GEAR: UNDERSTANDING THE V3 STABS AND HOW TO PAIR THEM WITH YOUR FRONT

Each of our V3 stabs has a unique character that allows you to tailor your front wing to your riding style.

When choosing a stab, the principle is to match it in size and use it’s designed for with the front wing. So, if you've identified the front wing you need, the choice of stab naturally follows. For example, a Curve L front wing is primarily paired with a Curve L stab. However, you can deviate from this recommendation to fine-tune the character of your setup.

To do this, it’s essential to understand the character of each stab, which Patrice Guénolé, boss and shaper at GONG, clarifies in this response shared in our GONG Galaxy group and included below.

Understanding the V3 stabs

“What I think is that we’ve created a V3 range of stabs that are all very different. Ideally, you should love some of them and hate others. They are versatile, but they provide a truly different feel between each model. These feelings align with different styles. They all have a very high performance potential, so that’s no longer a distinguishing factor. Therefore, the first step is to clearly identify your feeling/needs. To summarize:

Curve: excellent and progressive, seamless rail-to-rail, but with strong maneuverability (relatively short fuselage), and outstanding efficiency at low speeds.
Fluid: glide and responsiveness for dynamic handling, but with a fuselage long enough to mix super glide with responsiveness.
Veloce: incredible glide and total neutrality. It puts your foil in silent mode: smoothness, length in movements, consistency, stability, with effortless performance.
Surf-Freestyle: it's a very nervous Curve. Very short fuselage and insane rail to rail, so your foil goes into overexcited mode. It moves in all directions and without any inertia.
Freestyle: it's an unridable Curve. With this one, you’re not aiming for comfort or glide. It's simply a catapult. Your foil wants to come out non-stop. You shift your hips back a bit, and bam—it pops in a thrilling way.

You understand that combining these characteristics with those of the front wings creates dozens of possibilities.

For example: the best combo for freefly is the Veloce front wing paired with the Veloce stab. If you add a Fluid stab, you gain more presence, allowing you to push your Veloce front wing further. The best surf combo for glide is the Fluid front wing with the Fluid stab. It’s lively and glides incredibly well. Add a Curve stab, and the Fluid front wing can carve even tighter turns. If you use a Surf-Freestyle stab, you’ll get the wildest foil for engaged surfing, including surf foiling. Pair a Surf-Freestyle front wing with the corresponding stab, and you can pivot on the spot to tackle tricky spots.

Regarding size, it’s like extrapolating characteristics. At the right size: okay, that's normal. Larger: it provides more lift and amplifies the feeling while calming the front wing. Smaller: there’s a significant increase in liveliness, leading to greater agility for experienced riders and instability for others. It’s an endless game, where no one is right or wrong. Everyone has their own truth. The most important thing is: EVERYTHING WORKS. This is where the V3 concept is comprehensive. You may love it or not, but it will perform incredibly well. In other words, the promise will be fulfilled. Have fun exploring your feelings, as it’s a source of endless enjoyment.”