Triton Foils releases the first accessible monowing: Triton T1

[TritonFoils]

Gunnar Biniasch's Triton Monofoil "TechTalk" is now up on YouTube.



Gunnar Biniasch is an amazing foiler and ambassador for the sport.

He brings years of expertise and an unbiased, no holds barred approach to his popular "TechTalks" reviewing new hydrofoiling gear.

We were pumped Gunnar selected Triton's T1 monofoil as the subject for popular LIVE video Q&A.

Thanks @kitechino!

Rudy @TritonFoils

[ronnie]

Thanks Gunnar for the review - very comprehensive. Your video also has a lot of foot switches - both gybing and tacking.

[noahsw]

I got the Triton board a couple weeks ago. Only had it on the water once so far but wanted to post this since most videos have focused on the wing.

The TLDR is it's pretty slick. Super light. Solid construction. Foam feels great on the feet. Super short so it will take some practice but I was able to get a couple surface-level foot switches. Although the wing's float makes it harder to get back to the board after a wipeout, it really helps with water starts because the board stays on its side. Can't wait to ride it in some bigger swell.

[azoele]

Hi Gunnar,

as a owner of the T1, I watched your live feed with much interest, thank you for that!

You gave me goose bumps when you described hitting 31 knots with it: that’s 10 knots over my very best speed “record” on it, which I hit in a state of full dread for a crash!

I concur on most of your observations, truly well explained: you did the great job you are acclaimed for

If I may though, on some things I matured different views.
That may be because I am a much less accomplished foiler than you are, and/or because I have access to a much more limited selection of materials. But some things did strike me differently about the T1, and I’d wish to share with you and the forum to see if others also are perceiving them.

First, don’t think you did mention it, but it does *not* really stall in the common way other foils do.
That to me is magic.
In my experience (and even at a painfully guilty higher weight than yours…) the T1 will never really stall: it will “sink” rather gently and staying vertical. But this needs not be the end of the ride: if you can power up the kite even when sinking, it will react instantly and proceed (or re-establish) flying.
A far cry from older low A/R foils which would “sink to death”, or the newer higher A/R foils which call for much readiness in catching the abrupt stall and a well timed kick on the back for pumping, or else they’ll smash the water.
With the T1 I always feel I have a “second chance”.

Also: one thing the T1 surprised me with, is its ability to power the kite in a direction other than the one of motion – most notably during botched tacks (yes, I do botch them a lot!).
Normal foils produce heavy resistance with this, and if I mistakenly do that they catapult me away from the board. The T1 seems to “twist and slip” in the water, and even if I power the kite towards my back when pointing the board elsewhere, it will very often just surge in the right direction following the kite. That is cool to me, no other foil I tried does that.

RE: Jibes. You said you needed a bit of rearrangement, while I jibed immediately on it, go figure. And I discovered on my first or second outing that you can “pump” the T1 during the turn when you’re canted, which is an amazing feeling in itself.
On the other hand, you did not say anything on tacks, so I suppose they’re super natural for you on it!
For me, it is just the opposite: the very ability of the T1 to turn on a dime has meant quite a bit of retraining… and some hard crashes.
I also agree with you 100% on:
– the footswitch, which requires retraining, but then gets quickly natural, even underpowered
– the “trust” it calls for as it feels so unstable, and the counter intuitive fact that with trust and a bit of experience on it, it will not fail you and not drop you in water even during very much less-than-ideal manouvers.

You mentioned also breaching resistance.
I have no idea if I’ll ever try the skidding manouver your propose yourself to learn, that seems wild… but I can’t wait to see your videos doing it!!!
But yes, your words really clicked with me. It not only resists breaching (once I “bounced” on the tail of a wave after trying to overcome it: I went up over the face, did not point the board quick enough, so briefly breached, and felt the T1 hit flat on the water, “bounce” and then slip into the water effortlessly… can’t imagine it with my other/previous foils).
It also allows you to carve hard and expose part of the wing to the air without (much) ventilation. A great help to me in heelside jibes.

