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 
Select to expand quoteazymuth said..
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
Drone - Thomas Hofmann
Music - Newton Fahrenheit
Slingshot Freestyle 87L, Infinity 76, Simmer Tricera 5m
SW 12-18 knots
nice j.j
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".
Select to expand quotedejavu said..
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".
Yep a lot of commercials (but really, a guy sailing in swell with a 87L board is supposed to be a beginner?).
Anyway, Slingshot is the main drive behind the spread of easy, and slow, free ride wings. Good job! but ... it has also some of the worst construction in the market. Heavy, with a rudimentary mast connection system used by nobody else in the industry. Hard to understand why people get so many of these when there are much better ones on the market (e.g. Moses). But again they did change the game from "foil = formula-substitute" to "foil-for-everybody ", so the success might be deserved!
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.
Select to expand quoteduzzi said..dejavu said..
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".
Yep a lot of commercials (but really, a guy sailing in swell with a 87L board is supposed to be a beginner?).
Anyway, Slingshot is the main drive behind the spread of easy, and slow, free ride wings. Good job! but ... it has also some of the worst construction in the market. Heavy, with a rudimentary mast connection system used by nobody else in the industry. Hard to understand why people get so many of these when there are much better ones on the market (e.g. Moses). But again they did change the game from "foil = formula-substitute" to "foil-for-everybody ", so the success might be deserved!
I couldn't agree more about slingshot construction/engineering, it's miserable and my experience with their warranty isn't much better.
Everyone else is catching up on wing sizes but for less money and far better construction (NP). So they will need to figure something out or be left behind. Unfortunately if they make it backwards compatible with existing wings using the socket there won't be much improvement.
Select to expand quoteduzzi said..
they did change the game from "foil = formula-substitute" to "foil-for-everybody ", so the success might be deserved!
They did in the English speaking world. Other parts of the foiling world, not so as much.
Just saw a Moses up close - yes, big difference in build quality. The challenge is that 2/3's of first time foilers are already puking at the cost of a SS new and trying to convince them to pay up for a better build is a challenge. Those used to buying race kit are hardened to the costs of windsurfing and need less persuasion to get a better foil.
That is changing however as more of us on the water having fun normalizes foiling. It's no longer a fringe activity and getting into foiling isn't seemingly as risky ("what if I don't like it?") as it was two years ago.
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.
Select to expand quoteduzzi said..
(but really, a guy sailing in swell with a 87L board is supposed to be a beginner?).
JJ is a lightweight. I'd say the 87 l board easily floats his weight.
Select to expand quotestehsegler said..
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.
Are you employed by Slingshot? This amount of bad mouthing is just ridiculous.
If you buy a Moses aluminum mast foil the prices are actually less than Slingshot (you buy a 95 long aluminum with carbon wings for $1199 in the US). There is no Moses that costs $3000 (Us dollars?). Moses built carbon foils for Slingshot until last year (the ghostwhisper, that Slingshot marketed as their own). Carbon Moses are as expensive as any other carbon foil on the market. And finally ... how exactly is this "modular system" different from anything else on the market? The whole 2020 Mose line up is compatible, going from ultra low wind to race, with 6 different masts. Same for all the other companies on the market.
Please pay for commercials! and announce them as such!
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.
Select to expand quoteduzzi said..
This amount of bad mouthing is just ridiculous.
If you buy a Moses aluminum mast foil the prices are actually less than Slingshot (you buy a 95 long aluminum with carbon wings for $1199 in the US). There is no Moses that costs $3000 (Us dollars?). Moses built carbon foils for Slingshot until last year (the ghostwhisper, that Slingshot marketed as their own). Carbon Moses are as expensive as any other carbon foil on the market. And finally ... how exactly is this "modular system" different from anything else on the market? The whole 2020 Mose line up is compatible, going from ultra low wind to race, with 6 different masts. Same for all the other companies on the market.
