Gong inflatable foil board, with a carbon hull plate

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colas said..
And it is now pre-orderable on the site. Planned availability August 10th.

7 sizes to choose from, from 4'8" 48 liters to 7'5" 200 liters
The same price as the cheapest Gong hard construction (wood2x), and a tad lighter.
Two thirds of the price of the high end Gong carbon boards (PVC carbon sandwich), but a bit heavier.
The shapes differ a bit between sizes: the bigger ones are more streamlined.

Note that the resulting board is quite cheap, considering the price of the high quality materials: just the 2.5kg pre-preg carbon plate would amount to about 500 euros to manufacture by itself in small quantities. The benefits of direct manufacturing and sales and economies of scale.

They have more volume for the same length than hard boards because thickness cannot be tapered at the tips. So, if length is important for you (for the row effect for SUP foiling for instance), you may have to get more volume than a rigid board.

Range:



Note: the graph above depends a lot on the level of the rider for the Wing and SUP use.

Less than a $1000 dollars for a 5 foot 1
Wonder if they will ship to Aus ?

And it will be in a carton not much bigger than a foil set package

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Fishdude said..
No handles on that thing?

You can add as much as you want, with some PVC glue. And wrap it with more neoprene to add a rear strap, or use stick on straps (I dunno if the NSI ones stick to inflatables, however)


Note that you can also add a mastfoot for windsurfing. Either with the pendleboard kit:
pendleboard.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/Foot-mast-kit-user.pdf
or by gluing a fin box made for inflatables and adding side supports like for the pendleboard kit above.

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paul.j said..
Just my thoughts anyway,

Of course, we are all different, with different tastes, practices and uses. Gong will not stop doing hard boards because they have inflatables in their SUP, Surf, and now Foil lines. And you are free to buy and make whatever you like.

We are now seeing people cancelling their Wing foil hard board orders to switch for this inflatable. And more would have done the same if it had been available sooner. Most people Winging here do not seem to need (yet?) the higher performance of rigid boards, and some are attracted to the resilience and softer-on-the body-in-falls of inflatables. But it may be different for surf foilers and maybe SUP foilers. Me, for instance, I do not use inflatables to SUP surf, but as a casual foiler with a hard SUP foil board taking room in my van, but seldom used I can see me in the future making some room in my van by replacing it with an inflatable, to make room for another SUP hard board that would have tantalized me ;-)

Or on the other hand, if I was addicted to the foil, I would probably only have rigid foil boards, plus an inflatable SUP tucked in a corner of my van for using casually from time to time...

Also, in Europe, a lot of people do not live close to the sea, and have small cars or live in small flats.

So we will see. This is just added choice, nobody is forcing you to buy anything!

I have a 5'3 x 110L inflatable foilboard. I have used it from 10-30kts with wing sizes from 6m down to 2.8m. Don't need complex bottom shapes - generally 3 pumps and you're up. Light board weight and short length seem to help a lot

anyone checked out manta foils yet? been doing blowups for a while now.

www.mantafoils.com/

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Flatfoot73 said..
anyone checked out manta foils yet? been doing blowups for a while now.

www.mantafoils.com/

The price looks good and having both Deep Tuttle and plate mounts is good. Graphics are awful.

It's a bit of a worry that they've been around for a while but made no impression on the scene. The Gong product seems more appealing, mainly because it's newer and Gong are better at informing people about their products (which is sort of the same as marketing).

I m thinking they could be more durable. Drop it on concrete or bang it on a post or doorway while carrying likely no damage and no cracks around the foil tracks leading to heavy foam cores. Would prefer to see and ideally paddle one first though as the rounded rails might make for harder paddling

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Gorgo said..
The Gong product seems more appealing, mainly because it's newer and Gong are better at informing people about their products (which is sort of the same as marketing).

And not to forget that they actually also use their products daily, by the whole team with various levels of expertise. They do not simply give some gear to sponsored riders just to make a photoshoot. Also the quantities they manufacture create important economies of scale, so the product can be cheaper for the same quality, so they sell more... a virtuous circle. The drawback is that they cannot add a model in their lines if they are not confident that it will sell well.

On the inflatable foil boards, my understanding is that it took a full year to design/prototype/test a system that was rigid enough so they thought enough people would buy it.

More info (22mn) on the Hipe by Patrice himself. French audio, with English subtitles. Especially on the pro and cons wrt the Gong rigid boards. He says at 13'15" that of all the Gong Wingfoil boards, the Hipe is the one with which he takes off the earliest. And that plane travel was not the main design goal, but the general easy of learning and general use.

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Gorgo said..

Flatfoot73 said..
anyone checked out manta foils yet? been doing blowups for a while now.

www.mantafoils.com/

The price looks good and having both Deep Tuttle and plate mounts is good. Graphics are awful.

It's a bit of a worry that they've been around for a while but made no impression on the scene. The Gong product seems more appealing, mainly because it's newer and Gong are better at informing people about their products (which is sort of the same as marketing).

they seem to be a small scaled production facility in Dubai. no massive marketing budget, and definitely not geared to the masses, but leading with strong innovation. they certainly have a hands on control on quality which i think others would struggle with when getting made elsewhere

The sizing of the Hipe 5'5" looks pretty appealing to me. Checked out the Manta gear, the 150l is a competitor and a Tuttle box is a bonus. Longer length of the Manta is a negative and it the shorter foil plate (Looking at the photo) might be a deal breaker. A head to head comparison would be VERY interesting

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colas said..

Flatfoot73 said..
a hands on control on quality which i think others would struggle with when getting made elsewhere

There is no way you can manufacture an inflatable board in Dubai...

didnt say they were. if you assumed that its your mistake....

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Flatfoot73 said..
considering how dismissive colas is of other brands bar gong,

I think that people messaging/email me for advice can testify that I do not hesitate to praise and recommend other brands if they are more adapted to their needs and well built/designed. Off the top of my head, recently: Jimmy Lewis, Infinity, Sunova, ... (and Quobba of course, and O&E leashes, even though Gong makes fins and leashes).

Here we are on a topic specific to inflatable foil boards.

Go to the NZ Sailing website, look under the Manta Wing Board, there's a copy of a review I did on the Manta 110 from the local Kiwi Foil Froth Facebook user group. It was used with my permission. I use a wide range of gear as I am always looking to optimise my winging set up, no formal brand affiliations. It looks like Gong have done a nice job , but just because you havent heard much about the Manta doesn't mean that Manta have done a bad job, just that they are a much smaller company and don't have the marketing footprint.

Let the vision tell the story.