Interesting thread conversation. Without a doubt the Bear is a unique character as are most highly talented people in their respective areas of expertise. Regarding "social skills" I also read that Ken Winner was/is a bit of a social introvert. Perhaps a common trait of such talented people.
At least from the foil perspective I can say that Gong has had typical growing pains (and still does given some recent overseas delivery issues), but then again so did/does every supplier in this new sport. The original Gong aluminum masts (kiteboarding carryover) were way too wobbly for the bigger wing foils, but I still liked my Gong XL Pro back in 2019 better than anything from Axis, Armstrong, Slingshot, Moses, GoFoil, etc. So I had a machine shop adapt a 19 mm Axis Al mast to my Gong fuselage and I had the perfect setup! Gong is finally offering a worthy Al mast for its foils.
Never cared for the Gong monobloc carbon masts but the Veloce foil wings were fantastic when they came out and again, better than anything I rode from Moses or Axis at the time. The latest Gong V2 carbon mast is finally the carbon mast I hoped Gong would make, and when combined with the new "Pro" stabilizers and fuselages, and the latest Veloce or Fluid LT front wings I think it rivals the best of any current offering from Axis, SAB, Armstrong, F-One, etc,...all at a fraction of the price. Nothing evolves in a perfect linear trajectory
I do not think they rivals the best. Wings and Foils are heavy, do not fit well and quality control is poor. It's not just the business model that make that product with a lower price tag.
I don,t think either that they can match up with the best, but see them more like an Ikea. You get a lot for your money, and its okay but buy a nice closet,, couch or table at a nice furniture shop you absolute see and feel the difference, but it is great to have such alternative.
I've been a Gong customer in the UK for around 10 years. Their Surf Sups over the early years were innovative and way ahead of the mainstream brands. Life would be pretty bland without characters like Patrice and I love his non-PC attitude. His son Malo will be (perhaps already is at 16yrs) one of the best watermen in the world, the boy has talent!!. Their customer service has been brilliant over the years. I've learnt which products I think they do really well and which ones I prefer elsewhere. About 60% of my equipment is Gong and the foils have enabled me to play with different foils and setups without spending a fortune.
Total respect to Gong and Patrice on what they have created. I will definitely take a trip to the shop and say "Bonjour" to the Bear ..
This being an Australian forum we see very little Gong gear here in Oz. There are no distributors and Gong international shipping is expensive and cost prohibitive. I've seen a few Gong kites locally but other than that no other products.
It's actually not that expensive to freight Gong foils to Oz. Basically taking off the VAT pays for Fedex and they arrive in about 5 days. There is always the issue of stock availability but that's universally standard!
Select to expand quoteFoilalot said..
It's actually not that expensive to freight Gong foils to Oz. Basically taking off the VAT pays for Fedex and they arrive in about 5 days. There is always the issue of stock availability but that's universally standard!
Yes, anything that is not too long (the sum length+width+height should be minimal) can be easily shipped.
I once spoke to a well known all-around foiler who does a lot of reviews and he told me 2 things about Gong that are not OK or at least doubtful:
1. They don't have a (good) quality control, so for example there can be more then 1kg difference in between two of the same boards.
This might have improved nowadays.
2. They don't do reviews (do not supply equipment for reviews), because it is 'not in their company's policy'. In my opinion if you stand behind the quality of your products this is complete BS.
And worse, reviewers are approached very aggressively by the owner who threatens them with lawsuits or in the case of this reviewer threatens to come down to his place and hit him in the face.
That said, the price is way lower then any other brand (besides Takoon, which is also cheap and definitely good quality AND allows for reviews), so if there will be good reviews of Gong gear I would definitely consider buying some.
Lotta hate going on in this post! Seems to be getting very personal and that's never a good thing behind the anonymity of the keyboard.
I've purchased three times from Gong and been very happy with the communication and the product. Foils certainly not the lightest in the world but such good value and great performance. I'd much prefer to hear from people who have actually had the experience than second hand 'my friend .' etc etc.
Gong is certainly having a red hot go and aiming to make available a huge variety of product at a good price. Shaking up the market is always a good thing IMO
Select to expand quotestevelebanni said..
Wow ! Thats gonna tickle someone ! Can't wait to read his post .
Yep, "putting out the fire with gasoline" 
The aggressive approach to reviewers is someone's opinion. "The 'no-review' policy can be factchecked. Just search for reviews of Gong gear.
Hi Coen,
People won't find reviews of Gong products,
This policy was not through fear of comparison, but a preference to not play the marketing game that magazines were playing , at the time when Gong first started to grow from just a 'one man band'.
