Ocean Rodeo’s 2023 ALUULA Glide wings at the AWSI

Foiling Magazine's Contributing Editor Steve Sjuggerud talks to Ocean Rodeo at the AWSI in Hood River about their new 7m ALUULA Glide wing, their Matrix handle system, and the ALUULA material innovations that are coming to the 2023 wing foil line up…

For the full interview transcript, see below.

Featured product: https://www.thefoilingmagazine.com/link/ocean-rodeo-aluula-glide

Steve Sjuggerud:
Hi, I'm Steve from Foiling Magazine here at AWSI with Ocean Rodeo and Jill. And Jill, there's so much innovation going on at Ocean Rodeo. I really loved last night's presentation from Richard. And so there's so much cooking, but maybe we could just start with what's going on right now. I think the current thing that I'm excited about is actually your seven-meter ALUULA Glide. So you want to tell me a little bit about that wing and what's going on there? And then what's coming with I see what's in your hands?

Jill Linde:
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Steve. So the seven-meter Glide is a really exciting addition to our A-Series Glide lineup. It's only available in an ALUULA airframe. And the thought there, the reason it took us a little bit longer to come up with a seven-meter, as opposed to most other brands had already come out with that, we were a little late to the game. And the reason for that was that we wanted our wingspan to be appropriate for riding, not catching the wing tip. And that was really taken into consideration. So the wingspan is really interesting on our seven-meter. It's similar to a six-meter.

Steve Sjuggerud:
Yeah, I've ridden both the seven and the six, and it's a totally different shaped wing.

Jill Linde:
Yes.

Steve Sjuggerud:
The six and the seven in the series, it's not like you just took one wing and just blew it up and made it smaller. The seven is totally designed differently than the six.

Jill Linde:
Exactly.

Steve Sjuggerud:
I would even say that the six has exceptional high end, and the seven has exceptional low end. I don't know if that was the design idea.

Jill Linde:
Yes.

Steve Sjuggerud:
But as a guy that rides seven meter kites, I can tell, so yeah.

Jill Linde:
And that's something I don't often ride a seven-meter.

Steve Sjuggerud:
Right.

Jill Linde:
But that's another exciting edition is we've actually come out with a 2.5 as well, which is a little bit more appropriate for my usual riding. But the seven-meter for a lot of people is the difference between a session or not a session.

Steve Sjuggerud:
Absolutely, absolutely. For me, at 110 kilos it is, actually. But I've been riding it with the soft handles, but I see… and these have been a bit in development as well because I've been asking about them. Oh, they're coming, they're coming. And so now they're here, is that right?

Jill Linde:
That's right. So we started off with the soft handles. And something that we've come up with that is really cool is we now have a full carbon boom option. It comes in a 94-centimeter or 110-centimeter option depending on the size of wing you're riding. And it's customizable. So the really neat thing about this is that I can actually switch handles on the same wing. So the boom is really great for a lot of X wind surfers, for example, have been really asking about getting a full boom option. You can have your hands anywhere for riding, which is great.

Steve Sjuggerud:
But even your world tour team rider, not just old windsurfers, but he's riding this boom, isn't he?

Jill Linde:
Absolutely. And it's a bit of personal preference, and he enjoys it. Again, yeah, just being able to put your hands anywhere on the wing. There's a lot of talk about, oh, this wing is better because the handle placement is here, and that really eliminates that.

Steve Sjuggerud:
Yeah, absolutely.

Jill Linde:
So that's a great thing. It is still very, very light. It's quite impressive how light this is. And the carbon really helps. We've kept it pretty affordable. It's pretty comparable to other wing handles on the market.

Steve Sjuggerud:
Awesome. And so when are these actually available in stores and such?

Jill Linde:
These are shipping to stores as we speak.

Steve Sjuggerud:
Okay, fantastic.

Jill Linde:
Yes.

Steve Sjuggerud:
Great to hear.

Jill Linde:
So there's quite a line for them. It took us a while to get them out on the market. So there is a bit of a lineup, but anybody that's pre-ordered will be very happy very soon.

Steve Sjuggerud:
Awesome. And just one last thing for you here. And last night's presentation at Wind Dance, Richard was talking about all kinds of new material, new material ideas for ALUULA. And then he showed some prototype wings that are coming down the line. Can you share any secrets with the rest of the world on what might be coming in materials? Because it was pretty exciting stuff. I know it's not coming out tomorrow.

Jill Linde:
Absolutely, yes. We have some new, they're concept wings now, but they've been tested and tried for many years, these new materials coming out. And I can tell you it'll be lighter, it'll be stronger. And we've done a few things to improve them. So some of these wings will be more for your average rider. Some of them will be for somebody who's looking for a really, really high performance wing. And we're pretty excited about seeing more of that happening.

Steve Sjuggerud:
Awesome. Yeah, well, I was super impressed. I didn't know that Ocean Rodeo was so into materials and so into pushing the limits of weight and strength until last night. And so that was really exciting to learn. Well, thanks so much, Jill, on giving us the lowdown on what's coming from Ocean Rodeo. I appreciate it.

Jill Linde:
Thank you, Steve.

Steve Sjuggerud:
Absolutely.