A friend recently emailed me to ask what I think of the GoFoil RS1300 front foil wing that I have started using more this season for windsurf wave foiling. After responding to him I thought it would be helpful if I shared my response with everyone. So here it is:
The glide is the best part of the RS1300. It's a very, very cool feeling. It just doesn't want to slow down. I've used it in about 20% of my sessions this year. Yes, it definitely takes more board speed to get it up on foil. It wants to lift, but you must force it to stay on the water until you reach the threshold speed, otherwise it just drops back down. You really need to bear off the wind and deliberately and precisely bring it up onto foil.
The speed is not what I thought it would be. I've done several tests against 3 other riders I know, all on Maliko200 in flat water, and I could not go much faster than them at top speed. I was shocked because it feels so much faster. But I think it's glide that I'm feeling, not speed. The first series of tests I did not tell the other guys that I was going to try to go faster than them. The second time I told them and asked them to try to go as fast as they could. I know their riding styles, and we were all on same sail sizes. Maybe the RS was slightly faster a couple times, but I really was not impressed. But the glide is amazing. When you depower the sail on the wave you can literally ride it forever. One wave links to the next without using any sail power.
Yeah, the jibe is a bitch. The roll sensitivity is very challenging. I'm doing better. Monday it was solid 25mph on 3.2m with big waves and I only fell in 4 times during the hour session. And one of those 4 was because I forgot that you can't slow down too much or it stalls. So only 3 jibes missed.
I've been riding the EZ1600 more. That wing is much easier to jibe than the RS and it definitely has more glide than the Iwa. It turns pretty good with less yaw and slippage than the RS, but does not turn as well as the Iwa.
The speed is not what I thought it would be. I've done several tests against 3 other riders I know, all on Maliko200 in flat water, and I could not go much faster than them at top speed. I was shocked because it feels so much faster. But I think it's glide that I'm feeling, not speed. The first series of tests I did not tell the other guys that I was going to try to go faster than them. The second time I told them and asked them to try to go as fast as they could. I know their riding styles, and we were all on same sail sizes. Maybe the RS was slightly faster a couple times, but I really was not impressed. But the glide is amazing. When you depower the sail on the wave you can literally ride it forever. One wave links to the next without using any sail power.
Yeah, the jibe is a bitch. The roll sensitivity is very challenging. I'm doing better. Monday it was solid 25mph on 3.2m with big waves and I only fell in 4 times during the hour session. And one of those 4 was because I forgot that you can't slow down too much or it stalls. So only 3 jibes missed.
I've been riding the EZ1600 more. That wing is much easier to jibe than the RS and it definitely has more glide than the Iwa. It turns pretty good with less yaw and slippage than the RS, but does not turn as well as the Iwa.