Velocicraptor forum posts in last 60 days

I have the AFS UHM 85 and the Skinny 75. The Skinny 75 is noticeably easier to get onto foil and stay on foil when I'm at the low end of my power range. That said, I do prefer the additional buffer of the 85 length when I'm properly powered. So I choose my mast depending on conditions and what other gear selections I'm making (foil, board and sail).

Not as vintage as some of whats in this thread, but my 115L Quattro wing drifter bathtub of a board, Lift 170 and Cabrinha Mantis V1 were state of the art at the time. The flex in that foil setup compared to what we have now, is crazy to even think about. I went from that to a Takuma aluminum setup (also extremely flexy with TONS of slop in all the connections). I remember eventually going to a Cedrus mast and basically having my mind blown by the stiffness. A stiff mast and solid connections was probably the single biggest step in gear that I've witnessed in this sport - far beyond the evolution, boards, foils or wings.

patronus said..
Might be confusing myself here but AFS say about shims "These shims optimize the ULTRA's performance when used with the standard FUSELINK fuselage, mimicking the feel of the titanium fuselage. On the ULTRA + FUSELINK + U-GLIDE setup, you should shim the stabilizer down by positioning the thick part of the shim under the rear screw." An interview said the forthcoming Titanium fuse was like the Advanced carbon but slimmer, so has different angles than the Standard. They also say "The silk V2 and U-Surf have evolved shim angles compared to the rest of the range. Reduced stabilizer angle + increased SILK angle"
Putting that together sounds like the Advanced fuse gives any stab a shallower angle, and the U-surf has a shallower angle built into it too.

That's all very confusing. Where did you see that? I hope Afs isn't getting into the shim game. That would be a mistake. The gear rides great out of the box and I thankfully haven't had to shim anything (yet).

why wouldn't they just keep the fuses the same and build the shim into the wings and stabilizers rather than having fuses with different angles. Makes no sense.

I just had my first sessions on the 5m quest. I'm coming from the pocket rockets and was looking for something with more low end and easier to stash. Overall I'm very happy with the quest - it definitely accomplishes what I was looking for. I was pleasantly surprised with the upwind angles. Seems a little less than the pocket rocket but not huge difference for me and a good tradeoff for the low end. It isn't a "downwind parawing" and it rides upwind just fine for me. Super impressed at how neutral it rides on the front lines and how well it behaves overpowered. I was riding in 14-20 knot winds and it was very comfortable in that range. I think the f one wind ranges are about right although the top end might be slightly exaggerated. I probably wouldn't want to be on the 5 in consistent 20+ knot wind (fone says 21 knots as top end).
the white A lines are crazy in how they kill the power in the wing. As soon as you pull them even a little bit the sail collapses. That situation is new to me and is going to take some getting used to. As soon as I would begin to run them through my hands to collapse the sail, it would fall out of the sky no matter how powered it was. This is nice in how quickly you can get the sail out of the sky (sometimes I would have to fight the pocket rocket as it retained a bit of power while stashing), but it happens so fast on the quest that it can lead to situations where you haven't run your hands all the way to the leading edge but the sail has collapsed and it can start twisting. You need to get your hands to the sail very quickly to avoid this. Curious if anyone else has noticed this and figured it out.
Having a clean bar without B lines is super nice. I had some situations that would have lead to bad tangles on the pocket rocket that were very simple to undo on the quest.
after riding it and feeling the wind range I think I could have gotten by with a 1.5m gap in sizes. Still glad that I got a 5/4 (still have a pocket rocket 3) but I think I could have done 5/3.5.
super nice sail and excited to spend more time on it.

AlexF said..
I ride a custom board for winging with all the described parawing attributes, a 6'1 x 22, 95 liters being 94 kg.
IMO these "para" boards also work perfectly for winging, esp. if you like to ride smaller wingsizes that you have to pump on foil rather than getting pulled on foil by wing power.
Combine that smaller wing preference with gusty, light and/or choppy conditions and you highly appreciate the 22" width and the stabillity the recessed deck is giving.

I agree. I have a 73 liter Frank 6'x20" that I bought as an all around travel board for wing and parawing. It does both extremely well and the compromise for winging is minimal vs my dedicated 5' 60L board. I have dedicated parawing and wing boards, but I can see myself riding the Frank 85% of the time.

