Hey peeps,
I've been foiling for somewhere between 4 and 5 years. Wing dinging, kitefoil racing, jumping and downwinding. I predominantly foil downwind in open ocean along the windy Perth, Western Australian coast. One of the best downwind locations in the world.
Today we had 20+ knots of wind and good solid wind chop. I am used to riding Moses and SABFoil and have downwinded W1100, W1000, W1110, W1350-L and now the W1150-L. I have ridden the W1110 since it was released and it has been amazing. This has been my go to performance DW wing.
I weigh 100kg in a wet wetsuit and mostly use a Duotone 4.5 SLS Slick and SIC 5' Raptor 80litre board.
I ride the SABFoil Kraken 83 mast, 399 tail and 753 fuse. Today I took the 1150-L (L is for Leviathan) for its maiden run. I have been waiting impatiently for this front wing since I first heard about it.
The 1150-L and W1110 are both great at downwinding, and share some characteristics, but are quite different in other aspects.
The W1110 is fast, incredibly fast in fact, and fairly nimble. It carves nicely and is smooth and easy to ride with a nice easy take off so long as you have enough wind. It pops up on the wing easily and rises predictably. It's probably got way more top speed than you'll ever need for downwinding and I've never breached from excessive speed. I find at 100kg it just doesn't carry the glide or pump well enough to connect some of the runners. To be fair, it's a race wing and not necessarily made for 100kg guys downwinding. Maybe if I was 20 kg lighter?
The W1150-L is designated as Pump and Downwind, being high lift, low drag was going to hopefully fill the gaps between the W1110 and the crazy glide of the W1350-L, but with better carving and easier pump. The 1150-L took me by surprise on take off as the board began rising at a very high angle of attack at preplaning speed but wouldn't stall and drop. I fell a couple of times whilst I learned to keep it very level until foiling speed which incidentally is insanely low, then a single pump of the back foot and a counter from the front to level off and I was away. Initially it was a tough takeoff, but once figured out, it's very easy. I just wasn't prepared for the lack of stall and the lift.
The glide was effortless and required no more front foot pressure at high speed than low speed flight. It took a few minutes to get used to the carve and turning but it banked beautifully and carried its speed through the turn and accelerated nicely into deep troughs. The speed carried me through several waves and the pumping added to the continued linking of waves.
to be fair, I only started to really get the most out of the foil 2/3 of the way through the run and cranked it back up on the wind to extend the run. Powered riding is easy and intuitive, great upwind angle and fun. The one factor I didn't expect was the lack of fatigue. I seriously over estimated the fatigue and chose a 16km run accordingly. I could have easily done another 10km.
The 1150-L was absolutely everything I had been hoping for. Easy to pump, fast, agile and so much fun. Top speed today was almost 30km/h and I rode better than I had ever ridden with less falls, longer, faster glides with more links and with less effort.
Well done Mr Mazzanti, this is surely the best wing for me to date ??????
DM
