the wrong thing it just sits in your shed. Total loss. Shame as the newer GONG products seem to equal or beat the other brands I've tried in most areas of performance.

Hmmmm, curious how import duties and postage to Australia compare to the US? Long time US Gong foil user here as well (no boards or hand wings). My total delivered cost for a new V3 rig (V3 Fluid H med front wing, V3 Fluid H med stab, V3 Aluminum fuselage, V3 HM 85cm mast) comes out to 1300 Euros or $1423 usd. I do need to split the purchase up to avoid duty fees. Still a pretty good deal compared to the competition. Resale is a bit tougher than it used to be but I think that's true of all brands at the moment

I've always been a bit turned off by the French only fanboy club, but like you say the gear performance speaks for itself as shown by team riders in competition. I'm currently on V2 Veloce's with freestyle stabs and a V2 HM 85cm mast. I've owned/ridden SAB and Axis and demo'd others. Lots of great options but Gong just gives me the most bang for the buck.

Side bar: I think the gear performance level far exceeds the skill level of so many wingers today. I hear people dissing one brand over another while barely getting past consistent tacks. Food for thought

Without import fees, you're paying much less than an European customer. Pretty good deal

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lobodomar said..

Dspace said..

Grob said..
I've used gong from the start. It's grown with me and I've tried a bit of the new axis gear, the gong HM stuff is better. I just purchased an Aramid x to try their wings but still waiting. I'm currently on titanium fuse, smallest pro stab and a 220 fluid pro stab, never use it, standard carbon mast 85, curve wings from 900cm to 1500cm. I have a couple of HM fluid front wings as well but I don't like them at all, my curves have better drive, pump and transition control, the fluid does glide a bit better but looses that edge when pumping is required. Im at the point with Gong where I won't upgrade to better Gong though as the cost benefit is no longer there, prices are pretty much on par with more accessible brands now, this and postage and import duties it's not worth it. the other issue we have is you can't sell it secondhand, there is zero market here in Australia so if you buy the wrong thing it just sits in your shed. Total loss. Shame as the newer GONG products seem to equal or beat the other brands I've tried in most areas of performance.

Hmmmm, curious how import duties and postage to Australia compare to the US? Long time US Gong foil user here as well (no boards or hand wings). My total delivered cost for a new V3 rig (V3 Fluid H med front wing, V3 Fluid H med stab, V3 Aluminum fuselage, V3 HM 85cm mast) comes out to 1300 Euros or $1423 usd. I do need to split the purchase up to avoid duty fees. Still a pretty good deal compared to the competition. Resale is a bit tougher than it used to be but I think that's true of all brands at the moment

I've always been a bit turned off by the French only fanboy club, but like you say the gear performance speaks for itself as shown by team riders in competition. I'm currently on V2 Veloce's with freestyle stabs and a V2 HM 85cm mast. I've owned/ridden SAB and Axis and demo'd others. Lots of great options but Gong just gives me the most bang for the buck.

Side bar: I think the gear performance level far exceeds the skill level of so many wingers today. I hear people dissing one brand over another while barely getting past consistent tacks. Food for thought

Without import fees, you're paying much less than an European customer. Pretty good deal

Yeah that seems to be case; no VAT tax and no duty fee. Shipping costs have also come down a lot from the Covid lockdown days. A definite drawback is that you don't a lot see a lot of Gong foil owners here in the US, and virtually none in Australia as Grob mentioned (I also spend 2-3 months in Melbourne each winter), adding to the resale challenge. But let's face it, anything a couple of years old generally gets sold at dirt cheap prices these days with used gear flooding the market..

i just committed to that V3 Fluid H M setup. I'll have to post a review after I've ridden it

Is there anywhere in Sydney where I can try Gong. I am on Duotone now and looking for a new carbon mast but the cost of the mast and the compatible fuse is almost the same as Gong's full set up. Plus if I want to go to Duotones high performance dlab setup I would need to buy new front wings again.

Has anyone tried the newer Gong Plus wings with the boom? With the current deals, they're really quite attractive..