Hi,
I have been winging for 3 years now and have had about 3 foil setups. When I try gear from other riders at my spot or at test events, it is almost always a disappointment for me. And I am talking about the foils. Not so much a wing or a board.
For me a foil is something that I have to really get used to, wich takes me some sessions or a couple of hours. When I bought my last setup I hated it at the start, but after a couple of sessions I could ride it ok, and now I love the way it behaves. If I would have tried this before buying, it would have stopped me form getting it.
Therefore I dont really care for test events or trying some one else's gear, because I now it probably doesn't tell me that much. With windsurfing or kitesurfing testing was more useful for me. But now it's much more that I look at a certain brand or front and characteristics and go with it. Anybody else have the same thing with foils, or is this just me
?
Wind and kitesurfing been going long enough for design parameters to be well understood as well as what users want to do, and there's not much difference between brands. Foiling still finding out what works best so we have to adapt to each designer e.g. Duotone add loads of chord near the mast, Armstrong complicated profiles, KT lots of bottom concave etc
I used to run windsurfing demo events when I worked as a rep.
I often had conversations with people while demoing kit about what they could expect.
Essentially, unless you are very good at understanding the nuances of board/sail/whatever kit* what you would prefer in an initial half hour sail would be whatever is most like the kit you already had. Hence, if looking for something new then arguably the last thing you should be buying.
When I'm buying kit now, the ability to demo something is very low down on my priority list. Most of the research will be on line from user reviews. Once people have had the opportunity to ride something for a long time (and the initial confirmation/new toy bias has worn off) you can generally get a very good consensus view of how a particular piece of kit fits into the market space.
*Not a direct correlation with actual riding ability. Some extremely good sailors are/were rubbish at "feeling" kit beyond like/don't like. Conversely, some reviewers, while not necessarily being amazing sailors, could really pick up on the nuances of a board's feel.
For me, when I write a review, I want a minimum of 100 miles (160km) on something to write about it. The perfect review in my opinion is 3 times that:
100 miles in flatwater
100 miles in average conditions (for me)
100 miles in epic conditions (for me)
That tallies up to 6-10 days for me.
During that time I need full access to a set of tails and fuselages in order to fully tune everything to my preference. So, you're right, demo days are really tough.
You can definitely make use of demo days, you just need to be assertive with yourself about understanding what you want and knowing how to check for it on a foil. If you just go for a demo ride without a checklist in your brain things can feel underwhelming. I, personally, don't especially love testing new gear either. It's exhausting. When I do test new gear, I run through my checklist 3 times and wait for some spark, something special to pop for me. It's just a moment, it's not a prolonged flow experience. If I find that spark though, then I know the foil is worth exploring further and the potential to buy or for writing a full review is worth my time.
