Tkb Review: 2021 CORE SLC 1250

Sizes Available: 1000, 1250cm
Sizes Tested: 1250cm

Core Says:

The 1250 front wing features a stress-optimized carbon layup over a PU core that minimizes bending at the wing root while allowing the tips to twist. Our wing features a seaweed shedding and self-stabilizing sweptback shape. The reduced area tips and concave trailing edge outline add a little speed. An anhedral wing root (downward curvature) improves stability. This curvature is flattened towards the tips to improve breaching performance and minimize ventilation when a tip comes out of the water. Maintaining your track is easier than ever.

The stabilizer’s dihedral curvature lets you tilt the foil into turns like a skateboard for a smoother cruising behavior. This design also makes gybes, tacks, 360s, and transitions much easier when you can feel your back wing and use it to pivot the foil.

Our extruded aluminum mast is almost as light as some carbon ones with the added durability of 6063 aircraft aluminum. And its silent trailing edge design is a welcome relief. New foilers and wave riders should consider the 71cm mast whereas the 92cm mast is our allrounder. Our extruded aluminum mast features a progressive five-stringer, thin wall design that reinforces the highest stress areas. Precise fit tolerances ensure the mast fits tightly into the fuselage.

Visit for more info: www.corekites.com/us/foil/slc

TKB Says:

The 1250 stole our heart from the get-go with its easier foil-up speed, super intuitive carving and completely silent path through the water.

Design and Features
The new Core foil set comes with a carbon front wing, aluminum fuselage, carbon stabilizer and extruded aluminum mast. The overall design of the various parts has Core’s typical focus on engineering, with each part carefully keyed together to increase strength and reduce drag. The front wing features an overall delta shape that uses a fairly thin profile that has some fascinating curves in its underside. The stabilizer also features a delta shape with both the top and bottom fairly rounded. All the bolts use the same Torx head bolts and the front wing bolts to the fuselage with bolts of all the same length so you don’t have to think too much about assembly. Impressions
We rode the SCL 1250 with the 71cm mast and noted right off the bat that the bigger wing offers up a slower foil-up speed than the SCL 1000 that we tested. The SLC 1250 is still considered a kite foil, with not as much low-end speed as a wingfoil or surf foil, but it does offer a super smooth entry into flight at a speed that will be more comfortable for beginners and first-time foilers. Compared to the 1000, the SLC 1250 lets you slow down and carve tighter turns which makes carving up the chop and small waves much more approachable. The entry onto foil feels really smooth with gentle lift that gets you up and flying without any big surprises.

In terms of control and input, the 1250 gives you a balanced platform that feels dependable and easy to control. The pitch/up and down axis feels like the most stable of the axis’ with the roll and the yaw feeling a bit more active for easy turn initiation. It didn’t take a ton of input to roll into or out of turns, but with the 1250’s stable pitch, it seemed easier to manage the foil’s height and likely much easier for first-timers to avoid the dreaded porpoise crash. Both the SLC 1000 and 1250 were incredibly resilient when the wingtips breached the surface of the water. You could play with the wingtip by surfacing it on turns and it would continue to deliver lift without the usual cataclysmic crash. This is a great feature for progressing foilers and extra fun for more advanced riders that are carving extra hard.

The 1250 was super fun for carving up swell, but it doesn’t have quite the slow speed of a surf foil that would allow you to almost park and pivot on the face of the wave. We were really impressed with the pumping drive you could create from the wing to maintain your board speed when the kite wasn’t offering much pull. Tacks were really easy to master; the slower speed and stability of the 1250 allows you to move through the eye of the wind a bit slower while still staying on foil. Much like the SLC 1000, this bigger wing is equally as silent and slices through the water with no hums or vibrations which means Core clearly has some kind of trick up its sleeve.

While the SLC might be one of the later entrants into the kite foiling market, Core clearly took their time to arrive with a highly refined product that hits some seriously high notes. We think the 1250 will be a great match for the first-time kite foiler that needs a more forgiving and stable platform for basic progression, but it will also appeal to the carve-minded kite foiler who wants to carve tighter turns and slow down just enough to tear apart some rolling swells.