2022 unit is unreal. Handles are epic and a 5.5 was handling 25 knots no problem.

Nice.

Whenever i am downwind winging on waves i feel like i have bought a high performance sports car to coast downhill in neutral.

Does it still have the beach ball deflation valves like the first one?

It has the normal inflation valve used by Duotone. The centre strut has a deflation valve and can be locked off. There is also a another deflation valve on the left wing tip also like their kites. This gives 3 deflation points.

Each kite has a different inflation pressure. More pressure on the smaller wings than the bigger ones.

I have the 3.5 and 5.5ms. Have used both now and have come from Ozones V2. I changed because the soft handles were killing my hands only. I also have a Cabrinha X3 4.5m. Still getting used to them. The Duotone 5.5m is quite powerful for it's size. All wings including the Cab are very stable.

I am hoping that all brands will move to fixed boom handles.

There will be a You Tube video coming out around now will Alan Cadiz going through the Duotone Units in detail. Inflating, using and how he packs them up.

johndg said..
It has the normal inflation valve used by Duotone. The centre strut has a deflation valve and can be locked off. There is also a another deflation valve on the left wing tip also like their kites. This gives 3 deflation points.

Each kite has a different inflation pressure. More pressure on the smaller wings than the bigger ones.

I have the 3.5 and 5.5ms. Have used both now and have come from Ozones V2. I changed because the soft handles were killing my hands only. I also have a Cabrinha X3 4.5m. Still getting used to them. The Duotone 5.5m is quite powerful for it's size. All wings including the Cab are very stable.

I am hoping that all brands will move to fixed boom handles.

There will be a You Tube video coming out around now will Alan Cadiz going through the Duotone Units in detail. Inflating, using and how he packs them up.

Alan Cadiz did a nice overview of the wing in his most recent Patreon video.

AA said..

hilly said..
The Smik looked good too
Epic spot

Home

Doing a trip around the island next year will drop in.

AA said..

hilly said..
The Smik looked good too
Epic spot

Home

Lets play

hilly said..
The Smik looked good too
Epic spot

Yea used the smik as well and it feels honestly pretty similar, unit is slightly better because of the handles. The spot is 10 mins from my house and haven't foiled a place much better so epic.

Alysum said..
All Duotone wings to date have all suffered from the same common issue that put me off their wings: backwinding.
Sold my unit v1 after 3 sessions.

Have they solved it finally with the Unit v2

Yea haven't had it backwind on me once after 10 solid sessions.

I love Alan, he is the teacher for a lot of us through his videos. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for his contributions to the sport of Wing Foiling. I am a patreon supporter of his videos.

But his reviews of Duotone gear need to be taken with a grain of salt. First off, he does not ride any other gear, ever! He says this frequently in his videos, so he has no idea how other wings ride. Secondly, he gets free stuff from them, lots of stuff. All the students in his school are using Duotone wings that he got for free or deeply discounted. Thirdly, he gets to ride prototypes months in advance, so he is basically a product developer for Duotone. His reviews are more commercials or "supported content" and not neutral reviews.

have ridden it now in high wind and demoed the 4.5 out to a few people. people are really loving the handles, although some still prefer softer, more forging control points/wings. the handles and wing are very direct. one guy noted that he could point a lot higher on the Unit compared to his A-Wing and it is also much lighter and stiffer. He's sold.

My 4.5 was rock solid yesterday is 25mph+ wind... something that really surprised me. Ordinarily I would have been on my 3.3, but I was trying my 45l sinker for the first time and wanted to make sure I had enough power to get going. The new Unit does not get backwinded the way some people had problems with the v1. I could point high OP'd and just climb upwind. The range is impressive.

Steve, Thanks for pointing out it's finally up their site.
One more question I'd love to know and/or hear from someone who has tried both is how the new 6.5 compares to the CWC for ultimate light air performance for the average height and weight rider. The 2022 unit say longer span for increased stability when luffing which sounds bad for light air pumping but at the same time the extra dihedral might make it drag on the water a little less. I wish they had listed the wing spans.

randomfoiler said..

SeattleKook said..
Steve, Thanks for pointing out it's finally up their site.
One more question I'd love to know and/or hear from someone who has tried both is how the new 6.5 compares to the CWC for ultimate light air performance for the average height and weight rider. The 2022 unit say longer span for increased stability when luffing which sounds bad for light air pumping but at the same time the extra dihedral might make it drag on the water a little less. I wish they had listed the wing spans.

this covers some of your questions:

I'm a bit confused regarding the low end. In this review and on their youtube comments they state that strike is clearly a winner in the low end, and somehow seems the new unit is more geared towards racing, ie. Strike is better for swell riding (more neutral) etc. and I thought the Unit was duotone's wave and freeride wing??? A bit disappointed if the low end is not that great as they mentioned in several places the pumpability of Unit is bad because it has very flat profile?

SeattleKook said..
I wish they had listed the wing spans.

I've ridden a lot of different wings and one thing that is baffling, is how wing span doesn't tell me whether a wing tip is going to hit when pumping in light air. The overall planform and dihedral seems to be a big part of the equation. I don't trust numbers period. Need to try each brand personally, and allow myself time to adapt to the way each brand likes to be pumped.

Re: low end - thank you guys. I have a dlab 5m coming in 2-3 weeks but got a bit of a hesitation due to these net reports/reviews. It was mentioned that the pumpability was not good due to flat profile, compared to strike v2. I do pump myself in to speed so that's covered Freakin covid, I ordered 2,5 and 3,5 dacron units and 5 dlab in the Oct/Nov in Europe and still waiting for them all. 3,5 probably end of March and 2,5 no idea!

i'm finding the low end of the new Unit to be pretty awesome. I can't say if it's the most powerful or more powerful than Brand X. A lot of wings pump and fly differently and take getting used to, so if you're used to a particular wing and you try something that works differently and you don't adapt, it's not going to perform to its potential.

A lot of this is going to depend on rider skill.

I had the opportunity to ride a lot of different wings at the industry trade show in Hood River in September 2021. The D/LAB Unit and its handles were the buzz of the show. I could get going on the smaller Units in wind that other people were on 6-8m. Some of this is my familiarity with the previous Unit and foil know how, but pumping that wing definitely felt awesome. I also thought it flew seamlessly... i never really thought about it while riding. It just did what i expected and I didn't have to make any adjustments.

As a retailer, I was pretty skeptical about the price of ALUULA wings when the OR Glide came out. After riding the D/LABs there was a clear difference. It's not for everybody. Some people drive $100k cars and windsurf with aluminum booms. Others, like me have the gear inside their van worth far more than the van itself.

Going to be interesting to see what the resale value is on these things, though. For me and how much I enjoy my time on the water, I want my main wing to be the best. Hope I don't thrash mine too soon.