Freeride foil test 2018

If I'm absolutely honest, I don't agree with a lot of things said in this test. With over 300 foiling sessions over the last 2 years and my R&D work for F-One I feel adequately skilled to make some remarks, also having tested most of the foils in this test myself.

For one they make it look like all the foils are very similar in performance, while that is very much not the case. Whether foils are "good" or "bad" I leave for someone else to decide, but these foils differ a lot in sensations on the water and needed riding styles/board configurations, which they say very little about. Second, they seem to favour a more backfooted powerdelivery, which in my opinion is just wrong and indicates a lower foiling ability among at least some of the riders which have a lot of influence on the final report. For me the Fanatic H9 & Gecko combo feels completely offbalanced, and that can be seen in the pictures, the problems they describe in the jibe with it is due to the power being too far back. They also mention delivering constant power through the backfoot, which I haven't used for delivering power to the foil like that to keep it flying in my last 200+ sessions, and claim the naish foil delivers more lift further back in the rails (which is also wrong). Finally with the slingshot combo they feel uncomfortable with the slingshot foil in B position, while that is the position most favoured by experienced riders, because of the freedom it delivers. The picture with the slingshot test is the only one in which the rider has a somewhat normal foiling stance, which leaves me thinking that the picture was taken with the foil in B position.

I do not want to come across as condescending, but as I said, I don't share the testers feelings described for a big part, nor their preferred feeling when foiling and preferences for trim, which leaves me to question the reliability of the report.