~Intro~
There's some interesting things about the Evolution mast. It's got a unique design and things that look different can be pretty exciting to try. It sucked me in. I rode the Evolution mast for 772 of my 2885 miles on foil this year. In that time I got to test it on numerous brands and on a variety of different foils. I started out pretty hyped up on the short chord section, the maneuverability of it was fun. However, over time, and in serious comparison to other top masts, issues began to appear. As the miles went by, the issues worsened, and eventually led to me getting rid of the Evolution mast. I've re-written this Cedrus Evolution review a couple times because the available information on the mast has changed repeatedly. Since I no longer own this mast I think this is likely the final iteration of this review. I've tried to focus on as much data as possible and everything else that is filled in is based on my experiences, opinions, and information from Cedrus and the owner Kyle.

~Rider and Gear Data~
I'm a dedicated swell rider and use my wings to get me around. I look for steep, down the line, wavelike swell formations to ride on. I commonly downwind for several miles while flagged out and then charge back upwind. Recently, I've spent a little time learning some wing tricks but deep down inside I'm really a swell/wave rider.
Weight: 87kg
Board: Sunova Carver 5'10"x20" 85l
Experience: Approximately 8000 miles wingfoiling.
Location: Columbia River Gorge 150-200 days a year.
Speed: Not fast. I average 12.2mph in my sessions. I've only hit 20 knots on foil once in my life.
Wind range: Single knots to 60+ knot gusts.
Total miles ridden on Evolution: 772.
Wind range for these test days: glassy to extreme.
Wing sizes used: 2m-4m
Swell sizes ridden: Flat to head high.
Foils tested with and/or in comparison to the Cedrus Evolution Surf (CES):
Cloud IX: fs850, fs900, fs1150
Code: 850s, 980s
AFS: Silk 650, 850, 1050, Ultra 750
Lift: 130 fx and 150 hax
F-One: Sk8 850, 950, 1050
Masts I rode and compared to the CES:
AFS UHM
Lift M2
F-One HM 14
Cloud IX high modulus and standard
No Limitz v2
Code Standard Mast
~My Evolution Surf Weight and Dims~
77.5cm (equivalent to 79-81cm depending on how adapter affects length)
CES mast without adapter: 1511g
AFS adapter: 296g
Lift adapter: 226g
F-one adapter: 210g
Cloud IX adapter: 197g
2 M8 bolts to attach adapter to mast: 25g
Mast Dims:
At foil (metal insert in mast here):
117.91mm chord
19mm thick
In center cutout:
107.75mm chord
16mm thick
At board (metal insert in mast here):
117.67mm chord
18.67mm thick
~Craftsmanship~
When I first unboxed the Evolution mast I was pretty frothy on it. I had convinced myself that I had purchased the best possible mast on the market and when I think back on it, I didn't even consider the fact that there could be craftsmanship issues. Later on, an Evolution Wind rider reached out to me who reported he was having issues with ventilation and was getting his mast redone. He showed me some flat spots in his mast and educated me on what to look for on mine. I was surprised to find some abnormalities:


I've never had a mast from any company with any visible build issues before and have checked every mast I've gotten my hands on since. Kyle, the owner at Foil Cedrus insists that "None of the defects you point out degrade performance in any way. If anything, some low spots from sanding actually reduce drag." I was informed that his prototype wind mast had the same issues so mine should be fine. I, personally, think defects matter. At this point I've seen multiple Evolution masts with defects and every Cedrus user that I've heard from that has issues with stiffness and/or ventilation has defects on their mast. No one in the foil industry has ever told me its okay to sand asymmetry into my mast and that it reduces drag. We can wonder all day long if these issues impact performance or not but at the end of the day I always land at the same conclusion: I would prefer if the mast I purchased wasn't asymmetrical with adapters hanging off the side. It's the most expensive mast option for any foil I ride so I think expecting delivery of a mast that has no defects is justified.
