Duotone freefoil 2018 vs Duotone spirit carve 2019

[kitenight11]

Hi, I am currently still on my first foil (2018 freefoil, the one with the winglets), and wanted to upgrade to the new spirit carve foil. Dors anydody have some experiences with both? What about speed, stability early flying turnability, etc?
Thanks for your help.

[Puetz]

G'day Kitenight11,

I've been lucky to have a go of the new Spirit Carve 950 with the 90cm mast mounted on a 4'10" Pace board recently. I was using the Speedster with the Freefoil board before and its the one I learnt on. I haven't done a back to back comparisons on the same day yet, but hopefully very soon.

By the way, I'm not experienced enough at foiling to give proper expert opinions plus I'm pretty heavy so, what I feel, might not translate to you, but anyway, here's my quick/short opinions so far:

It's faster overall on all points being stable at slow and high speeds, but definitely feels more stable at higher speeds.

Takes off is about the same so just as good in light winds but feels more balanced once going especially at higher speeds.

Less back foot pressure when hooking along, feels more balanced.

Upwind angles felt kind of the same with a more balanced feel in pitch control on the newer one but I think with the extra speed of the Carve, the speedster felt like it had just a might touch more upwind angle, not sure yet. I reckon a back to back test should tell me for sure.

Downwind with s curve turns are much better on the Carve, the Spirit Carve absolutely shines here, the speedster feels like it just wants to track straight but this is a good thing when learning, it did for me anyway.

Talking of tracking in a straight line, it felt a little more locked in on the Speedster but that also takes away from the carvey feel so the Carve feels better, and of course this means more playful. A more experienced rider would get much more out of it than I.

Essentially its a much classier ride so in my humble opinion, a better foil. It certainly looks classier.

I hope I can give a better analysis when I get more time on the Carve especially when I get more experience.

Cheers for now,

Robbie

[eddiemorgs]

My 2 bobs worth , and I agree with my learned friend

Puetz kindly gave me a good go on the new carve 950 . . I had really good fun on it , much moreso than if it was the speedster .

I have ridden both the North Speedster and I currently ride the Jshapes cruzer and freestyle foils with 120 board . I am 87 kgs . Been foiling for 2 years

The new carve 950 is a much more refined and classy foil than the speedster.
To me , the speedster always felt a bit mushy and topped out at speed . It tracked well and was good to learn on , but limited the riders ability to evolve and learn more about its higher skill range of foiling becasue its design was limited

I prefer a foil to grow into and keep exploring my limits on , which is why i bought the jshapes 2 years ago... and the new Carve 950 also has that potential bearing in mind they are quite different foils, now I have thought about it

It felt very smooth and quick with balance in straight line , was averse to breaching when there was speed , chop or gybing involved ... and had really good gliding characteristics which was fun in swell.
It carved well too , although I expect moreso with a shorter, lighter board

In summary , it was hardly any more difficult to ride than the speedster, but a lot more fun and you will be able to expand your skill level on it.

Its a nice piece of gear , good to see they have caught up with the mainstream

[kitenight11]

Hi again,

thanks for your replies. I was a little surprised that the carve wing is faster than the old one because it is one third bigger in surface, so normaly slower and more stable or am I missing something?
So I assume flying footswitching was easier and overall feeling too. But even with the freefoil I found it already very fast and stable in jibing, but unfortunately not in flying footswitching i hope this will be better with the new one)...
How did you find the new mast profile, which is much bigger and way heavier (I compared it to the old one, both 90 cm)?
Thanks for all your effort.

[Exal]

If you are a big duotone fan like myself it might be worth to wait for the new release coming soon. The dealer where I get my stuff told me three times about the big step forward for their foil stuff when I was asking him about kites But he is a big time foil junkie so there's that ...

[kitenight11]

Maybe your dealer did not notice the release of the spirit line?