Axis Foils

[PonoBill]

Holy shit, what a great foil the 999 is! Evan let me try one, the wind sucked, in fact, it was super spotty all day long. Fortunately, I got a gust after knee-cruising to the middle of the river (geez, I hate that) on the first reach and popped up. Once I was up it really didn't matter much what the wind did. I was using it with my 390 tail, which is probably not ideal, but even with a sub-optimal tail it's fast and points upwind beautifully. I went almost all the way to the lower hatchery on one reach.  Unfortunately, I blew my jibe (what a surprise) and came down. Then the wind quit. And I don't mean it went soft. I mean it stopped. Only a few of the zen foil kiters were still going, Everyone else was ded in da wattah. Oh well. I slowly coasted back toward the event center, caught a puff, got up, and made it back.

I rested a while, convinced myself the wind was better (fool), and went again. Got a few nice rides, discovered how much fun this thing will be in swells (even dinky ones), and ran out of wind again. Once again I got a puff, pumped and winged back to the event center. The only entry to the water is down at the spit end with AWSI spread out, so I aimed for that. I dropped the wing at what felt like a good distance from the shallows but the silly thing didn't stop. I glided on a bit too far and crunched the wingtip on gravel. This is why I hate using other people's stuff. I felt terrible. Such a gorgeous wing. Evan was nice about it, but if possible I'll get him to trade this slightly scratched one for the virgin one I have coming.

Bottom line--this thing is magical. It gets up about the same as my 890--needs speed, but not a crazy amount. It doesn't do any of the crazy stall and drop, or shudder through a turn that the 1300 does, in fact I haven't managed to stall it. I turned it really hard and it didn't do anything funny. It doesn't swoop like an 860 does, but it does nice locked-in turns and doesn't straighten itself out if you fail to keep pushing it in a turn. Fantastically well behaved, easy to use even for a fat old guy, and did I mention fast?

I borrowed an 1150 from Califoilia to try to cruise a bit in the light wind. It worked great, as 1150's always do, allowing me to get up with three pumps even though I went WAY past my daily limit of ten pumps. I'm in the hole about 50 days. Still, the wind really sucked, and after a few reaches i decided that I'd ahad enough winging in shitty wind for one day.

[805StandUp]

That 999 sounds and looks incredible!  The low stall speed for such a HA wing is the kicker if true.  But 1010 sq cm projected vs ~1200 of my NL160.  Anyone tried one SUP Foiling yet?   

[surfcowboy]

Solent, this may get me on the red mast too.

Wondering about this for a smaller person though. Could Pono and I be happy on the same wing? What's the hot take on the 999 for 63kg/140 lbs? I do love a big wing. Will I need to wait on the even smaller version?

[PonoBill]

I doubt you need to wait. It's about 1000 cm^2. I thought there was just no way I was going to get up on this. But it was actually pretty easy, I just need a bit of speed. You won't need as much, but here's the thing--it's tiny. It works for me because it's low drag, It will work for you because it's low drag. I noticed it has a very light front foot pressure but it was easy to trim and never over foiled even when I ran down the face of a swell going as fast as I could. I have no idea how they pulled this one off. Every foil maker is going to be studying this like crazy.

[skideeppow]

Where do you think the best place to order one would be?   I want to be assured of getting one but want to make sure the shop I order from will actually  get one

Already ordered one.

[Hdip]

https://live2kite.com/ Is Evans shop  pretty sure the owner of AXIS will get some in. Whether it's on the website or it I don't know.

[PonoBill]

That 999 sounds and looks incredible!  The low stall speed for such a HA wing is the kicker if true.  But 1010 sq cm projected vs ~1200 of my NL160.  Anyone tried one SUP Foiling yet?   

Do you mean surf foil or sup downwinder? For surf foiling, I think some of the Axis crew has. Rod Parmenter and a group of the axis folks were headed to Swell city or maybe tunnel 4 to do a SUP downwinder. I think the wind was too light and the swell too dinky for that to work, but we'll see. I would absolutely surf foil this thing.

