Hi
Looking at buying my first foil to try wingfoiling. is the Gong Allvator worth buying, or is it worth saving up for a more expensive used one. I don't have loads of money to spend on kit. thanks in advance.

Howdy, I'm riding gong kit (board and foil - allvator rise XL) coming up on 10 months now and it's been great. I just ordered a new allvator curve LT last week and its in transit. The cost of both of these foil sets is still cheaper than one armstrong, axis, f-one, etc so from a budget perspective it was a no brainer for me. From a performance perspective I have nothing really to compare it to as only one other winger here but it's getting me out on the water having fun - also a no brainer

Not sure where you are buying.. have you seen the complete Yakima 1900 foil set (alu mast and fuse) on decathlon.fr? Around 600 EUR. Amazing price for such a good name

Gong has been good for me for over a year now, and I have no need or desire to change at this time. But if I was a higher skilled younger man who plan on foiling very frequently, or just had deep pockets i would look at a high end foils like Armstrong

Gong had 2 problems for me.
Their Alu mast flex more than I liked, and they run out of stock way too fast. They now have a V2 mast that is suppose to be stronger.
But having inventory may take some time before this gets resolved and it really makes it hard to order if you want more that one item.

If I was buying today I would look at the Takoon foil for a budget foil. I don't know the deal with Decathlon but worth investigating. 'Id be a little concerned with the LOL foils for a beginner just because of their sharp edges. Maybe they can be sanded down to be made safer. They are said to perform really well.

I can't imagine ever considering a new foil that needs from be "sanded down a ton" like it's a normal thing.

Windbot said..
I can't imagine ever considering a new foil that needs from be "sanded down a ton" like it's a normal thing.

It takes about 10 minutes with a bit of 400 sandpaper...unimaginable really.

colas said..
The demand on Gong gear is so huge that most containers are entirely pre-sold before they touch ground.

Patrice just said that he is selling 3 times more gear in 2021 than in 2020, and 2020 was twice the volume of 2019.
And he cannot match the demand (he doesn't want to raise his prices nor compromise on quality, which is hard to do when raising volumes on something still partially hand made)... the foil sports are growing insanely.

A lot of foilers now are building huge quivers of foils, contributing to the explosion of the demand.

PS: New foil lines at Gong: X-Over and now the Fluid with 10 new wings + stabs. Plus v2 versions in a lot of lines.

To clarify, you can sand the Takuma to safety and it works fine. This isn't a bad thing in my opinion. It just leaves the option open for either. You choose your adventure.

Gong keeps their tips round on purpose which is fine but doesn't give you the option to go "full kitefoil" with them without work. But I don't knock Takuma for shipping with a high performance finish.

I also may have misunderstood and confused a typo for Takoon. Just heard they are making a foil this year too. Interesting for sure.

I've owned a Gong foil and it impressed me a lot, only thing I'd have changed was a stiffer mast (which they have done), higher aspect wings (sounds like it's coming) and possibly an adjustable stab.