The foil season is right ahead. Although I had a great time with Starboard foils last year, especially the giant freeride foil 1600 (unfortunately discontinued for this year, which makes this front wing unique—just one year in production), I decided to make some upgrades.
I got a stronger and longer new V9 aluminum mast (it’s just fine for freeride) and a new Jumbo Evolution Mk2 fuselage (I would need new tail wings for this fuselage, so I got one 330).
The Freeride 2S (900) is a front wing that empowers you to explore sportier foiling, bridging the gap between freeride and SLR, speed and slalom foils. It’s designed for stronger winds, giving you the freedom to push your limits.
However, I also plan to step into slalom foiling with a new SLR2 880 front wing for low wind conditions and SLR2 660 for medium wind conditions (enough for me at my current skill level).
The exciting parts are the slalom SLR2 tail wings: both are 180 cm on the surface, but one is HAR (longer, thinner, high aspect ratio), and the second is regular 180 (shorter, a bit wider).
I can’t wait to try these babies on the water!
Hi Adrian, could you comment a bit on your experiences with the SLR2 wings? I would be especially interested in how they relate to the 900 freeride wing, as I have that one myself. Thanks!
Hi Anders, sorry for late answer – it seems that I did not receive a message about the comment. I hope you will manage to see it.
Freeride 900 and SLR2 wings are something completely different. 880 is much bigger in span (almost 20 cm) than freeride 900. Consequently, it lifts quicker and, in spite of that, it is faster in light wind. However, when wind picks up, 880 feels unstable and you need a lot of skill to control it, while in the same conditions 900 feels right at home. FR 900 I would take out with sails from 6m2 to 8m2, and 880 with 8m2 or bigger.
660 I can not compare with FR 900, due to a fact that I didn’t use it so much. But I can say that it needs much more wind than 900. Speed is not comparable (in favor of 660, of course).