If I may, on of the key messages you said almost as a side comment: that to get a foil with the T1’s capabilities, but in a normal (wing+stabilizer) package, one would need a much more extreme setup.
Which translates into much, much tougher takeoff, and really harsh stall behaviour.
What I find surprising about the T1 is that it seems to conjoin the nice characteristics of low A/R and high A/R foils (it glides a lot, and it is fast, with tons of low speed lift, huge agility), without the damning characteristics of either, with the only real price paid being quite pronounced pitch instability compared to a normal foil.

That to me is the T1 in a nutshell.
It can pivot on the spot at speed, do crazy slaloms, but also “emulate” normal foils with wider arcs. It just calls for much more attention on weight distribution. (I know, I crashed like crazy at first and I wanted to sell it! )
In exchange for some learning it offers a lot of the best of both worlds. It will not reach the performance of the best high A/R foils, but it puts on the table a lot of other courses for one’s stomach to rejoice (yes, my metaphors are food based… that’s my obsession and where my weight comes from! )

So again: great review!
I just wrote this comments because I trust you implicitly – both for your forum contributions and other videos – and learned a lot from you in time.
But, after following you for the full hour, I thought that if I haden’t had the T1 already, I would have dismissed it after watching the review as “something of a curiosity, but not for me”.
Having bought one instead, and wrestled with it for 6 or 7 hours, I am absolutely stoked by it, and it has added a whole new dimension to my (admittedly limited) foiling.
You seemed to have liked it quite a bit, so I thought the message of how cool it can be could be reinforced also by the experience of yet another owner.

Thank you again, and looking forward to you accomplishing the crazy skidding 720!


P.S.
I find the weight frankly amazing for such a big/thick wing.
I have seen the old M92 Sab mast weighted at almost 2.5Kg without a fuselage.
My 85cm Gong is 2.4 or so Kgs if I recall correctly, again without fuselage. My old Moses 633+483 on 91cm mast weighted at a record 3.300gr, but the mast was as firm as a boiled spaghetti
Can’t say I tried many more setups, but I am amazed at 3Kg for a full foil setup.

If one adds the majestic Triton board (I held one in my hands, and have been obsessed with it since), there’s a 5.2/5.3Kgs full foil setup. Not much more than some older 17m kites…

[Horst Sergio]

This is my first impression after three days with the Triton T1

How to understand the feel of T1 if never tried

The best way to make T1 (1700 cm²) behaviour understandable for users of stabi foils is a simplified
description of its profile. The T1 can be seen as a stabi foil with an about 1200 cm² front and a 400
cm² rear wing of around AR 5 which is just mounted a few cm behind the front wing and the gap is
filled, giving the current a better flow and avoiding two small pointy tips per side but remaining just a
very wide one. That way the T1 has at the same time many of the good behaviours of a stabi foil and
many of a pure single wing monofoil, or in short words as Mischa said:

“The best out of two worlds!”

Pressure point of different foils

Pressure point of a foil is connected but not to be mixed up with strut position which at least in some
homemade construction can be positioned independently. A way to understand T1 behaviour is
looking at position of its pressure point which is again in between the nearly centred of pure stabless
foils and the often completely outside of the wing positioned of a stabifoil. Details see here:
viewtopic.php?f=196&t=2393935&p=1175598#p1175598

Board selection matching T1
Shortly: Short!

For some reasons I would recommend a quite short and narrow board pretty much as the offered
Triton board is, even if I do not agree in all aspects with its shape, but as I have not ridden it yet I
don’t want to speculate here, just saying: I like the open track system but would recommend a V-
strap option. The outline and the volume is quite close to what I would go for. Due to the 1700 cm²
that work well in light wind as a before start drift stoper and the gentle take-off behaviour there is
just no big board needed. Even more I would be a bit worried at top speed that in case of a surfacing
to catapult, a too long nose combined with the 1700 cm² wing could create very high pull out forces
on the front screws, again combined with the pretty small 10,x cm plate connector screw spacing.
Last of all, destroying the compactness of a no external stabi foil due to a too big board would be too
bad.

