This thing is looking like the 1 foil quiver killer. Price looks great at 1K USD. Interested to hear what people think.

takuma.com/en/foils/224-kujira-helium-1500.html

Also anyone know if the mast is still interchangeable with Naish?!?

Hi,

Takuma sended one to me for review and my first feelings are great !
it's pretty fast for a "big foil". it 's glide is crazy. i use to review the regular Kujira on youtube (980/1210 mainly) and was already amazed by their carving ability and glide. It's a dockstarting beast and i will write my feedbacks as soon as i use it on a surffoil also.

Mast and fuselage are the 2021 , stiffer than 2020 but for me it's not copatible with old naish and Gong Masts unfortunately.

If you want more infos / pics on this foil and you read french a little bit ;-)

since i m new on the forum i cannot post any link
i made an article with pics / unboxing video of the foil and we also have a french topic on a forum dedicated to the helium...

Hadou -- I watch pretty much all of your videos but google translate is usually unreliable. Any chance of doing a short English summary at the end of your videos or a separate English version?

You cover some really interesting equipment and have the skills to test the equipment to its limits. I just wish I didn't feel I was missing some of your conclusions.

Welcome to the forum and I look forward to more of your posts.

A little off topic -- here's an interesting review and comparison of many of the best known high performance foils available right now:

Hadou said..
If you want more infos / pics on this foil and you read french a little bit ;-)

since i m new on the forum i cannot post any link
i made an article with pics / unboxing video of the foil and we also have a french topic on a forum dedicated to the helium...

Hello Hadou! Fortunately I learned French as a kid and haven't forgotten all of it yet, so I'm able to watch French Youtube channels and read forums without translation.

Here's the Helium post on your forum: www.pimpyourride.fr/forum-wingfoil/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=221

I look forward to watching your full review, but the comments you posted on the forum are promising.

I couldn't resist, so I ordered a Helium at a local shop last week. They seem pretty confident about getting stock on August 1st. Dominic Hoskyns' channel was also extremely inspiring and influenced my decision to get a Helium.

I haven't ridden the Kujira 1210 so I have no idea what it is like , but I have ridden the HS1250 a bunch and there is also a world of difference between 1250 standard/60/232/0 and 1250 chopped/50/V200/+1. One day toppleover might let me try the Kujira and I'll know which world is best for me.

Waiting for a review about the Kujira Helium 1500. Nice to see that the screws are pre-inserted so you know what goes where unlike the 980, 1210 and 1440. Love those foils! Cost me 1/2 what the Armstrongs cost where I am so I get twice as many foils for the same price.

Let us know, looks like an amazing wing to learn and progress on.

We had great wind conditions on Sunday, but I felt it was a bit too much for learning winging, so I went windsurfing with a fin and 5.8 and had a blast...

Fast forward to today (Tuesday) and somehow the water temperature had plummeted (people were sailing in shorts on Sunday, but a 3/2mm full suit felt cold today). The wind was gusty, fluctuating between 10 and 20 knots to start with and averaging 14 knots with gusts of up to 27 knots a bit later. I was on the Slick 5.0, Tabou MC110 and Takuma Helium all the time. I felt it was easy to get the board going and foiling. I'm rather cautious and very much a beginner wingfoiler, so I mostly kept the board pretty close to surface. I was at least foil-planing on every single reach today.

I didn't breach/overfoil, but I stalled the wing a couple of times.

Aside from the really cold water, I'm quite happy with the session today and look forward to trying to fly a bit higher and faster when the wind is a bit less gusty.

JuriM said..
Slightly offshore wind at our spot means it's super gusty. The wind was between 10 and 30 knots today. I was on the same gear as before and again I was just "surviving" in the strong gusts, but I had some fun in between in the lulls, even getting to do some foil pumping to keep going. The 5.0 Slick was flapping like crazy in the 30 knot gusts.

BTW, the gust & average wind numbers are accurate to where I sail because we have our own station right on the water (1km from the beach where we launch). www.windguru.cz/station/2399

I'm hoping there will be enough wind this weekend to get on the foil, but not so much that I feel like I have to hold back a lot to stay safe. Forecast for Saturday is 14 knots average, 20 knot gusts, which seems about perfect. Sunday is forecasted to be a bit lighter (10 knot average with 14 knot gusts).