~Physical Attributes and Performance Notes~
Length:
I prefer to ride masts no longer than 80cm. 75cm is my honest favorite length as an all around choice since it does so well in a variety of conditions. 65 is awesome in flatwater and small swell. However, 80cm is a little more forgiving when surfing aggressively in steep swell with breaches. I bought the 77.5cm to land around 80cm so I wouldn't hesitate on the biggest of days in the gorge. When I bought this mast I did ask if there were any issues with using the Surf or this length winging and I was told no. Since then, the Cedrus site has updated to say that they believe wingers have been buying masts that are too short. As far as I know, Cedrus is the only brand saying this.
Thickness:
19mm at the foil is almost 50% thicker than my current mast and is even thicker than any foil I own. I do think this sacrifices performance. In order for them to make the adapter system it makes sense that the mast needs to be thicker and I can't imagine the adapters ever breaking off with the new Evolution design. However, I'm comfortable saying that I'd prefer a thinner mast at this point.
The discussion on the table is which form of drag is worse: thickness, or chord length.
Cedrus states: "chord length has twice the relative impact on drag due to it's influence on wetted area."
Most brands that I have seen have chosen to go thinner, but kept a deeper chord for their performance masts.
There's a few different metrics I looked at in my time with this and other masts to try and hone in on why I dislike thickness. I compiled the data on several different masts using the same foils. 30-35 sessions and approximately 500 miles on each mast showed the following:
Speed: I compiled all the average speed data of my time on the Evolution (19mm thick, 117.91mm chord) and two others on a 650, 850, and 1050 foil. The total averages all come out to the Evolution as the slowest. If we break it down and look at specific foils like the middle sized 850:
A thinner mast with a deeper central chord (13.8mm thick, 115mm deep)
Ended up being 11% faster than Cedrus Evolution
An even thinner mast with a shorter chord (12.8mm thick, 100mm deep)
Ended up being 16% faster than Cedrus Evolution
These two thinner masts actually showed faster average speeds than the Evolution on the 850 even when the thinner masts used the larger 1050. The 13.8mm thick mast was still 4% faster and the 12.8mm thick mast still 9% faster.
So, over 1500+ miles my data pointed too thickness as having a bigger impact on speed. Top speeds on all foils were also set on the non Evolution masts.
Heart rate: Thicker has always felt harder to manage when winging. I feel like my body acts as a dampener between the pull of the wing and the drag of the foil and you feel this tension wearing out your hands/arms/body as you ride. Winging with the Evolution mast showed the highest heart rates of any mast I tested, averaging 119.3 beats per minute. Every single mast that had thinner profiles showed lower heart rates. When I rode my thinnest mast, I averaged 111.2 beats per minute, the lowest of all masts tried this year.
Pump and glide: on the Evolution mast at 19mm thick I only managed to link swell over 1 mile in distance once in all my time with it. As the masts I compared it to got thinner, the distance of my swell rides got longer. My current mast at 12.8mm thick routinely links swell for rides over 3 miles and the other masts I tested routinely linked swell for over 2 miles. So, my Evolution best was about 1/3 of what I do most days on my current mast.
Ventilation: I'll touch more on this later but I see more reports of thick masts ventilating than thin.
So, I completely understand why the base needs to be thick, it has to accept their adapter system. But, in all my on water experience, I think that thick lower section that is always in the water holds this mast back.
Chord Length:
Short chorded masts are really cool. They give a significant improvement to maneuverability which has all kinds of fun impacts on most foils I've tried. The Surf mast does benefit from this when you are riding it deeper in the water. However, if you are going to increase maneuverability by decreasing chord length I think you need to increase stiffness. The increased maneuverability of this mast which is really cool, unfortunately exposes some concerns for me with stiffness when I started doing more advanced maneuvers.
