I've been riding aluminium masts all my wind and wing foiling life, but many of you seem to be on carbon masts. They are much more expensive and fragile, so at what point in your progression do these masts start to have an edge? I do a but of freestyle, freeride and swell riding but nothing super agressive like race or big waves.

Dcharlton said..
I've been a big fan of aluminum masts for windsurfing until a friend convinced me to go carbon, it was a good move, they are lighter and give a lot more direct power to the sail. I decided to go carbon for the duotone Slick wing as well and it's working out very well as far as smooth and direct power transfer. I now have the SLS slick boom on order for the smaller diameter.

It's tough to swallow the much bigger price but this is a sport of millimeters and having the right equipment does make a difference.

DC

Pretty sure he's talking about foil masts.

NicoDC said..

Grantmac said..

Dcharlton said..
I've been a big fan of aluminum masts for windsurfing until a friend convinced me to go carbon, it was a good move, they are lighter and give a lot more direct power to the sail. I decided to go carbon for the duotone Slick wing as well and it's working out very well as far as smooth and direct power transfer. I now have the SLS slick boom on order for the smaller diameter.

It's tough to swallow the much bigger price but this is a sport of millimeters and having the right equipment does make a difference.

DC

Pretty sure he's talking about foil masts.

Yes, I'm wondering when it's time to splash the cash.

D'oh! sorry. I think it depends on rider weight and foil (HA vs. MA). I'm 95kgs and love my ART 999, I've noticed there's some 'give' when occassionaly when on my aluminum Axis mast so I'm going with the HM carbon mast. I'll let you know if I think its worth it after I get it in a week or so.

NicoDC said..
... but many of you seem to be on carbon masts. They are much more expensive and fragile ...

My experience has been the reverse. From the early days of kite foiling huge amounts of maintenance and repairs to aluminium masts. Zero maintenance and repairs to carbon masts.

My kite and wing foils have had their fair share of grinding into the bottom and the occasional bump into rocks. The only damage has been chips and scratches to the foil tips.

The kite foils are jumped frequently with all sorts of unco landings. Zero damage over 1000 hours of use.

The cost per hour of use of my kite foil gear is tiny. Maybe $5 an hour. Wingfoiling gear has been much more expensive but the gear arms race seems to have tapered off so that should change.