Author Topic: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)  (Read 106555 times)

Julie_Scheyer

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Re: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)
« Reply #105 on: July 28, 2019, 12:36:08 PM »
Bill that’s too small still. Hehe.

I’ve been “bagging out” my 3m on down winders in the middle of a run, if it gets light.  I have a new boom adjustment strap. Really helpful.  Give that a try with the 4m and “bag” it out.  If the carbon boom can’t adjust, I would go back to the AL

My carbon boom is already set at the fully bagged setting. I have some one-inch rings I can add to tighten the wing, but I've never used them.

That reminds me, I still have a carbon mast for you. Ken said you already had some.

I have been bagging it out 2 clicks beyond the shortest reccomended too.  Yes, I was hoping to get it, but you hadn’t mentioned it at dinner.  We are back Aug 5
Duotone Foilwing rider.  Hydrofoil setup for Foilwings: Fanatic 1500 or 2000sqcm front wings, 80cm fuselage, 90cm Mast & Fanatic 5ft 68L Sky Solbach proto board.  SUP: SIC Bullet 16ft, Naish Mana 8’6”, Fanatic 6’3” wave SUP hydrofoil. Qb paddles

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Re: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)
« Reply #106 on: August 03, 2019, 04:05:51 AM »
This was an incredible Gorge week.  Great wind and just beautiful.  We scored 4 more days at 5 locations.  One really cool side benefit of this sport is that we have been using launches that we haven't visited in years.  These are breathtaking spots that can serve up some flatter conditions when it is howling.  Plus, they are lesser used spots that all have these super cool groups of regulars (don't think locals, think hospitality) that are incredibly faithful to these beaches.  We have been running into people we haven't seen for 30 years. 

Our 4 Meter SPG has been an epic addition.  I used it two days and Chan used it two days.  We are finally both feeling like we have the right size at the same time.  After using the 5 for everything the 4 feels so tiny and nimble.  It is incredibly well behaved in 20-27.  I have only used the 3 meter once ever.  I should have had it out 3 or 4 more times early on but I was too engaged to come in and change it.  There is a lot going on for a new rider in good sized swell and strong wind. 

We all are feeling happy with our progress (we suck less each week) and are adding to the micro-skills that are leading to comfortability.  My feet know where they need to be now and they are going there without a lot of active direction.  That is huge.  I had to take off my front strap to find its eventual final placement.  This is slightly ahead of the furthest forward insert position (and slightly angled to the side).  I need some sticky inserts to get this done.  Add that to the last 3 modifications which I likely won't do until winter :).

My new mantra this week was sheet down not sheet in.    I realized that the windsurfing was still strong in me and that regardless of the starting wing angle I was unconsciously deforming a sheet in of an overhead wing into too vertical of an overall wing position.  Thinking sheet down makes me consider the starting wing angle and has helped me a lot.

Grandkids this weekend and then back to it on Monday!
« Last Edit: August 03, 2019, 04:26:04 AM by Admin »

ninja tuna

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Re: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)
« Reply #107 on: August 03, 2019, 05:08:06 AM »
Would like to hear your thoughts on the SPG,

in another thread of course

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Re: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)
« Reply #108 on: August 03, 2019, 05:52:13 AM »
This seems like the right spot :).  We are stoked with the SPG's.  I think there are likely a dozen companies producing wings at this point and I have not had any exposure to most.  It is also clear that riders are doing great with all of them.  All that said, I am so pleased with this choice.  The fly easily, are very intuitive, feel very well balanced and have proven to surprisingly durable.  We try to baby them as much as possible but we have rocky launches here.  During our first week, we were not ending up at our launch beach (or any beach) which has meant more dragging and scraping than we would have liked.  The wings still look new.  That has impressed us a lot. 

The dual strut feature is great.  It sets the wing at a really advantageous angle and helps a lot with tip drag.  If you watch videos you can see that this is a common issue and this is likely the biggest hurdle for new riders.  I also think that the second strut adds stability which leads to a very controlled feeling wing. 

One of the major factors in our choice was availability but having used the wings now I would buy them again in a heartbeat. 

ninja tuna

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Re: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)
« Reply #109 on: August 03, 2019, 07:35:34 AM »
Thanks for that feedback.  A lot of the wings look very similar.  But a few are different from the rest and the SPG is one of those.  They look stout and you like flying them so that is good to hear.

