10,000 miles of notes on mast selection: Searching for perfection.

Intro

My first few years of foiling I put pretty minimal thought into mast selection. The only thing I ever considered was length and aluminum vs carbon. As my riding progressed and I tested more gear I started to notice differences in performance based on a variety of traits and it gave me a new perspective. As I cross the 10,000 miles of foiling mark this season I'm excited to both share what I've learned, as well as see where the industry is headed in 2025 and beyond. I'm going to cover a lot in this article. Pros and cons of many various things that you might not even have a choice on. Some subjects I'll have opinions on, others I wont. Feel free to skip through sections if necessary or soak it all in for your reference and consideration when picking a new mast or brand in the future. I have spent the most time on Cloud IX and AFS gear so you will see multiple references to those companies throughout the article.

What makes a mast "perfect"?

This will be different for everyone. Your style, discipline, local conditions, all go into what makes the perfect mast. I see the mast as the core of my foiling experience. It links the board to the foil and can completely make or break the entire experience. When I foil, I'm looking for the best possible turns. As such, I expect the perfect mast to provide no limitations on my carving experience.

Material Choice

Impacts: Everything

In my opinion, the easiest choice to make is material. I learned with aluminum and graduated to carbon. After that you have different grades of carbon which you will commonly see labeled as intermediate, high (HM), and ultra high modulus (UHM) carbon. At this point in my foiling I only intend to ride UHM. The reason for this is that the performance benefits that can be obtained through a stiffer, AND thinner mast are only available via UHM carbon (as far as I know).

Interestingly enough, sourcing UHM carbon doesn't seem to be easy for every company. It almost seems as though there is a bit of a rift forming in the industry where some companies have affordable access to it while others don't which I'm a bit confused by.

Stiffness

Impacts: Everything

Undoubtedly one of the most important traits of any mast. You can have the best foil in the world or the most unbelievable board but if you slap a floppy mast in the middle I honestly feel like you've wasted those gains. EVERYTHING is getting stiffer in the industry. When it comes to future proofing my performance against any new foils I stick to the UHM carbon now so that I don't get any funky surprises with new foils, stiffness issues, or drag concerns. At my weight, (86kg) I don't have any stiffness issues with UHM masts down to 12.8mm thickness.

I find these things demand different stiffness levels:

• Mast length

  • Longer is more demanding.

• Rider style

  • Harder turns. Tip breaching and higher speeds need stiffness.

• Rider weight

  • Bigger riders demand more.

• Foil size

  • Larger cm^2 and wider spans push masts.

• Foil construction

  • UHM foils and tails that are completely rigid will punish soft masts.

• Board length and width

  • Longer and wider boards allow you to overpower, twist and flex the mast more easily.

• Water conditions

  • Mixed currents, whitewash, turbulent water, all challenge stiffness.

How can you tell if the mast isn't stiff enough?

Until you've felt the difference this is hard to understand. Here's some symptoms that I have experienced while foiling that can be related to masts not being stiff enough:

• Vibration at speed.

  • The first aluminum mast I owned seemed completely fine until I got up to higher speeds on it. Then, it would shake violently and scare the life out of me.

• Insecurity in whitewater and turbulence.

  • I've consistently found that across brands when I upgrade to a stiffer mast they manage water turbulence far better.

• Ineffective pump.

  • The stiffest masts I ride hop up and out of the water with a direct energy transfer. The softest masts are desperately hard to pump and link swell on. They seem to consume, instead of transfer energy.

• Insecurity in foil tip breaches.

  • The first foils I rode couldn't breach at all. Most modern foils are now capable of breaching tips and every foil I've ridden extensively on multiple masts breach better when they are on a stiffer mast.

• Insecurity in advanced maneuvers.

  • When you ride a rock solid setup it disappears underneath you. It's magic. When you swap the mast out for something softer you can without a doubt feel it. Hard laid over maneuvers become unstable, almost as if the mast is flexing and rebounding through the turns. It plants seeds of doubt in your turns and leads to crashes.

