Interesting thread conversation. Without a doubt the Bear is a unique character as are most highly talented people in their respective areas of expertise. Regarding "social skills" I also read that Ken Winner was/is a bit of a social introvert. Perhaps a common trait of such talented people.

At least from the foil perspective I can say that Gong has had typical growing pains (and still does given some recent overseas delivery issues), but then again so did/does every supplier in this new sport. The original Gong aluminum masts (kiteboarding carryover) were way too wobbly for the bigger wing foils, but I still liked my Gong XL Pro back in 2019 better than anything from Axis, Armstrong, Slingshot, Moses, GoFoil, etc. So I had a machine shop adapt a 19 mm Axis Al mast to my Gong fuselage and I had the perfect setup! Gong is finally offering a worthy Al mast for its foils.

Never cared for the Gong monobloc carbon masts but the Veloce foil wings were fantastic when they came out and again, better than anything I rode from Moses or Axis at the time. The latest Gong V2 carbon mast is finally the carbon mast I hoped Gong would make, and when combined with the new "Pro" stabilizers and fuselages, and the latest Veloce or Fluid LT front wings I think it rivals the best of any current offering from Axis, SAB, Armstrong, F-One, etc,...all at a fraction of the price. Nothing evolves in a perfect linear trajectory

I don,t think either that they can match up with the best, but see them more like an Ikea. You get a lot for your money, and its okay but buy a nice closet,, couch or table at a nice furniture shop you absolute see and feel the difference, but it is great to have such alternative.

This being an Australian forum we see very little Gong gear here in Oz. There are no distributors and Gong international shipping is expensive and cost prohibitive. I've seen a few Gong kites locally but other than that no other products.

Foilalot said..
It's actually not that expensive to freight Gong foils to Oz. Basically taking off the VAT pays for Fedex and they arrive in about 5 days. There is always the issue of stock availability but that's universally standard!

Yes, anything that is not too long (the sum length+width+height should be minimal) can be easily shipped.

Wow ! Thats gonna tickle someone ! Can't wait to read his post .

stevelebanni said..
Wow ! Thats gonna tickle someone ! Can't wait to read his post .

Yep, "putting out the fire with gasoline"

The aggressive approach to reviewers is someone's opinion. "The 'no-review' policy can be factchecked. Just search for reviews of Gong gear.

They should just sell the skills!

[1] On the weights, all boards - of all brands - are handmade, so there are weight differences inherent to hand lamination.
Their weights (with min and max) are listed on the Gong web pages, and a rebate is made on overweight boards. For instance I bought once a overweight board (first batch was at +10% weight) at a 30% rebate as I was eager to test a new shape.
Currently the range of weight is -5% to +5%, that is a range of 10%, so yes, a board stated for 10kg can weight between 9.5kg and 10.5kg. A 1kg range.
You can see the boards outside of this range listed in the "good deals" section, discounted now at -33%, they are not even listed among the normal boards to avoid confusion.

So why the hate? You will have a hard time to find more transparent brands on this.

Note that for a long time, Gong was the only manufacturer to even commit to state the weight on their pages. Even today, some SUP manufacturers do not even list the board weights (even some praised highly here), or not a range of weights, although it is impossible to have the exact same weight on all boards.
Do the experiment: go to the SUP brand sites, and look for the weights... you will be surprised.

[2] As jonysan explained, they refuse to participate in reviews where the manufacturers are asked to pay to get a good review. Most of the time this is by asking for buying an ad in the magazine, or on the site, or becoming a sponsor of a site. They stated many times this policy on their site and forum. And they have lawyers to make their decisions respected, instead of behind-the-scene dirty tricks.
(Note that even though not an employee of Gong, I have been banned from an US SUP "brand neutral" forum because its owner wanted me to pay $600/year to be able to post on it...)

I even saw the emails of an "influencer" trying to blackmail Gong by wanting some free gear, otherwise they would badmouth Gong on their videos. Knowing that "The Bear" although a "gentle giant" has been a nightclub bouncer, I think it was a very bad idea :-)

But you can see there have no issue with independent reviews, as a most recent example SUPboarder did some this year. But they never asked money from Gong, I guess because they do not rely (only) on ads, but mostly on subscribers.
supboardermag.com/what-are-you-interested-in/?_site_search=gong

Should I be incorporating roller skating into my training?

I'd love to visit that shop! I'm also glad it's 2000 miles away, well it's really my wife who's glad it's 2000 miles away. A bar + close to 70 foils & stabs (i think he says in the video soon to be 90) + five or so flavors of wings... + my credit card, oh no.

I think all the many different flavors of gear is very good for the sport. Definitely not easy, or most profitable for the manufacturer as less choices would be. With companies that have limited the selection we have rely on them to tell us what's good. Companies that give the customer many choices, the customers should tend to guide the company with what they purchase in the direction they want to go. In general it should mean faster progress for the tech as a whole. I remember at first some manufactures were saying a 4 meter wing is all you need...