Slingshot Infinity 76. Probably the easiest wing to learn on
Superfun in lighter winds in any size swell for more advanced riders - a classic "do-everything" wing.
I reckon if you want a long-lasting inexpensive foil to learn and progress on, the SS Hoverglide Infinity 76 is it
Azymuth, great work, and nice drone shots.
You don't look like a learner. Too many foil jibes, and not enough splashdowns. Us learners in light winds can do with more foil. I have i84, did not get the i99 as heard it needed a track.
Slingshot owes you guys a big Thank You! You're doing a lot of promo work for that company -- great videos.
I may be wrong but the i76 seems to be the sweet spot for wings -- lots of lift, fast and controllable. "One wing to rule them all".
There is a reason why the i76 is so popular in the gorge and Seattle.
I think we need to put the drone pilot on contract and hire him out all over the world. Man oh man, that's good drone work.
JJ has probably foiled for longer then most people in WA. You can see that from his level of foiling.
That said I started a couple of weeks ago with a loaner board (Slingshot Wizard 125) and foil (red engine Manta to start with Slingshot 76 later). I am 115 kgs at the moment so the Slingshot just floats me. Uphauling is definitely a struggle. I have so far spend about 12 hours on the water. Most of it in stop and go marginal conditions. At the moment I can go up and downwind in ocean conditions and have managed my first jibe yesterday on flat water. Progression is definitely fast if you are a reasonably good sailor, have the right gear and get the right instruction / tips / feedback from people.
Two things I found going from the Red Engine to the Slingshot foil. Firstly the lift on the slingshot was easier to control once overpowered. Secondly the sail power seemed to convert more into speed.
In regards to cost I agree with everyone else. It's simply too expensive at the entry level. Unless you are lucky enough to have a shop nearby that allows you to get your feet wet without spending a fortune first I doubt a lot of people will fork out the large amount of money required just to have a go.
In regards to marketing it feels like most brands are sort of dabbling in foiling and it some ways it's an after thought.
Slingshot seems to be the first company that has a modular foil system for Freeride wind foiling and are marketing it as such. I believe Freeride Wind foiling will be were the money is going to be if wind foiling catches on and really takes off. Starboard sort of has something like modular system but it's squarely aimed at racing and from what I hear and read it's not easy to actually get hold of the foils. I know of some other pure windsurf brands that have Freeride foils in the works but how they market them remains to be seen. As for Mose etc their princes are simply too high for the entry market. The average weekend windsurf warrior will not spend upwards of $3000 just for the foil especially if the technology is still changing so quickly.
As for product quality I don't have any experience. I did give a kiteboarder a lift back to his car the other day because he had snapped his Moses Wing in half after a down winder. I can imagine it's a struggle to keep the price under control while making sure things don't fall apart as soon as you hit the water. Again though I think the modular systems will win here in the long run.
In 2016 pretty much only Slingshot was offering a modular foiling system. You could get different length masts and something like 4 different wings right from the start.
At that time almost everybody else offered only fixed systems. One mast, one fuse, one wing, one stab. That's whatcha got. My 2017 AFS-2 and LP foils were that way.
Now pretty much everybody offers optional components. You can build your foil to how you want it. I use a selection of wings for the AFS-2 and LP.
This is all good. We all benefit.
As I said the marketing material on these web sites is hopeless. I finally found the setup you are referring to after digging deep into the site. Based on that I managed to find the foil on Australian Dealer wie Sites. Seems to be in the same price range as Slingshot.
i still think communicating your product range and it's features through an online store is a terrible idea.. it assumes your customer already know the different products and it's features and how the different components fit together. Btw that critics need isn't directed at Moses but other brands as well.
you still haven't answered how the mountings of the Moses foils are better or differ from other brands. I am honestly interested in view of keeping the discussion open.
The equipment shown in the above video simply isn't available where I purchase mine (Toronto, Canada). We have to select from what we can get our hands on and price is definitely a consideration. Starboard, for example, has simply priced itself out of the local market.
Slingshot for the money seems like a pretty good deal. I can get Moses foils and will probably give one of them a try. My understanding is that the relationship between Moses and Slingshot was the following -- the owner of Slingshot designed the wings and Moses originally built them (Ghost Whisper for example).
As someone who has sailed on the SS gear a few times (I sail the Naish foils), and have looked at the gear construction, in my limited experience, it looks to me like there can be a LOT of problems if people don't put their gear together properly. What I mean is that 1 not fully tightened bolt can cause major problems for other components (it's happened to me where tightened bolts have loosened mid sail). And how often do people pull their gear apart, wash it and ensure it doesn't bind/corrode after a sesh? I'm pretty religions about keeping the gear in good nic and have had no problems. Likewise I have seen others treat their gear with total disregard, and the gear stands up to it fine. Yes there are instances of gear failure. But I bet SOME gear failures are due to inexperience putting stuff together (just how tight do you do up the bolts etc), lack of maintenance and abuse (hitting the bottom multiple times and causing a failure to develop, but not necessarily let go at the time of the impact).
As for the SlingShot construction, for sailors who are looking to get out there and mess around and aren't looking at top end speed or super high performance, I would suggest the weight of the foil is of very minor importance in regards to performance. Yep, shedding some weight and making the thing out of carbon will get you a touch more performance, but it comes at a big cost. We can get our heavy foils (Naish 1570 and SSi84) going in 10-11 knots which is what it was all about for us. And not breaking the bank to do it.
And price seems to be a variable thing. In Tas, I think lots of the foils are pretty competitively priced with each other. Plus, once you've invested in a platform, it gets hard to justify throwing it all out and changing to another system.
Getting back to the vid - Azymuth, I would LOVE to have your dedication and skills! It's clearly the sort of talent that comes with some effort, and I think for a person such as myself, I doubt I will ever be as good (unless the technology changes and makes it much easier). But I'll have fun trying to get there.
Willing to bet the Infinity wings were based on Moses R&D rather than the other way around. Nothing like that shape was happening at SS in the years before the collaboration.