[805StandUp]

Do you mean surf foil or sup downwinder? For surf foiling, I think some of the Axis crew has. Rod Parmenter and a group of the axis folks were headed to Swell city or maybe tunnel 4 to do a SUP downwinder. I think the wind was too light and the swell too dinky for that to work, but we'll see. I would absolutely surf foil this thing.

Surf foil... I haven't built downwind skills yet.  So you don't anticipate any problem getting enough lift out of the wing on a SUP?  I weigh 180lbs.  Have only seen videos winging and surf foiling on a smaller prone board.

[Dwight (DW)]

Where do you think the best place to order one would be?   I want to be assured of getting one but want to make sure the shop I order from will actually  get one

Right here. The US distributor runs the axis foils web site. Same as ordering from live2kite web site, as they are the distributor.
https://axisfoils.com/collections/axis-research-team/products/999mm-art-carbon-front-wing

Hot tip, order a complete foil kit with the ART and you might jump the line. My opinion only.

All my buddies order direct when hot gear is hard to come by.

[Dwight (DW)]

Could Pono and I be happy on the same wing? What's the hot take on the 999 for 63kg/140 lbs?

In my opinion this will work great for you. Because this foil, never hobby horses. It's just so thin and fast, it cuts like butter under the surface. So well, it's confusing (based on experience with other foils) that something that cuts under the surface so cleanly, does actually surf the swell when you want to. Normally foils that pickup wave energy well, also hobby horse from excess lift when pushed super fast.

Yeah, you could wait on a smaller one, but do you want to, when you said like big ones. This will work.

[PonoBill]

Do you mean surf foil or sup downwinder? For surf foiling, I think some of the Axis crew has. Rod Parmenter and a group of the axis folks were headed to Swell city or maybe tunnel 4 to do a SUP downwinder. I think the wind was too light and the swell too dinky for that to work, but we'll see. I would absolutely surf foil this thing.

Surf foil... I haven't built downwind skills yet.  So you don't anticipate any problem getting enough lift out of the wing on a SUP?  I weigh 180lbs.  Have only seen videos winging and surf foiling on a smaller prone board.

I weigh 220, it comes up about like an 890, and once it's up, it stays up. I think it's going to be my all-around mid to high wind and SUP foil wing. It's kind of a quiver killer though I think the 1150 is still the king of light wind. 1150 seems a bit spooky in surf for me--it's hard to keep it in the water.

[805StandUp]

Surf foil... I haven't built downwind skills yet.  So you don't anticipate any problem getting enough lift out of the wing on a SUP?  I weigh 180lbs.  Have only seen videos winging and surf foiling on a smaller prone board.

I weigh 220, it comes up about like an 890, and once it's up, it stays up. I think it's going to be my all-around mid to high wind and SUP foil wing. It's kind of a quiver killer though I think the 1150 is still the king of light wind. 1150 seems a bit spooky in surf for me--it's hard to keep it in the water.

Thanks, Bill!  Sounds like Voodoo. This may be the one that tempts me to try another brand after starting with GF from the original M160...

[surfcowboy]

Looks like I'll be visiting califoilia soon then.

I have heard it surfs well from a prone surfer. Gotta be funny looking to see it twice as wide as the board. I love the idea of zero drag. It looks like it cuts so clean.

Dwight, Pono, it's crazy how much innovation we are seeing. 3 months ago Axis was feeling like it was falling out of favor and then bam, a new wing changes it all.

Yo, Hdip, find me some plates and masts and tails will ya?  😂

[Hdip]

You have the same access to Evan that i do. 😀

[Solent Foiler]

Deposit put down on the 999, a 380 tail and ultra short fuse.
Never ridden Axis before so took a punt on the fuse length and tail (let me know if you think I've made a mistake - still have time to change it). I'll be using this for wing upwind to go downwinding, and perhaps for moderate/lighter wind as the breeze here can be infuriatingly inconsistent when gets below 10-11 knots, and the extra glide and pump ability will be a welcome!

Once fully powered I still think I'll prefer the Fluid 76/LS... Looking forward to it! All the comments here have done a great sales job!