The best example my data can provide of what can happen when the mast isn't stiff enough. The ride becomes unreliable, stall speeds are raised, and you spend more time in the water than on it:

No singular trait can be defined as the only important aspect to choosing a mast. However, I would argue that stiffness is one of two traits that in my opinion the discussion is closed on. Everyone benefits from a stiffer mast.

Thickness

Impacts: Speed, Glide, Drag

Most of us don't get to put a lot of thought into the thickness of our masts. Many brands don't publish this information so it doesn't cross everyones mind. The material chosen for the build seems to dictate the thickness of the mast:

Standard carbon, aluminum, and universal masts all seem to land in the 16mm or thicker range.

Most companies now have a high modulus carbon mast that lands between 14mm-16mm for a majority of the length.

Ultra high modulus carbon masts tend to land in the 12.2mm-13.8mm range from foil to board.

As you can see, the higher level carbons allow for decreased thickness while maintaining stiffness. For the average rider, how does that actually impact us on the water? I looked back at all my data, for every foil and mast I've ever ridden, and saw a trend that went across all brands, foils, and masts. Higher average speed. This is the most measurable way I've found to identify drag. I like looking at the average because while I can typically push any foil or mast to higher speeds with a wing, what matters most to me is how well I am able to glide and maintain speed when I am unpowered by a wing or swell.

How much faster?

The slowest mast I tested was 19mm thick at the foil and the fastest mast I tested was at 12.8mm thick. The difference in average speed for me was 16% or about 2-3mph with a nice smooth trend of average speed gains for all the sizes in between. Change the foil out, change the brand out, and the same trend keeps showing itself.

The next question that has to be asked is how does that translate to the on water experience?

Where I ride this equated to a few different experiences:

• Slower masts needed smaller foils to match the speed of larger foils. This, unfortunately, puts the smaller foil closer to its stall speed delivering a more technical and less forgiving riding experience.

• When downwinding and linking swell 2-3mph is the difference in falling off the back of swell, or having the speed necessary to score a few extra turns and gaining the ability to overtake the swell in front of you.

• Higher average speeds, less drag, give greater range to all of my foils. The same foil that maxes out on one mast can keep up in pumping conditions on another. They can slog when underpowered a little better. When I blow a turn and shoot into the back of the next swell I have more time to get back to an energy source because of a lack of drag pulling my speed down towards stall territory.

• That added range to the foils translates into smaller hand wing choices. A thinner mast with less drag allows a larger foil to squeeze out a little more high end. This can allow a winger to drop .5m-1m off their sail for a more enjoyable experience.

• The most efficient masts allow me to choose to ride less efficient (medium aspect ratio) surf foils. I choose to sacrifice foil glide efficiency in favor of better turns.

Physicality impact:

From a winging perspective, I see thickness, and drag, as an issue that translates into wear and tear on my body. I'm 40, I've got a lifetime of adventuring, professional climbing, backcountry guiding, and construction wear and tear on my body. Once upon a time I thought I wanted to be a physical therapist. I worked therapeutics with professional athletes, learning a lot about how to identify optimal movements and avoid injury for career longevity. I seem to be a 3000 mile a year foiler and I'd guess that 1000 of those miles is simply riding swell downwind and not worrying about a sail. The other 2000 miles are going upwind, zipping around on lightwind days, sailing around the river, all things that require me to hold a powered wing. My wrists, elbows, shoulders, tendons, muscles, all feel best when I am on low drag setups. Heart rate data seems to tell the same story. When simply riding swell downwinding without the wing involved my heartrate seems to settle in around 85bpm. When using my body as a dampener between foil and sail drag my heart rate averages 95-100bmp with thin, efficient gear. 120bpm is where my heart seems to stabilize with thicker gear.

I don't race, do I really need a more efficient setup?

Other than seeing how fast I can rig up and get in the water I don't race either. The mast is essentially the unchanging variable in almost everyones foiling kit. I always want the stiffest, thinnest, fastest, most efficient starting point. From there I can easily tune my speed with different foils and tails if I have a desire to go slower.

Options?

