I decided to buy RLboards variofoil. I couldn't find much info of it but the design looked ok. I had heard lot of good things about their twintips before.
So what do you get? Price is about the lowest of the market. Their biggest reseller kitesyndikat.de sells it complete with board for 1000.
Disclaimer: I had foil fish before. I found it quite jerky. I can foil ok with boat. With kite I have tried 3-4 times. We have very gusty inland lake winds. I have no connection to RLboards. I prefer quality materials over brand. I don't normally write any reviews.
About the board:
I wanted the splitboard. They told me it is not ready yet. That they are still testing it. However they offered an early version if I wanted to try it. Weight is 4800 grams with 2 straps (normal board is less, around 4000 grams). So you can choose your print design from wide collection. I went with wood style. It looks great. It feals very stiff (which is what you want) and has only a little flex to it. It is bit thicker than their twintips.
It was amazing compared to my foil fish. Because it is twintip construction it has no flotation (same as cabrinha double agent). This makes it very easy to waterstart. This is very important especially if you want to go strapless some day. It is relatively big too 149x44cm. It has plenty of rocker. So when you go too high and come down it helps a lot. It planes also very easy on the surface of the water. I found planing very hard with LF foil fish.
Unfortunately I got only 1 session. After 3 hours with 60cm mast the split connection broke down. However when I contacted RLboards they replied within 2 hours (on Saturday
) that do I want money back or normal board plus change. I opted for normal board which I should get in around a week. Normal board should be very durable (twintip construction). Regular board has both Y strap and 2 strap configuration. Balance was very nice. I had middle setting with straps and foil was in the back holes. This was good for beginning because it does not foil easy. Once I progress I am going to move the foil to the front holes.
About the Foil
It is all aluminium construction and wings are G10. So it should be very durable. Weight: 90cm mast and light wind front wing 3512 grams. WOW that is very light. It has many different holes for different boards. However you need to either make them bigger or buy new set of screws to mount this to any surfboard style board (screws are too short for thick board).
It resembles Zeeko standard foil a lot. And that is great. It is far more stable than my foil fish thanks to longer frontwing, backfinn and longer fuselage.
it is very efficient compared to my foil fish. In 6 knots I managed to foil as long as I could keep my foil kite in the air.
You can get spare parts very economically. So you can have shorter mast for lakes/shallow areas and different wings for different wind conditions.
Overall:
This foil is hands down better than Liquid force foil fish and also in the same price range. I will write more once I have had chance to try it few more times. I highly recommend it for European customers. They are also produced within EU and you have amazing customer service if something goes wrong.
I cannot wait to get my new board to try it again. I progressed more in one session with this foil than I had progressed in all my LF Foil fish sessions 3-4 combined. I managed surface turns and toe side riding for the first time!
Feel free to ask questions. You can find more pictures in https://goo.gl/photos/gLL6p2byLRCBwkQ59
PF