cwood wrote: ↑Wed Oct 10, 2018 3:43 am
Kamikuza wrote: ↑Sun Sep 30, 2018 12:47 pm
Peter_Frank wrote: ↑Sun Sep 30, 2018 12:44 pm
No, they are the most expensive part of a carbon foil.
Only if aluminum foils, they are cheap, so depends what new foilers get, which can be both, quite evenly distributed here.
PF
People buying carbon foils here aren't beginners, and are interested in racing only. I don't know if that's a worldwide trend.
Can't agree with this statement. Carbon is much nicer for learning due to weight, especially for women. The Slingshot hoverglide is great but man is it heavy in full length form. Almost unmanageable in anything but perfect launch and land conditions.
Also, anyone that is seriously into boosting and big air are all carbon....its not just for racing, its about the optimal performance and quality of ride. Night and day. The only thing carbon does not win on is cost and durability against other hard surfaces.
Here, where I live, the only newbies who went straight to carbon were the hard-core racers. They also went straight to foil kites and WHOO what carnage there was! A few of the less hard-core racers and all the beginners are (still) on aluminum foils -- Cabrinha, Naish, Axis, LF, Alpine.
Back in my hometown, of the people I've seen foiling, there's one guy on a production carbon foil, one on custom build, a couple on total home builds and everyone else is on aluminum.
It's an observation, not a statement
Here (and back home), we're far away from the European market, and even the American ones are
expensive: approx US$1,600 just for the Hoverglide foil, $1,300 for the Dwarfcraft board. The 2018 Ghost Whisperer 111 foil is $3,800. So a carbon foil and Hypermiler set up would be almost $6,000...!
Oh just noticed -- that 111 GW is listed as 3.2 kg. My Axis aluminum 820mm SUP foil is 4.9kg and the previous aluminum kite foil was 4kg. There's not a lot in the kite foils there: 800g less weight for $2,000 more
The Hoverglide is apparently 5.2kg, but the weight is all clumped down at the bottom of the mast. My wing is light so the weight is more spread out, and the feeling is
very different.
Anyway...ride 'em if you got 'em!