When I got to 40 seconds and 150 meters with my low aspect foil I felt that I was at the limit of the foil and had little room for improvement, so I thought it was a good time to move to a foil with a higher aspect ratio, and I managed to get a Gong Fluid XXL-T (mid aspect) wing with a 105cm span (5cm more than the Rise) and 1950cm2 area (compared to the 2500cm2 area of the Rise). I think that despite the reduction in area with the increased span and reduced thickness, they will be more or less similar in terms of theoretical lift.
But although taking into account span and area they do not seem very different, they have other important differences.
The Fluid XXLT is much narrower
The Fluid XXLT is practically flat, while the Gong Rise is convex, the tips tend to go down.
The Rise wing (below) is wider even below the end of the coupling to the fuselage. The Fluid XXL-T wing is also completely straight on the exit profile.
The first feeling in the water with the Fluid XXL-T was that the wing was bad and worthless. I was unable to do anything with it, as if it were my first day on pump foil. At first I blamed it on the fact that I was using the stab x-over L (for low aspect wing), so I decided to buy a smaller and more suitable stab to give it a second chance. This change was not magical, I still had quite a few difficulties, but it improved a little, enough to stay a few seconds longer on the board, to be able to start noticing sensations and give me room to correct my mistakes, and improve my pumping.
The foil was much more unstable, it went to the sides and I had to be constantly correcting the inclination of the board. But everything improved when I emphasized giving it more speed when lowering the foil, it seems that the MA foil needs more speed and that was one of my big mistakes.
Another difference with the MA is that when it has low speed it stops suddenly, and it is not so easy to recover speed. Also, the pumping has to be done more smoothly without big ups and downs, especially on the downs if you push too hard the foil loses power and stops.
At the end of the second session I managed to master the Fluid to a level similar to the Rise.
