Armstrong

Armstrong Foils — the brand of Armie Armstrong, covered in a long sit-down on the company and his own foiling (Ep 38). Armie is described travelling constantly between New Zealand, China, the States and Maui.

• Ep 38 (full transcript): Founded by Armie Armstrong and Rob Whittall (ex-Ozone), with early design help from Kevin Trotter (later an AXIS Foils partner). Manufacturing moved from New Zealand to Asia early on largely for shipping-cost reasons. Core engineering identity — titanium core, continuous-fibre wrap around a thimble (source of the hex-shaped fuselage) — was built for durability, driven by Armie’s own gear-breaking as a heavy rider.
• Product line as discussed: CF 1600/800 (early foils), HA 925 (high-aspect, admitted to have shipped “unrefined”/ahead of most riders’ skill), the more stable MA range that followed, the Performance mast (early versions flexier than ideal; newer version now regarded as very stiff, though Armie personally still prefers some flex on smaller surf foils), the XPS wing (a two-year, 80+ iteration collaboration with outside sail/kite designers, built for wave riding rather than race or freestyle — a wing-twist/preload insight from a sail designer named “Pete” [name uncertain] was applied to both the XPS and the MA foils), and new Armstrong Pump Foils (1675/1880) aimed at a very low stall speed.
• Team/company news at the time: Jeremy moved to Armstrong from AXIS; new CEO Nathan (surname not given, from a well-connected NZ sailing family) had taken over day-to-day running, easing pressure on Armie and Rob. UK presence via rep Tristan in Weymouth; gear supplied to the SailGP Inspire youth wing-foiling programme.
• Stated focus going forward: surf foils, race-foil consulting intended to “trickle down” like F1 tech (may never reach retail), and a wake-foiling push around rider Noah and a US-based wake rep. Full detail in S - Ep 038 Armstrong.

Ripple additions (batch 2, 2026-07-20)

• Tiesda You (Starboard, Ep 110) describes Armstrong’s front-wing connection as a ‘sleeve’ system with an unusual conical shape whose pressure direction doesn’t quite match the load path; notes Armstrong ran early small-batch production at the same factory as Starboard.
• Ken Adgate (Ep 60): Armstrong is among his top three foil alternatives to Mikes Lab (with F-One and Levitas), citing mast stiffness/quality gaps vs Mikes Lab.
• Julien Salles (F-One, Ep 47) contrasts F-One’s foil philosophy with Armstrong’s and AXIS’s move to high-camber downwind foils — a direction F-One tried and abandoned.
• Ep 123: Guy Bridge’s widely shared spray photo/clip attributed to a thick-section, ‘lifty’ Armstrong foil with square tips.