~A Quick Note~
I only want to write about gear and experiences that bring joy to my foiling. Due to the issues I had with noise, vibration and instability from day one that then progressed to experiencing ventilation and ride altering vibration my original review has been taken down. I think the following images show what was causing the problem:
Adapters not centered:
Sides of mast had grooves, depressions, and imbalances in the foil section. The taper from wide to narrow isn't balanced either:
I'm not sure if the cracking rubber and finish added to the problem, but I don't think it helped.
I compared the same foils on 3 other masts including a No Limitz v2 mast with the same foils that exhibited no ride issues:
Centered adapter:
Straight sides, no obvious imperfections or imbalances:
This is how it these issues seemed to manifest on the water:
Hard heelside turns to my left seemed to trigger the ventilation. This could happen in tacks, 360s, or hard carves. The last foil I ever rode on my Evolution mast struggled to make it through gybes. The vibration seemed to raise the stall speed to an abnormally high level on the final foil I purchased before giving up on the Evolution.
This speed readout is with the same foil, same location, similar windspeeds. This mast was extremely smooth and much more capable of gliding through gybes without collapsing at lower speeds.
I checked the sides of every mast I could get my hands on and none of them had similar abnormalities to my Cedrus Evolution. I shared these photos with numerous riders and industry professionals and no one told me that they were okay and should be ignored.
The response I got from Kyle at Project Cedrus was "None of the defects you point out degrade performance in any way. If anything, some low spots from sanding actually reduce drag."
I also tested 4 foils that all had problems on the Cedrus Evolution mast on 3 other masts. None of those foils had the same issues when ridden on other masts.
~Customer Service~
I notified Project Cedrus the day I got the mast that there were issues. However, while troubleshooting Kyle told me that he had never actually ridden the Cedrus Evolution Surf mast and I think that makes it really difficult to get prompt and accurate customer service.
I think it also resulted in explanations that I found odd and disconnected from what I experience as someone who rides frequently:
When I mentioned noise and vibration I was told that since the Evolution masts have rubber leading and trailing edges they aren't stiff enough to vibrate. Then in the very next sentence I was told that the Evolution masts were so stiff that they were likely making the foil vibrate. It never made sense to me how I those two things could go together.
A similarly odd response was given to my concerns about ventilation. I was told that it didn't sound like the mast was ventilating, but that the chord of the mast was making tighter turns and causing the foil to ventilate. Again, this doesn't make sense to me. To be honest, even if those statements were verifiable, that doesn't make the situation better. I don't want a mast that creates foil problems.
The first month I had it about 40 emails were exchanged. At the end of those 40 emails Kyle did admit that the mast might be ventilating but didn't offer to evaluate, refurbish, replace, or refund the mast.
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