The cheapest Windfoil Setup on the Moses Website is ?1,590. That's about AU$2,400. A lot more then what Slingshot, Fanatic and Neil Pryde foils retail for here in Australia. Last I have seen the Slingshot retails for AU$ 1,750ish and the Fanatic foil $1,500 ish but lacking the modular option. The Neil Pryde Alu entry foil is about AU$900 last I checked but compared to the offerings now seems somewhat dated.
Mowes might have a modular system but they don't do a very good job of communicating it on their web site. To be honest neither do any of the other brands particularly well. Maybe with the exception of Starboard. Slingshot does a great job through their YouTube videos but you have to know were to look... they should really have a dedicated windsurf foil channel. Overall though there is a lot of head scratching and shoulder shrugging amongst the general windsurf population when it comes to foils... and once you tell them the price the general responses is "I'll wait till the tech settles."
As for the engineering of the Slingshot foils that I have seen sitting around on the beach, there are certainly a few things that could be improved as far as the mounting is concerned. Some of the tolerance between the different metal parts leave a little bit to be desired... but given it's modular the cost of replacing a bent or worn mast shouldn't be a deal breaker. Don't know about warranty in the US but here in Oz I have never had an issue with warranty claims from any brand... and man I have broken my fair share of boards, booms masts and sails.
What are the problems you are referring to in particular? I don't know Slingshots engineering department but I am guessing they didn't just choose the materials such as bolts and mounts because they happened to have a batch of them sitting around... I'd think just like with any product development they design the product, get some production samples, test those and then go into production making adjustments along the way as needed.
As for the videos being commercials... I'd love to shoot other people foiling but at the moment the only guys out at the local spots that are consistently good to watch are on Slingshot gear. There are the odd people on Naish, Huve (can't remember the spelling) and Neil Pryde but they are still at the early stages and that just doesn't make for very interesting videos. Apparently I missed the Severne crew doing some testing last Sunday but I doubt they'd appreciate videos / photos of their gear still in development plastered all over the interwebs.
Select to expand quotedejavu said..
"One wing to rule them all".
I came here to say this. The vids of the Aussie dudes on the 65 look hecka cool but so far for me the 76 satisfies all but my super low wind needs.
Select to expand quotestehsegler said..duzzi said..
This amount of bad mouthing is just ridiculous.
If you buy a Moses aluminum mast foil the prices are actually less than Slingshot (you buy a 95 long aluminum with carbon wings for $1199 in the US). There is no Moses that costs $3000 (Us dollars?). Moses built carbon foils for Slingshot until last year (the ghostwhisper, that Slingshot marketed as their own). Carbon Moses are as expensive as any other carbon foil on the market. And finally ... how exactly is this "modular system" different from anything else on the market? The whole 2020 Mose line up is compatible, going from ultra low wind to race, with 6 different masts. Same for all the other companies on the market.
The cheapest Windfoil Setup on the Moses Website is ?1,590. That's about AU$2,400. A lot more then what Slingshot, Fanatic and Neil Pryde foils retail for here in Australia. Last I have seen the Slingshot retails for AU$ 1,750ish and the Fanatic foil $1,500 ish but lacking the modular option. The Neil Pryde Alu entry foil is about AU$900 last I checked but compared to the offerings now seems somewhat dated.
....
You are just wrong on price. You are looking at the Moses 85 Carbon. Comparing apples with apples (i.e. slingshot aluminum with Moses aluminum) Moses 75 aluminum is 1049 euro or around 1700 Australian dollars same price of the the Slingshot store.moseshydrofoil.com/products/kit-alu-wind
The 95 aluminum is 50 Euro more and retails in the US for $1199 www.sailworks.com/the-gear/foiling/windfoils/moses-vento-95-aluminum-windfoil.html
Every single wing, stabilizer, mast and fuselage is compatible in the 2020 Moses line up.
But please keep using the forum for commercial purposes and misinformation against commercial competitors. Apparently there are no rules against it!!!
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.
Select to expand quotestehsegler said..
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.
