Cabrinha Anyone?

[Beasho]

Yeah:! No S--t Pete.

But he may have just said it most succinctly with the best radio voice out there.

How do these stack up?  I have been leaning towards an F-1 5 meter BUT Cabrinha has been at it a long time too.

[PonoBill]

I looked at them and held one but didn't try it in the water. Very similar to the F-one. Didn't seem to quite have the F-one's stillness, but standing on a gusty shore with stuff all around redirecting the wind there's not much value to that impression. Cabrina's pricing is generally lower than other company's, certainly worth a look.

Update: Hmmm, just looked at Big Winds for price. $799 and only available in 4M. Here's TJ's take:
https://bigwinds.com/blogs/inside-big-winds/2020-cabrinha-crosswing-review

[Admin]

With that voice he needs a huge leather chair and a cognac. 

Just looking at it there are similarities to the Swing but I see what look like three notable differences.  On the Cabrinha:

The luff strut panel that controls shape is a different shape and less deep than on the Swing.

The inflatable leading edge extends further around and extends the trailing edge further back.  It looks like a modestly lower aspect wing.
There is one more handle and the handles look very large.

It will be interesting to see if all of that is correct, how those things (and material choices) impact weight and balance.

[Dwight (DW)]

It’s missing, what I think are some magic shaping features of the F-one. The F-one has narrow tips, which reduce wing tip washout. Washout kills L/D. Ask any hang glider pilot. Then f-one was clever in using this, to create tension across the trailing edge, so well, it holds the web above the strut tight. Locking in the profile, even with no wind in the wing. That is sure to help low end and high end.

Until wing designs advance to the point they can reduce wing tip washout, wide tips will struggle at the top end. They are not windsurf sails, twist robs performance.

[PonoBill]

The F-one wing just simply looks right. I like the way the strut bellies and reverses the curve of the foil. I don't know if that does anything, but it looks good. It's also impressive to stand in wind that's whipping in every direction and watch the wing just float there, calmly.

We're at V0.9 for these things. I'm sure the manufacturers would hate that characterization, but I think it's true. These are the triradials, the two-line kites.

Six months ago I would have said this is going to be a tiny sport, how many people want to get up on a foil and hold a wing. Now I'm not so sure. I do expect that we'll see a flood of these things next spring. Hopefully, the manufacturers figure out that the bigger market is going to be the bigger wings, that you can use in 10-15mph on a lake. That will help fatboys like me immensely. As long as the market focuses on guys like Austin Kalama it will be tiny. How many skinny 21 year old uber athletes have three grand to start wingfoiling? How many 40-year-old 200-pound weekend warriors could swing it? 10X? 100X? 1000X?

Most of the marketing is already pointed in the wrong direction. It's so weird. 20 year-old guys (no women) smashing the top off double overhead waves. I look at the early adopters--people actually doing it--and I can have a conversation with any of them because they're all over 40 (with rare exception) and they struggle a bit before they sail off. What sells better, showing people something they will never be able to do, or showing them something they can do with someone like them doing it?

At least Pete has Grey hair, though no one that knows anything about wind/water sports thinks for a minute that anything he can do, they can do.