Thinner setups are the future of foiling IMO. They are more fun, higher performance, and easier on your body. I would even speculate that the added range efficient kits give to my foils saves me money because I maximize the performance of my existing gear and no longer need to have a massive quiver to pick from day by day. I mentioned that stiffness is one of two traits that everyone benefits from. Thickness is the other. I see nothing but performance gains to be had from thinner masts. The challenge of these two together is that stiff and thin requires the highest level of materials and manufacturing. The carbon seems to have to be UHM and the construction and quality control has to be as close to perfect as possible.

I don't expect to buy another mast or into another brand that doesn't have mast options that are 13.9mm or less. That's a personal decision of course. There's plenty of people having a blast on thicker masts (just like I did). Here's the masts on the market that I have ridden or would like to try in the thin range:

AFS UHM standard and skinny range: 12.2mm-13.8mm (I've own the 12.8mm and have ridden the 13.8mm extensively. AFS has many models to choose from)

One Ocean Sports: 12.2mm-12.8mm (from foil to middle) (axis standard, brand adaptable)

Mikes Lab: 13mm-13.5mm (reported to me 2nd hand)

Flitelab: 13.6mm (reported from Adam Bennetts)

Allure mast from Kparts: (13.2mm at base to 14.2mm at top) (brand adaptable)

There's definitely more masts that taper down to thin dimensions at the foil but most quickly thicken in the middle to over 14mm. I'll keep updating this list as I hear about more masts on the market.

Length

Impacts: Maneuverability, roll, ability to tap into swell energy, drag.

I learned to foil on a 60cm mast which was awesome. I was catching waves in beach break on a sup before I knew how to turn a foil and was up and cruising my first day winging with that length. When I purchased my first mast I got a 75cm because that's what was available. After that I had a quiver of Cloud IX carbon masts at 66cm, 76cm, 80cm HM, and 86cm. Along with those masts, I had 8 foils from 550 to 1780 that I tested on every mast size and it taught me heaps. There is a crazy amount of detail to unpack around length when you are looking for peak performance and I've focused on my niche of carving.

Breach considerations:

For the most part, the vast majority of conversation I see from beginner to intermediate foilers about length is about not breaching. This makes sense. Breaching sucks. However, I think it was Dave Kalama who said: "If you aren't learning pitch control, you aren't learning to foil." I heard that early on in my foiling career and took it to heart. In small swell or flatwater I was dedicated to using a 66cm mast. In big swell, waves, open ocean I used a 76cm mast. I occasionally used an 86cm for specific reasons but never fell in love with that length due to my riding style. Learning to foil is hard and forcing yourself to have some gnarly breach crashes from time to time isn't for everyone. However, if your goal is to get the best turns and to increase your skill and understanding of the foil, I really think it's worth holding on to a shorter mast for longer than you'd expect.

Discipline considerations:

As you progress and find your niche in foiling you'll start to see what length works best for other riders with similar style in your chosen discipline. I don't race, but I can tell you that when I occasionally do a speed run or chase down a friend on the water I'm pretty terrified doing top speeds on a 75cm mast. I'd love to have an 85cm for those days so I have several more inches for error. Guys like Ken Adgate who are going fast while doing tons of wing based maneuvers (have you seen his tacks?) reports being on a 96cm mast. My freestyle friends are also looking for longer masts, 85cm+ so they can load up for a jump. So, take some time to reflect upon your riding style and then figure out what lengths and foils are going to pair well for you.

Understanding the maneuverability changes:

Shorter masts are more maneuverable. They allow you to get rail to rail quicker. As your mast gets longer you can feel the rail to rail performance change. Some riders will also refer to this as "feeling disconnected from the foil." Why? IMO this all comes down to math, your mind, and your muscles.

First off the math. (none of this is exact, it's just a rough representation that changes for every rider). If we consider the end of the mast (fuselage point) to be the center of a circle and then calculate the circumference and look at rail to rail travel distances (I use a 20" board) and mast to water angles we get the following:

Travel for 75cm mast: 73" and 18.7 degree max angle

Travel for 80cm mast: 79" and 17.6 degree max angle

5" travel difference to reach the same 18.7 degree angle as the 75cm.

Travel for 85cm mast: 85" and 16.64 degree max angle

9" travel difference to reach the same 18.7 degree angle as the 75cm.

Travel for 95cm mast: 97.5" and 14.97 degree max angle

19.5" travel difference to reach the same 18.7 degree angle as the 75cm.

