The Only Universal Mast
I’m on vacation. But the reality is when you run a small business you are never on vacation. Even here in La Ventana I’m fielding demos, answering questions coming in through the site, and thinking about how to make Cedrus better. On the water I’m working on my gybes and tacks, enjoying the swell, and the rare moments I get to ride equipment I designed and built myself.
In the wake of a recent announcement from another aftermarket mast maker limiting the span of foils used with their mast, I have received questions and seen a number of statements online that call into question the design intent, use, and warranty policy of Cedrus. So I want to clear that up.
First off, a lot of customers have come to Cedrus because they’ve broken OEM masts. When wing foiling began to take off in 2019/2020, Cedrus was one of the few masts that could withstand the loads of the bigger boards and foils. Since launching in 2017, I have seen only 1 broken Cedrus mast, and this was due to a customer repeatedly letting it loose in the shore break. As stated on our site, we have a “limited lifetime structural warranty”. We have no rider weight limit or foil span limit, and never have. What exactly does this mean?
1. We cannot warranty bottom strikes, impacts with sea life, washing ashore in the shore break, or inadequate care (rinsing, UV protection, etc). These would be considered "abuse loads." The mast (and adapter system) was designed to withstand the loads applied under normal use conditions. We consider jumping normal, although some foils do say “no jumping” and we do not recommend jumping large span foils. The definition of “normal” in this sport is constantly evolving, as it is so new, and changing all the time. The marine environment is also brutal on equipment. We are very generous with our warranty policy, and have probably repaired more masts than we should have at no cost in goodwill to our customers. We simply want to stay in business to continue to supply our customers with masts and adapters for years to come. If our warranty policy is abused, we will go out of business.
2. When we say “Cedrus was not designed for some types of foiling,” a specific example would be 2m dock start/pumpfoil wings. Will the mast break? No. Will it have enough stiffness for this discipline and equipment? That we cannot guarantee, because these masts were designed for glide and speed, and big foils are slow and draggy. Cedrus may not be a good match for your favorite foil, and we are not hiding anything in our marketing or on our website. Evolution Surf was designed primarily for performance prone foiling, and Wind for wing and kite foiling. You can always reach out to us to discuss your intended use case to determine if Cedrus is right for you.
3. This policy applies to both Evolution and Classic series masts, but please keep in mind that the Classic adapter interface was designed in 2017 and may lack strength for modern foils or jumping. Usually this manifests as loose or bent hardware, and not lost foils. This is very rare with the Classic masts, but can happen. We have not had a single report of loose hardware with the Evolution adapter interface.
Some other key points we’d like to address:
Quality vs. design load case. It’s important to understand the difference between quality and design specifications. A product can have excellent quality, but fail when subject to use cases it was not designed for. If a mast is failing due to the use of long span foils, it may not be a quality issue, but a design limitation. Conversely a product designed to withstand extreme stresses, a ot of variability in failure modes/loads could be indicative of a quality problem.
Stiffness is not the same as strength. These terms of often used interchangeably, but they are very different. High modulus carbon is actually weaker than intermediate modulus carbon. Stiffness is an intrinsic material property defined by how much strain (stretch) occurs per given unit of stress. Strength is how much stress the material can handle before inelastic strain occurs (when it starts to break). Design has a bigger impact on mast stiffness than material modulus. Yes, the layup and profile (thickness, chord) impacts structural properties more than material modulus. As an example, a 13mm thick high modulus mast will not be as stiff as a 15mm thick intermediate modulus version (assuming same chord length) due to the powerful relationship (cubic) between thickness and bending stiffness.
Some notes on our aluminum board mount: I have seen more broken carbon baseplates than I would like to over 12 years of foiling. Oddly enough, I still get customers asking for a carbon board mount. A carbon mount will be heavier, draggier, weaker, and more expensive than our aluminum baseplate. And worse, when carbon fails, it’s catastrophic and the mast is scrapped. We have seen a couple bent aluminum base plates, due to abuse loads, and they were simply replaced. We have no plans to change the design of our board mounting architecture. If you want carbon, we recommend you purchase an OEM mast.
