A défaut d'avoir des retours ici, un test à priori d'un gars comme nous
C'est là :
https://starboardfoils.com/blogs/team-t ... rf-foilingTest Brief
As the Starboard Foils wing range comes back under one fully modular “Universal Connect System” platform for 2025, foilers can now choose from the full line up of front and tail wings, for any discipline. In previous years, when Starboard Foils had a split fuselage system between foiling disciplines (Evolution for windsurf foiling and QuickLock for all other disciplines), the wing selection was more tailored and narrower for each discipline, and with less options there was also less debate about which was the perfect wing to choose for a specific rider.
In light of this, I wanted to review 3 of the medium sized (800-900cm2) “auto optimised” front wings from the 2025 Starboard Foils range a weekend warrior type windfoiler might debate over as their next foil, and test them back-to-back, to give some additional guidance on which might be the best choice.
Test Background
My goal with windsurf foiling is to have a discipline that gets me on the water during the summer months when the wind is usually lighter and there usually isn’t much swell to work with, for winging, prone or downwind foiling sessions. I’ve been windsurf foiling for the last 7 years, though it’s periodic, as it’s a foiling discipline I only practice a few months in the year, usually during the summer.
I’m still subscribed to the early day pitch of windsurf foiling: the one that windsurf foiling is the ultimate solution for freeride windsurfers, looking to blast around in wind strengths that were previously inaccessible to a fin setup, without needing to use a massive cambered sail, 70cm fin or formula board.
Even if we’ve seen the performance side of windfoiling move into 1m wide boards, 110cm long foil masts, titanium fuselages, 9m sails, etc , for my purposes, that style of windfoiling… defeats the whole purpose. As such, my windfoiling quiver is extremely simple: I have a 6.0m Severne FoilGlide (V1) and a 2021 Starboard FoilX125. The sail rigs on my one and only Enigma 140-190 wave boom; and the board is compact enough to be easy to get in and out of the van, and in and out of the water. I generally don’t like to use any sort of shims or excessive tuning (unless it’s really required, to get a setup to feel right) – I just want to rig with minimal hassle, get on the water quickly and have a setup that just works; with a setup that’s fast enough to have fun, but easy enough to flatter my gybes and not scare myself or crash excessively.
Based on this, I chose not to include the SLX wings in this test, as by definition those have a much higher stall speed and are designed and tested to be used with wide slalom-foil boards and larger sails. Looking at the 2025 Starboard Foils range, the E-Type Pro 900, Glider Pro 860 and MF 820 were the 3 main fronts wings I debated might be my next favorite windfoiling wing. These all also happen to be “Auto-Optimised” shapes in the 2025 range (more details on that here:
https://starboardfoils.com/pages/2025-7 ... -optimised), so I expected big things from each one of them.
Test conditions
I’ve spent a bit of time on each of these wings previously to get to know them, but during this specific test session, I tried them all back to back, without changing any variables other than the front wing. Wind strength was roughly in the 9 knots – 12knots range (a few white caps on the outside of the bay, but none really on the inside). I generally had to wait for the gusts to come through and still then almost always needed to pump quite generously to get going – so it was definitely the “ideal” test conditions: specifically the kind of conditions I want to windsurf foil in and still have a good time.
Setup Notes
Mast track was set a little forwards of center on the board. To compare with other boards, this gives a distance of 95cm from the center of the foil mast (when measured on the top of the box on the board) to the center of the mast base. The board is 67cm wide and my weight is currently around 78kgs / 172lbs.
I’m using a Starboard Foils “Hybrid” UCS fuselage 99cm, in the “less power” position (depending on which side is pointed forwards when attaching the fuselage to the mast, this shifts the front wing’s position more or less forwards). Starboard Foils offers “Hybrid” fuselages in all the sizes they make, for customers who already had a mast from 2024 and older generations. With this “Hybrid” fuselage, you get the “old” mast to fuselage connection system, but the front and tail wing system is UCS. I already had a good Deep Tuttle mast (95cm MkII C600) that I exclusively use for windsurf foiling, so I didn’t wish to swap this out and with the Hybrid fuselage offered I can keep using this mast, whilst adapting newer UCS wings onto the setup.
Front and Tail Wing angle spacers were set at the “factory default”, which is just the 0 degree spacers that are glued into place on the fuselage. I didn’t use any of the 15mm fuselage lengthening spacers offered by Starboard Foils. Again, I don’t want to introduce any extra curricular complications in my setup: windfoiling already takes significantly longer than winging or prone foiling to get rigged, as it is.
The tail wing used throughout the test is the SLX 160.
MF 820
From the Starboard Foils’ website: “The MF is the first wing collection created using Martin Fischer and Mathieu Durand's auto-optimisation process. It's an astonishing foil with an incredible flight range. Take off quicky, fly indefinitely, with an impressive top speed that makes the MF a downwinder's dream. For windsurf and wing foilers, the MF offers amazing course racing peformance in light to medium wind conditions.”
I had used the MF 820 previously in wing foiling, when testing the original Starboard X-15 Wingboard One Design class prototypes, so I knew this wing had incredible efficiency and flight characteristics from those previous tests. However, I’d never used it windsurf foiling before and the first runs felt truly exceptional. I hadn’t yet windsurf foiled a setup that felt this efficient and “slippery”. Take off was super easy and early, but the main thing that surprised me early on with this wing was how when a gust would hit, the foil would simply accelerate and won’t want to lift or ride higher. I thought the difficulty level of this foil may be high, given its extreme shape and very soft wing tips, but it was actually very manageable. When a gust would come on, you could really turn into the wind hard and sail at pretty incredible upwind and downwind angles. After a few runs, I figured I didn’t need to test any other wing, this would be one wing I’d want to use for the rest of the summer.