Quickbeam

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Re: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)
« Reply #110 on: August 03, 2019, 08:11:03 AM »
This seems like the right spot :).  We are stoked with the SPG's.  I think there are likely a dozen companies producing wings at this point and I have not had any exposure to most.  It is also clear that riders are doing great with all of them.  All that said, I am so pleased with this choice.  The fly easily, are very intuitive, feel very well balanced and have proven to surprisingly durable.  We try to baby them as much as possible but we have rocky launches here.  During our first week, we were not ending up at our launch beach (or any beach) which has meant more dragging and scraping than we would have liked.  The wings still look new.  That has impressed us a lot. 

The dual strut feature is great.  It sets the wing at a really advantageous angle and helps a lot with tip drag.  If you watch videos you can see that this is a common issue and this is likely the biggest hurdle for new riders.  I also think that the second strut adds stability which leads to a very controlled feeling wing. 

One of the major factors in our choice was availability but having used the wings now I would buy them again in a heartbeat.

Admin., just curious. I looked up SPG online, and from what I could see they do not have a window in their sail where some other brands do have this. Was wondering how important you think this feature is?
Infinity Blackfish 12’ 6” x 23”
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 24”
Infinity Whiplash 12' 6" x 24 1/2"
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 26”
Bark Competitor 12’ 6” x 29”
Red Paddle Explorer (Inflatable) 13' 2" x 30
Starboard Airline (Inflatable) 12’ 6” x 27

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Re: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)
« Reply #111 on: August 03, 2019, 08:30:48 AM »
It may be a you don't miss what you have never had thing but I am not finding a need.  The wing is overhead to some degree a lot of the time so you really have very good vision unlike on a windsurfing sail where it is mostly in front of you.  This is nice for barge checks :).

PonoBill

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Re: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)
« Reply #112 on: August 03, 2019, 09:03:32 AM »
The Duotone wings have windows, but I find I don't actually use them, when I want to see where I'm going I pop the wing up high and look under it. I'm not sure why I find the window to be not useful, I'll have to think about that when I'm using the wing.

I greatly prefer the Duotone wing over everything else I've tried, though I really need a 5M.

I certainly didn't need a 5M yesterday though. I had a good session though it was full of crashes, both low and high speed. I went out at swell city, good wind but surprisingly big swells considering the current is low and the wind was 20 gusting to 30--big lulls and nutty gusts. I still suck at getting off my knees on a starboard tack, so I went across the river in the Pocahontas position in light wind, probably well less than 20,  and headed back on a port tack from the Oregon side. As I got going I noticed all the windsurfers exiting at the Swell City cove at the same time. "Odd" thinks I, and then I got nailed by a 30mph gust. Which was actually fine for getting up on the foil, but I was on my 280 GoFoil and 4M. I went from too little of everything to too much.

I got up perhaps ten times on one run across the river, happily foiling away for a pretty good distance before overfoiling and face planting. It sure felt like ten face plants, whatever the number was.

I decided to switch to my Axis 1020 with 90CM mast. Much less likely to overfoil, though if I managed to do so I'd be augering in from a lot higher up. Bottom line, holy moly I like this foil. With enough wind (I had plenty) I could get up just by powering up. It's a lot less draggy than the M280 or M200, so the board gets up to higher speed before liftoff. Once I got up I got going ridiculously fast. I should have pumped up to get well clear of the swells, but I was so stupified by the speed that I just sort of hung on. I bounced off five or six swells at high speed with the board no more than a foot off the water and then finally slammed into a steep one and exploded off the board. The splash was spectacular. I know this because everyone on the beach told me so.

Crash aside, I'm really excited about the Axis foil. I still have Big Wind's GL240 as well, and I should have tried it yesterday, but I had to go meet a FedEx driver at Luhr Jensen to receive two Tesla battery modules for Fritz. By the time I got the modules the wind had dropped to punky levels at the Hook and Luhr, so I headed for the shop to store the modules.

Today (Saturday) is zippo for wind, so I'm setting up a container for my battery experiments. If all goes well it will go into Fritz later. If it doesn't I might have a toasted container for sale.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

Quickbeam

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Re: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)
« Reply #113 on: August 03, 2019, 09:22:19 AM »
I greatly prefer the Duotone wing over everything else I've tried, though I really need a 5M

Duotone is definitely one that I would be interested in. Another that caught my attention is Slingshot. Have you tried theirs? I think they call it the Slingshot Slingwing. They have what one reviewer called “a reinforced trailing edge strut” which I thought looked interesting, but not sure what difference it would make in practice?
« Last Edit: August 03, 2019, 09:50:28 AM by Quickbeam »
Infinity Blackfish 12’ 6” x 23”
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 24”
Infinity Whiplash 12' 6" x 24 1/2"
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 26”
Bark Competitor 12’ 6” x 29”
Red Paddle Explorer (Inflatable) 13' 2" x 30
Starboard Airline (Inflatable) 12’ 6” x 27

PonoBill

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Re: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)
« Reply #114 on: August 03, 2019, 10:48:34 AM »
I haven't tried one myself, but Mark Ribkoff tried one and liked it.

