At last, Patrice Guenole has published all the wingspans of the Gong Wings. Up to now, he was seeing it as a kind of trade secret, and wanted to prevent the competition to get the info too quickly.
Full explanations on the gong site news of yesterday (2021-07-23) (no direct link allowed here. The relative part of the URL is /en/magazine/news-en/news-the-reduced-wingspans-of-our-wings/ ).
Here are some schematics on how the wingspans translate in action, with the natural tilting of the wing:
It is kind of cool to see the draft differences between models.
Looks to me like the Neutra has the flattest cut and the Superpower the deepest.
In general Gong provide the most in depth information on their equipment and really produce brilliant comparisons etc. Having bought many boards, foils, sups from them I won't buy a gong wing until they produce weight info. I had their 1st generation gong wing as soon as it came out which was super heavy but it got me into the sport. Since then I've tried around 10 different brands wings and have settled on the lightest and smallest wingspan of any I can find. That's my personal criteria - light and small wingspan and a tight canopy. I asked gong for weights of their wings and they said they don't give this info out. A shame as I could be missing out on a great wing from Gong. I still love Gong but feel they could be more transparent..
Select to expand quoteIanInca said..
I still love Gong but feel they could be more transparent..
Yes, Patrice having been in the industry for decades is quite paranoid on some issues, especially when it comes to magazine tests (he has seen the kind of corruption needed to score well in tests - at least in France), and design steals in the factories (of all countries, not only China). Brands with big budgets (i.e., big margins) are not shy to strong-arm factories behind the scenes. Gong had to change factories many times, when after teaching a factory how to build boards, some representative would come and convince the director (lavish parties, gifts, exclusive business deals...) to stop working with Gong and working with his clients instead, using the gained knowledge...
But I guess Gong is big enough now for Patrice to feel a bit less vulnerable, and is opening up a bit. First he disclosed the board rockers, now the wings spans... he is (slowly) evolving. Note that he does not censor customers, who are free to post the wing weights on the Gong forum of Facebook groups, so you may ask them there.
Select to expand quotecolas said..IanInca said..
I still love Gong but feel they could be more transparent..
Yes, Patrice having been in the industry for decades is quite paranoid on some issues, especially when it comes to magazine tests (he has seen the kind of corruption needed to score well in tests - at least in France), and design steals in the factories (of all countries, not only China). Brands with big budgets (i.e., big margins) are not shy to strong-arm factories behind the scenes. Gong had to change factories many times, when after teaching a factory how to build boards, some representative would come and convince the director (lavish parties, gifts, exclusive business deals...) to stop working with Gong and working with his clients instead, using the gained knowledge...
But I guess Gong is big enough now for Patrice to feel a bit less vulnerable, and is opening up a bit. First he disclosed the board rockers, now the wings spans... he is (slowly) evolving. Note that he does not censor customers, who are free to post the wing weights on the Gong forum of Facebook groups, so you may ask them there.
I can see how frustrating this must be for Gong. I asked more than once about the weight and the advisors (who are great) said they can't tell me. I could post and ask but if I'm spending alot of money on products and have been a customer its feels wrong. So I buy my wings at another company.