So, what does this mean? It means that since we can't alter the roll speed of a foil, we have to acknowledge that the distance traveled is the defining characteristic that makes us "feel" more connected and faster moving from rail to rail. When cranking turns my brain wants to get to certain locations with specific timing and as long as my body and foil can keep up the limiting factor is the distance traveled which is determined by mast length. You can also note that longer masts can lay over at steeper angles. Remember Ken Adgate and his tacks on a 96cm mast? Trying to recreate that on a 75cm mast is tough!

Your mind and muscles: Everyone is at a different level and this changes with training and experience. Your perception and physical comfort level locks in to your most common mast length and foil span. I can speak for myself here and say that I struggle when transitioning from the extremes on my foils. If I ride a 1000mm span foil for a week and then suddenly try to switch to a 700mm span foil I'm a bit out of sorts, especially transitioning from HA to MA foils. The same circles that impact rail to rail speed on a mast are present when looking at foil spans. Interestingly enough this is where having access to a huge quiver of gear can give you some unique insights. When I had a full Cloud IX mast and foil quiver my progression shot through the roof because I used shorter masts to speed up larger foils and longer masts to slow down, and make manageable smaller foils while I progressed.

For example, I paired:

66cm mast with 1150cm^2 foil (using the 66cm to speed up the 1150 rail to rail)

76cm mast with 850cm^2 foil (let's just say this is neutral speed)

86cm mast with 550cm^2 foil (using the 86cm to slow the 550 rail to rail)

This pulled the actual rail to rail experience closer together from foil to foil making the maneuverability more comparable so that my brain could update itself to the increased speed experience. Then, as I became comfortable at higher speeds I decreased the mast length to train muscles to respond to the "twitchier" experience of shorter masts. I absolutely LOVED having the 66cm mast for physical training so that I could then switch back to the 76cm mast when the swell was good and feel mentally relaxed on any foil in my quiver.

Shape

Impacts: Ride characteristics at various heights

In general there are two shapes to choose from in masts: Straight or tapered. I strongly prefer the straight mast design as it minimizes performance changes when I move up and down the mast. Thickness and chord stay the same for as long as possible in straight masts and I really like that. There will inevitably be taper towards a thicker and deeper chord at the top to make a carbon mast strong enough to endure the strain placed there. That is the only location I, personally, have ever seen a mast snap from any brand. I'm sure there are stories of breakages elsewhere that I haven't heard about from various other crashes, impacts, and scenarios.

Heavily tapered masts, IMO, strive for stiffness and performance while using non UHM carbon fiber. By making the mast thinnest at the foil, but then tapering both the thickness and the chord the entire length, stiffness is added towards the top where it is most critical while trying to capitalize on the performance benefits of the smaller section down low. I think this works great for foilers who don't use the entire length of the mast and try to stay high. It's also typically fine for a more linear riding style. For people who do ride up and down the entire length of the mast and spend a lot of time going rail to rail in their turns, the drag of the thicker upper section and maneuverability penalties of riding low to the water are quite real.

There are several companies with more eccentric shapes available on the market but every one I've heard of and tried suffers from various issues that ruin the ride. So, I stick to the straight masts for my riding.

Chord

Impacts: Yaw, Maneuverability, Stability

Having the opportunity to choose different chord depths opens up a world of performance options that we, as foilers, didn't get a choice on in the past.

Chord options I know of start off super short at 100mm. Many modern masts land around 115mm-120mm with a straight design which I find to be extremely well rounded masts. Tapered masts often times reach over 140mm as they grow towards the top. I have dedicated all of my recent riding to short chorded masts and am going to focus on discussing them since they are newer to the foiling market.

Focusing on short chorded masts:

Short (110mm or less):

At the moment there's only 6ish masts on the market that I know of that fall into this category. I'll add more to this article as I learn about them.

AFS has two, a 75cm mast with a 100mm chord and an 85cm mast with a 105mm chord.

Duotone has two, a 76cm mast with a 108mm chord and an 86cm mast with a 110mm chord. However, I couldn't get a response from Duotone about the chord depth at the center of the mast and the pictures do look like this mast tapers.

