Got to take the Naish Ultra-Jet 1250 for a spin over the weekend, and in short-big fan.
Had a great mix of conditions to put it through its paces, from barely-there winds to full-on turbo mode.
Takeoff was a breeze-catch a gust, pump a couple of times, and you're flying. It's also got plenty of glide to link gusts and stay on the foil in marginal conditions.
When the wind picked up, it handled cruising nicely-no weird roll or yaw issues. It did feel a bit pitchy at first, and I flamed out on a few early gybes, but I think I had it mounted a touch too far forward in the tracks. Once I adjusted my foot position, it clicked.
The real magic? Gybing and turning. It loves to carve and feels super predictable when you lean it over. At 1250cm?, it's big enough to be forgiving of my not-so-graceful moments, with a nice low stall speed.
Downwind, it really shone-gliding on bumps and transitioning back upwind to catch the next one. My skills aren't quite there yet to fully unleash its potential, but I didn't notice any cavitation, even when pushing it hard.
As a freeride foil, it's not built for blistering speed, but it still holds its own. I cruised comfortably around 17 knots and didn't feel the top end so there's more to unlock with time.
For an average rider like me, it's a solid freeride option with no glaring downsides, looking forward to wringing all I can out of it.
I have had the 1240 HA2 for a few sessions now and definitely its an improvement over earlier wings. I use it for light wind, it gets me going same as the old 1400, but feels faster and a lot more fun to ride.
I too love the 1250 ultrajet. I think I might be the only one using it here in New Zealand. Let me know if I'm wrong. I seem to go at least as fast as others of similar ability but feel like I control the foil whereas on many higher aspect foils it feels like the foil controls me. I love carving on the bumps and it is so forgiving of my clumsy foot switches. I don't understand why its not more popular but most seem obsessed with ha.
I don't think you'll see many windfoilers using Naish gear-I'm the only one I've come across in my area still on it. Some of their earlier windfoiling gear didn't quite measure up to other brands and I think they missed the opportunity a bit.
That said, I've had a lot of fun using the wingfoiling gear for windfoiling. I'm happy with their mast and fuselage, and while I've considered other brands, the cost of switching doesn't feel worth it.
The high-aspect stuff doesn't really suit my style, so I can't comment on their newer gear. I did try an earlier version of their Jet (wave) foil and found it pretty underwhelming for windfoiling, but the latest version is a completely different story-much better!
Since the original post, I've gotten the setup more dialed in, pushing the speeds up, and, as Activemiss mentioned, appreciating the forgiveness for my clumsy foot switches!
