The Duotone Unit is the new wing for 2022 that has been supercharged over the previous seasons Unit.
What you notice straight away is the new kite style backpack type bag the Unit comes with is much easier to store, hang up and throw in the back of the car or van. The new Unit is different, it has a flatter foil shape, more curve in the leading edge and new panel layout.
You notice immediately when you pump the wing the centre strut and leading edge are stiffer due to the higher PSI pressure and new construction on the leading-edge panels. The solid handles also are a new feature – call them mini kite bar or mini boom the solid handles are a great addition to the new wing. You also have an extra dump valve on the wing tip which helps to quickly deflate the wing (but make sure when you inflate close it tightly – first time I pumped mine up I hadn’t closed the wing tip dump valve!!!)
What I noticed first time I used the Duotone Unit was the weight difference – it feels light and that’s is in the standard construction version! It has a real solid feel so the new 2022 Duotone Unit handles gusts well and turns them into extra speed, you also notice the upwind performance, extra speed and good pointing angle due to the tighter leech and stiffer leading edge. I found getting the wing onto the plane quick again due to stiffness but also the canopy has shape, the centre strut has a some profiled ripstop that gives plenty of power. You benefit from the solid handles this has a real positive effect on the handling – the connection to the centre strut is super stiff. Even the handle positioning is perfect, you slide your forward on the handle as you go upwind and gybe. The Unit has small windows that are in the right place and the material doesn’t affect its overall performance at all.
You can feel how this wing drifts and it is stable it doesn’t rock from side to side -so when you need to depower the Duotone Unit it sits perfectly in a downwind flagging position. Duotone also have made an even lighter model with the leading edge and centre strut in D/Lab (Aluula material). This is even stiffer than standard leading-edge material, so you get a big wind range out of each wing. The weight difference is noticeable you can feel the physical weight difference and especially in the bigger sizes between the standard model and D/Lab. The standard Unit is very light to start with a 5m unit costs £909 and the D/Lab Version is £1349
One thing I did notice you can reduce the air pressure from maximum setting in Duotone Units to give a more forgiving ride.
We have these on demo at the beach and will have the new Duotone Slick version 2 soon as they arrive too!
We have just added the Unit and the Unit D/Lab to our shops. Click the links below.
