It's huge in Oz, easy half the wings at our local are Duotone.

Huge in Melbourne. Mainly hand wings and boards. Foils not so much.

Cant seem to find a local distributor in Auckland, NZ where there is a big wing foil community. Assault in tauranga seems to be the closest.If anyone knows of an Auckland distributor please let me know, love the unit

trakkar said..
Cant seem to find a local distributor in Auckland, NZ where there is a big wing foil community. Assault in tauranga seems to be the closest.If anyone knows of an Auckland distributor please let me know, love the unit

Definitely plenty Duotone wings around but up until now I never realized no Auckland stockists. NZ Sailing and Boardstore don't and yes Assault in Tga.
Google shows Wild Winds in Wellington

patronus said..
So looks like wings are widespread but not foils and boards? If so, why is that?

No idea about foils. Boards are wide spread (probably still the most popular brand over here), but somewhat less so than a few years ago. My guess it's a combination of people getting burned by the older models failing and having tracks too far back. Latest models don't have these issues.

^^^ the duotone skywing?

Plenty of Duotone (and Fanatic foils n boards) wings, foils and boards in Brisbane.

here in San Francisco, lots of Duotone Units and Slicks. Boards are prevalent too but not as much as they used to be for reasons stated earlier in the thread. Have not had any warranty issues with the newer boards. Also, there seem to be a lot more board brands these days, whereas in the beginning it seemed everybody had a Naish, Fanatic, or F-One board.

Foils are less popular... mainly I think because they were late to the game, and their first offerings were quite heavy (albeit well built and very strong). Only platform changes have been to the aluminum mast/fuselage which have never been compatible with the carbon mast/fuselage range. It has gotten complicated now that 3BS (3 bolt system) connection used for carbon masts and fuselages now mate with aluminum 3BS fuselages now that the carbon fuselages have been discontinued. Front wings and tails have no compatibility problems unless you're coming from windsurfing foils or perhaps kite foils. Duotone also sells the foils in a strange way... they pair masts and fuselages as a set, and sell the wingsets. Here in the USA, just front wings were basically impossible to buy, and supply has been erratic. The foils and components are very nice and well made. Easy to use and everything works right out of the box. They are perhaps falling a bit behind on the latest/thinnest masts, but their whole setup is incredibly solid and stiff.

Axis is local here, and they are priced well and are very popular.

F-One distributor is also local here and is also very popular.

Armstrong is also very strong.

Finally, in SF proper at Crissy Field, Mikeslab is the local high performance favorite. Mike is a great guy, makes a great foil, and always takes care of his customers.

leepasty said..

FarNorthSurfer said..
I think the foils are less popular because they have backwards compatibility issues. Feels like they 'improve' them every year and you can't use last years front wings or masts etc.

Not right here the only thing you can't use is the carbon mast on the al fuse so if you buy Ali mast then want to upgrade to carbon mast you need buy new fuse as well.

its been this way for last 3 years since carbon mast came out as it's different connection to fuse.

all the front wings and rear wings are compatible across all the fuses from last 4 years.

Happy to be corrected, probably a view influenced by dealing with the windfoil series foils and a friends experience of probably slightly older wingfoil kit. Although to be honest reading your post and Sunsetsailboards its still not a very clear system and surely that's a marketing problem no?
I don't need to be convinced as I will stick with my Armstrong kit mainly because the investment in changing foil brands is enormous.
Its Duotone all the way above the water though and all of my wings have been Duotone from the beginning of the journey.
If your reading this Duotone please can we have a 7m Slick back? Don't like the handles on the Ventis :)

coming from SAB W1000, I tried the Fanatic/Duotone Free 1000 a couple years ago and hated it. Gave it another try at a small, slow wind swell spot and my interest was piqued.... rode it more and never looked back. For me, it was my desert island foil. been testing lots of other foils this last winter, and it will be interesting to get back on the Free 1000. I also quite liked the 800 and the Glide 725.

would be great if Duotone could just machine a bottom piece for their AL masts so everything fits the 3BS system... would make it far less confusing for the customer and provide an easy upgrade path. I think Craig may have alluded to this.

The Duotone SLS system is very stiff from the on the beach flex test I like to perform... it drives my friends crazy when I wiggle their foils lol certainly a fun way to mess with your friends. Best thing about Duotone foils for the average customer, is if someone comes to me not knowing what they want I can set them up, and everything is going to work and they're going to have a good experience. Very plug and play for most people.

It's really a shame that they went in a weird direction with foiling early on (before winging) with windsurf foiling... they have some weird molded plastic fuselage that was super soft and a mast with reverse rake. I think this set them back a bit. the introduction of the original High Aspect foils was good, but the mast and fuselage were pretty heavy. Can't really blame them... it's not like any company nailed it from the get go.