Stiffness:
I'd say the Evolution mast feels like medium stiffness. It's as stiff as or better than some of the older basic carbon masts out there. On the water it feels like the high and ultra high mod carbon masts are stiffer. This is most apparent in pumping, turbulent water, and tip breaches. Other masts cut through those scenarios better and were confidence inspiring, pushing me to be a better foiler. My Evolution mast on the other hand would feel unstable, shaky. If I saw whitewater, I tried to make sure I was standing straight up to brace for it. I altered my riding to avoid tip breaches which shook badly. I couldn't do hard turns on the Evolution mast without it ventilating. I did share this with Cedrus/Kyle and he did respond that stiffness wasn't his main priority, he was trying to make it faster:
"Furthermore, making the mast stiffer generally makes it slower (you are adding thickness and chord) so I didn't want to do that."
So, since it wasn't their goal to go super stiff and it's already slower than my other masts it's not surprising to me that the newest masts on the market feel stiffer. However, when I used stiffer, newer foils, the Evolution struggled with vibration. The last foil I used on this mast was, in my opinion, miserable to use when matched with the Evolution. The mast shook terribly when I was simply mowing the lawn and it was stalling out in basic gybes around 12-13mph.

How to fix it? Ditch the rubber, make it stiffer?:
I think that Cedrus would do well to ditch the rubber leading/trailing edges and make the mast stiffer. The first change is just upgrading from intermediate to at least high modulus, if not ultra high modulus carbon. That seems to be relatively normal on new masts so I think it was a miss to go backwards on that front. Second, in my opinion, the rubber is too problematic and I honestly couldn't figure out any performance benefit. One user told me that their trailing edges got deformed in transportation from a bag sitting on them. Another said a harness hanging on the foil and touching the mast in the sun deformed it. This resulted in shaking and vibration until the rubber reshaped itself back into a normal position. My mast concerns were initially refuted because I was told the rubber made it impossible to vibrate because it was too soft. Later on I would be told the rubber on my mast was actually too stiff, which made the mast vibrate. Kyle informed me that all of the rubber can have variable hardness levels. So, not every leading and trailing edge is the same. They get soft in the sun and hard in cold water. This just seems like it's asking for trouble and in my opinion the rubber safety benefits are heavily outweighed by decreased performance and confusing customer service issues.

Ventilation or "Flow Separation":
I had never heard the term flow separation (the term Cedrus is using to describe this problem) before and I may have been one of the first people reporting ventilation issues with the new Cedrus Evolution (June 2024). When riding this mast I had ventilation/flow separation issues on Code, Lift, and AFS foils. Never at high speeds, only when I would lean into a tack, 360, or carve. There was zero notice of anything going wrong and then game over. I'm slammed to the water. These crashes are all pretty brutal, foils flipping into and destroying my wings and my head slamming into the water. Once I confirmed that those same maneuvers were all fine on other masts (I tested longer and shorter lengths, deeper and shorter chords, thinner, all without issue) I decided to get rid of my Evolution mast. I can't afford damage to wings and/or injuries to myself. Cedrus recommends "you may need to adjust your turning style" with the Surf mast but I don't want to dance a fine line between dialing back my turns or dealing with crashes. This is the only mast I've ever had ventilate so it doesn't make sense for me to keep it. If the gear can't perform at my level, it just has to go.
Cedrus now acknowledges these issues, both on their site and in the forums now. This information wasn't available when I purchased the mast:
"Due to the shorter chord length, it will be more prone to flow separation, which can happen in very tight radius turns and/or when tips are breached. Simply put, it's less forgiving, but offers industry-leading glide/pump performance." When I bought the mast it was simply stated that there hadn't been reports of ventilation yet. Now, the ventilation reports are acknowledged and I've come across multiple people who have this issue with their mast. Along with the previous gen 1 history of ventilation that Cedrus seems to have makes it a deal breaker for me.
Pump and Glide:
As noted earlier the Evolution mast ranked last in this department in comparison to my other masts with the same foils. I had one big day at Arlington where I was able to record a swell ride of over 1 mile on the Evolution. But why didn't it glide as well? Here's what I think:
The bottom of the Evolution mast that is always in the water is thicker than any mast I've ever owned and all my speed data show it as slower. That thickness seems to create too much drag to keep up in the swell.
