Seems there are a lot of foil modifications going on as the equipment is refined. Whilst I now use Armstrong foils that are excellent, I'm now waiting for new high aspect wings which I understand are close to being released.

Having an old short GoFoil mast left over, I ordered a Gong XXL wing. The process involves ordering your gear, waiting for a return email link with the invoice and calculated shipping fee now added, pay and wait about a week for it to arrive. The wing cost about $660 delivered, whilst almost as heavy as the GoFoil 280 wing is much flatter, more high aspect and floats too.
Fitting it to the fuselage required sanding filing back the tapered mount then rebuilding with epoxy and the carbon dust from sanding to fit the Gong wing. The GoFoil taper starts about about 24mm down to about 21mm, whilst the Gong fitting needs to be about 23mm, also the GoFoil taper is about 10mm longer than the Gong wing insert. The Gong wing has two screw mount holes, requiring a new hole to be drilled to fit the screw insert of the GoFoil fuselage.
I'm still building up the fuselage for an exact tight fit, but a quick trick is to shim using aluminium strips cut from a soft drink can. Also to minimise carbon dust itch, use baby powder on any exposed skin. As always use a face mask.
I'm hoping to try the foil within the next week if conditions allow. Also the tail I'm using is a cut down Iowa tail that I repaired from an earlier mishap.
Below is the Gong XXL vs the GoFoil 280 wing.

surfcowboy said..
Not to divert the thread but can someone post a review of that Gong foil? I'm curious about it as the price, even with shipping to the US is pretty incredible. We need a demo unit here in SoCal. (I'm happy to host it of course.) ;)

But seriously who's ridden it, start a thread please.

OK, I'll go first.

First, a disclaimer: I am a Gong ambassador, and have never foiled other foils than the Gong one, and not a lot (49 foil sessions only). I can foil, turn, pump on the wave to go through flat sections, but not pump on the flat to come back to the peak.

These foil wings has been CAD-designed totally by Patrice Guenole, the Gong shaper, prototypes shaped and glassed in France by Beryl, the Gong expert foil rider (he is also a skimboard wizard) you may have seen in videos. It then has been made in China, with Patrice going physically there to drive the process. This is not a "Chinese clone". The price is low because, as for other Gong products, there are no intermediaries. But Patrice wants the Chinese factory to receive at least 50% of the total price, so workers can be well paid and have proper safety gear. If this foil was to be sold in a traditional retail shop, with the chain of the importer, distributor, etc, demo units, it would cost three times more.

The tuttle head (you can also buy a plate head), mast and fuselage are aluminium. They fit perfectly. As said in another thread, the mast is at the same dimensions as most of the other aluminium masts on the market. The wing are foam + carbon + glass, so the carbon should not touch the alu parts to minimize corrosion. Weight is reasonable at 3.5kg, the full carbon Gong foil was at 3kg. Any wing can go on any fuz, they are precisely made to specs. You can also put the smaller "kite" stab on it to enhance maniability and pumpability.

They seem solid. I mistakenly dropped the main wing on the concrete from 1m high and had only a very light scratch.

The trailing edge is much more thinner than the hellvator, but still more blunt than surf fins. Tips are well rounded for safety.

The carrying bag is neat, all pieces encased in form with romm for the 2 currently available wings, 70cm and 80cm (I have the 80cm)

On the water, this foil has a lot of lift, much more than the older Gong hellvator. It is slower, but Patrice loves speed so he tried to still have a foil that is faster than the other foils with the same lift on the market (he buys them all to compare against, so I trust him on this). It is very easy to fly, and is sane in turns, and easy to pump, again in my limited experience. All the people I know who bought it rave about it. And from the feedback of people having experience with other foils, they say that it is on par with them. (but I do not think I have had feedback from people that tried the more exotic high end foils out there, only the most common ones). It feels also very rigid with no flex or wobbles.

I guess Patrice was too obsessed by making a fast foil on the Hellvator and traded a bit of lift and behavior at low speeds in it. He corrected this in the Allvator.

At first, I was a bit wary of the alu parts, because of the corrosion and weight issues. But now I am not so sure: I love the ultra precise fit and feeling of sturdiness of aluminium, it may balance the need to dissasemble and rince it, and the slight extra weight.

This foil is so good that I refuse to sell my previous carbon foil. It would be a disservice to sell it to somebody instead of advising him/her to get the 400 euros Allvator, so my more than 1000 euros investment in my previous foil is gone. The Allvator killed the 2nd hand foil market :-(

For reference, here is an already posted video of me on it: My 97kg are on the 80cm wing.



Here is a friend, that never managed to pump a SUP foil before, on the Allvator for the first time, pulled by his son on the beach:



He is in the waveless Mediterranean sea, 75 kg on the 80cm wing, and is ecstatic, he managed 3 sessions in a week, on glorified chop of thermal winds:




You can read discussions (mostly in French) about it at: www.gong-galaxy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=9859