shaneNZ said..
I had the 1000 front wing. It's the first generation wing, and there have been substantial improvements since. I presume your still have the red fuse? You really want to upgrade to the black fuse and then you can move on to the HPS and ART wings. There are about 5 guys on axis setups where I am and we all made the exact same progression. Next best step is the HPS 980. Feels exactly like the 1000 for ease of getting up, but much more stable at the top end. After that it's the 999. It's takes a little getting used to, it wants to be pumped up. But the glide is much better - goes thru the lulls better.
as for rear wings, we all started on the 500 anhedral, and a lot of us still use it on light days - it's the most stable for learning to gybe. After that a few of us have moved to the 475 progressive. I have also tried the 380 speed rear, but I found it quite twitchy.
all wings have a usable range. The more low aspect the wing (eg the 1000) the lower the top end. Once you get close to the top end the foil starts to get pretty unstable, and feels pretty scary. You can be mistaken for thinking it's your technique and you just need to get better - sure there is probably an element of that, but a lot of it is just the limit of the foil wings.
as I recall, the 1000 would start to top out at about 16-17knots (of board speed). The 980 is fine up to 20/21 and the 999 I have done 23 knots. Personally, if you have the 1000 I would go for the 999. It's a real quiver killer. I had the 980 and 999 for a while, thinking I would keep the 980 for light wind days, but once I got used to the 999 it actually became my preferred light wind option and sold the 980.
the final step would have been to to get an ART 799 for real speed - good up to 28knots.
we are all using freeride boards (starboard freeride 150 for me) and sails between 6-8m. It's too bad you aren't in NZ, I'm selling off all my axis at the moment. Only because I am moving on to racing.
feel free to ask any other questions. there aren't that many guys windfoiling on the axis stuff, at least here, so happy to share. Also the designer, Adrian Roper, is local so we have picked his brain a lot.
Thanks Shane.
Currently I am thinking about adding the BSC 890 or the HPS 980. I'm a bit leery of anything like the ART foils at this time because I keep hearing that really high aspect foils get twitchy in choppy and confused conditions. Is this a valid concern? I saw a review on YouTube that that compared the BSC 890 and the HPS 980. The reviewer said the BSC 890 was nearly as fast as the HPS 980. He loved the BSC because it was extremely easy to use it at top speed, and it was also easy to slow it down and ride swells with the sail flagging downwind.
The BSC 890 just makes sense to me because it's definitely going to be faster, and it's in the BSC family so it's handling characteristics should be a bit familiar. As for buying the HPS 980, I guess I would look at that because of how highly regarded the 1050 is. And because it's not as high aspect as the ART line up.