Gong HIPE Review (Inflatable Wingfoil Board)

Welcome back to the OK Kiteboarder. In this episode, I'm going to attempt to see what all the heap is about. Since wing foiling hit the mainstream wind sports market a couple of years ago, one of the major obstacles has been convenience of travel. Thank goodness that the nine foot wing board is a thing of the past, but even a five and a half foot board can be difficult at times in transport. So along came Gong and a few other brands to address these needs of portability with an inflatable board option. So stick around if you want to see what the Gong heap is about, from sizing and pricing to performance and comfort, as well as customer service items and dealing with direct sales with this company based out of France. My current setup for riding is on the 90 liter 510 V1 F1 rocket board, so many of my performance comparisons will be against this backdrop. When choosing the heap size that I preferred, I went with the 5185 liter board. At the time of my order, the heap was back ordered for about two months. I was anxious, but I was okay with waiting, so I went ahead and made the purchase. So now let's look at pricing. Pricing, it's a little bit of a logistical roller coaster. The list price, 599 euro, but you get 20% off that price in the US due to the VAT being dropped. So that's 499 euro. Then you add on shipping, which was 225 euros to my house. That's a total of $724.17 converted to US dollars, so about $857. So not as good of a deal as I first perceived it to be, but if you're a foil addict and you feel like you need a fix, you're going to click the buy button. At the time of creating this video though, you're just going to join a wait list because there is no available product on the near horizon for Gong. So just cuddle up to a pillow, try to control your nausea, fever, and night sweats until other options are made available. And these other options are coming soon. F1 will be releasing a non-tuttle standard 160 by 90 millimeter setup for an inflatable wingboard in the spring. I'm not sure on when the Gong inventory will be back in stock, but I am optimistic that other large brands will also rush into this category to meet the demands. Upon receiving the Heap, it was well packaged. It came with a pump, two foot straps, a repair kit, a travel bag, which has a couple of wheels, and it can function as a backpack. I'm not real confident about the padding of the bag for checking baggage for airlines, but it would be a sufficient size for air travel if you chose to it for this. And really, it's a great looking setup. All of it looks great. It should also come along with mounting hardware and foot strap hardware, but my packaging did not. I had an extra set of mounting hardware, so that was no issue, but I did not have the sizing for the foot strap screws and washers. And here's where I inject the warning of an imminent ramp when it comes to the customer support side of Gong. I had correspondence by email with a Gong representative about providing the missing items. This lasted over a five day period of emails. See, I thought the interaction would go something like this. The hardware was left out of my order. No problem, we will send that out to you, but that just was not the case. It actually went more like we've never had items left out of a delivery before. The items are in this part of your packaging, or maybe they're in this part of your packaging. I'm not saying it can't happen, but the screws, oh, they are specific Gong screws. No, they're not specific. They're standardized screws. How about we just give you a $15 credit on a future purchase? To which I was replying, is there any way you could just mail me what should have been in the original order? To which the response was, look, we operate with very limited margins on our products. To which then the verdict was, I will request to send the hardware, but still nothing has been received as of this date. I'm just happy there was nothing functionally wrong with the and I can't imagine what that process would be to have it addressed. Okay, so I am sorry for that rant. Now back to the board. I pumped the board up to 18 PSI and it was the most rigid inflatable board that I have ever witnessed. The hand pump functions well, but I will be looking for an automatic high pressure pump option soon. The 5.1 Heap weighed in at 16.1 pounds without the foot straps, which is considerably more than the listed weight online. But as you can see, the board has a very large 30 inch carbon plate along the bottom of the board where your stance and pumping will occur. This plate weighs almost five pounds and it would definitely be responsible for such a significant weight. But if this plate is integral for never feeling any flex in the board, then it would be worth it. Transport to the water is somewhat awkward with a wing due to the width of this board and the absence of a handle. You have to grab the mass towards the back of the board in a less than optimal grip and it would be nice if a handle could have been extended from the