it is an intriguing idea ... great for travel or limited space. I can see this being potentially good for a surf foil, where extra flotation may help in catching tiny waves. iSUPs are POS for surfing, but for a foil, once out of the water the board doesn't matter.

My worry would be stiffness and durability. The carbon plate looks decent. I wonder if it would be better to have the back third of the board be regular board construction, housing the foil, then the inflatable part is the rest of the board above the carbon plate?

Tell them they can send one my way, I'll give it the extra special treatment, see if I can break it -- solid Canadian R&D testing, no charge.

colas said..
After one year in secret development, Gong unveiled its (half-) inflatable foil board, the "Hipe" (to pronounce with a with French accent ;-) )
It combines a rigid large carbon plate for the foil connection with an inflatable body, and folds in a small suitcase.

5'3" x 27"9/16 x 110l

Disclaimer: I am a Gong ambassador.

What is the weight?Is there other sizes?

Price/when is it available?

Very interested.

At my height my stance will probably almost fit on the plate so stiffness won't be an issue.

Cant wait to see this.

Colas, tell those guys I bought a Gong XL and am foiling SoCal on it thanks to your forum posts.

No details yet on the availability and weight (other than "the same as for a rigid board"). Only one size for now, and only front straps. Info will be posted on their forum and facebook group. Based on the initial reactions, the demand will be huge. As always, if it sells well, it is likely that other models may comes for the V2.

They worked a full year testing prototypes secretly (their boat was useful to keep tests away from competitors eyes), and are so satisfied with it that they have filed a patent for the building process.

On the video I was impressed by the rigidity of the board/mast connection in tight turns. Beryl Bisseau just told me that for him "it was like a rigid board for turning and pumping, and in the waves its behaviour was exactly the same"

Beryl: "turn et pomping tout pareil qu'une planche rigide, dans les vagues le comportement est exactement le m?me"

Surfcowboy, thanks, but my role is just to advise people in general. I have no incentive in gear sales. Well of course, selfishly, I would like Gong to do well enough so that it continues building fun toys for me to buy ;-)

Edit: Patrice just told me: "It's incredible. At 15PSI you cannot feel the difference with a Zuma (Gong hard board). And the shape of the rails allows to fly earlier than a Lemon"
in French: "c'est vraiment bluffant. A 15PSI tu ne sens pas la diff?rence avec une Zuma. Et la forme des rails permet de voler plus t?t qu'en Lemon."

JB said..
My Naish inflato Foilboard gets here in 2 weeks

Looking forward to getting it on the water.

JB

Tell us more!

colas said..
After one year in secret development, Gong unveiled its (half-) inflatable foil board, the "Hipe" (to pronounce with a with French accent ;-) )
It combines a rigid large carbon plate for the foil connection with an inflatable body, and folds in a small suitcase.

5'3" x 27"9/16 x 110l

Disclaimer: I am a Gong ambassador.

Looks awesome! Totally going to buy an inflatable for Travel. New F-One rocket airs look ace too... new 5'4" size is 120ltr.

And it is now pre-orderable on the site. Planned availability August 10th.

7 sizes to choose from, from 4'8" 48 liters to 7'5" 200 liters
The same price as the cheapest Gong hard construction (wood2x), and a tad lighter.
Two thirds of the price of the high end Gong carbon boards (PVC carbon sandwich), but a bit heavier.
The shapes differ a bit between sizes: the bigger ones are more streamlined.

Note that the resulting board is quite cheap, considering the price of the high quality materials: just the 2.5kg pre-preg carbon plate would amount to about 500 euros to manufacture by itself in small quantities. The benefits of direct manufacturing and sales and economies of scale.

They have more volume for the same length than hard boards because thickness cannot be tapered at the tips. So, if length is important for you (for the row effect for SUP foiling for instance), you may have to get more volume than a rigid board.

Range:



Note: the graph above depends a lot on the level of the rider for the Wing and SUP use.

JB said..
My Naish inflato Foilboard gets here in 2 weeks

Looking forward to getting it on the water.

JB

Can you tell us more about this option ?

Filow said..
The website has trouble na ? Impossible to connect to some pages

They have just published it now, so maybe you have to retry in some minutes as some pages may be still being updated.

Otherwise just email me ([email protected]) or PM me the urls you have problems with to see if I have the same issues from here.

Clearly heavy toys.

Oh sorry I have critized the product

Witch brand is it ? I missed this.

what I mean is that gong is making good products for sure but i believe as a standard customer for different brand that we don t need the gong stuff of other brand stuff to be justified on a forum this is just a place for riders to speak about their experience not an adverstising panel

Filow said..
what I mean is that gong is making good products for sure but i believe as a standard customer for different brand that we don t need the gong stuff of other brand stuff to be justified on a forum this is just a place for riders to speak about their experience not an adverstising panel

My post just bring information, which I feel is needed because part of it is gathered from French sources, and most people here do not read French. I think people read this forum to get information, be involved in discussion, read or get feedback, etc. An new inflatable foilboard is quite an interesting news, as there are not many on the market. As are new kind of fins, new kind of leashes, etc... Gong or not. I will "promote" innovative inflatable boards here if I feel they are unknown, Gong or not, e.g: www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Stand-Up-Paddle/Review/Inflatable-SUP-with-a-small-tail?page=1
You issued statements about an objective quantity, the weight, so I answered. I wont say that this model works better or not than another one, that's subjective.

Feel free to post info on your brand, just like JB did above mentioning that Naish was also having an offering in the works, which is the kind of info I think people are interested in reading.

emmafoils said..

colas said..

Filow said..
what I mean is that gong is making good products for sure but i believe as a standard customer for different brand that we don t need the gong stuff of other brand stuff to be justified on a forum this is just a place for riders to speak about their experience not an adverstising panel

My post just bring information, which I feel is needed because part of it is gathered from French sources, and most people here do not read French. I think people read this forum to get information, be involved in discussion, read or get feedback, etc. An new inflatable foilboard is quite an interesting news, as there are not many on the market. As are new kind of fins, new kind of leashes, etc... Gong or not. I will "promote" innovative inflatable boards here if I feel they are unknown, Gong or not, e.g: www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Stand-Up-Paddle/Review/Inflatable-SUP-with-a-small-tail?page=1
You issued statements about an objective quantity, the weight, so I answered. I wont say that this model works better or not than another one, that's subjective.

Feel free to post info on your brand, just like JB did above mentioning that Naish was also having an offering in the works, which is the kind of info I think people are interested in reading.

I appreciate colas' posts as a source of information about what is out there. He clearly states his role in the brand and he certainly has the right to give his opinion.

Sure I Agree

Looks interesting great for travelling plus I am getting sick of $2000 boards that fall apart and then get waterlogged heavy and hard to dry out. 7.5 kg seems light enough to me and they should be fairly robust.