Inbound: the AXIS ART 699
ART ART V1 Big wave Foiling Magazine Inbound Prone
This interview first appeared in Foiling Magazine issue 14 (December 2022) in the magazine's Inbound series, where the editors quiz a brand about a new product, as "AXIS ART699". Republished with the magazine's kind permission.
The shadowy AXIS Research Team (ART) are the team that just keep on giving… And they’re back, with the big wave speed machine ART699 front wing. We lined up some questions and got them wired over to the AXIS team…
A new ART wing, and it’s even smaller! Did you guys spot the market for this, or did this stem from customer demand?
A bit of both really and a large helping of what our team riders need to meet the demands of ever-increasing challenges, bigger waves, higher speeds and more precise carving.
How have you augmented the design from the 799 to handle even more speed?
It’s a very different wing from the 799, in fact much of the 699’s DNA has come from much larger wings that we have in development at the moment. The tips are not as fine, relatively it is narrower in the middle than the rest of the ART siblings, and its outline is quite parallel (proportionally it has very little taper) compared to the 799. Finally, it has less turn-down in the tips to aid in breaching situations. Also, less twist, since a wing of this size needs very little encouragement to turn. Our intent was stability and predictability, both crucial in the kind of extreme conditions this foil can be used in
What sort of speeds are you seeing them top out at?
We have guys doing way over 50kph on these wings, we don’t think its top speeds have been achieved yet. It's quite a quick wing!
How much smaller can you go without them becoming unusable?
Nobody knows… watch this space and we’ll see. We thought this wing would be getting close, but it’s turned out to be a ripper… the issue with going smaller is that it isn’t just a case of scaling down, there are a few more lessons to be learned before you’ll see our 399…
Do you have to change the layup or density of the carbon to handle these thinner profiles without flex and vibration?
We’ve been concentrating a lot of effort into this area, and we have amassed quite a toolbox of techniques, ranging from varying core materials, to high modulus layups and even solid cores and every combination in between… the 699 however has a pretty conventional layup.
Are these foils still accessible for the average rider, or are we starting to get to the fringes of usability?
We’ve been pleasantly surprised, these aren’t that hard to get up on, just very fast, very controllable… a great wing that opens up opportunities to tackle situations that would previously have ended in disaster.
We saw the Haumani twins from Tahiti enjoying the ART699 during the AWSI event in Hood River. Who else is out there busting moves on it that we should be keeping an eye on?
Jeremy Wilmotte, Matt Davies, James Casey, Larry Foiler, and more. We have some big wave surfers ready to make a splash with it in Hawaii and Europe, as well as some of our winging racers.
Anything else coming soon that we should know about?!
So much. The team is in full on R&D mode. Stay tuned.
The ART V1 wings in this interview
Read more from Foiling Magazine, and find issue 14 online.
← Older Post Newer Post →