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.
Gong got me into winging, which I am really thankfull for. Their foils work great, especially at this prize point. However, after a few month I changed to Armstrong, which I do not regret at all.
If you just want to check out a new sport, go with Gong. If you are really into winging, better invest in a decent foil, otherwise you might have to invest twice.
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 
I also use Gong foils and have been very happy so far. I started with a ALU mast and XXL Rise and now Curve Pro's and Full Carbon 85cm mast. Very happy so far.
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
+1 as above
If you are in Europe get the Takuma at Decathlon.
But i would go for the LOL 1600 unless you are +80kg.
It is a steal at 500eur.
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.
Where you are matters, as was said. Takuma are solid options and yes, should be sanded down a ton.
You physical size matters too. I have 3 Gong wings and at 63kg the mast is stiff enough to learn on. Im a year in and still learning but fine with my gear. I'm getting the new V2 mast and expect to stay on the platform for another year unless the used market here keeps improving. Even then, I'll have 2 full sets of foils that I can sell for basically what I paid as a foil set is still worth a few hundred dollars no matter the brand.
For me, if I were buying one wing and could stay with that you could go more expensive. But i wanted to try different wings and so it was far cheaper with Gong. Again where you are matters. In SoCal we have tons of good used gear.
I can't imagine ever considering a new foil that needs from be "sanded down a ton" like it's a normal thing.
Select to expand quoteFishdude said..
they run out of stock way too fast.
The demand on Gong gear is so huge that most containers are entirely pre-sold before they touch ground. And they only let people order thing that are actually produced and shipped, not merely in production. So it is not a good idea to wait till there is stock, which often lasts only hours. To give you an idea, they have currently 50 full-time jobs offers to handle the incredibly increasing high demand. (all this info is public on their forum).
On the other hand, extra stock is quite costly for a company... meaning higher prices.
Select to expand quoteWindbot 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.
Select to expand quoteMProject04 said..
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
Cool, I didn't know about these but must check them out. Takoon have foil sets that look pretty decent becoming available in June also, they are about 750 euro. I considered one of these but gong had a curve LT V2 coming in that I was watching for a while and then jumped on and should have in next few days.
Select to expand quotecolas 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.
Select to expand quotemcrt said..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.
Well someone used the term "a ton" above. Still laughable though.
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.
The Takoon Foil looks a lot like the Axis foils. I know, that before having their one foil, they sold Axis foils on their Website. I wonder, if they have some sort of cooperation with Axis, or of they just copied.
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.
Grant, I'm working on a tail mount so I can put flat wings and shim them. You're right on that a little ability to tune tails would be cool.