Take-off behaviour and first acceleration

Not to be expectable from a monofoil the T1 has an extremely gentle take-off behind a kite without
any tendency to stall or over pitch or anything else seen on stabi or monofoils during my last 8 years
of foiling. As I remember all good foilers I have given the T1 just started within the first one or two
tries. The acceleration limited by its resistance is good and way better than you would expect when
counting the shape as a single monowing with an AR of around 2. As explained before it becomes
more predictable if you calculate the T1 as a 1200 cm² Wing with AR around 5 and a rear wing on a
short fuselage. So, the resistance / acceleration is especially after the first lift quite good but when
accelerating more a bit worse than my 1000 cm² AR 4,2 monofoil due to T1 implemented stabi, but
on the other hand likely better than most low to mid AR freeride stabi foils as the popular 633.
Nevertheless, you can accelerate the T1 to much higher speed than a pure monofoil which was for
me always limited to around 40 km/h, but then you will require much more power in your kite for
the T1.

Riding straight and surfacing behaviour

Even if the 85 cm strut to me felt a bit short, the control is very good with a quite constant pressure
point over a wide speed range. With a span of just around 60 cm and a narrow board the foil can still
be tilted well and bubbles from tip breathings will be blown away very well. Even more, when riding
straight at speed it also can avoid surfacing by itself to a quite good amount. Just if you really surface
when riding straight you will feel the stabi foil effect: The pressure point turns 20 cm backwards
which causes you to catapult immediately in contrast to a pure monofoil that keeps pressure point
always constant. That is why it also won’t be drift able, as the Spleene Monofoil is very well, even if
knowing this problem, I tried and the result was as expected. The only way to drift it IMO is, to jump
it flat 180° and then drift it tail first, tried it a bit and think it will work with more exercise.

Footswitches Jibes and Tacks

I think as the Triton with its positive pitch is closer to a stabi foil those with stabi foil experience
should tell, I learned switching after a while, but I am too much into pure monofoiling here. Jibes
obviously are easy and tacks I would say even easier than on a stabi foil, as you can progressively
shortcut the turn if you lack of speed, while on the rails of a stabi foil you are forced to turn slowly
and in a more constant curve that can force you to land before you have ended your tack.

Jumping with the T1

As any monofoil there is no risk of being blocked in the water when pitch angle and kite lift are not
synchronised perfectly, combined with the high speed that is controllable even if thinking of the T1
as a 1200 cm² wing, it just jumps great out of the water. What I haven’t expected, e.g., when doing a
backflip, you can land it pretty easily full flying. As the same like when surfacing a tip there is nearly
no chance to stall the wing due to a bubble on the wings low pressure side. And as any monofoil in
this moment it also profits again from pitch manoeuvrability. So you can cut in at high angle to avoid
any bubbles but then still pitch up fast enough before touch down, while an in pitch inflexible
stabifoil more likely will spin out in the landing or nose crash. Just the size of the T1 you will feel
negatively with the full 1700 cm² if you land it flat without second lift which should be avoided to
prevent damage from you and your stuff. With 3,1 kg Foil offs and Ons are not limited by the foil as
well, just have not done one jet in the short testing time, as it takes a bit of getting used to the
different weight distribution.

The best of it all

Having seen the nice review video with rodeo ride of kiteboarding.com

told me that the pitch stability of the T1 has to be awesome for a monofoil, as even riding a normal
race foil with extra tiny stabi is difficult to do it rodeo (sitting). As I have always been a big friend of
rodeo rides and even did a last excursion to stabifoiling for one day just to make a video of that 4
years ago:

I was very interested to ride the T1 rodeo and in fact nearly half of my overall testing time I did so.
The result was even better than expected. After just about half an hour I was able to do all jibes,
360s, tacks sitting as used on a stabifoil, even more I have done several well controlled Caneri mans
(lying). Caneri man is much harder than rodeo as you have very few body parts available to move for
balancing. But when I was changing boards outside to show others the T1 and so being forced to ride
other people’s stabifoils, which is a bit under my dignity to do it by foot, so mostly rodeo again. I
realised that the problem you often have with the Caneri man that on the rails of the stabi foil you
often surface because of the lack of bodys movability to fast pitch it down with force, has been gone
on the T1. So not sure if trying Caneri man with the T1 the very first time is the best, but if you have
ever done it, I highly recommend to try it with the T1. I already have a manoeuvre in mind I always
wanted to try, but now I think with the T1 I found the perfect foil for it, I will tell, when I had success.

So, watch out for fast and low flying persons on your spots, when there are more T1s around!

