Armstrong Talks Products and Design Powered by Passion
Armie Armstrong and his small but skilled band of passionate watermen have a united goal to develop a top of the line foil set up through better engineering, perfect material selection, and attention to detail that could easily be used for all the foil sports they love.
What sets Armstrong apart in the young industry of foiling?
Foiling is evolving rapidly with Armstrong at the bleeding edge of design and innovation in the sport. The brand is powered by passionate designers who are full time foilers too, an energy which translates into the foils, boards, and wings. Each product type’s performance range caters to beginner through expert riders with the goal of letting everyone, regardless of experience, get the Armstrong feeling. Modularity and quality are of utmost priority in the Armstrong design process, allowing for a unique combination of gear tuning and amazing fit, feel, and real-world durability.
How does this “powered by passion” ethos define your products?
Our founder, Armie Armstrong, lives and breathes foiling and foilsports design. Our core development team and team rider roster share this love of the sport and drive to continuously improve. Knowing that the next innovation can change a rider’s experience of the sport is incredibly energising, being fueled by this passion to work on every last detail makes things as good as they can be. Innovation never sleeps. The foiling community is a massively fun group that we’re stoked to be a part of – so why not devote all our energy to making it as good as we can through better gear?
What is the current product lineup?
We offer foils, boards, and wings. Our range of front foils includes the MA (Mid Aspect), HA (High Aspect), S1 (Step 1), APF (Armstrong Pump Foil), and DWP (Downwind Performance) families. These foil designs cover every rider skill level from beginner to expert, as well as every foiling discipline including winging, prone and tow surfing, SUP downwinding, wake foiling, pump foiling, and kite foiling from 8 to 140L in volume. We offer Performance Carbon, Carbon, and Alloy masts, along with TC (Titanium Carbon) and Alloy fuselages. For boards, our range includes the Wing FG, Midlength, Downwind, Downwind Performance, and WKT (Wake Kite Tow) boards. Our wing offerings are the A-Wing XPS and the A-Wing XPS Lightwind. The XPS ranges from 2.2 to 6.1m2, and the XPS Lightwind comes in 7.0 and 8.0m2. These wings bring together a unique combination of performance in all conditions, refined handling qualities, and durability.
What is the A+ System?
The A+ System is the core of Armstrong’s foil setup. It’s the proprietary design where the mast, fuselage, front foil, and stabiliser connect. In addition to being future proofed and backwards compatible, the A+ System design is modular, strong, durable, and gives Armstrong foils their signature solid, smooth feel underfoot when riding. The A+ System is based around a hexagonal front portion of the fuselage where the front foil slides on. On our Carbon setups, this hexagonal portion of the fuselage continues through the base of the mast for a very strong and stiff connection. On our Alloy setups, the fuselage and mast connect slightly differently via an adapter. The stabiliser attaches elegantly and is trimmable via our proprietary shims. Lastly, premium 316L Stainless Steel and Titanium hardware minimises corrosion throughout.
Where are things headed?
We’re always striving to innovate the performance of our products while improving accessibility in the sport. There is incredible potential for top level riders across the foiling disciplines, whether it’s winging, surf foiling, downwinding, and beyond. Designs that cater to those pushing the envelope keep things fresh and invigorate the rest of the sport. It’s also equally critical to make foiling more accessible in every way, which is why we’ve developed products like the Step 1 foils and the Alloy System to make both the rider skill requirements and economics of foiling more approachable. The next few years will be truly very exciting in foiling, and we look forward to innovating wherever we can.
