"I came early to pick up this new (to me) front foil from Ruben - the F One SK8 750. I paired it with the Carve 195 rear stabilizer. And before I could even go out, Donnel asked if I wanted to try out his Ezzy Flight 4.0
He had been out on the 5.0 version and had deflated it already. He twisted my arm and instead of pumping up my SW2 4.2, I just put a pigtail on this one and off I went."
Here's what Victor Velasco wrote after taking the Ezzy Flight Wing for a spin in Kailua, Hawaii:
Thanks for twisting my arm this morning - I've never been so impressed with a wing at first use.
Here are the great things about it:
- Luffs from the front handle like it is not there - it just followed along obediently and did not sway at all. I didn't have an issue with where the luff handle was on this wing - it seemed well situated to me (when there was air flow across it). I also think the stiffness of the luff handle is perfect - just enough give to allow the wing to eat up turbulence while carving up a wave (too stiff make the wing do unwanted things and too loose make the wing unreactive)
- Super controllable while on a wave using the front flying handle held pistol grip
- I did not hit the top end on this wing - even through the really strong gusts that were there today
- The wing is very well balanced in the hands - it was front hand controllable/steering and powered by the back hand but everything was intuitive
- It is also very nimble - I hit every tack with this wing even through the strong gusty wind. I didn't have to look for the back handle - it was just there where my hand was
- This wing rips upwind with the best of them - I was pulling up 10 (dare I say 15) degrees higher than the Armstrong XPS wings I was drag racing (they didn't know what I was doing - and maybe they would have done differently if they did know I was doing a comparison).
- I was trying out a new foil today also, so I don't know how much was the foil or the wing, but I was not disappointed with the speed. If there was less turbulence I bet I could get this thing to go even faster (I hit 21 mph in the chop today).
- Do not put windows on this wing - it is perfect without them
Here's what I found that could be improved:
- As stable as this wing was out in the surf, it was the opposite on land. It wanted to walk around when I was just holding it. I got it to sit still when I braced my forearm against the leading edge. Not sure why, but it did this more than most of the other wings I've tried.
- I think all wings do this, but I seemed to notice it more today that right after I jibed on to a wave, the wing would drop out tail first - I'm going to pay attention to this when I take it out next, and also compare it to the Reedins and Norths. Once I turned back up to a beam reach (or even a low angle broad reach) the wing would luff and get stable - its just when I chased a wave dead down wind where I had to lift the wing. I think it was doing this when I was jibing also - again I'll pay attention to this as I continue to use this wing
What I have questions about:
- The canopy isn't regular ripstop. Is this a newer low stretch fabric? Has a similar sound to it like the second generation Norths.
- Would be interesting to know what the strut and leading edge are made of - dacron, multiple layers of dacron in the connection point, some other material
- I didn't have any frustrations with the performance - but looking at the stitching pattern - there are a lot of vertical (luff to leech) seams. Lots of other manufacturers are using radial or lateral (tip the strut) stitches to limit stretching at the seams. Is there something else going on here (was this done for a performance feature, or to make more efficient use of bulk material)?
I'm definitely interested in trying out any of these wings - if they are like the 4.0, I'm going to have to rethink my quiver.