It is not Moses that is better than other brands. Most brands, NP, F4, Starboard, Phantom, AlpineFoil, Taaroa, to name a few, are as good as Moses in the engineering of the fuselage and mast to fuselage connection. It is Slingshot that it is worse than them all. It looks like it has been built by a kid in its home basement!
Select to expand quoteduzzi said..It is Slingshot that it is worse than them all. It looks like it has been built by a kid in its home basement!
Clever kid - SS foils and boards seem to work pretty well 
Love to demo other gear that gets performance close to the Infinity 65/Freestyle 87 combo in big swells and 25 knots+
Infinity 65 wing is half the weight of the 76, which is nice carrying the board to the water - weight doesn't make any difference riding swells.
The heavier 76 is tough - plowed into our limestone reef going 20 knots and had numerous other rock skirmishes without any major issues to the wing (or foil and board)
Select to expand quoteazymuth said..duzzi said..It is Slingshot that it is worse than them all. It looks like it has been built by a kid in its home basement!
Clever kid ...
You are right, it is very clever to use a a mast that seats directly on the fuselage, with both of them held together by bolts like Slingshot does.
As far as other wings are concerned try the one below. That is the 790 Wing, similar to the i76. There are two larger, or you can go with the Balz freestyle 720 and you have a speed gain that makes it almost neck to neck to a F4. Not enough? put the race wings on and get a longer fuselage. Want to save some money, get one of the aluminum masts and you can still use all of the above.
Select to expand quoteazymuth said..duzzi said..It is Slingshot that it is worse than them all. It looks like it has been built by a kid in its home basement!
Clever kid - SS foils and boards seem to work pretty well
Love to demo other gear that gets performance close to the Infinity 65/Freestyle 87 combo in big swells and 25 knots+
Infinity 65 wing is half the weight of the 76, which is nice carrying the board to the water - weight doesn't make any difference riding swells.
The heavier 76 is tough - plowed into our limestone reef going 20 knots and had numerous other rock skirmishes without any major issues to the wing (or foil and board)
I'm glad everyone is having fun on their SS gear but this approach is not new.
Jan 2016
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.
Select to expand quotedejavu said..
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).
Yes, distribution is an issue. The windfoiling industry is still largely a cottage industry much of it apart from the windsurfing industry. Other than my rigs, all of my foiling gear is from "non-industry" names: custom builders, boutique builders, builders who've (like SS) crossed over from kites. Partly because of distribution, partly, like you said about Starboard, because of price.
I just wanted to dispel the notion that the freeride side of windfoiling had been ignored. It hasn't. Smaller boutique/regional players like Horue, AFS Zeeko, etc have pushed it for a number of years. They just didn't have the resources to make a major splash worldwide. Why the major players waited, imho, is another essay...
Again, credit to SS for getting good, usable foils into the hands of a lot of people. They were getting blown out in Black Friday deals at the end of '18 and we got a number of the local crew on them. Pretty soon, the dodgy blue wings (QC was crap) were upgraded to i76s and i84s and happiness ensued.
I'm not stepping into the SS/Moses break up soap opera. 
Select to expand quotestehsegler said..
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.
Good comment btw
Moses, like Starboard and a bunch of the French foil makes use a socketed approach where the mast actually fits into the fuse and the screws just keep the whole affair snug. The structural loads are taken up by the socket. iirc (I haven't owned mine in over a year), Starboard uses a belt and braces approach of screws from the bottom and bolts through the side.
SS Hoverglide has the mast just sitting on top of the fuse. The screws not only hold things tight but are take part of the structural load ie much more is demanded of them. As the mast/fuse bend and twist under load, the screws take part of that load rather than leaving it up to the fuse socket. I'll leave it to someone with an engineering background to explain the exact failure modes the screws are subjected to.
