27 posts
Depends on how you ride. If you want to progress with more tricks and jumping and want to become better at pumping the wing and the board -> go for the 80. If you don't want to work as hard to get on foil in very light conditions -> 90.
I'm 72kg and use a 70L midlength. I'm foiling in similar conditions sometimes (lake,fluctuating and gusty winds, often marginal conditions). With that board and a 4M Wing i can get going at around 6-8 knots by pumping very hard. Basically as soon as the wing flies on it's own i can yank myself up onto foil. It's all a question of technique and how hard you want to challenge yourself. :-)
27 posts
Had my first session on the 3.5 Rover yesterday. Wind was very gusty from around 18 knots all the way up to 40+. The thing that stood out the most for me was indeed the top end. Even in very strong gusts i was able to hold on the the 3.5 (even with gloves) and i nearly couldn't make it collapse by pulling full force on the front lines.
Apart from that here are my thoughts:
- It's very reactive in Tacks and Jibes although I could not say just yet if it's better or worse than other current flagship models in this aspect.
- Upwind angles are very good.
- Line length on the 3.5 is perfect for me as a 1.78m male with rather low ape index. I've heard that the lines on the 5 are not that much longer either.
- Nice bar. Light and comfortable.
- Not a fan of the "Stash Ring" but it's easily removable.
Very happy so far but also keen to keep exploring the wing further.
27 posts
Got my 5.0 and 3.5 last week. They look and feel great, awesome bag. Have not had the chance to test them on the water. Will post my thoughts once I did. I'm sure Gav will upload a review soon as well.
27 posts
We have a very active dockstarting community here. While I personally did not learn using a foilscoot, here are my obersvations from our spot:
1) Amazing for safety/kids. I've seen so many nearly-dangerours falls from both adults and kids learning dockstarting. With the scoot they can just keep holding the handle and will almost never fall into the direction of the foil.
2) It's much easier to get started. I've seen people doing small laps on their first day using the foilscoot and a beginner pumping setup. I've never seen that with regular dockstarting. However, ...
3) the transition from the scoot to "regular" dockstarting/pumping is not as easy as people might expect. It's almost like another discipline and some of the muscle memory from the foilscoot might even be bad for normal pumping. So once people want to start normal pumping, they are back to the scary falls
For me the main reason to get one would be if i had kids to get them onto foil in a safe & accessible way.
27 posts
Honestly, why change system? Just get a new frontwing from Gong (Like the Curve H). In the Fiberglas version these are very affordable even new. The Curve H will be a huge upgrade from your X-over and keep you happy for a long while and assist you in learning new skills (consistent jibes, tacks, different jibe variants, ...).
At your current level the upgrade from a beginner to a progression Foil will be much more noticeable than the slight performance gain from a slightly more efficient foil system.
I'm on the Gong V3 Carbon stuff (mostly Veloce H / HDW) and absolutely love my gear even as an advanced rider.