plate. Even like a little small t-hook would be beneficial. A depressed handle obviously would not be applicable due to the board's inflatable nature. Mounting and kneeling on the board, I would say the Heap only felt minimally more difficult than my current board. The stability on the water was actually very good. Going from a kneeling to a standing and then sloshing on the board was maybe a 10% increase in difficulty. The board goes upwind on the water well. It is nine inches shorter than in a good way, but still it kept me up on the surface of the water very effectively. I've ridden this board now in a number of different wind conditions and the Heap is easy to come up on foil in higher winds, but I find it to be somewhat sticky in lighter riding conditions. To be fair though, Daniel also rode the Heap on his setup and he found it to not be sticky at all compared to his 55 liter Fanatic board. Now this could be due to the different hydrofoils that we both use. I'm on a 1500 square centimeter Delta setup and he's on the Nil Pride Wingzilla and he's using it as a monofoil. Also, it could be more easily explained with Daniel is just simply better than me, but I am confident that I can come up on foil in a 14 mile per hour wind on the 90 liter rocket board and it seems to require around an 18 mile per hour gust on the Heap when I'm using a five meter hand wing on that 1500 Delta foil. Knowing this, look, it just limits some of the conditions that I will get out with the Gong. Another item with the Waterstart, especially in lighter winds, is the increase in efficiency when when you put the front straps onto the Heap. Even though this board makes you forget that it actually is an inflatable board at times because of how solid of a feel that it does have, well it still has somewhat of a convex surface feel and when pumping is required, coming up on the light wind start, the straps kind of connect you better to the board. And this is a preference that I've never felt that I needed on the rocket board, but it serves as a considerable advantage rather than strapless riding on the Heap board in my opinion. Now let's discuss the riding performance of the Heap. Again, many times you forget that you have an inflatable board underneath your feet. I have never once felt the board flex, give, or shift in any way, even when pumping the board. While cruising and carving, the board feels very playful and it really has no downside. When transitioning or driving upwind though, there are a few things to consider. When coming out of a turn or at sharper angles, when your rail may touch the water's surface, do not expect the Heap to recover easily. If you touch a rail down, most likely you are also going down. This is also true with stuffing the front nose. If you bury the nose, it will most likely not recover. Just keep this in mind and don't expect great touchdown recovery at angles. If you however touch the board down flat, it does a decent job of riding out of that. As you can see in this shot, Daniel on a monofoil front wing will touch down to switch feet before rising on foil again. Now this will make sense if you have ever ridden a monofoil and tried to perform a switch foot stance on air. So as long as the touchdown is even, the Heap, it's adequate in recovery. Some other unknown variables at this time are the durability of the board. If on arrival, the board did have a few small imperfections, but nothing really significant. So how well will this board hold up in transport, with setup, usage, sunlight exposure? I have observed forums stating that delamination concerns with the carbon plate on the underside of the board. I however have not seen examples to substantiate this. There is a warning on the bottom to not leave the area exposed to direct sunlight, and I'm not sure how vital the carbon plate is to the integrity of the board's performance. It does add almost five pounds to the total weight of the setup. It also limits the packing size of the Heap. I would like to create a comparison video when the new F1 inflatable is released this spring, to be able to compare between two comparable boards that weigh about five pounds in difference with the less substantial carbon plate installed in the F1 design. In conclusion, am I pleased that I purchased the Heap? Yes. Will it be my full-time setup? No. It will however be a great travel option for myself, but for home site riding, I believe I will look at downsizing to this 75 liter F1 rocket board. I am thankful to Gong because I believe they came to the market with a better inflatable wing foil board option. Look, you're just going to have to weigh the pros and cons for yourself to see if adding an inflatable board to your wing quiver is worth it. If you're looking for wing gear outside of the Heap, reach out to Green Hat Kiteboarding. They are always supportive of me in introducing what is out there in the industry, even if it's outside their product lineup. I hope this episode answers some questions. Please subscribe, like, and comment, and I'll see you next time on the OK Kiteboard.