One Ocean Sports has one, a 78cm mast with a tapered 102-108mm chord.

Maybe Mikes Lab? I've heard rumors of a "skinny" mast coming from them.

The big question is what does a short chorded mast do vs the standard and deep chorded options out there? For me, after several thousand miles of comparing short chorded vs standard chorded masts on the market the main thing I keep confirming is maneuverability benefits. Most specifically, my two largest span foils at 916mm and 1016mm get a significant upgrade. My smaller span foils at 720mm and 824mm don't seem to benefit as much.

Why though? What makes a shorter chord more maneuverable with some foils and a little less with others? IMO it's yaw. If we think of the mast as part of our flight system we see that foiling very naturally has access to pitch and roll, but without a rudder, yaw is difficult to access. A short chorded mast allows us to twist and snap the foil system around because there is less resistance on that yaw axis. That snapping, or pivot like motion is only available at lower speeds and is easiest for me to access when there is less roll in the system (ie bigger foils). Switching from a standard to short chorded mast on my two largest foils feels like the difference of sizing down a stabilizer. If you're like me, and you are already riding really small stabs on all your foils, the next step for maneuverability could very well be going to a short chord.

Conversely, smaller span foils typically go significantly faster than their big brothers. I find that the speed gains shut down the yaw axis quite a bit. I simply can't snap turns when I'm going faster. These foils instead rely on roll and pitch to get the best turns. When your speed drops for a top turn or cutback you can once again feel the yaw open up on small foils but then it goes away as the speed increases.

A more maneuverable mast isn't necessarily the best thing for every scenario:

• Pumping becomes more technical. A deeper chord is very stable and allows nice clean energy transfer. A short chord can feel like it swivels when you first try it. It takes time to dial this in and could easily be confused with "not stiff enough" due to the nature of the maneuverability.

• Top speeds can be affected. I'm not a speed guy but I don't have the on rails tracking to go my fastest. When pairing a small foil, with a tiny stabilizer, and a short chorded mast, I feel insecure at high speeds both when riding swell and when powered by a wing.

• Stability in turbulence feels sacrificed. Deeper chords feel like they manage rough water, whitewash, tip breaches better because they can't be knocked on the yaw axis as easily. They have stability to plow through without losing their tracking. In my experience, 115mm-120mm chords are excellent for turbulence.

• Shorter chords take away from torsional rigidity and will expose stiffness issues if the mast construction is not top notch.

My daily driver is the AFS 75cm skinny. Mine measures 99mm for most of the chord and I love riding that mast. It makes my largest span foils far more playful than they normally are. That gives them more range, which means I get to ride my larger foils in stronger winds with smaller boards/sails without feeling like I'm being penalized for it.

Deeper chorded masts:

I'm becoming a bit removed from the deep chord experience as the last several thousand miles I've had on foil have been almost exclusively on short chorded masts. However, I want to point out that the biggest gains I see from these masts are stability based. They provide a more traditional foiling feel and when you crash through whitewater or need to pump them they feel very comfortable. When I reach 120mm on chord I now feel "locked in" and restricted in my foiling. For reference, roughly 120mm is what something like No Limitz or KT uses as their depth. I find this to be easy to pump and downwind on. Stylistically though, I'm becoming a bit awkward on the deeper chorded masts as I become more accustomed to the snappy, skatey, loose feeling of the short chord.

Monoblock Construction

Relates to: Stiffness and durability

It's nearly impossible to get me to consider a new performance mast that isn't monoblock construction. There's just no way around it, every top tier mast is made in monoblock and every high level rider I know of is on monoblock masts. Adapters made of various materials, no matter if they are screwed or glued on, simply don't have the same stiffness and performance benefits. Some riders such as Ken Adgate won't even bother with a mast that isn't a tuttle due to the performance loss of a plate mount. Fortunately, every high level brand makes monoblock masts so this is not difficult to find.

Mast to Board Plate

Relates to: Stiffness and durability

I like a nice beefy carbon baseplate. Some companies are looking to lower the drag here for specific foiling disciplines. The newest masts have a beveled leading edge to the base plate for this which is interesting to me. At this point I'm still comfortable with a sturdy carbon joint that has a wider footprint for stiffness. I do not like the ultra low profile aluminum plates. I've found they end up having flex and leverage into the base of my board too much. I've gotten indentations into the bottom of my ride from the aluminum plates but never from the wider, deeper, thicker carbon plates.

