No need to wrap anything, they spent 3 years engineering the one lock, even if the latch failed the foil does not come apart as per the videos making the rounds on insta.
no more corrosion, aluminum fuses that cannot take the stress of big front wings, no more screw tape or grease or dropping them in the sand.
If you foil in an area where you might need to swap out front and/or rear wings it's takes no time for swap out, no tools needed, wrong length bolt or bolts stripping out.
www.instagram.com/reel/C_lm1ncSlC8/?igsh=MTNoN3F1NjZuajRxdw==
Other interesting takeaways:
+ Increased collabs around foildrive. I was pleasantly surprised to see North offering the integrated foildrive mast. That looked neat. Also first time seeing the Appletree boards with foildrive 'cutout' on the board underside
+ The North dock starter www.instagram.com/reel/C_lbLk0vU7X/?igsh=MW5wMXhucjQ5b3BpMw==
...but from what I see I'd be a bit worried that the stabiliser extends beyond the dockstarter at the back. So perhaps can't be used on a dock that extends all the way into and under the water. That would be the only 'comment'. But still a great concept!
HA foils getting smaller using more curves in foil profiles for lower stall for smaller, faster, more responsive kit. Armstrong did this in a big way but KT claim additional profile changes to bring top speed back with increased pitch stability mostly countered from better stabs.
Nothing wrong with good old screws. It is simple to use and reliable. Setting up my foil with the stab takes just 5 minutes.
Kudos to slingshot for trying out different things, but I would not be "totally blown away" by this R&D feature knowing that ultimately I would have to pay for the time Slingshot designers spent developing it when I buy anything from Slingshot in the future.
Biggest takeaway is that the market has 2 another new mast-fuse standards instead of looking to unify stuff.Imagine how fun it would be if I could simply buy a plane from brand A and put it on mast B without adapter solution like Cedus/No Limitz make.the KT stuff looks well thought through, but I hoped that they worked with an already consisting connection like Axis, Mike,s Lab or something alike.
put a Torx key and if you want 1 extra bolt for in case you never know in the Aquapack where you keep your carkey, or in the keypocket of your wetsuit, Release the 2 bolts from your fuse: take the plane to your car like you would do with the Slingshot, grab an diff plane and put it on....takes maybe 30sec more then the one lock system.
Yeah I watched the vid and it kind off came of all as gimmicks and just full sales pitches everywhere like a used car yard.( Guess this is the point of the event) Amazing how many people are trying to fix problems we don't really have or try to speed up getting on the water 15secs quicker, like I love the inavation but sometimes I even wonder do we really need certain things.
axis had some new wings and good to see KT(KD Maui) foils pretty much ready for the market and his gear looks pretty good so hopefully he does well.
If you have ever wondered why your gear costs so much? Then looking at this event should give you a good idea. Lots of little hands all getting a piece of the little pie forcing the pie to be bigger so it can feed more little hands.
Sick place to have it though and the few years I went it was well put together. What a place to test the gear but what a pity the event had no wind besides the day before it started. Hood River is a sick place to go to and everyone should go there if they like water sports.
The most exciting thing at AWSI wasn't released at AWSI - the Parawing.
Also, sounds like FoilDrive is well established compared to last year. Talk of it being a new category of foiling now. Kudos to the team from Adelaide.
Blue Planet Robert Stehlik seemed to be less than enthusiastic about Mid-lengths, saying flat bottoms, sharp rails, box positions can get you up almost as early.
My biggest take away from watching the event is that I will definitely stay away from upgrades that are not designed to improve my riding experience. Gimmicks built to save time or to very marginally improve speed etc I will try to ignore for a year at least or until they become mainstream. Instead I will concentrate on my riding skills. As an example, for me personally, a board upgrade to mid size is not worth it since I know that can get on foil with almost the same effort when using my good old 2-year-old "short" board of the same volume (flat bottom, sharp edges, 5 dent patches)
I have no crystal ball but it looks like brands will resort to changing form factors (connections, fuses, booms) that will force us to buy more than just a new wing or foil (Duotone dropped old booms, Slingshot introduced new fuse etc etc).
...damn those axis foils look sexy though