July news: Surge 1080 and 1150, a month of podiums, and AXIS arrives in Poland

July, and it is time for the most prestigious downwind races of the year, the unofficial world championships every serious DW racer has written in permanent marker in the calendar: the month of the Koa Kai series. Before the team heads to Hawaii, here is what is new, who has been winning, and where AXIS has just arrived.

New: SURGE 1080 and 1150

Launched earlier this month, the new 1080 and 1150 Surges redefine what a plus-sized foil can feel like, bringing high-performance riding to some very non-high-performance conditions. Adrian has managed to preserve the speed, agility and lively roll response the Surge is famous for while eliminating the slow, draggy sensation often associated with larger-span foils. These sizes are absolute weapons for pump foiling, low-energy downwind, light-wind or heavyweight winging, and they excel in the parawing.

For Spitfire riders looking to up their game, or Fireball riders looking for a more carvy downwind journey, grab a demo and experience what all the fuss is about: Surge 1080 and Surge 1150.

Team riders' hall of fame

It has been an outstanding month for AXIS riders of all disciplines. At the SFT World Cup on Lake Garda, our young German star Marnie Bertram once again hit the top step of the podium with first place in the dock-start pump race, then showed the breadth of her talent by winning the downwind SUP foil race too, beating nearly all the male competitors in the process. Marnie currently leads the SFT World Tour for pump foil and remains the one to beat on her Dock 899 and Surge 890.

At the same event Jurij Scheibler finished an excellent third in the men's dock-start pump foil, on the slightly unusual choice of the 960 Tempo for his heats: probably the first time the world's fastest downwind foil has been used in a pump race. Meanwhile Mauritius local Dmitry Evseev continued his strong showing on the SFT Parawing World Tour with first place in the Masters division, sealing the title of SFT Parawing Vice World Champion in the tour's inaugural year. Congratulations Dmitry, an outstanding effort.

On the other side of the globe, Oahu local Brian Tallarico won the highly contested Oahu Foil race series Over 40s division. The series runs 19 races with the best six results counting; Brian's highlight was winning his division in the longest race of the year, Turtle Bay to Mokuleia at roughly 20 miles, and finishing top 10 overall in it.

AXIS arrives in Poland

Conspicuous by our absence, AXIS boards and foils have finally arrived in Poland, and not before time. The team attended the popular King of the Bay event in Rewa, displaying and offering for test pump, wing, parawing, SUP and Foil Drive product. We even managed first place in the long-distance race (inflatable kitefoil category) on the Surge 740. With a strong and rapidly growing dock-start community, the 1500 and 1750 Fireballs paired with the FATTY mast and fuselage system were particular favourites.

Interesting fact

The new Kaiwi mast took ten months of development and two mould iterations to finalise. More than ten prototypes were needed to define the exact lamination schedule for the stiffness demanded; the final product has 66 layers of Ultra High Modulus pre-preg carbon.