That's how I look at costs too, with a "smiles per miles/bang for buck" modifier. Foiling is never a bad session, and wind has to drop pretty low for it to be a fail. Even the days I've broken gear I've been having a great session -- until thenOzBungy wrote: ↑Sun Jun 06, 2021 2:35 amJust doing a quick sum, the cost of my mast is $1.40 cents an hour. Mast and foil together is $2.80. Complete board, foil and mast is $4 an hour. I got a big discount and a custom carbon board because I exchanged emails with the maker. That's just my most used kite. I do have other foils and masts and boards, but I rarely use those things, mainly in specific sets of conditions.
I disassemble every session so I am very set on simplicity and ease of use. Full carbon everything. Deep tuttle mast and one piece foil, tail and fuselage. 4 screws and everything slots together with a positive connection.
The only negative of all this is reduced choice in foils and boards to an extent. My kite foiling gear is awesome so that's not a problem. If I wanted to chase max speed then all the premium products are one piece glider, deep tuttle, full carbon so that's not an issue. For wing surfing I am using GoFoil. It works just fine and is reasonably priced. It would be nice if they had a greater range of products on offer.
I am a bit suspicious of systems where you have a heap of screws holding the foil onto the fuselage and interchangeable stuff. It all seems so structurally unsound. All my gear the screws are there for security only. The physical structure is what holds it all together. Nothing can come off unless there is a total structural failure. That's never happened.
I am not convinced by the idea of mixing and matching foils and tails and fuselages. I have that on my wing foiling kit. It usually only takes 15 minutes of riding to adapt to a new configuration.
I have a suspicion that short board surf/wing foiling, particularly strapped, might require tuning tweaks in mast position. I might go down that path or not depending on how things turn out.
I take the foil off the board, that's it. Used to completely strip the Foil Fish... wasn't as big a hassle as I thought it would be.
That's been my biggest problem, spoiled for choice.
I get where you're coming from but it's a non-issue -- except for those guys with the new Cabrinha setups and the 40mm bolts Couple of the locals have lost the wing/fuse/stab off their two-piece foils -- both Spotz IIRC.
Mix n' match is great. As lazy as I am, I only swap my wing now but having a very light wind wing option helps stretch less than stellar days. Adapting isn't the issue.
Between my two wings, mast position is about an inch different so that my feet are in good positions on the board. Strapless means I can just move my feet, but on a small board life's a bit easy being able to tune the mast position.