Big dollars, it would be great if you could test them [maybe a friends] before purchasing.
Be worth travelling to test to avoid disappointment. Or get a more experienced rider to try your Alpine.

Thanks for the replies! I welcome all suggestions 👍
I wonder where could one test the ZFins Foil?

tonyk said..
Not sure of your location Mushin.
Best advice I got was to try to ride the same foil as guys I sail together with.
We feed off each other and it helps the learning curve lots.
Don't fall into the trap that it will be much easier if you buy the same foil as the pros use.
High end foils are great but you are splitting hairs in performance until you are pro level.
EG; if others in your area are on IQ Foil that might be the best option.
Cheers
TK

You provide reasonable advice I agree!
However from what I have seen and knowing that these guys are not PWA Pros, probably not even close, even if they are better than me I doubt that it's just their skill and tuning providing the stability of flight.
At the beginning of the season there was one guy with some Patrik foil, probably the Aeon Foil, and it was obvious when you saw him how stable the setup was, it might also have something to do with the Neilpryde Flight Evo Sail and board.
But again I think the main culprit is the foil.

I looked at this video from Nico Prien: .
Funny thing is even if he says the beginner foil is more stable it seems to me he is struggling a bit more with keeping the ride height constant on the beginner foil than on the race foil.
This reminds me of the video from Mario Kumpel when he talked about the Aeon Foil from Patrik, saying anything from before is not comparable at all to the Aeon foil. Especially in stability. Also stating that the low end beginner foils are not nearly as developed as the best race foils. And basically if you want good stability you have to pay for the top gear.
He said something like this: "Finally a foil that flies and goes fast without the feeling like you are going to die!"

As for my Alpinefoil, I chose them way back in 2018 and stuck with it, I spent time chasing the lightest wind and optimal conditions.
It was probably the best available choice back then but they took a route of developing their own board and this resulted in a very short fuselage initially.
This gave me a lot of trouble as a beginner i just could not take off the setup was not in balance in the winds I tried. Years later i bought the 122cm fuselage from them and now the setup is quite good in very light wind like 6knots-8iknots max. Everything is great if the wind is stable, however controlling it in the gusty Croatian winds is a challenge. I think in the recent years they stopped developing the windfoil range because all the customers are now wingers, wave riders or pump foilers.
They market the wings like compatible for all disciplines but I don't believe you can have everything. So I am starting to consider buying a foil that is finely tuned just for wind-foil.
With the winds i have available here I am on the foil 90% or more so a more expensive foil is acceptable considering I get a lot out of it.

I still have ideas to try out on my gear. In addition you encourage me to try out different combinations of the gear I have.
Today I might have the necessary conditions to do that. Maybe I find a better combination and tuning for the mid range gusty conditions 6-15knots.

poehaaa said..
A smaller sail and front wing should make it a lot easier to go >40 km/h. I'm a beginner with very limited skills and even I can easily get an 'old' Starboard GTR (650 front wing and 105 fuselage) above 40 km/h paired with a Starboard Freeride board and a six year old Loftsails Skyblade (7.6 or 6.4). I've noticed that taking of with a smaller wing is a lot easier than keeping a big wing down when on the foil ...

Might be a cheap fix: a second hand feeride/freerace setup with a smaller front wing (all from the same period and the same brand to avoid mismatches). Second hand foil gear from a few years ago is dirt cheap ...

Yes I find it to be true as well that the smaller area wings still can be started in fairly weak wind while being better at the top end.
The other wings I have are of even larger area 1200, 900. The one I used most this season is 860cm2.

Unfortunately getting another used Alpinefoil in Croatia seems rather difficult... almost no one seems to have it.
The only cheep foils I see here on offer are the old Aluminium foils from starboard, Neilpryde etc... which I suspect are of lower performance than my current setup.

I would not consider any other than an Patrik Aeon if buying new.
Starboard does not even come close, and you never know what you get.
Huge difference between 1 IQ mast and the next in stiffness, ect.
Another thing is resale value and availability of second hand parts.
There are a lot of second hand Phantom IRIS R available (in Europe, most in France), fast but not as easy as the Patrick.
From 1200 euro but best a little more, then you get the last generation wings.
Even more budget friendly: get a Loke Race 2021, you can get a set for 800 euro with a couple of wings.
Very stable, very easy, very stiff. Not as fast as newer stuff but you can get to 25+ knots for sure. Bigger wings feel like you are on a rail.
If you can even afford an Aeon with 1 wing I would go for that. (650 + 160 + 100v2 fuse and basic mast)
Contact guys at patrikproshopbretagne, they give excellent advice.

I've had several iterations of the Loke race foils, starting from the first one--and they remain good value. I still occasionally use some of them. For longevity I would opt for a full carbon model (they briefly had alu fuses too, which worked very well but inevitably suffer a bit more from corrosion). As an allround performance foil--depending on the set you choose more course racing or slalom oriented--they are still a very good, and affordable option. More recently they are focusing more on wing and pump foil, but it seems that they've managed to maintain a stable operation as a small manufacturer doing everything in-house, which should also give some assurance for aftermarket service.

The only other race foil I've ever had my hands on that had a similar if not better level of finish and production accuracy is Z foils--not really a coincidence, as they are also a small, niche producer doing everything in-house. They're also arguably the only ones capable of challenging Patrick at the moment (in performance, not in sales/number of riders...).

I suspect that North will also come out with a race foil in the not-too-distant future, which will then no doubt be an evolution of the defunct Phantom Spark--still a very good foil too.