After many requests from our Pro subscribers to get riding and reviewing some Gong products, we finally got our hands on one of the most asked about boards… The Gong HIPE inflatable foil board.
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Olof
3 years ago
finally the review, and as always spot on . i have the 7,5 (1,92 and 95 kg). all the positieve and negatief remarks you made i can agree on .
The only thing i want to say . i have been a gong customer for +/- 15 years (hard and inflatable) ,and i have always have good customer service . No problems !
Hey Olof. thanks for your comment. Good to hear your good feedback about Gong. I do realise many readers may only share bad feedback with us opposed to good. So this is great to hear 🙂 Hopefully more will add feedback after this review video.
PS. Have you paddled your 7’5″ in the surf?? Love to know how the forward fin worked.
John McLaurin
3 years ago
Love the video! Could I request the Gong flint for winging and foilSuping for a future review if planning/able to do more Gong boards? Thanks
Cool, thanks for your suggestion John. Its all noted
Hum3
3 years ago
Great review guys. I seem to remember reading something about the lack of rear strap to do with Gong not wanting the board to be jumped, but that could be speculation. I guess jumping would put extra strain on the footstrap which might not cope as they are stuck on? Interesting to hear your feedback on how you found this footstrap setup as I choose to wing this way on my bigger (95L) board and enjoy having the freedom to move my back foot around to really put leverage on the rail to put some aggressive turns in but also… Read more »
Regarding the back foot strap question. We did briefly mention this in the first look video and you are correct it’s still something I’m wondering about. I did actually remove a section in the video where I was talking about foot straps on and how strong they would be, but I decided to remove that section because I have no evidence of them failing yet. And thought it might be a bit unjustified because I haven’t had any feedback from any of you lot out there regarding boards breaking with the straps becoming unstuck. But this is a point I’m… Read more »
ICSurf
3 years ago
Great review! I’ve used the 5’1 85L Hipe for the last 3 months for 50+ sessions exclusively for winging. The 5’1 is only 4″ thick which is less than alot of hardboards. I am 77 to 80 kgs and have loved this little board winging in as little 9 knots to 30 knots. Having learnt (15 to 20 sessions) on a 6’6 hardboard this was my beginner to intermediate board. A few things I’d add to your review. 1) when learning to gybe I fell alot!!! The deck pad and isup construction is really forgiving on your knees! 2) bullet… Read more »
Thanks so much for adding your thoughts onto this review. Great added points. The 5’1″ must feel pretty small. Happy ripping
astrauss
3 years ago
It is possible to fold the edges of the board close to the carbon plate to fit in a smaller bag of 158 linear cm authorized by the airlines together with a Wing and a foil? Thanks!!!
Unfortunately we have just sold the board so I cant test it.. but I would say yes. It maybe harder to fold down because of all the PVC layers but possible. Im sure it will be easier on the bigger boards with compression straps. I wouldn’t want to keep it folded like that for a longer period of time though!
stevo4105
3 years ago
Hello good review as always. I have used the Hipe 5’5″ for the past three months and for me still learning and weighing 100kg the board is perfect. I started with a Fanatic 6’11” sky sup windsurf edition. The Hipes main advantage is the ability to transport it the mile or so to my spot on a bike with a trailer attached. I agree for transporting attach the foil as it makes it easier to carry etc. As you point out the board is virtually bullet proof which is a big advantage compared to my Fanatic composite which seemed to… Read more »
Hey Paul, just try refreshing you Browser or sing into Pro on a new internet browser. 9 times out of 10 its to do with your computers caching. Let us know if still a problem. Thanks for the sign up
Jon Harris
3 years ago
Hi I was wondering how much this board cost by the time you add shipping and all the duties now we have left the EU? Thanks Jon
Hi Jon, I purchased direct from their website a beginner’s set up of a Gong Hipe 6’5″ aluminium 90cm large beginner foil and 5m wing and wrist leash, alongisde a waist leash and helmet all for 1310,77€ (150€ of which was the “shipping cost” to the UK from France) in July 20201. So far the board, foil and wing have arrived at the very end of last month (29th Sept.) via DPD, and the extra transport costs so far have been 266.83GBP. Delays were due to knock-on effects in shipping from China during Covid, and some unexpected delays into the… Read more »
You may need to clear your browser cache to see the full video Andy – unfortunately this is something we can’t control from our side as browsers locally save pages to prevent having to reload. We are working on a better solution.
