Thanks for the review. Really interesting and good to hear that you would consider using it instead of your regular kit, which is about as high a praise as you can get! As an insider to AK I have a few comments! The adjustable stab is worthy of note and adjusting the angle of this makes a MASSIVE difference to how you trim the foil for you personally. There is an all carbon integrated stab coming, but it's not adjustable, and I'm not sure if loosing this will be a problem vs any increase in efficiency - it's really unique feature that is loved by all ak riders. Knocking aoa off the rear stab will increase the top speed but pitch doesn't stabilise until you get to higher speeds. 1030 will do 25kts on 3 second average and the 800 I have seen 28kts @3 sec average. The 200 stab is pretty optimal in my eyes for the 1030, I drop to the 180 for the 800. There is a lot more to come on this platform, but the 1030 is such a good start.. Thanks for the review, very thorough!
Hi, thanks for commenting. I did play around with the adjustable stab and it was possible to make it faster and glide more with adjustment - and very easy to do that, which is great. It's an interesting concept to have it adjusted in this way and the only downside I could see was that if you are someone who always disassembles, getting it back in exactly the same place everytime you ride may be tricky. I wonder if some sort of notching could be introduced to this so you can adjust it in half degrees so you know you have put it back exactly as you last rode it rather than having to maybe put marks on the stab or fuselage to record your preferred settngs. I agree it's a good start and as a reviewer I did wonder if the 1030 would scale up and down with the same characteristics as inevitably as you go bigger and smaller things do change - so usually I like to try to ride a few of the foils in a range in order to do a thorough review - obviously in this instance only the 1030 was available, so only the 1030 got reviewed.
Great review, thanks! Was able to try the Tracer v3 1030 only once so far on a wingboard in shitty conditions on a small (46l) board. Comparing to the Plasma v1 1000cm the Tracer is more agile from rail to rail, more pitch sensitive, handels the wingtip breaching far better, reentry after a jump is excellent. Getting on foil requires a bit of speed, the Plasma was up and flying quicker just by hitting the back foot. The Tracer 1030 is by far more suitable as a kitefoil comparing to Plasma 1000 and the Tracer 880 is superb as a kitefoil. So far only flatwater tests, need to try the new Tracer wings in the waves to compare and evaluate the glide.
Great review. Im a beginner heading towards intermediate and i have the new 1600 tracer and love it. Its easy to ride and so much more fun and efficient than the larger foil i started on. Im looking forward to getting the 1300 next. 👍
Thanks for putting this together, I found it really useful. My first few years of foiling were on AK foils but I moved after a reliability issue with the inserts in the previous carbon mast. Unfortunately for heavier riders, I think the reliability issues are wide spread. This new stuff caught my eye as they’ve moved to a far more bomb proof construction/connections. This type of approach is being adopted across a few brands now and it seems to be on the right track. Interestingly one of the best things for me about AK was the yaw. I could pivot the older foils under my feet like a turntable which I loved for kiting. I think that was more about how close the mast used to be behind the foil, so I don’t think this new series will be quite the same. I totally agree re the flat bolts on the top plate, never liked that. Curious if you felt the mast was less stiff than others, or if it was just the construction made you dubious?
yes, I think this new way of doing front foils whilst a bit more expensive is actually a lot cleaner and removes a point of failure from the system. The new series certainly has the looser yaw you talk about but I haven;t used previous generations so I can;t say if it is the same or not. The mast is hollow and light weight - and that made me think it probably isn't going to stack up against something like an Axis HM Mast (that I usually ride).
This is very interesting - I also loved having the mast close to the front foil as it gave a real pivot. The new setup looses this a little, but not too much, like he says it's still quite loose in yaw.. The mast is 14mm, so very thin - and the torsional stiffness very impressive. If you want stiffer you need to go thicker, and if you want to stay at 14mm, you need to get your chequebook out!
Nice review, thanks! Having to put 96 kg and 191cm in the scale, I'm curious if this Tracer 1030 would be my to go to size, so also for lighter winds... Just curious and to make a good comparison: What's your weigh/size...
I am 85kg 187cm - bear in mind this is only a 1030cm area foil, so it does require a bit of wind to get going, I'm not sure I would use it as a light wind foil.
@@RonKolijn I don't think it will ever exist, wings can only produce a certain amount of lift for their area, so you will always need a bigger one for lighter winds