Gybing wasn’t particularly easy, though. Usually on a setup I know well, my make-rate for full foiling gybes is well over 80%. However, at the start of the session on the MF, I was crashing around 50% of my gybes. I think this may be more about getting used to the setup and it certainly didn’t feel like it would be a battle getting to know the foiling and improving my gybe rate on it.
Worth mentioning: The tips of the MF 820 are incredibly thin. You need to extremely careful getting this foil in and out of the water. If you have difficult launching and rigging conditions, this factor alone may be enough to discard this wing, as even a slight impact on the wing tips would damage them very easily and as the last 5-7cm of each wing tip is this extremely thin piece of carbon, damaging this and having to sand and fix the wing would ultimately change the outline of the wing completely.
Glider Pro 860
From the Starboard Foils’ website: “Why 'all-round'? The all-new Glider Pro 2 is described as an all-round wing because it covers many foiling disciplines: it's fast for wing foiling, windsurf foiling and downwinding. It has a curved, sweeping leading edge that gives it control, stability and maneuverability. Its profile section comes from the MF series, making it somewhat a more maneuverable, less extreme version of the MF series. Why high performance? Because with its high aspect ratio, it remains heavily geared towards performance and speed, recommended for average to advanced riders.”
I had used the Glider Pro 860 once previously for windfoiling, with a larger Pro 220 tail wing, and it had felt good but not exceptional with that setup. And based on what I had felt with the MF 820, I wasn’t sure what the Glider Pro could bring to the table to compete, now paired with a smaller tail wing.
I had to work noticeably harder to make the Glider Pro 860 take off compared to the MF 820, but once up and flying.. that’s when the Glider Pro started to put up the arguments for itself. It felt significantly more “locked in” in a straight line, and with this locked in feeling, I did feel like I had an extra top gear compared to the MF.
Gybing was also more successful on the Glider Pro. Maybe it was also because I was more warmed up at this point, but my make-rate on gybes went back up to a more usual 75%.
Unlike the MF, when a stronger gust would hit, I would get the normal sensation of the foil wanting to lift up and ride higher, but in the test conditions I never had any issues with control.
The “locked in” and faster top speed feeling was really, really fun. On the beach, the wing tips of the Glider Pro are still thin and sharp, but noticeably less than the MF. So while you still need to be careful handling this foil, it’s probably more forgiving to bit of grounding and abuse than the MF.
E-Type Pro 900
From the Starboard Foils’ website: “The E-Types are a family of medium aspect wings. By nature, medium aspect wings are versatile, maneuverable and easy to control. This makes them all-round: they are suitable for a wide range of foiling styles. The Pro versions of the E-Type offer the technical rider more speed, quicker acceleration and more pop. Our most recommended wing for freestyle and high-performance freeride. Designed in collaboration with World Freestyle Champion Lennart Neubauer, SUP Surfing World Champion Benoit Carpentier and European Freestyle Champion Steven Van Broekhoven.”
The E-Type Pro 900 I was already quite familiar with, though I had only ever used it with the Pro 220 Tail Wing. That setup was the closest to my previous Freeride 2S 900 + SLR 255 Tail Wing setup, which was my go-to in previous years.
Compared to the other 2 wings, I had to work marginally harder than the Glider Pro 860 to take off, but not a whole lot so. Once up and flying, everything felt quite relaxed and civilized. Of the 3 setups tested, I would describe this one as the most “relaxed”, not that the other ones were scary or excessively technical by any means. Compared to the Glider Pro, it did lack that 5th gear, though. When a gust would come along, there wasn’t much more top speed to be gleaned from the foil – it would just kind of max out at a certain pace.
As part of Starboard Foils’ complete “Freerace” foil pack for 2025, they pair this wing with a larger Freeride 330 Tail Wing, and I would say that’s probably spot on for an intermediate freerace foiler, who wants a setup that will flatter their gybes. Without adjusting the front or tail wing angle, the SLX 160 tail wing paired with this front wing didn’t seem to provide enough lift, and the whole setup was quite backfoot heavy. It wasn’t brutal in this regards, but I don’t think this front and tail wing pairing was optimal.
Having used the E-Type Pro 900 with the Pro 220 quite a bit previously for windsurf foiling, that combination felt very balanced for front and back leg pressure, so as a general recommendation it seems this front wing would pair better with a slightly larger tail wing, for windsurf foiling. On the beach, the wing tips are the most “dull” of the wings tested, so the least prone to damage. As its the foil with the narrowest span, that also makes handling it a bit more comfortable, getting in and out of the water.
Conclusion
Every setup worked well “out of the box” and none felt like they needed any tuning or tweaking to have fun on, but each front wing definitely had its clear strengths and distinguishing characteristics. The MF 820 was undeniably the most efficient and a light wind machine. The Glider Pro 860 had a top speed and locked in feel that made it super fun to ride. The E-Type Pro 900 was composed and relaxed, the least demanding in the test, but probably needs to be paired with a slightly larger tail wing to feel really balanced.
After testing spending time of each of these wings, the real question is: “which setup am I most excited to take out again?” For me, it’s clearly the Glider Pro 860: that “locked in” higher top speed feeling when bearing off and pushing the foil harder was just super, super fun, and the easier gybing than with the MF just improves the overall fun factor.
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