I've been mulling this over a bunch recently and am torn on it. If you could have a full/larger quiver of gear in one category what would you go with?
A full set of wings, 2m-8?
A stack of boards for different days?
A full set of foils, every size?
For me, having more wings doesn't really get me more days on the water. Adding a 5m+ would only grab me a day or two here and there.
I love having multiple boards and think a 3 board quiver would be awesome (short sinker, mid neutral, long floater). Assuming transportation is no issue this might be the win for me.
Foils are similar to wings for me. Adding a really big lightwind foil might grab me a few more days here and there, but not a ton and big foils aren't always the most fun to ride. I do have a small foil, a 650 that I love when I get to ride it, but if it disappeared from my quiver it wouldn't be a great tragedy.
Thoughts?
That's an easy one: foils. Foiling is all about the foil. It makes by far the biggest difference to carving characteristics, speed, and glide.
You definitely don't need every size though. 3 foils are enough: small, medium, large. Actual sizes will vary depending on your weight and discipline of choice.
Going the other way trying to keep it simple.
3.5/4/5 wing
2.9/4.2 parawing
650/900 foil
standard fuse
142 tail
5 2 tow board
5 10 wing/parawing board
Tow Boogie
maybe not that simple
At least it all fits in the car
2 wings, 2 boards, 2 foils and you can cover everything I reckon.
Large wing + large board + large foil for ultra light wind
Small wing + small board + small foil for mental wind
A combo of the three for everything in between. I'm rocking a sinker and a DW board, HA580 and HA880, 3.5m and 5m wing. I can ride this in anything from the concept of a breeze up to nuking.
I do have other gear including smaller wing (2.5) and larger foils (1125), but they get so little use that if i didn't have them already i wouldn't miss them.
What!!!! Ya can't have it all??
Ok here's my take ATM .
Have a 2 wing combo.6/4.5
2 large surf foils 1400/1770 with 700 mast Brand A
2 small go faster foils 1250/800 with 800 mast
Brand B
2 Boards One floats, one doesn't
The Wishlist might be a Mid length ,a 600 foil and a 3mt wing.
That would cover everything for me from surf to flat
70kg, 1.76cm tall.
3 Wings: 3.5m 4m 5m
2 Foils 850cm2 1095cm2
2 masts 85cm 75cm
2 Boards 85l Wingfoil 110lt SUPfoil
I used to have 3m but... super windy conditions and foiling are not that fun IMHO.
85L is big for winging...but the winds here are very iffy.If i had more reliable conditions i would go down to 60l.
If i did not SUPfoil i would not need the 75cm mast or the 1095cm2 foil, they are just for SUP in small waves on shallow bottoms.
I did have a full foil quiver for a season. Cloud IX 550, 700, 850, 900, 1000, 1150, 1350, 1780 (I was brand affiliated that year). I will say that from a progression standpoint that was a major breakthrough for me. Being able to switch foils to tune the experience in every condition was really powerful. Now, I think my AFS Silk 1050, and Ultra 750 cover 99% of my days. Occasionally I get to ride the 650 in big swell and it's awesome but if I had to give up one, that would be it.
I ride 3m and 4m wings almost every day. The super small wings under 3m get me a few extra sessions (23 days in 2024) but that pales in comparison to 69 sessions on my 4m and 69 sessions on my 3m.
Really, a board quiver seems most tempting to me these days. Maybe it's simply because I haven't had the opportunity to have a big board quiver before! But, something like a 6'6"x20" 99l, a 6'x20" 80l and a 5'6"x19.5 60l would be a really amazing board quiver for me.
Three wings: 3, 4 and 4.6m2 (I also have a 6.1 which I have never used, it was an impulsive buy) - recently sold a 5.3 and replaced it with the 4.6. If I could do the quiver over, I would go for a 2.6, 3.5 and 4.6 quiver.
Two boards: ML 75L (6'1" x 20") and sinker 55L (5' x 20")
One foil: HA V2 680, 795 performance mast and 140 stab (I use this in everything from 10 knots to around 30 - I don't enjoy foiling either when I start feeling overpowered on the 3m2). And I don't bother if its less than 10-12 knots.
Conditions: waves, flat, DW and everything inbetween. Usual wind range 15 - 25 knots. Weight 83-84kg. 6'2''
I would like to add the Armstrong performance downwind foil 685 for DW winging. And a 4m2 parawing (plan to sell the 6.1 and buy this).
@Bryan to answer your question, I don't need a bigger quiver of a specific element, the combination I have has taken 4 years to get to and for now, serves me very well for our local conditions. Maybe you could consider the wings plus parawing as a quiver.
Also, I only wing.
I prever a bit of balance in my quiver.Right now 97kg:Sunova 7.6x23x137l DW boardKT SuperK 6.5x22x92KT Wingdrifter 5.4x22x56l board5.5-5.0-4.0-3.0 wings ( couple of sizes double because hard to sell and don,t mind spare kit).AFS Evo 1650 for supfoul/DW in low energy lake bumps
Enduro1300 for Supfoil in waves or when its really windy.
