I had the opportunity to test a pre-series of the first Flysurfer Wing called MOJO since end of 2020 in 5,2 m², so for about 20 sessions on our cold European mountain lakes. I (62kg) am winging since 08/2019 mostly with the duotone boom wings. Apart from my Echos I had the new Ozone WASP v2 for last three weeks for comparison and a very short try with the new Duotone Slick. For direct comparison of those new wings I plan to write another review, so for now this is all focused to the “MOJO”, a magic Hoodoo bag filled with fantastical things, let’s see.
As a long time windsurfer and owner of the old alu framed Kitewing in around 2003 I have been very fixed to stiff booms till now. Additionally, I am always a bit sceptic when a brand jumps late on a rolling bandwagon. So even if using Flysurfer kites since around 2004 the first rides I was not sure about those soft hand straps of the Mojo, especially as my last try of a wing without boom (WASP v1) was around a year ago. So good luck that I also got the WASP v2 to have a state-of-the-art soft strap wing for further orientation
Starting with the unboxing ritual, opening the fantastical bag
All impatient readers may skip that, but after grumbling around in test reports on the 2003 – 2015 nearly unchanged unisize Flysurfer bags I have to take the chance to say, I now really like the current bags with their universality for soft and tube kites and now also wings, coming in three sizes with rigid protection and places for small and big parts, pump and bar if needed.
First look on the wing and valves,
you may miss traditional Flysurfer’s magic: It doesn’t pump up itself. But what some may see as another disadvantage to me is the first positive thing: It has two adult iSUP valves instead of a one pump system. In the case of wings this could avoid some of the problems that have been reported often with too small diameter of traditional one pump connectors. In fact, also Ozone at WASP v2 has given up one pump, on the other hand Duotone has it in its new Slick, but this has a smaller strut. For my 5,2 m² pre-series I was told to use 8 psi for LE and 9 psi for the strut, mostly used a bit less and hoping there will be further manufacturers trim recommendations as using different pressure for my Duotone Echos always felt helpful.
The bladder is not fixed inside the strut,
as the one of Ozone is. Flysurfer says they haven’t had issues as Gong and Naish yet, but I recommend better have a bit an eye on how your bladder falls around and fills. Pumped up, the structure feels very stiff, this impression is just reduced a bit by the long handles that FS uses. Apart from the front handle that will not be folded when packing and is very nice big and stiff all other handles are segmented as a sort of sausage chain, obviously to avoid undefined folding kinks, which indeed could have been a problem for some wings. Negative to me is that this could cause the long handles to be even a bit more flexible in length and therefore also in position, coming back to this later. But in the hand, they don’t feel too bad and you often grab them on their ends which gives you more direct control and the sausage narrowing give you some extra hold here. Also, the long handles give you the advantage to slide hand position a bit without having to change handle itself.
Positioning and reinforcements of the handles
and harness line are very good to me. And the front LE handle is very good to grab and gives you a lot of control when dragging the wing in a wave but also already when climbing up to knee start position, it is the best front handle I have seen. Just the side handles I was never sure about. Flysurfer says they are for beginners and upwind, I was just able to use them with some profit when going deep downwind with low relative wind and would have preferred a V handle, even if I have to add that I also realised that I don’t use that one to often on the v2.
Pumping and Power
is very good especially as the wing produces a lot of forward force and not just sidewards drag. So the lift to drag ratio seems to be very good that can also be felt in the upwind leg. Maybe not surprising as the shape seems to be deeper profile compared to other wings and higher AR, which on the other hand is not only and advantage, coming to span and handling. For both reasons I am actually not sure when I will change my board from actual 50 back to 70 l if I would want anything bigger than a 5,2 m² Mojo.
Stability of the wing when riding,
to me is just nice, if riding completely free hand in the harness it has a small tendency to nose dive like most wings and riding with one hand you may have a bit the named handle slack depending where you grab it, but the rest is really good especially in high winds, I will come back to later. One problem can be the high span of 3,52 m (to 3,18 m WASP v2) and the small square shape of the tips when touching them down. Especially in combination with the sidewards slack of the handles it is much more likely when catching surface that the high drag causes even more tilting within handles slack and so even more drag before backlash and then catapulting more often than with other wings. Sounds bad, but on the end riding it you get used to be a bit more carefully and distanced to water surface and not necessarily catapulting much more than with other wings. In the following a comparison of span shape and position with my old Echo 6,0 and 4,0 m².
On the other hand the stability holding the center strap is quite good if you take it at the back half. I would not buy a wing without unhooked one hand option, so a centre strap.
Windows seems to be a difficult job,
to place them to make everybody happy, but I am not sure if FS has found a good compromise here. I just don’t use them the way they are, but my pre-series anyway had a not serial material here, which is additionally an important part beside placing so I don’t want and can’t further comment this.
Performance in difficult winds and windrange,
is also very good I was able to start it in around 10 knts with my 50 l board and found myself pretty often in gust well over 30 knts without feeling out of control, riding always race dedicated upwind angles without undefined permanent flapping. Also the pressure points feels very solid and defined, not like a windsurf sail but way better then all other wings I know, so riding it high powered in the harness is very relaxing. Thanks to the good control also fast manouvers as downwind 360s felt very nice, just created the demand to watch out well before as the started to get huge.
Increasing jumping hight,
I just started on my 1000 cm² Levitaz Cruizer Mono, already exceed 3 m quite easy and seeing that there is still a lot more potential and also the float and so jump length felt quite a lot flysurfer like. The named relaxed riding with high power and great glide angle is the base for all this.
Manoeuvrability and freestyle,
Feels also quite good, but due to the span and also strut length you will find more round or square wings that will make it easier to e.g. turn around your flakas, but my flakas are still a bit of a mess anyway. The weight of 2,8 kg for the 5,2 m² it is pretty average, and similar to the Ozone WASP v2 5,0 m² with 2,7 kg. Anyway control is always there down to the landing, the day I started to land my raileys full flying on the mono foil I was able to do this a couple of time in a row which really felt as if there has been some magic in the flysurfer bag.
Building quality and stability,
also feels quite well, haven’t had any issues, while on my Echos I already exaggerate freestyle till the ripstop ripped but this is not an empiric study yet for sure. But I have run into my Mojo a few times full speed and was always happy that nothing has happened.
So all together,
apart from Flysurfer self-inflating magic this bag indeed contains a pretty well balanced mixture of some fantastical features even if it will not outmatch other wings in every discipline as for example beginners or freestylers may find better options. But even in the a dirty German inland wind “wave” it performed very well, maybe there was some Peak4 magic in the bag as well.
Finally, here is a simple video with a part of my experience and some lessons about: „no more kneestarts“ on the end:
Happy winging to all of you.
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