This wing is one crazy tackmaster! It’s insane how easy and good the feeling is with these wings when doing tacks. More about this further on as we explore the wing during this review.
Details of the wing
When unpacking, the material of the leading edge really catches my eye. They use a lighter Dacron and it just feels really crisp and fresh. The build quality overall looks very neat, with very nice seeming all the way. It has lots of reinforcements and attention to details. The grip of the carbon handles feels really nice, and the front handle even has a little soft bumper at the front to protect your board of body parts on impact. Also the connection between the handles and the strut looks really solid. I do always notice some tension sounds after I grap the handles for the first time. But for some reason this sound gives you a confidence boost, like the wing tells you, I’m ready to rock!
The shape, the panel layout combined with the tension on the wing , when it’s pumped up this wing looks awesome. What is also very good, is the leash. The leash is long, thicker, and can stredge quite a lot! The best thing it comes with a swivel, and you can attach it to your waist out of the box. Something Ozone has been doing a bit longer now. Why attach it to your waist? On your arm a leash is more in the way when doing tricks. Also when you like to paddle out in waves, you want a leash attached to your waist. Not the arm you are paddling with.
The 5.7 is pumped up to 8 psi for the stut, and 7psi for the leading edge by 2 separate valves. For the 4.3 this is 9 over 8 psi. They are boston valves, not my favourite as the pressure is hard to control with a handpump. The indicator always moves a lot around.
The weight of the wings are good for a Dacron model, 2.4kg for the 4.3 and 2.8kg for the 5.7.
How the wing performs
You can already notice it on the beach. But the wing is very well balanced when flagged out. The large handle on the front feels really comfortable and is stiff enough to move the wing around if necessary. Also the soft patch behind the handle to protect your knuckles, is very large making it impossible to hit any seems or rough material.
The power of the Flux is immediately noticeable and sits far to the front. It really wants to pull you forward. Something you clearly notice when standing still. But moving on the water this power is just distributed perfectly. Also, the 2 carbon handles are positioned perfectly. Something you generally notice well when a wing gets powered up. If they are of, after a while you will get tired soon. With this wing I can be powered up for hours without any problems, and that’s without the use of harness lines. As the strut has no angles to it, instead the handles on the strut have an angle to them. This way your arms in a straight position while holding the wing.
My main focus for now has been learning tricks and do lot’s of waveriding with these wings. But I can feel the potential for this wing as a competition wing. I can feel it has the potential to go fast, and the upwind angle of attack is really good! I actually learnt some new tricks with these wings in no-time. And improved on some others a lot. Jumping this wing is a pleasure aswell. The frontside orientated pull I mentioned before works really well for jumping high and on the go. Control in the air has been very well.
I started this review by mentioning this wing is a tackmaster! There are more wings out there that tack easily. With this wing I almost found it impossible to fail on my tacks. The best part is that the wing can really pull you through the tack while proving a pull to keep you going. Tacking is so much fun on this wing, I sometimes just keep on tacking! Going round, round and around! The handles also give a lot of overall wing control for when you like to do more advanced jibes and other wing tricks. The control is really good.
The wind range for the wings is large, they cover a wide windrange. For me I’d say about 12 to 25 knots.
Downsides of this wing
So is there nothing negative to mention about this wing? Well I can find a couple of things if I’m very critical. First is when the sea is rough and the wing moves around on the water, it flips quite fast. Second, there are 2 windows in the wings, but so far I have had 0 feeling of extra visibility by them. The last thing is I’m not sure how much the light dacron can withstand. I already had one foiltip going through the leading edge. Then again, which Dacron wing would have survived.
Conclusion
With the Flux Ozone made a performance wing that can do it all, without compromises and not having the price tag of Aluula or Hookipa composite material. Still, it’s not the cheapest of wings. But you really get the best overall wing I’ve tried for 2023. I would definitely recommend the wing to anyone.