He also tried the F One wing a few days ago, that has some promising features including what I guess would be called a gore that attaches the inflated strut to the wing. That allows the wing to form a nice foil shape in the middle instead of being directly connected to a spar that's flat. I like the looks of it so much I'm thinking of adding it to my Duotone wing, which sometimes goes the other way--bagging into an inefficient shape in strong wind unless it's outhauled hard. Attaching the gore to the boom without interfering with hand positions will be a trick I'm thinking a few velcro tabs that wrap around the boom would both free up most of the boom for any hand position and allow some shape adjustment.

You can see the gore and the overall improvement it makes to the foil shape in the middle of the wing in this video. Isolating air movement between the top and bottom wing might offer stability benefits as well.

The Duotone wing doesn't get flattened in the middle by the boom, but it does bag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nKz-BG2OEI
« Last Edit: August 03, 2019, 10:53:49 AM by PonoBill »
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

burchas

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Re: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)
« Reply #115 on: August 03, 2019, 11:35:49 AM »
He also tried the F One wing a few days ago,

I have the FOne Swing. The damn thing is so light the slingwing felt
Like a heavy lifting workout in comparison. It’s also packs surprisingly
Small in comparison. No trailing edge struts making it deflate so much quicker.

The slingwing does not seem like a well thought out wing in term of ease of use.
in progress...

Quickbeam

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Re: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)
« Reply #116 on: August 03, 2019, 12:19:48 PM »
Thanks Bill and Burchas. I’ll add F One to those I look at. Storage space is something I’m concerned with, so if the F One packs up smaller than others, and still flys well, that would be an advantage.
Infinity Blackfish 12’ 6” x 23”
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 24”
Infinity Whiplash 12' 6" x 24 1/2"
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 26”
Bark Competitor 12’ 6” x 29”
Red Paddle Explorer (Inflatable) 13' 2" x 30
Starboard Airline (Inflatable) 12’ 6” x 27

Quickbeam

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Re: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)
« Reply #117 on: August 03, 2019, 12:59:22 PM »
Sorry for the complete newbie question, but I looked online at the F-One Swing, and it either comes with, or you can get as an option, a harness line. What is that used for? Is this used to secure the wing to you, and then you don’t need to use your hands?
Infinity Blackfish 12’ 6” x 23”
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 24”
Infinity Whiplash 12' 6" x 24 1/2"
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 26”
Bark Competitor 12’ 6” x 29”
Red Paddle Explorer (Inflatable) 13' 2" x 30
Starboard Airline (Inflatable) 12’ 6” x 27

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Re: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)
« Reply #118 on: August 03, 2019, 01:51:03 PM »
So far I have tried the SPG a lot, the Duotone (a little) and I have flown a Naish on land. 

It is really easy to form early preferences and I think that most of the perceptions that you will read (mine included) are based on very little usage.  I am not sure how valuable that is. 

A couple of early reactions.  The Naish has a pleasant feel and feels quite light and predictable on land.  The handles on the SPG are more substantial and as above I dig the dual strut angle assist.  The shape of the SPG and the position of the handles is different.  The draft is also further back on the Naish which has a different feeling.  I like handles over a boom.  I feel like the boom wants to rotate in my hand.  The rectangular feel of my handles is much more positive feeling for me.  The Duotone has one unexpected behavior.  From the leading edge handle it flies comfortably and is stable upside down but once flipped rightside up it beats from side to side.  This is a side to side sway in low wind but it gets aggressive in high wind.  This means that you have to go quickly from handle to boom.  Once hands are on the boom it is not noticeable.  This is primarily an issue when arranging for a knee start.  That is the when you are most at the whims of the elements and I like all the stability I can get at those moments. 

As earlier, riders are doing wonderfully on all of these designs so they are clearly all very capable and a personal preference will be a big factor.

burchas

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Re: The end of the beginning - SPG Wings (photo heavy post)
« Reply #119 on: August 03, 2019, 02:54:45 PM »
Sorry for the complete newbie question, but I looked online at the F-One Swing, and it either comes with, or you can get as an option, a harness line. What is that used for? Is this used to secure the wing to you, and then you don’t need to use your hands?

It doesn’t come with it or even with a pump for that matter. My Red Titan pump
Work well so saved some money there. Harness seems like a very good deal
If you are the one selling it :D otherwise I don’t see much point but then again
I’m a newbie myself so what do I know.
in progress...

 


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