I am so thrilled everyone is getting skinny masts now! It will be good to hear how it holds up with bigger rider evaluations. Did the current performance mast have any stiffness complaints? I'm not much in tune with Armstrong stuff.

slowmotion160 said..
What do people recommend for 50% parawing and 50% Winging. 795 or 865? Does the 795 go up wind ok with a 770 or 880?

If you don't want to worry about breaching going DW, the 865 is good. Also allows for some serious steep angles when carving.

The 795 size works great as well with those wing sizes, just can be more demanding going upwind if the swells line up perpendicular to the upwind line. Definitely easier to keep the foil in the sweet spot and feels a bit less precarious compared to the 865.

beached57 said..

BWalnut said..
I am so thrilled everyone is getting skinny masts now! It will be good to hear how it holds up with bigger rider evaluations. Did the current performance mast have any stiffness complaints? I'm not much in tune with Armstrong stuff.

from what i've seen in videos, the performance MKII is geared for heavier riders rather than the skinny X. at 90 kgs i've had no complaints with current 865 performance mast but will likely go to 795 MKII performance mast rather than X. I wing and foil drive, no parawing nor DW.

yeh that makes perfect sense. exactly the reason Insupoose there are two options. I'm not calling the third one an option to be honest. 30 percent stiffer is significant and i'm sure the profile is much better to.

beached57 said..

BWalnut said..
I am so thrilled everyone is getting skinny masts now! It will be good to hear how it holds up with bigger rider evaluations. Did the current performance mast have any stiffness complaints? I'm not much in tune with Armstrong stuff.

from what i've seen in videos, the performance MKII is geared for heavier riders rather than the skinny X. at 90 kgs i've had no complaints with current 865 performance mast but will likely go to 795 MKII performance mast rather than X. I wing and foil drive, no parawing nor DW.

I hope you get the chance to try the X. 90kg seems to be the tipping point for a lot of gear choices and if you didn't have an issue with the current mast it sounds like the X should still be good for you since it's 10% stiffer. The carve would be the main benefit for you as a foil driver and winger but these skinny short chord masts can have a huge impact on your foils. The challenge for brands just seems to be which company can release a 12mm mast that is stiff enough for a majority of riders. Only one I know of so far and it sounds like Armstrong might have the #2 slot filled!

eppo said..
well if the UHA and Ma11 has any bearing on this I'd say it would be a strong possibility armstrong has got it right on the PMX mast. Might not be the fastest, might not be the most efficient but rider ease of use is always a priority with their design work lately. The layup and carbon used on the UHA especially has created such a stiff foil - it's crazy. Not cheap though

I'm not convinced the PMX will be for everyone . initially especially. You could see the immediate response from Oskar in his vid - this is a very different beast.

This all sounds accurate. In my experience the skinny masts aren't good at first impressions. They are such a shift in performance that they take some time to understand. People often confuse yaw for flex until you sort them out. There seems to be a shift in perception of Armstrong recently towards user friendliness though.
I'm intrigued by the price. My reasoning is that I have heard from brands that "No one will buy it at the required price to make it stiff." The result is that there is a pretty good offering of skinny masts out there that are lacking in stiffness. If the claim is true that they increased stiffness 10% while dropping to 11.8mm (how much does it taper up tho?) that would be an impressive accomplishment. Lots more skinny masts landing from brands this year and I am very interested in seeing who can capture the performance for the masses. I think the skinny masts offer such a huge upgrade to your foils that they are simply impossible to ignore if you are ready for the way they ride and can put the time in to understand them.