You might try shimming down the stab to get less lift & move the Foil back in the tracks... I was having trouble keeping the helium in the water so did this & made a big difference...

I think I'll wait until I have a bit more experience and have had a chance to ride the wing in the conditions that I actually got it for. To use it in really light winds though, I need to learn the basic technique in slightly more wind and then improve my pumping technique to "unlock" the full light wind potential.

I suspect the short fuselage and relatively small stabilizer foil require a bit more finesse, but at the same time unlock a whole lot of foil pumping potential.

I had the foil mast slightly forward of the center of the track - just about where the Takuma manual recommends. There's a Tabou video with Ross Williams where he recommends placing the foil mast all the way forward for winging on the Magic Carpet 110, which seems like an odd suggestion for a starting position (especially not even knowing what kind of wing the user will have).

Hi,
just had a session with my new Kujira helium 1500,wind 15-20knts ,4m slick and Naish hover 110 S25
I like the lively feel of the foil but I had to apply a lot of front foot pressure to keep the foil from breaching
even with the foil way back I had to have my front foot in front of the footstrap inserts
is it possible that the foil not compatible is with my board?the newer naishboards have their foil tracks more to the back of the board.

any thoughts?

My front foot tends to be just behind where the mast track starts on the Magic Carpet 110. I guess riding strapless means I just find the good spot for my feet when I'm foiling. I have the foil mast close to the front of the track. The foil track position shouldn't really matter except when the board is still touching water. The right position should be one where the board releases from the water easily and also minimizes the amount of foot movement I need when going from non-foiling/pumping to foiling mode.

I haven't fully breached while foiling yet. I've had that "gurgling" feel/sound happen a few times when riding higher and I assume that's when the foil is close to the surface, but it's been easy enough to just let the board drop a bit and continue foiling as if nothing happened. I find that wingfoiling gives me so many more options to control ride height & power on the foil than windfoiling that it's really pretty easy to stay in the water - at least when riding in a straight line.

I can ride the foil as far as the wind will let me and space permits, which mean about 1-2km reaches in the bay until I need to turn. I think before I start learning foiling jibes, I want to work on getting a bit more speed first and also practice foot switches while riding foil. I'm a bit worried that the jibes will be a challenge for me. My windsurfing jibes have sucked this summer (at least relatively speaking for someone who has been windsurfing for over 40 years). I just need more confidence in my experience and skills and go for it...easier said than done.

We've had strong winds for the past week, so I have been on windsurfing gear and 4.5-5.0 sails. Eager to get back on the wing+foil to learn more, but I think today is most likely to be a day off (I've been on the water on 14 days out of 20 in August now), but that includes two winging sessions where I couldn't get foiling (but I did practice pumping).

toppleover said..

eppo said..
Nice review. The characteristics of his fav the takuma sound a lot like what I enjoy about the Armstrong 1250.

Hi eppo, I owned a HS1250 before moving on to Kujira's 980 & 1210.

Imo the Armstrong 1250 and 1210 Kujira are worlds apart in both performance and ease of use.

But this is just my opinion .

a friend of mine did the same switch.... they way he put it to paraphrase: you know i smoke a lot of weed... I need a dope foil not a crack foil.

It looks like a 1750 Helium is starting to show up on some sites, along with a 500 Kujira that I don't recall seeing earlier - www.nausicaa.shop/produit/nouveaute/wingfoil/foil-wingfoil/takuma-2022-kujira-helium-1750

JuriM said..
BTW, the Takuma website says the ratio of the Helium front wing is 4.5. However, if the surface area is 1500 cm^2 and wing span is 91cm, then you get an aspect ratio of 91*91/1500 = 5.5. I think that's how most companies are calculating aspect ratio. Takuma is dividing chord length (202.2 mm) by wing span (910 mm) and gets almost exactly 4.5 that way, but that's not compatible with what others are doing.

Kujira 1440: 8.2
Kujira 1210: 7.2
Kujira 980: 6.5
Kujira 750: 6.1
Helium 1500: 5.5

For comparison, Slingshot Infinity 76 (my first foil for winging): 76*76/1534 = 3.8

(All aspect ratios rounded to one decimal.)

Assuming the actual area of the foil is close the projected area then I agree with your aspect ratio for each wing.

Anyone know why projected area is provided rather than the actual area?