E.g "buy some advertising place, and we can do you a good editorial". Which can then lead to manufacturers pulling adverts from magazines that have given ,'bad' reviews, or scored that manufacturer low in comparison tests.
Wonder why you never read a bad review? They are always balanced, and generally not particularly helpful, unless you are looking to reinforce the excellent choice you made on that board you already purchased!
Back about ten years ago, I did see one Gong ad in an SUP mag. I think that was the only one they ever did.
What sold the product to me, were the videos Patrice posted of himself riding his boards, Incredible skills! Ok, you can't buy those skills, but, you could purchase the board!
I've only used Gong foils (several) and leashes. They have been really good quality. Foils might not be the lightest but not too heavy either. In addition, Gong foils are very robust and the price/quality ratio is simply excellent. Can't wait to try their new HA-series.
What comes to their customer service, it has been one of the best. Very helpful and professional, so no complaints what so ever.
P.S. you can find plenty of reviews on European forums. Not by the surf magazines but from actual users.
[1] On the weights, all boards - of all brands - are handmade, so there are weight differences inherent to hand lamination.
Their weights (with min and max) are listed on the Gong web pages, and a rebate is made on overweight boards. For instance I bought once a overweight board (first batch was at +10% weight) at a 30% rebate as I was eager to test a new shape.
Currently the range of weight is -5% to +5%, that is a range of 10%, so yes, a board stated for 10kg can weight between 9.5kg and 10.5kg. A 1kg range.
You can see the boards outside of this range listed in the "good deals" section, discounted now at -33%, they are not even listed among the normal boards to avoid confusion.
So why the hate? You will have a hard time to find more transparent brands on this.
Note that for a long time, Gong was the only manufacturer to even commit to state the weight on their pages. Even today, some SUP manufacturers do not even list the board weights (even some praised highly here), or not a range of weights, although it is impossible to have the exact same weight on all boards.
Do the experiment: go to the SUP brand sites, and look for the weights... you will be surprised.
[2] As jonysan explained, they refuse to participate in reviews where the manufacturers are asked to pay to get a good review. Most of the time this is by asking for buying an ad in the magazine, or on the site, or becoming a sponsor of a site. They stated many times this policy on their site and forum. And they have lawyers to make their decisions respected, instead of behind-the-scene dirty tricks.
(Note that even though not an employee of Gong, I have been banned from an US SUP "brand neutral" forum because its owner wanted me to pay $600/year to be able to post on it...)
I even saw the emails of an "influencer" trying to blackmail Gong by wanting some free gear, otherwise they would badmouth Gong on their videos. Knowing that "The Bear" although a "gentle giant" has been a nightclub bouncer, I think it was a very bad idea :-)
But you can see there have no issue with independent reviews, as a most recent example SUPboarder did some this year. But they never asked money from Gong, I guess because they do not rely (only) on ads, but mostly on subscribers.
supboardermag.com/what-are-you-interested-in/?_site_search=gong
Bloody hell is there anything they haven't thought of ! Amazing. Scary if you walked in with an open line of credit and made your way to the bar to kick off proceedings. 
I have friends using Gong gear, but I don't have any myself (at least not yet). I watched the Gong HQ tour video soon after it came out and liked what I saw. If I decide I want an inflatable board, I might get a Gong. Also thinking of getting their waist leash and impact vest. Those prices are hard to beat and they seem serious enough about making good gear.
There's a board weight topic on this forum and you can see how much the weights vary with other manufacturers depending on when the board was made etc. I think I worry more if the board is way under spec weight as that might mean that some resin that was supposed to go in it didn't.
Fanatic doesn't list the weight of my board at all and the width of my board in centimeters is incorrect on the website (Sky Wing 5'2", correct width is 63.5 cm). There's no way for me to even report the error.
I'd love to visit that shop! I'm also glad it's 2000 miles away, well it's really my wife who's glad it's 2000 miles away. A bar + close to 70 foils & stabs (i think he says in the video soon to be 90
) + five or so flavors of wings... + my credit card, oh no.
I think all the many different flavors of gear is very good for the sport. Definitely not easy, or most profitable for the manufacturer as less choices would be. With companies that have limited the selection we have rely on them to tell us what's good. Companies that give the customer many choices, the customers should tend to guide the company with what they purchase in the direction they want to go. In general it should mean faster progress for the tech as a whole. I remember at first some manufactures were saying a 4 meter wing is all you need...
Select to expand quoteFishdude said..
I remember at first some manufactures were saying a 4 meter wing is all you need...
Ah ah, so true!
It definitely did not age well...
