6 month review time....
I took the plunge and ordered the T1 just before our summer season kicked off and have spent many happy hours riding the T1. I have already shared my initial thoughts but hoped it may be useful to update after clocking up more miles on foil.
To be brutally honest, the stoke just grows and grows. I love this foil and have enjoyed getting to know it so well. For me personally, its top qualities are:
-slipperiness through the water : you just don't feel any drag and everything is super smooth. You have to try it to appreciate it, but it really does shine here
-its playfulness : it really is loose and is crying out to be thrown around, although you can carve long drawn out turns too
-the speed range : it isn't the fastest foil out there but easily fast enough for my freeride blasting. The really amazing bit is how slow you can go if you want to as well. This really makes a difference if you want to slow down to catch a swell.
-ease of transport : I think this is underestimated. I used to have a bike mount on the back of my car for the foilboard. No biggie, but it is MUCH nicer just throwing the whole thing in the back seat of my car (I have a SS dwarfcraft 100)
-build quality : I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I piled into a sewer pipe (lovely UK......) at a decent speed and seemed to have been a reef magnet on a trip to Egypt in August, so my T1 has taken a pasting. There are some cosmetic marks, but it is otherwise absolutely perfect, so a massive credit to its strength despite being light weight. Really impressive and not something that I have seen commented on before.
I honestly struggle to find any negatives, for my personal style of kitesurfing. It ticks all the boxes I look for. I think that a high aspect traditional foil would be a better option if you want to race or are obsessed with pumping, but I am not either of those. It isn't the cheapest and is obviously a leap of faith, but I have never regretted it and have no plans on selling it (which is a risk with a less well known brand / entity, as resale value could be a problem).
I have been riding Flysurfer Peaks for the past couple of years, which are amazing but have held me back on learning some basics like foot swaps - they are low on lift and I love riding toeside, so got lazy. I only took Souls to Egypt (6m and 9m) and learned to foot change in a few sessions, so the T1 is definitely stable enough to do that. The Soul does help as there is a lot of lift, but I didn't struggle with stability on the board. I honestly think that it is more pitch stable than the Armstrong HS850 I had beforehand (although I had the V200 tail on that - brilliant fun and an excellent stepping stone to mono wing, but not the most pitch stable), so it is a good learning platform. I don't think it would be great as a very first foil, but that really needs something super easy (which rapidly gets boring).
I know I sound like an advert, but have no link with Triton. I have a tendency to support the underdog but this really is a special piece of kit. I haven't seen / heard of any others in the UK and it was an object of curiosity in Egypt, so they are thin on the ground, but deserve to be a consideration in every freeride foiler's shed.
Thank you Triton for a brilliant piece of engineering