For design, you have two options. Completely closed where the bolts have to go through the plate (Code, Lift, Duotone) or slotted so the bolts can slide in from the side. Slotted is way more convenient if you put your mast on and off the board frequently. However, it does create a weak point where if you drop your mast (or the airline team throws your bag...) you could snap one of those tabs off.

Mast to Fuselage Joint

Relates to: Stiffness

When I rode Cloud IX I became really familiar with the mortise and tenon joint that you see on Cloud IX, Axis, Lift, Code. I lost track of how many mast and foil assemblies I handled with them. I've heard complaints and seen myself this joint being loose and/or wearing out on some brands but the Cloud IX connection was TIGHT and had M8 bolts which was awesome. So tight that I kept a weighted rubber mallet with me at all times. That joint works great IMO and if you prefer that joint for your foiling setup I don't think anyone does it as well as Cloud IX.

Now, I ride all AFS gear and the joint is a loose fitting V notch tongue and groove. The full UHM foil and mast setup doesn't seem to struggle with any instability in that joint and the kit as a whole is the stiffest setup I've ever ridden. I especially like that this style of joint allows for much thinner fuselages to be used. This saves on weight, wetted area (which is an interesting concept), and as a result I lean towards the tongue and groove joints that are in M8 hardware. I'll also say that for these shallow tongue and groove joints I really appreciate the NOT tight fit. I tried some other brands where the T&G was deceptively tight and snugging the bolts down was slightly more involved because of it. When I hear stories about M6 bolts breaking on those foils I usually assume that it is rider error, too frothed when rigging. The bolts can feel snug, but the foil isn't fully seated on the mast. They start riding, the foil seats, they make a turn, and then the bolts which are no longer tight, snap. This routinely happened to me on my Cloud IX setups but that joint is so tight and the M8 bolts are forgiving so I was able to have full sessions, come in 3 hours after starting, and noted that the bolts were loose (the joint seated deeper during the ride), but I never felt a moment of insecurity on the water and still had to use a mallet to get the foil off the mast.

Mounting Hardware

Impacts: Protecting your investment

Stainless M8 hardware keeps my mind at ease on the water and is what I want to connect my board to to the mast and my mast to the foil. I simply can't imagine breaking those beefy stainless bolts. I also prefer stainless bolts because they bend before they snap like titanium. I replace mine every year.

Torx head is the only bolt type I use for my gear. I find it to be the most reliable long term choice for not stripping out and getting damaged when I'm rushing to the water. Hex head is also common but nowhere near as reliable IMO.

Craftsmanship, Customer Service, Culture

Impacts: Everything

Craftsmanship:

I think this is relatively straightforward, but if you are looking for the perfect mast you need the best craftsmanship. Any company can come up with a great idea but if they can't pull off the production in a highly repeatable manner it's impossible to expect that product to be anywhere near perfect at the production level. The art is not in making individually unique pieces to hang on the wall. I want the performance benefits that come from making each and every mast at the highest level.

Customer Service:

Production mistakes will happen to EVERY company, that's life. However, the final piece of craftsmanship is the customer service that follows the product for its service life. Make sure you buy from a company that is as dedicated to their craftsmanship as they are to their customer service. I found both Cloud IX and AFS to have excellent customer service.

Company Culture:

The final piece of this for me is to look for gear from companies who are deeply passionate about foiling. I first tuned into this when I rode Cloud IX and noted that the owner, Chris, is out prone, sup, and wingfoiling on his gear every day. He wants a specific experience for himself and that drives the development of Cloud IX gear.

