For folks that do both which gets going in lightest winds, wind or wing foiling?

Not doing both, but speaking comparatively: I get going earlier on windfoil with my average pumping technique compared to locals on wingfoils with excellent skills and pumping. They've got large or high-aspect foils and 6-7 m2 wings with custom booms etc., I've got 9-10 m2 race sails and 900-1000 wings and 1 m wide board. Another alternative is a light freeride windfoil gear, a couple of locals can pump quite early with 5.7-6 m2 sails and light boards, big foils.

There's a key difference in wing vs. wind, foiling jibes and tacks seem to be much easier on the wing.

WhiteofHeart will be able to answer most accurately as he's been doing both race WF and freeride wing.

I get going in less wind much more efficiently with wind foiling, of course there will be many variables with location, rider weight and equipment etc.

Winging in 9-13 mph for me is not that exciting, it takes quite a bit of pumping and it's not good on the elbow joints, but I can still pull off a decent amount of exciting transitions on a wind foil no problem.

9-13 mph I can use a 5.0 sail, wizard 130L and phantasm 926 @ 200lbs/90kg...at 14+mph that's where the wing starts to get more exciting on a 5.5, wingcraft 90L and phantasm 926.

also, when you are winging in light winds you are not going particularly fast? winging in 10-12 means you are going pretty slow the big wings are draggy, if you choose to wing with super wide HA foils, they are not exciting to bank over and if you choose low aspect, you will top out the speed pretty quickly.

I only windfoil, but I am always out on the water with my wife who wings. We both windsurfed before, and from that, I have a very good idea what difference in sail (and board) sizes we used. We were about even when she was on 4.2 and I was on 5.6, or 3.7 and 4.7.

Nowadays, the size difference has gotten a lot larger. It's normal that she is on 4.2 while I am on a 7.0. We are on similar size front wings (1250 vs. 1300), so relative to body weight, her front wing is a bit larger (and a bit higher aspect, although it's a mid-aspect foil). But there are plenty of days where I am slogging a lot, and she is winging the entire time. That's partly due to variable winds and differences in jibing (she foils through all her jibes, I often do not). But it also happens that she gets going easily while I do not.

It boils down to differences in skills and equipment. Her skills on the wing are up there with the best I have seen on the water in Corpus Christi, Cabarete, and in Cape Cod. My windfoil skills (after 300 sessions) are ok, but nowhere near her level (after 200 sessions). I often cannot do full energy pumps because of a damaged knee, but she rarely needs to do more than 2 or 3 pumps to get going. My HRS Stingray is not the fastest board to pick up speed. Her custom wingboard was designed for easy takeoff, and according to her, it works much better than other boards she has tried.

My interpretation is that for a given sail/wing size, wingers can get going a but earlier than windfoilers with similar sized foils. The wing always has enough upward directed force to carry itself, and usually more to effectively reduce the winger's weight, so the foil needs to lift less than in windfoiling, where the rig always add weight. But getting to this point requires TOW and significant skill, so it may not be reachable. A windsurfer with good pumping technique who switches to windfoiler may see faster progress.

If you are willing to use very large gear and pump hard, windfoiling probably has an advantage. Early windfoil competitions saw 11 m sails, and 9 m sails are still common in windfoil racing. 8 m seems to be the max, and some suppliers like Duotone don't go larger than 7 m.

In my experience on foil: earliest IQ windfoil/ race foils with 9.0 or race kite foils with giant specialized kites, both start to fly in 5kn. For me big foil+5.1m2 freeride/wave foil gear need extra 1 kn, really good wing guys on 8m2 wing might need extra .5kn to get going, but didn't hear from wingers that they like using 8m2

Two things about this. The first is that when you are chasing light winds you are always at the edge of having the wind drop a little more and having to get home. How would you rather do it? Standing at the mast slogging or trying to hold up a lifeless wing? Worse, on your belly paddling trying to hold the wing with your feet. The former for me for sure.

The second is that I hate dragging a wingtip when trying to pump. It kills your momentum and you have to start over tired. So I prefer pumping a big sail to a big wing any day.

so in light winds I prefer twin masts to twin leashes.

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BullroarerTook said..
Two things about this. The first is that when you are chasing light winds you are always at the edge of having the wind drop a little more and having to get home. How would you rather do it? Standing at the mast slogging or trying to hold up a lifeless wing? Worse, on your belly paddling trying to hold the wing with your feet. The former for me for sure.

The second is that I hate dragging a wingtip when trying to pump. It kills your momentum and you have to start over tired. So I prefer pumping a big sail to a big wing any day.

so in light winds I prefer twin masts to twin leashes.

Echoing this. I get up on an HGO 8.0 and Starboard Millineum (63 kg.) quicker than my quite skilled winging friend (probably around 75kg) with a 7.0/1300. He can jibe in lower winds than I can, though, by a smidge. The difference in our speeds once up is marked.

However when the wind dies, not a big issue for me but it's absolutely brutal for him. At least he doesn't have to drag a kite back though like my kitefoil buds.

Wings can get through a deeper lull and handle a higher gust for a given sail/wing size, but need a touch more power to get going.
Once a winger learns to foil tack they can stay flying in ridiculously light conditions from what I've seen.