I have spent my entire career designing products to withstand applied loads. These include airframe structures, vehicle body-in-white, consumer electronics, pallet size vacuum chambers, bike frames and wheels, and flying cars. I have literally spent 20 years at the bleeding edge of structural engineering, finite element analysis, and materials science. Cedrus is a highly engineered structure, and the foot of the mast is designed and analyzed using very expensive tools and decades of experience. 1,000 hours went into the design of evolution masts. We did not take a foil connection designed in 2019 and try to make it universal. We engineered Cedrus from the ground up to be a universal mast, and it is the only universal mast.
We have our own challenges. Paint, in particular. Due to the complex load path of the mast foot, which is actually aluminum, this area requires hand finishing (sanding and paint). As stated on the site FAQ, cosmetic blemishes may exist. Look at any hand shaped surfboard, or at the underside of your foil board where the tracks are integrated. These are other examples of equipment in the foil world that have “paint blemishes.” We are continually exploring ways to improve the cosmetics of this area, but unwilling to make changes that might have structural implications at this time.
While the industry was focused on mast thickness, we took an engineering based approach and tailored chord length. When it launched, Evolution Surf was the lowest drag mast available thanks to reduced wetted area. Even now, it still leads the industry in glide, with maybe 1-2 other masts competitive. Neither are fully universal, and neither existed when we designed and launched the Evolution series a year and a half ago.
A note on chord length and stability: Short chord masts are inherently less stable, predictable, and less efficient at going upwind. Again, we’ve been honest and open about this. It’s the trade off you make for glide and downwind performance. If your ride powered, Evolution Wind is an amazing mast. The longer chord length increases torsional stiffness, improves stability, points higher upwind, and creates an incredibly predictable ride. Surf is looser, and if that’s what you want, go for it. But it comes at a cost. We are the first brand to market a wind (kite, wing) specific mast and that in and of itself is an acknowledgement that Surf is not designed for Wind sports. We do however have a number of clients wing foiling Evolution Surf.
We simply want to emphasize that first and foremast, Cedrus is a universal mast. If you only ride or plan to ride one brands’ foils, then you should probably buy their mast. It will be cheaper, and depending on the brand may be stiffer or may have better glide. The industry has progressed a lot since we launched Cedrus in 2017, and we are proud of our role in helping brands understand the value of a stiff mast. I’ve said this many times, but it’s the truth: when we launched Cedrus, we were told “the mast doesn’t matter.” Now many claim it’s actually the most important part of your kit. There are so many great options out there, we simply want you to be happy, whether that’s on a Cedrus or not.
Cedrus was engineered to have a healthy balance of stiffness, weight, glide, and strength, all while remaining universally adaptable to any foil in the world. It’s a really hard job, in fact one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my career. It was a multi-disciplinary optimization process consisting of hundreds of design iterations, simulations, and loops. This type of design engineering involves constant trade offs. Reduce chord length: reduce torsional stiffness. Reduce thickness: Reduce bending stiffness. Make it universal: add strength/material/drag to the bottom of the mast. The final product has satisfied 99% of our customers, and does outperform a number of OEM masts. But at some point, the constraints on Cedrus (universal, infinite length, made in-house) do limit our ability to outperform every single mast on the market, and we have no shame in acknowledging that truth. Anyone who claims otherwise simply does not have the engineering experience we do.
In closing, and in full transparency, we are learning and we don’t ever plan to stop. I became an engineer because I like solving problems and learning. Just as you and I are learning to link wave sets, land tacks and gybes, and foil in different conditions, we too are constantly learning how to design and build a better mast. Whether it’s our new molding process that enabled the design of Evolution Surf and Wind, or the industry’s first UV curable coatings, or a bomb-proof adapter interface, we are proud of what we have accomplished. We are also really inspired and impressed by what other brands have accomplished with new forms of foiling and designs. We see these brands as partners, not competitors, as everyone wins with a universal mast that facilitates easy transition to new foils and experiences. We want to give our sincerest gratitude to the customers who have supported us along the way, whether it was buying a mast, filling out our feedback survey, or simply being supportive of our efforts on social media or in forums. We are trying our best, and will do whatever we can to make Cedrus work for you, but also be the first to acknowledge when it may not be a good fit. So don’t ever hesitate to reach out.
Sincerely, Kyle