Wave foilen

Paducah said..
I was a big Horue fanboy. It helped that I am lightweight so their smallish wings would actually get me out of the water. Wings were efficient so heaps of glide.

Had they come out with a larger, mid aspect wing instead of the 1st gen very high aspect XXLW (which flew early as @&@* but a pain to jibe) and developed some longer fuse versions, they could have remained a more viable option in the windfoil space. They certainly tried to address the noodly mast reps with upgraded designs but stuck to their original geometry - shorter fuses - which kept their foils "playful" but not as beginner friendly as other brands. However, those same characteristics were a benefit in prone and wing foil so easier to switch sports than spin up new molds, etc for the slower growing and intensely competitive windfoil market.





I'd say we have seen progress both on the performance side and rec side. Four years ago, it was debatable whether foils would match fins anywhere on the race course from Formula to lightwind slalom. To say that foils could be competitive at Le Defi would have been laughable. Horue put out a video back then (well, 6 yrs ago) where it was a moral win just to have sailed the course on a foil. And, we were still worried that the RS:X would continue to be our Olympic millstone around our necks.

On the rec side, modern 1000-1500 mid aspect foils are much more user friendly and capable. A lot more people are able to foil around their local spot without the painful learning curve we had back then. The XLW Horue wing back then was under 1000cm2. Factor in the options for wings as big as 2400cm2 now for heavy weights and it's no contest.

The Horue videos, no doubt, were crazy cool and inspired a lot of people. I was excited as ever to see and share the newest video. The same way, I was excited to see their new product offerings (I ended up owning every wing in their lineup at the time) but eventually couldn't deny that better stuff was coming out from Starboard, AFS, Slingshot, Loke and others. Riding the AFS85 F700 and Starboard Alu GT 800 was both eye-opening and made me realize that my Horue days were numbered.

gorgesailor said..


Fair enough - I won't dispute that. Apologies for misunderstanding you. I think wings have coopted some (a lot?) of the mind share there plus the barrier to entry is lower with a wing, imho. Kai Lenny was making noises recently about WWF - someone visible like that might be able to push the envelope a bit and prod others to follow along.