From sponsored pro riders all the way up to the owners. I find the best gear comes from the people who want it for themselves. Here's a quote from Richard Boudia "International Business Developer" at AFS on the Generic Foiling Podcast. He's talking about how badly he wants the perfect ride today, and how tragic it would be to miss out:

"If I haven't lived my best time on the water right now, with the most tasteful gear in the next couple of months, I might stop, miss out on something. I keep reminding myself if foiling those type of foil came on the market, like let's say in 10 or 15 years and I would be too old to enjoy that... I would be so pissed off. I would be so angry at it, you know, like I would hate that. So, I'm trying to push to get the gear that's supposed to end up in the range in 10 years time. I'm pushing so hard to make sure it's going to be next year that it's going to be in the range, not in 10 years time. Even if it's not reasonable, even if it's not commercially ideal, even if business wise it's probably not the best choice."

That's the kind of passion I want driving the development of my gear. Real world riders who are in pursuit of the best experience of their lives and have the means to push the industry forward. When I look at the AFS offerings it seems to me they have clearly put themselves years ahead of the the competition when it comes to the mast.

Third Party Masts

There are quite a few third party mast options out there. Many are very affordable and and tote the universal label. Some, like KParts have their own adapter systems while others piggyback off of the Takuma or Axis designs and use adapters from Columbia River Gorge local Jim Stringfellow. Theoretically, the Axis to other brand adapters made by Jim give you the added benefit of being able to use the same adapters across any mast with the Axis head (Axis, No Limitz, One Ocean Sports). This is intriguing to me because as masts change and become better, you could keep a quiver of adapters that transfers to other mast options.

In my opinion, the affordably priced multibrand options are a great choice for riders who are bouncing around changing brands and want to focus on saving money. Those masts will all work fine, but we have to acknowledge a few things:

1. Brands develop foils on their own masts with their own riders. Just because you can bolt your foil to a third party mast does not guarantee compatibility and optimal performance.

2. Adding a third party mast to your system puts you in a grey area for warranty issues. I've only owned one "universal" mast and when I had problems with it the manufacturer made it very clear that they believe any and all problems were 100% the foil manufacturers fault no matter what happened. If any foil was lost during use they placed 100% of the responsibility for that on the foil manufacturer and would not cover any losses. So, if warranty options are important to you I'd recommend checking with your foil manufacturer about using third party masts.

3. Just an opinion, but I honestly think the universal idea is oversold. I got sucked into this myself. However, most of us aren't out running around buying foils from 5 different companies. We find a brand that suits our style and we stick with it. Some people suffer from terrible FOMO (fear of missing out) and feel the need to buy every new thing from every brand. However, the grass isn't always greener. The new new isn't always a game changer. So, I encourage people to buy based on performance, not on price and theoretical savings.

Stay curious if you're riding a universal mast. Once you figure out your favorite foil, check the dims on that companies best mast and find out if there are performance gains to be had.

There is one third party company that has a mast I want to try and think is worth highlighting based on their outstanding specs:

*I hope to test this mast soon from a friend who bought it and will update this article when I've done so.

One Ocean Sports Australia: I have never seen one of these masts. However, it appears to be a unicorn in the third party world and I would love to try it one day. It checks almost every single one of my boxes. Based on the dims, UHM monoblock construction (Axis connection), and outrageously affordable price tag, I'd expect this to be the best third party option on the market by a long shot. Paying about $1050 USD, delivered, for a mast of this apparent quality, with a great cover, that shows up working with Axis AND Lift or Code, and can be adapted for $165 to other brands like AFS via Stringfellows Axis to choose your own brand adapters is pretty enticing for many.

So, what's the perfect mast!?

The perfect mast is the one you love your foils on. It's your silent friend that always makes sure you're having the most fun at the highest level and rarely gets the recognition it deserves. Once you know yourself, and know your style, it's much easier to find your perfect mast.

As someone who has ridden and tested a ton of masts in the Gorge, the Oregon Coast, and Maui, my favorite is the AFS 75cm Skinny UHM. The speed, glide, maneuverability all lend itself well to my style of riding. The short chord especially enhances the maneuverability of my Silk 1050 and Ultra 750. It also unlocks speed and glide with my Silk 650 and 850 which means my entire quiver of foils benefits.

Thanks for reading.

Thanks for taking the time to read and I hope you learned something that will enhance your adventures on the water. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments section below (join the site for free) or shoot me an email and I'll do my best to answer your questions!

See you at the river,

Bryan Lee, M.S. Experiential Education.