Pure1100
Enduro900
Silk 1050+850
If I need to scale down I would keep the E1300 and Silk1050 as main foil, The others all have rhere place, but the Silk 1060 and E1300 are my main foilsthe 56l would leave the quiver and all the double sizes wings as well. Luckily I don,t need to :)
I think I'd go boards. my 90% daily driver last year was 3.5 wing and 850 Silk foil @ 185lbs in SF Bay. I had a 5'6'" x 21" @ 70l Duotone Skybrid and 6'2" x 21.25" @ 90l AFS Blackbird. that gets me most of the year... however when the wind gets light here it's nice to have the 4.5, and on really windy days the 3.0 is helpful although not really necessary. Really light wind I'd take the 4.5, the 1050 Silk, and 6'2" BB... of course there are days when you need more, but it's into diminishing returns at that point here. So for me, two boards, two wings, and one foil would really get it done, and if I had to narrow it down for the whole season I'd go ~3.5 or 4.0 wing, Silk 850 or Enduro 900, and BB 6'2"... keep in mind that I have a toddler, and have limited time to get on the water, so **** just needs to go when I have the chance. I don't get to wait around until the wind fills in or the tide switches or whatever. I've got a window between 3:00 and 4:30pm and I need to get it done. I still love to windsurf, but with my time constraints, the conditions only line up occasionally.... so I end up foiling most of the time, which is also so frickin fun. Even with windsurfing, I was a one board, one sail kinda guy (85l and 4.0 freestyle sails) and just make it work... doesn't exactly pencil out with kids though
Very interesting data. Obvious from what I know of the venues represented here that the "better" the venue (Gorge, Nice Oz place, Bay Area), the less gear required. Arthur--amazing you get by with just a 680 foil!?!?! Superb pumping skills I imagine. Here in the gusty Midwest, it's feast or famine. Give me lots of wings, foils, and boards, please!! Skills (lack of, I should say) determine what you need also!!
Thanks all.
quite true... we have good conditions here and when there's wind, there's generally good wind... at least good gusts even if not steady, so you can get away with smaller/less gear. There's one spot in the South Bay here, Palo Alto, which is generally very steady wind with minimal gust potential... that spot you generally need bigger gear b/c there are fewer strong puffs to get you going. When windsurfing there, you better be rigged correctly, because if you can't get going in the average wind, there are few big gusts to help you. Always rig bigger down there.
I am lucky to live here.
@Arthur I gotta wait at least until v2 comes out for the parawings! I almost jumped into early adopter mode but I really love my wings so I'll wait just a touch to get into those.
@Sunset the toddler thing has to be a major consideration I'm sure. I normally have all day long to fool around but I'd expect that if my time demands involved kiddos I'd rig differently.
@Jeroen, good point about having some extra kit around. It's nice knowing you don't have to think about it if something craps out. I have a couple backup wings that I got screaming good deals on just sitting in a closet waiting to be launched.
I have everything
A full set of wings!
A stack of boards for different days (foil divisions)!
A full set of foils, every size!
Bare minimum for me at 95-100kg is:
4m Unit Wing - lots of power
5.5m Dlab Unit Wing - lots of power, big range
84 L Omen Flux Board (plus 12 knot or gusty)
60 L Omen Flux Board (plus 18 knot solid)
Axis 1050 (1500 sq cm) for light wind
Axis 960 Spitfire (1200 sq cm) for strong wind
I really like the small board when it's windy. Even though I don't wing on it that often, when I do it's twice as fun. I also use it for Foil Drive.
haha yes, as you know its sometimes a pain in the a$$ to try new gear and futz w/ all the little details, adjustments, when you just want to go out and have fun. you can learn a lot though, and having a van full of demo gear also means that someone else might be riding your preferred gear. lots of good stuff out there on the market thankfully.
54 y/o 105 kg ---
6.5, 5.7, 5.0 Ozone Fusions (use the 6.5m 95% of the time)
105 L NJS custom
Chubanga 620 and 530 cm2 foils
-just mowing the lawn!!!
I've moved on to a Foil Drive so I can get out twice every day but aren't going out in over 25 knots currently.
So its two boards both Naish 5ft10 40LT & a spare 5ft 6in ( they were $400 each new).
Axis 1180 Spitfire foil with 640mm fuse, Skinny 55 stab & 1070 Fireball Foil with 600mm fuse & Skinny 45 Stab.
Mast is High Mod Carbon 75mm . Easy set up and can use two batteries per session if I'm able. I'm 90kg.
One board, one wing, one mast, three foils, 2 fuselages and 2 stabs.
Looking back at my sessions in 2024 I mainly used an 8'0" DW-style board, my 4m wing (or paddle) and majority of sessions on 2 foils out of my 4 foil quiver from Sabfoil. If I would swap my Leviathan1150 and Leviathan Pro 1260 for a Leviathan Pro 1360 and sell my wingboard I would still be able to have plenty of fun on a downsized quiver. I think I could find front wings on the same fuselage and stabilizer as well to size lower the number of items in the quiver.
Unfortunately I will also need at least 3 wetsuits (hooded 6mm, 4mm and 3 mm), 2 pairs of boots (5mm and 3mm), gloves, impact vest/paddle vest, helmet, paddle and a car/van.