WindMode said..
Both boards are fine. I regularly ride a 110L ASC F-One board at the wing school I teach at and its a fine board. Little big in my opinion and no straps is a miss, but fine for progression so definately a step up. The appletree is probably fine too, a little shorter so probably less glide, I always found the F-One board very easy to get up. Regarding the appletree, construction is a +, probably lighter than the F-One, although not necessarily more ding resistant. I own an Appletree Jazz, and while I like the construction and stiff feel, I dont really like the shape. Slow to plane, and the angle of attack feels all wrong without adjusting the foil rake (which brings other negative effects like additional slower planing). In my opinion there should be an incline between the deck and bottom angle (slightly raised frontfoot), and the Appletree designer doesnt share that opinion and goes for 100% parallel deck and bottom. You have to like that feel, I do not. Also depends on what foils you ride, F-One generally pairs well with everything.

Agree that the skin on the Appletrees isn't really ding resistant, but if you do get dings you don't have to worry about them absorbing water like you do on the F-One. Any 4 or 5 year old board has probably gotten a ding somewhere, so this would give me some peace of mind. The tracks on the Appletree are bombproof though, so it really shouldn't have any softening there like you might see on older boards from other manufacturers. Jazz is a pretty sluggish shape in general. I haven't ever had any issues with deck angle on the Appletrees personally, but F-One foils are made to be ridden with the rake on F-One boards, so thats probably what you are feeling.

Ive had the v1, v2 and v3 Appleslice. The v1 is a kind of a weird board. It will probably work fine, and will absolutely be a big upgrade from your inflatable board but I wouldn't call it a "modern design" in today's terms. Quite wide, old school tail design, and truncated length vs more modern options, which are built with a lot more efficiency. The v2 is still a modern and relevant design and the improvement from the v2 to v3 is much smaller than the v1 to v2, which are totally different from one another.

v1 board has more of a skipping takeoff from the water due to the flatter hull and limited length. v2 and v3 build much more speed before takeoff.

I suppose it all comes down to how much it costs and what else is available to you. Yes it will be an upgrade, but is it the best option? Hard to say.

Faff said..

Velocicraptor said..

Fishbone80 said..
Thank you! The chinooks look nice. What size fixed lines do you use on a boom? The parawing ones look good too. Aren't bungee lines too stretchy?

There is a fixed line inside the bungees, so once it is stretched to the length of the fixed line it stops stretching. The bungee retracts when it is unloaded.

Im pretty tall, but I use the 26" chinook. I'd probably go 24" if I bought it again.

So, would a 24" Chinook windsurf monoline be equivalent to a Medium PKS bungee monoline (since 24"/ 2 = 12" or 30 cm)?

Yes, I assume so. I should have one within the next few days and will measure it out. I got a medium and a large.

The weight of the mono harness lines makes a big difference. If they are heavy with a bunch of bells and whistles, they will swing a lot when you are pumping the wing and can clock you in the face. I used a setup from wingman (www.wingman-products.com/the-wingman-loop-system/) that looked perfect on paper but was unusable because it kept whacking me in the face. From my experience the lighter and simpler the better. I currently use one from Chinook that is pretty good, although still overbuilt in my opinion.

I recently saw these bungee mono lines and bought one to experiment with for wing and parawing. Like the bungee feature and minimalist setup.

kiteboarding.com/proddetail.asp?prod=pks-wing-parawing-single-point-bungee-harness-line-v1

Your wind is really light, but once you are positive buoyancy (or within 10 liters on either side) I don't really see a benefit for another 10 liters. The board shape is going to have much more of an impact on your efficiency than those extra liters. If you are going positive buoyancy I suggest a mid length with a pin tail. I don't have experience with the Skybird, but from the look of it, I think there are boards that are probably more optimized for positive buoyancy efficiency. That board looks like a bit of a flat planing hull which I find to be more efficient on lower volume boards. Take a look at the higher volume Omen Emmisary or Appletree Skipper Mid boards for a good example of the pin tail and some displacement features, which add to the efficiency on the positive bouyancy boards. Or demo the Skybird and see what you think.