Weaknesses of the T1

- Glide Ratio is not so high as best stabifoils for Winging or medium AR pure monofoils,
so especially for light wind I do not recommend it for Winging, pumping it up can be
quite hard (respecting, I have already used 500 cm² monofoils for Winging)
- There is a slight wobbling in roll and yaw that shows up at different speeds and
situations, acceptable but likely also avoidable with some improvements
- I was not able to pump it as I can do with my 1100 cm² 6,6 High Aspect pure
monofoil. So, for this single discipline, it feels actually like a bad mixture out of the
two worlds.
- The strut connection system on both sides is ok, but improvable, especially plate
length feels too short, but the strut itself is good for kiting and the serial shim option
is a good idea.
- Personally, I would prefer a longer strut of around 95 cm, especially for rodeo ride
maybe even up to 105 cm
- Personally, I don’t like floating wings for some reasons, but I know that is first about
profile and then you have to see and maybe accept if it floats or not.
- Personally, I miss some pure monofoil only advantages like surfacing behaviour with
constant pressure point, that avoids catapults and allows drifts. But respecting that
T1 is not a pure monofoil, this can’t be named as a weakness but is part of the
system to be accepted

The Spleene Monofoil is the absolute drift champion but without the need to name it a one trick
pony for that, it seems clear that the T1 shines instead in nearly all other disciplines.

For whom a stabilised monofoil as the T1 is made for

All foilers that do not feel at home on a pure monofoil yet but are looking for a foil with an extremely
wide range of use cases and manoeuvrability that is unreachable with a stabi foil.
I think most foilers who already spent their money for several front and back wings and their time to
discuss the best combination and shims, would profit in any way to just take a T1 and go out to ride
it. It is the beauty of the simplicity.

Why I stay with pure monofoils

Even if I will hardly miss the Caneri man abilities of the T1 a lot, for now I will stay with my monofoils.
As in my region we are facing gusty low winds and if you do not enjoy swimming back with big race
kites, it is the extremely low drag of a pure monofoil that gives you most flying time under a kite or a
wing.

Further reasons to go for monofoil needed?

Can you store your stabi foil fully assembled in your car and if yes what sort of car? In my case it is a
Japanese microcar (2012 I-MiEV) and I can store not one or two but three fully assembled monofoil
boards, one of them a 146 cm x 72 l Wingfoil board. Ok, co-driver seat with … reduced comfort .
Just go try it with whatever car you have with stabi foils. If it is not a pickup truck, then good luck.

[TritonFoils]

Thank you Horst for this thoughtful review.

Your constructive feedback is big shot of confidence for our design and engineering teams.

Again, thank you for taking the time to understand the PROs and some of the CONs of the T1 monofoil.

Rudy @TritonFoils

[Flyboy]

Winging in Maui with the T1:



T1 at 1:36

[TritonFoils]

Thank you Tucker @mackiteboarding for your just released review of T1 monowing.



Tucker joins @ourkitelife (Laurie) and @kitechino (Gunnar Biniasch) in recommending that this is the set up that intermediate and up freestyle riders need to try in 2022!

Watch their reviews here:





You get your hands on a T1 monowing via https://www.mackiteboarding.com/triton- ... lete-foil/

And drop us a line anytime with your questions at sales@tritonfoils.com.

Rudy @tritonfoils

[IWantToFly]

Slingshot adapter still the recommended solution for Project Cedrus masts?

Editing to add: using any adapter slightly defeats one major benefit of the direct connect, which is to have no aluminum parts possibly subject to corrosion.

[TritonFoils]

Introducing Triton Foil's full carbon pocket board!

Compact (87cm) and Lightweight (2kg).

Handcrafted in Turin, Italy by the impeccable Riccardo.

Take your foiling to the next level with our super responsive, stealth bomber.

• Compact...you can throw this 87cm board in your check in luggage.
• Lightweight...at under 2kg the T1 pocket board is a featherweight.
• Convenience...rails exit out back of the board for easy foil set on/off.
• Quality...handcrafted in small batches in all carbon construction.

$1499CAD ($1149USD). Limited quantities are available. One board per customer.

The first three purchasers will receive a FREE board bag (a $159CAD value).

Link to order: https://www.tritonfoils.com/store/c6/FOILBOARDS.html

There is also still time to get your hands on a complete T1 monofoil.

Grab one now at https://www.tritonfoils.com/buy.html.

Rudy@TritonFoils