Phantom brochure: static1.squarespace.com/static/5937be666b8f5b389ed9d486/t/5d94a54e8150ce0213c59277/1570022737762/Iris+Windfoils+2019-2020+EN.pdf
SS manual: www.slingshotsports.com/Images/Slingshot/Quick%20Start%20Guides/2019%20WIND_FOIL_QSG.pdf
They also have several lengths of screws to assemble the whole affair in different configurations and despite the warnings of the package that using the wrong ones can have catastrophic results, it's still easy to. A better system might be to have all important screws the same length or engineer it that the screw length isn't as critical. Sometimes engineering is about keeping humans from doing stuff they shouldn't by eliminating that opportunity: you can't use the wrong screws if there are no wrong screws to use.
There are valid reasons why SS took their approach - it made it that one simple fuse could be used across a number of their product lines - kite, surf, wake, wind. Also, the switch fuse and track system make it easier to have a wide range of wing sizes on one fuse. However, that approach made those screws much more critical and there's almost no redundancy I'm aware of. When one screw fails, the other is rarely not far behind.
Other manufacturers opted to have a more limited range of wings on a particular fuse. Starboard's masts interchange with their fuses but the surf fuses and race/freeride fuses can't swap wings. Moses, afaik, is fuse compatible across their wings but the alu and carbon masts require different fuses.
SS and their dealers have stepped up in most cases here where things fell off but it would be better if things just didn't fall off. I know there are a lot of SS foils about but I don't see the same issues pop up with the same relative frequency for other brands (or really, at all).
Having said this, I still recommend SS to people. I also suggest that if it's in the budget to take a look at Moses and a bunch of other manufacturers.
Select to expand quoteazymuth said..
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
Drone - Thomas Hofmann
Music - Newton Fahrenheit
Slingshot Freestyle 87L, Infinity 76, Simmer Tricera 5m
SW 12-18 knots
JJ.
I've just about had enough of watching you shred on big chunky swell and Foiling non stop! Haha :)
it's amazing to watch, and I am totally envious, it's like Cotts beach was made for free Foiling. After a quick test on the FS 115, I don't think I could get the 87 to foil here the holes are too big amongst other things. You guys are killing it! WOW
Select to expand quotePaducah said..azymuth said..duzzi said..It is Slingshot that it is worse than them all. It looks like it has been built by a kid in its home basement!
Clever kid - SS foils and boards seem to work pretty well
Love to demo other gear that gets performance close to the Infinity 65/Freestyle 87 combo in big swells and 25 knots+
Infinity 65 wing is half the weight of the 76, which is nice carrying the board to the water - weight doesn't make any difference riding swells.
The heavier 76 is tough - plowed into our limestone reef going 20 knots and had numerous other rock skirmishes without any major issues to the wing (or foil and board)
I'm glad everyone is having fun on their SS gear but this approach is not new.
Jan 2016
Having seen Moses beside SS, it's not even close. But Moses cost 30% more -it's a tradefoff. I'd be more open minded about SS if I didn't know of three locally sitting on the bottom somewhere because of their bolt scheme. One fellow lost his within 5 minutes of his first launch. Yeah, that was fun.
I think the i76 has been a big deal, no mistake. But I've seen a lot of things said about it and the "windsurfing industry" that miss a lot of nuance. It's worthy of a 17 page essay that few would have the patience to read through.
Can't agree more (and you get the Moses aluminum at the same price)
Dejavu: what you refer to ("the owner of Slingshot designed the wings and Moses originally built them (Ghost Whisper for example)") is part of rumors seemingly spread by Slingshot reps (I read it myself on a different forum). It is a soap opera because I doubt that foil designs are actually trade secrets. It is a sign of how tiny the windsurfing industry is that reps can bad mouth like that with seemingly no control! Moses and Slingshot worked together for a couple of years, and they shared knowledge and expertise. Moses has been at foiling for 10 years plus, and the Ghost whisper was straight out of the Moses kite line. They actually produced the same foil for GA in 2019, together with a copycat of their 790 that was (is?) on the GA line. I think you can still buy them in Europe. SS and Moses parted in 2019. On what terms is anybodies' guess and you will not learn it from a forum or talking in a shop.
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.
