FEEDBACK: CARBON MAST ALLVATOR 85 CM !!!

Our monobloc carbon mast is designed for the most demanding riders. Its hydrodynamics and flawless rigidity allow the best performance. Going from an aluminum mast to a carbon mast will necessarily imply an evolution of your sensations and your practice on the water, as Valentin explains to us in his Feedback.

   

“Well, after 3 days of riding with the GONG 85 carbon mast, I’m really happy.

Useful info: I weigh 46kg so my feelings will not be the same for everyone, well I think. I was riding the aluminum V1 before. I switched to carbon to save time for rigging and for a little while I had felt some play in the fuselage, but that did not change the behavior of the foil. It was also to spoil myself ;).

For my first try there was clearly no wind but I could see the biggest flaw with this mast so far. When stopped I feel the mast push upwards (quite unpleasant feeling) but I think that only a featherweight like me will feel it.

Fluidity

On the 2nd test: very light wind. It was the fluidity that surprised me. Once in the air, only happiness. It responds immediately. No shaking, you can feel everything from the foil and without the parasitic vibrations that you could feel with my aluminum mast. Funny thing, I was sure that my stab and wings were whistling. Well in the end it was my aluminum mast or the fuselage, so back to silence. Once in the air with my Curve L in the light conditions, I feel that my foil wants to go up. Pumping with the foil and the wing becomes child’s play. On the other hand during the jibes I feel that the foil wants to come out of the water (possibly that’s a bad adjustment of the foil on my behave).

3rd test: irregular wind which goes from everything to nothing. Always zero whistling except when I counter heel. If I feel I head upwind a little better than before, but not by much. The big difference that I found is when passing in the wake of a motor boat, with the aluminum I had the impression that there was a vibrator in the aluminum foil while with the carbon mast I still feel the swirl but it’s much softer. I still have a little trouble getting the nose of the board to dive into the gusts but it will come. Basically I have always had difficulties in this regard.

Maneuverability

4th session: Stormy conditions therefore irregular wind which goes from good to too much (25 to 40 knts). I was in 4m with the Veloce M and kite stab: my current combo for strong wind (from 15 knts to infinity and beyond). My first surprise on this navigation was that the carbon mast did not catch the wind (because it is much wider than the aluminum mast v1). Surprisingly, I didn’t feel I was being pushed by the wind. To be honest, I was worried about other issues : like being largely over-powered. I was worried about the mast pushing the foil up more, but no. Of course I got ejected several times, but given the conditions and my size, I had a foil and a wing too big for me. With this wind I was able to try on my knees and counter-heeling. Very stable like aluminum but much more manageable, as long as my buttocks did not touch the water it was great. So the verdict for the moment: happiness in navigation. The responsiveness and fluidity are there. During falls, you have to be careful with the wing because the mast takes a long time to sink. In the lightwind it’s not pleasant until the point you take off (at least for lightweights like me). The fluidity is magical, no vibration is felt. ”