TKB REVIEW: GRAVITY V3 1500 “landmark addition to the Gravity offering”

Source: The Kiteboarder, June 22, 2020

F-ONE Gravity 1500
Sizes Available: 1200cm2, 1500cm2, 1800cm2, 2200cm2
Sizes Tested: 1500cm2 front wing with C275 Stabilizer

F-ONE Says:

A Gravity foil is an intuitive foil to use. It generates lift at low (and even very low) speed but does it in a smooth way so you can keep your balance easily. The wings are designed to be easy to roll and turn, so they can perform in the surf.

The range includes 4 sizes from 1200 to 2200 cm². Foils with more area such as the 1800 and 2200 provide more lift, but we made sure they also come with more aspect ratio to maintain the glide and avoid unnecessary drag. Their shape provides great stability, combined with the high lift potential, it makes them ideal to progress in Surf Foil, SUP Foil or Wing Foil. The 1200 and 1500 take advantage of their more compact shape to offer high-end maneuverability, they are made to carve seamless turns on the waves.

Built using the Monobloc construction with pre-preg carbon, the foils are both very light and really strong. This set-up offers better load transmission and better stiffness throughout the different parts for maximum control. The Titan connection allows a user to plug both an aluminum or carbon mast and the fuselage is split into two parts to facilitate transportation.

The Gravity wings are recommended with the C275 Surf stab. This stabilizer offers easy take-off and good directional stability for a secure feel which is perfect. The constant curve arch makes it easier to roll the foil and engage in the turns at any speed, it will serve good when carving.

Visit for more info: https://www.f-one.world/product/gravity-carbon-1500/

Tkb Says:

F-One has added a new wing to its main line of Gravity foil wings which stretches from the 1200 clear up to the 2200. The 1200, 1500, 1800 and 2200 are targeted as wingsurfing, foilsurfing, and SUP foiling wings, but the 1200 and 1500 could also be the perfect kitefoiling wing for those riders that like to focus on carving and waves.

The first thing we noticed about the Gravity 1500 is the significant concavity shaped into its wingspan and its delta/lower aspect shape. F-One has introduced the Phantom line of high-aspect wings which presumably allows the Gravity designs to specialize more in surfing maneuverability rather than glide and lift.

The wingset itself is built out of carbon with a delta/lower aspect shape that is mounted on a robust two-piece carbon fuselage that breaks down for easy travel. The connection between the mast and fuselage has a complex keyed interface that seems to lock the mast and fuse together for stiffness. Right off the bat,  we were impressed with the Gravity 1500’s amazing lack of weight—it felt really good in our hands, which is notable because we tested it with the aluminum mast that isn’t supposed to be as light as the new carbon version. We tested the 1500 with the 75cm aluminum mast that featured the new baseplate with the cutout mounting eyelets that allow for easier mounting. You can loosen the hardware just enough to slip the mastplate off the board while keeping your hardware in place within the board so nothing gets lost. The F-One mountings all use the same size torque screw, but the hardware is a little bit smaller.

Once we got this wing in the water, our first impression was how it had a nice slow foil-up speed that was perfect for wingsurfing. Of course, the Gravity line is designed for the surf, so you’d expect a slower foil-up speed from a lower aspect wing, but the foil-up speed seemed a little extra slow for its size, and its lift pattern felt really intuitive and moderate. Sometimes lower aspect wings give you a ton of lift and an abrupt angle of departure before accelerating into their ideal speed, but the Gravity 1500 had this really balanced takeoff that gave us a nice slow foil-up with good lift that felt appropriate and easy to control.

One of the other standout qualities was how efficient this foil feels through the water. It seems to offer pretty good high-end speed for how slow it is capable of going. It doesn’t really feel like its hitting the wall at its top-end and it has a ton of glide that seems to maintain its speed in flat sections and between waves. In some ways, this wing combines the top-end glide of a high-aspect wing with the maneuverability you’d expect from a surf wing. The aluminum mast offered really good stiffness on the water with a really tight feel.

Not only is the front wing a new addition to the line, but it is also mated with F-One’s new C275 Surf stabilizer rear wing which brings a huge difference to the system’s performance and feel of the Mirage line of wings. If you have experience with earlier Gravity wings, you’ve probably used the regular C300 stabilizer rear wing with the larger vertical winglets (be aware that the Gravity 1800 and 2200 come with the C300 Surf’ stab which is a different shape than the original C300 stab). You’re going to notice the new C275 Surf stabilizer has a flatter curve to it and the vertical winglets on the tips have been eliminated. This flatter stabilizer really activates the yaw and roll axes, so you will have a much more maneuverable foil that reacts to smaller inputs from the rider.

While the yaw axis is noticeably more active than any of the Gravity wings with the old stabilizer, The C275 Surf stab is still not quite as loose and fidgety as the most aggressive foils on the market. In other words, it is more active,  yet very manageable. The balance between inputs and response for both the yaw and roll axes seems much closer, requiring less energy from the rider to initiate and complete turns. The old stabilizer made the inputs much more stable, which was well suited to beginner foilers, but the new stabilizer allows more advanced foilers to be as aggressive as they want to be. The ease of initiating hard carves and turns will encourage you to drive more aggressively into turns, freely turning on waves and swell with the control and ease to cutback. The low-end speed of the 1500 is good enough to slow down, stall and then hook into the face of waves/swell, so you have the versatility to stay on foil and carve up wave faces, but you also get good top-end speed for chasing outer swells on your wingsurfer.

We tested the 1500’s breach performance and it did fairly well when you breached the wingtip on a hard carve. Some foils seem to catastrophically lose all lift and the 1500 seemed easier to correct the breach and continue riding. The 1500 had good top and bottom speed which made tack attempts and other wingsurfing trick maneuvers much easier.

As for its intended use, the 1500 seems like a top choice for wingsurfing and prone foilsurfing, but it would probably also be a fun wing for carve and wave-focused kitefoilers. We didn’t get a complete sense of the 1500’s foilsurfing pumping drive, but our feeling is that for foilsurfers looking to connect waves with pump-backs, the 1500 will keep the party going if you start with high-speed, but the Phantom line of wings may offer better pure pump performance. The 1500 is probably perfect for small and medium-sized riders, but bigger riders will want to move up in size to the 1800. Beginners will do fine on the 1500 but can always consider starting with the older stabilizer for extra directional stability. One thing is for sure—the new Gravity 1500 fills an important hole in the Gravity line, and along with the new stabilizer, we’d consider it a landmark addition to the Gravity offering. In terms of size and spot-on performance, we’d put the 1500 on our top list to demo when thinking about your next wingsurfing or prone surfing foil.

All F-One foils can receive either a Pack Alu Mast (sizes from 45 to 95cm) or a monobloc carbon mast with integrated foot mast and top plate (75, 85 and 105cm). Below is the Gravity 1500 V3 with a pack alu mast (left) and a carbon mast (right)