The bottom of the Evolution mast that is always in the water actually has the deepest chord of all masts noted above. So, I think this cancels out any possible short chorded benefits. I also tested a 3rd party mast at 16mm thick and 119mm deep in the chord that did nearly a 2 mile glide first try with the same foils. So, again, this seems to diminish the idea that chord depth is more important than thickness.
I described the pump on the Cedrus mast as "springy" and I think that comes from a couple variables. Easiest to identify is that I don't think the Evolution mast is as stiff. The pump had a bit of wobble to it.
When the mast is deep in the water and the short chorded section actually comes into play this exposes an issue with all short chorded masts that I've ridden. Yes, they are more maneuverable, but that also means when you pump them they are again, more maneuverable. They are more prone to a swiveling motion in the pump which dumps some of your efficiency. This is obvious when you ride a short chord and a long chord mast back to back.
Of course, I could be wrong, but in my opinion all of those elements add up to making for a decreased pump and glide experience in comparison to the other major masts I tested.
Is it universal?:
Yes, the Evolution masts are universal for connection. For some people this is going to be extremely important. I wanted to do a ton of foil testing this year and wanted to control the mast and isolate the foil performance. However, foil companies explained to me the importance of designing, developing and testing foils on their own masts. This makes sense to me. I tested the following on the Evolution mast:
14 foils tested
2 undeniably better on the evolution.
3 were a toss up, I could ride the Evolution or brand matched mast and be okay.
9 I would prefer a brand matched UHM mast for.
So, 64% of the foils I tried were best on brand matched masts. It took me a long time to reach this conclusion. Months of testing and thousands of miles on foil. Even now, doing the math on speed and heart rate has been eye opening. Most specifically, I've now noted that it seems the newest released foils performed the worst on the Evolution mast while older foils from previous years seemed fine. I think this speaks to how fast the industry is changing and the incredible difficulty of making a universal mast that can actually keep up with every single brands progression. To be honest, I'm not even sure it's a reasonable goal.

~Final Thoughts~
It's likely no surprise that the Evolution mast while unique and innovative doesn't make the cut for me. I totally understand why some people want a universal mast and if that's your jam then go for it. I, on the other hand, am looking for top tier performance and excellent customer service for my $$$. I have come to the conclusion that while my Evolution mast was clever, it couldn't perfom at a top level with every foil I'm buying. As such, it doesn't make sense for me. I also felt as though there are too many customer service problems around using a third party mast. Bringing forward concerns about noise, vibration, ventilation, stiffness, fit, craftsmanship etc. were pushed off repeatedly with so much negativity pointed at the foil companies: "All these brands are really just marketing companies, and relying on overseas manufacturing to actually build and QC the product." which created an absolute nightmare for me to deal with. Trying to get help dragged out problem solving for six months and 150ish emails. That's far and beyond the worst customer service I've ever experienced in the foil industry. Normally it's just 1-2 questions when I'm using a brand matched kit and the problem is solved.
Should I try the Wind?
Many recommend this but no, I don't have any interest. My experience with getting service was really bad and the wind masts are too long for me to consider. According to the Cedrus website the shorter wind masts are also comparable in stiffness which already wasn't sufficient for me, my style, and the foils I ride. They are supposedly even slower and still have rubber in them. At the moment I am beyond thrilled with my current on brand short chorded 75cm UHM mast that shreds everything I throw at it. Plus, I am stoked to see that other brands are releasing short chorded masts that are also thin. 2025 is hopefully going to be an epic year for gear and I look forward to riding and testing more masts/foils in the future.
~As Always~
Thanks for taking the time to read. I hope you found this article informative and don't ever hesitate to reach out with questions.
See you at the river,
Bryan Lee, M.S. Experiential Education.
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