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finally the review, and as always spot on . i have the 7,5 (1,92 and 95 kg). all the positieve and negatief remarks you made i can agree on .
The only thing i want to say . i have been a gong customer for +/- 15 years (hard and inflatable) ,and i have always have good customer service . No problems !
Hey Olof. thanks for your comment.
Good to hear your good feedback about Gong. I do realise many readers may only share bad feedback with us opposed to good. So this is great to hear 🙂
Hopefully more will add feedback after this review video.
PS. Have you paddled your 7’5″ in the surf?? Love to know how the forward fin worked.
Love the video! Could I request the Gong flint for winging and foilSuping for a future review if planning/able to do more Gong boards? Thanks
Cool, thanks for your suggestion John. Its all noted
Great review guys. I seem to remember reading something about the lack of rear strap to do with Gong not wanting the board to be jumped, but that could be speculation. I guess jumping would put extra strain on the footstrap which might not cope as they are stuck on? Interesting to hear your feedback on how you found this footstrap setup as I choose to wing this way on my bigger (95L) board and enjoy having the freedom to move my back foot around to really put leverage on the rail to put some aggressive turns in but also… Read more »
Regarding the back foot strap question. We did briefly mention this in the first look video and you are correct it’s still something I’m wondering about. I did actually remove a section in the video where I was talking about foot straps on and how strong they would be, but I decided to remove that section because I have no evidence of them failing yet. And thought it might be a bit unjustified because I haven’t had any feedback from any of you lot out there regarding boards breaking with the straps becoming unstuck. But this is a point I’m… Read more »
Great review! I’ve used the 5’1 85L Hipe for the last 3 months for 50+ sessions exclusively for winging. The 5’1 is only 4″ thick which is less than alot of hardboards. I am 77 to 80 kgs and have loved this little board winging in as little 9 knots to 30 knots. Having learnt (15 to 20 sessions) on a 6’6 hardboard this was my beginner to intermediate board. A few things I’d add to your review. 1) when learning to gybe I fell alot!!! The deck pad and isup construction is really forgiving on your knees! 2) bullet… Read more »
Thanks so much for adding your thoughts onto this review. Great added points.
The 5’1″ must feel pretty small.
Happy ripping
It is possible to fold the edges of the board close to the carbon plate to fit in a smaller bag of 158 linear cm authorized by the airlines together with a Wing and a foil? Thanks!!!
Unfortunately we have just sold the board so I cant test it.. but I would say yes. It maybe harder to fold down because of all the PVC layers but possible. Im sure it will be easier on the bigger boards with compression straps.
I wouldn’t want to keep it folded like that for a longer period of time though!
Hello good review as always. I have used the Hipe 5’5″ for the past three months and for me still learning and weighing 100kg the board is perfect. I started with a Fanatic 6’11” sky sup windsurf edition. The Hipes main advantage is the ability to transport it the mile or so to my spot on a bike with a trailer attached. I agree for transporting attach the foil as it makes it easier to carry etc. As you point out the board is virtually bullet proof which is a big advantage compared to my Fanatic composite which seemed to… Read more »
Thanks for your great feedback on Gong and how to get the most out of the board. Yeah In the future we should try and get a Gong in the test for sure.
so how do i actually view the review? I signed up for Pro but all i get is the 47 second video saying the review is available
Hey Paul, just try refreshing you Browser or sing into Pro on a new internet browser. 9 times out of 10 its to do with your computers caching. Let us know if still a problem. Thanks for the sign up
Hi I was wondering how much this board cost by the time you add shipping and all the duties now we have left the EU? Thanks Jon
I think all the information is on the Gong website. I don’t believe the shipping has gone up at all for inflatable board.
Hi Jon, I purchased direct from their website a beginner’s set up of a Gong Hipe 6’5″ aluminium 90cm large beginner foil and 5m wing and wrist leash, alongisde a waist leash and helmet all for 1310,77€ (150€ of which was the “shipping cost” to the UK from France) in July 20201. So far the board, foil and wing have arrived at the very end of last month (29th Sept.) via DPD, and the extra transport costs so far have been 266.83GBP. Delays were due to knock-on effects in shipping from China during Covid, and some unexpected delays into the… Read more »
Is there a handle somewhere on this board?
Hi Carson, no there is not. The footstraps kind of act as the handle.
struggling to see the actual review despite logging off and back on as per comment above
You may need to clear your browser cache to see the full video Andy – unfortunately this is something we can’t control from our side as browsers locally save pages to prevent having to reload. We are working on a better solution.