Naish Kiteboarding Surf Foil Jet 1250 Abracadabra 2020
Reviews / Hydrofoils
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At A Glance
Naish have been working hard on their foil range for 2020, and the new line up is extensive, from fast kite foils to huge surf foils there is something for everyone, and for every type of propulsion. The Foil Jet 1250 is a crossover wing designed to be used for anything you can think of, wake, surf, kite, wing and even windsurfing.
Construction is to an exceedingly high standard and features an aluminium mast and a mix of stainless and titanium hardware. The wings are a composite of carbon and glass with a foam core monocoque front wing. The whole package goes together beautifully, and the Abracadabra set up is also worthy of note. Anyone who foils knows how long it can take to get set up when your foil is completely dismantled.
The Abracadabra set up allows you to keep the mast plate attached to the board and then simply slide the mast into the plate and tighten the wing nut by hand, no tools needed. This saves valuable time on the beach and is an area where we will be seeing a lot of development in the future. The goal is speed on the beach so you can spend more time on the water.
The mast is made of aircraft-grade aluminium and is sandblasted to give it a slightly rougher finish to avoid resonance and humming. The fuselage is CNC cut from a solid billet of aluminium, an interesting touch has been to use titanium hardware in the places you are likely to leave connected, namely the wings and fuselage and the mast plate into the board. This means you needn’t worry about corrosion, while the mast itself uses stainless hardware, reflecting the fact most people take this part out to store the foil at home.
On The Water
Big wings for kiting are an enjoyable way to get into foiling, gone are the old race wings we all learned on back in the day and these bigger wings open the sport up so much more. We flew the 1250 on a shorter 60cm mast in what is essentially surf foil mode. It’s great that this set up works brilliantly for kiting, shorter masts make it easy and forgiving with less leverage over the foil. They also make it more fun in the surf where you want more dynamic control over the wing.
The wings themselves are fun to fly, offering lots of lift and a really low stall speed; they are incredibly forgiving, allowing you to master tacks and gybes with ease. In the waves, despite the size the wing is controllable and carves well, offering lots of feedback and lift to the rider. An experienced surf foiler could easily have this as their go-to set up and not have to worry about switching between kite and surf wings if they wanted a one foil crossover set up.
Speed is also pretty decent for a big wing, put the hammer down, and it’s perfectly stable in the early twenties. Still, speed isn’t what this wing is about, for freeride cruising and surf it takes some beating, it’s a mellow fun wing to learn tricks on and get some real power from the wave rather than the kite. The Abracadabra set up is really handy, while it adds to the cost, the convenience is well worth it, we’d choose this every time.
Overall
A versatile wing that can handle anything you decide to throw at it, power it with a kite, a wave, a wing or even a windsurf sail. For the rider looking for a one foil does it all set up the Surf Jet Foil 1250 is a good choice. It won’t set the world on fire in terms of speed, but it will happily cruise at a good pace and provides an incredibly stable platform for learning. More experienced riders will enjoy taking it into the waves and making the most of the forgiving nature. Well built and beautifully put together it’s worth a look if you want a fantastic all-rounder.
Videos
This review was in Issue 78 of IKSURFMAG.
For more information visit Naish KiteboardingRelated
By Rou Chater
Rou has been kiting since the sports inception and has been working as an editor and tester for magazines since 2004. He started IKSURFMAG with his brother in 2006 and has tested hundreds of different kites and travelled all over the world to kitesurf. He's a walking encyclopedia of all things kite and is just as passionate about the sport today as he was when he first started!
