Hi All,
Any advice on which would be better for a beginner foiler, a J-shapes or a north/duotone speedster?
Reasonably advanced Kiter on a TT, heavier rider at 100kg.
Any advice appreciated.
As a first foil? Neither.
Get something cheap used, and beat on that until you decide you actually like foiling, and how you want to ride in the future...
You might even find that you want to kite, wing and SUP foil so will need to choose gear accordingly. Or get something modular... Or borrow someone else's 
Plate or Tuttle mount. Plate is best for learning. Speedster wings and fuselage are unrepairable or at least difficult to repair, plastic/carbon injection moulded. Alloy mast Is heavier than jshapes but probably stiffer Jshapes are popular in our area, full carbon, haven't seen many problems. One guy cracked a fuselage but he was jumping it, replaced by jshapes. Two piece construction so travel harder. Rear stab is fixed, no adjustment possible.
Hi, I learnt on the North(Duotone) Speedster and then jumped on the JShapes after a year. I found the Speedster fine at first, although annoyingly heavy and cumbersome. When I went to Jshapes it was like learning again on their Freeride foil. It just seemed to need water (speed) over the foil to get it working, but when I was learning I didn't really want to go that fast!! Anyway, I switched to the Jshapes Cruzer foil and that was probably the best decision ever. So, u didn't mention which Jshapes foil u were looking at? If it was the Jshapes Cruzer, I'd take that over the Speedster every time!!
Select to expand quoteStKKiter said..
Thanks Kami. Both options are Second Hand
Which J-shapes? If it's the Cruiser and comes with a board, I'd go for that.
As airsail said, it's Tuttle box, you'll need a suitable board; tracked boards are more common so if it's just the foil, you might have a tough time tracking a cheap one down.
There are, IMHO, better options out there, especially for a Clydesdale 
There is no race. Any JShapes full carbon is in a different league than a aluminium, recycled plastic and
ply wood dog. The choice between JShapes cruiser and freeride foil for a beginner is not as critical as some might indicate in my opinion. I know someone who has both, but now prefers the freeride.... both have large front wings in comparison to foils built for speed or racing and both are easy to learn on.
I have all three JShapes foils. The Cruzer, Freeride and CS Wave. Everyone's different I guess, but I found it a pretty big difference between the Freeride and Cruzer when u r starting out. I know this was also consistent with the guy I purchased my setup from second hand (135 board and Freeride foil), as he had basically given up on learning foiling and he was already a competent (excellent) surfboard rider.. Having said that, I enjoy the Freeride foil now, but it's essentially my third season of foiling. I just think make it easy as u can when you r learning, and for me that's the Cruzer.
I learnt on the freeride with 155 board .... it wasn't that easy but I did it. It does need more speed to fly than the cruzer. The larger board helped with stability on the water Then got the cruzer , it's a brilliant fun foil. Looser to ride than the freestyle and probably more easy.... the freeride just needs speed then is quite stable
I've never felt a need to try anything else while on the cruzer and 120 board
You don't mention which foil or board for the jshapes ... the speedster might be easier to learn on but you will find it is limited compared to the jshapes in time due to weight and design. If the jshapes board is shorter than 135 and it has the freeride foil , you will struggle imo.... and maybe on a longer board as well now I've looked at your weight. (I'm 85kgs )
The speedster is pretty outdated now, you could look at some of the other makes which are using more advanced design ... Duotone , axis etc etc ... seems to be plenty 2 hand on the market
Thanks for all of the advice, based on this I decided to skip the Jshapes (it was the free-ride foil) and the speedster, will keep my eyes open for something more suitable. Thanks again.
As is always the case when asking for advise in these forums every replying poster has their own opinion and preferences, most of which contract some previous opinion. This always leaves the original poster no closer to an answer, and sometimes diverted away from the best solution in their particular case.
Inevitably you will base your choice on the sum of all the opinions offered to you. For every person that says a speedster or JShapes freeride is no good to learn on I'm sure you could find 10 people who would say they are fine to learn on. I'm not sure what you mean when you say you will look for something more suitable but I'm sure whom ever you buy from will have something "more suitable " (based on their opinion and eagerness to make a sale).
Above and beyond the choice of foilboard no one mentions the integral part that kite skills play. I have personally witnessed a very skilled kiter with no foil boarding experience be solidly foilboarding on a speedster within 1/2 an hour and boosting and backrolling on the foilboard after 2 sessions.
Select to expand quotesalt said..
i bought speedster 4 days ago. i was foiling within a day.
Should have bought myself a speedster.
I bought a Slingshot Hoverglide and got the whole mast foil package but also did foil academy. I was up and riding
straight away. Have since moved on too a sweet carbon set up.
Do whatever work's for you. Some have so many options and are well advanced in term's of technology.
Shred till ya dead! Yeow....
