Finally the wind was right to try out my new Axis foil with the 1050 front & the 420 rear short black fuse.
Well I was hoping to get out just before the wind picked up from 10 knots but it had already hit 16 to 22 knots!
I'm still trying to sort out the best way to carry both board & wing through a 50 metre skinny sandy pathway to the beach. Then another 100 to 150 metre walk along the beach foreshore to my Wingding start point. So taxing & frustrating to & back. Harder than doing a 3 hour session of winging!
So thinking I will have to go back to carrying my wingding in a large woven carry bag with the pump to my launch site, pump it up & go wingding. Then deflate on the beach & pack in bag & hope no sand & water gets into the inflation nozzles. If the kiters do it so can I.
The carry bag handles are big enough to go over my head & shoulder to help carry it with my board as I did before.
But anyway. Back to the Axis 1050 HPS. I can only compare it with my low aspect Neilpryde XL wing which is close to a surface area of 2000cm2 & wingspan of around 1000mm.
I am 80 kgs weight. With a JP 6ft 8" X 26 wide X 96 litre foilboard. Using a 6 metre Cabrinha X2.
I have around 3 years of SUP surfing experience from small to just overhead waves which I am reasonably comfortable in with a 65 cm mast.
But with Wingding I am finding it a much harder challenge in going upwind, toeside & jybes. Although not near enough sessions as I would like. Usually lucky to have one session every fortnight if lucky.
I was first going to get the Axis 980 HPS. But thought I would have trouble getting up on foil. But I was pleasantly surprised I could get up on foil quite easily & equally comparable to the NP XL wing. But lighter wind may show a difference. I found the 1050 really wanted to get up on foil even before my ideal board speed. Obviously when I let it, the board would slam back down on the surface before trying again. But this didn't bother me at all as I knew with just enough speed I would get up, level out & be off. So similar to my NPryde XL wing. So happy I didn't need to make any adjustments in ability.
Once up & foiling the speed increased quite quickly & was definitely faster! But was no problem staying with it with a longer 75cm mast compared to the NPryde 65cm mast. And the ride felt smoother or cut through the surface chop better. But I could still feel the bumps of the surface chop the higher I got. But it wasn't annoying as my height would drop again before rising again. I think the bumps felt smoother with the Axis 1050.
Upwind???? I found no difference betweenoth the Axis 1050 & the NPryde XL Wing in trying to go upwind. Upwind is my main frustration since starting Winging. I do better off the foil & on my knees! This what I do to get upwind as best as possible if I have drifted to far downwind. But so painful on my feet!
I know. More practise needed.

Axis should smoke the NP upwind.
And any foil should smoke upwinding on kknees while floating, definitely.

Many vids on how to upwind, i would watch a few.Upwind perfo is one of the big advantages of wingfoiling so worth studying.Good luck!.

I'm loving the 1050 as my light wing foil, I find it goes up wind really well, can crank it right over.
I just had to adjust to the sudden rise in nose then stall when getting on foil. love it.

Going upwind as best I can makes my Cabrinha Wing backwind. I even try to luff the wing at times to turn the board even more upwind. I seem to go perpendicular to the wind at best both ways.
One thing I have noticed in lower winds, ideally around 15 to 17 knots it is easier to travel more upwind. And what I noticed one time last year I got my original 4 metre Wingsurfer up in 20knots & found it seemed to head upwind better than the 6 metre Cabrinha. Obviously it was smaller & easier to handle. Maybe a smaller 5 or 4 metre wing would suit.
I'll check out more vids. Thanks.
Oh. And glad I colour coded my axis bolts to wing & mast holes. Setting up was quicker.

Select to expand quote

mcrt said..
Axis should smoke the NP upwind.
And any foil should smoke upwinding on kknees while floating, definitely.

Many vids on how to upwind, i would watch a few.Upwind perfo is one of the big advantages of wingfoiling so worth studying.Good luck!.

I've seen this & a few other videos in the past. But just watched & listened to it again. It is what I have been doing. EXCEPT, when it described the part about twisting your body a little more & pulling a little more tension on your backhand as you edge more into the wind. I have most times relaxed my backhand when edging more into the wind so the wing points more into the wind which therefore makes it backwind & lose speed. Even though I have tried this a few times. It was most likely after losing too much speed.

Sounds to me like you need to pull the back hand in more.
Power that wing up get some board speed, then lean back, look where you want to go, then turn the board slightly upwind and let the board speed and pressure on the foil take you up wind.

Agree, this sounds like you aren't flying the wing as well as you could. Read that statement again, "flying the wing". These aren't sails and they aren't being pushed. They are generating lift and forward motion. Make it a wing and fly it upwind. You have some of the best gear, if you can't make it to 10 or 2 o'clock it's technique. You'll get it but really play with the angles and sheeting in and also where the wing is fore and aft and see where that takes you.

I find that you can't just pull in more with your backhand because you can end up getting back winded. The wing should be on the verge of luffing and then pull it in a bit more until it's tight. It's important to get that wing out in front of you so that when you do pull in, the wind is pushing the sail forward, not across or worse yet, backwards. I find using a harness helps position the wing correctly and more steadily so I can make finer adjustments when going upwind.

Select to expand quote

Seajuice said..
Finally the wind was right to try out my new Axis foil with the 1050 front & the 420 rear short black fuse.
Well I was hoping to get out just before the wind picked up from 10 knots but it had already hit 16 to 22 knots!
I'm still trying to sort out the best way to carry both board & wing through a 50 metre skinny sandy pathway to the beach. Then another 100 to 150 metre walk along the beach foreshore to my Wingding start point. So taxing & frustrating to & back. Harder than doing a 3 hour session of winging!
So thinking I will have to go back to carrying my wingding in a large woven carry bag with the pump to my launch site, pump it up & go wingding. Then deflate on the beach & pack in bag & hope no sand & water gets into the inflation nozzles. If the kiters do it so can I.
The carry bag handles are big enough to go over my head & shoulder to help carry it with my board as I did before.
But anyway. Back to the Axis 1050 HPS. I can only compare it with my low aspect Neilpryde XL wing which is close to a surface area of 2000cm2 & wingspan of around 1000mm.
I am 80 kgs weight. With a JP 6ft 8" X 26 wide X 96 litre foilboard. Using a 6 metre Cabrinha X2.
I have around 3 years of SUP surfing experience from small to just overhead waves which I am reasonably comfortable in with a 65 cm mast.
But with Wingding I am finding it a much harder challenge in going upwind, toeside & jybes. Although not near enough sessions as I would like. Usually lucky to have one session every fortnight if lucky.
I was first going to get the Axis 980 HPS. But thought I would have trouble getting up on foil. But I was pleasantly surprised I could get up on foil quite easily & equally comparable to the NP XL wing. But lighter wind may show a difference. I found the 1050 really wanted to get up on foil even before my ideal board speed. Obviously when I let it, the board would slam back down on the surface before trying again. But this didn't bother me at all as I knew with just enough speed I would get up, level out & be off. So similar to my NPryde XL wing. So happy I didn't need to make any adjustments in ability.
Once up & foiling the speed increased quite quickly & was definitely faster! But was no problem staying with it with a longer 75cm mast compared to the NPryde 65cm mast. And the ride felt smoother or cut through the surface chop better. But I could still feel the bumps of the surface chop the higher I got. But it wasn't annoying as my height would drop again before rising again. I think the bumps felt smoother with the Axis 1050.
Upwind???? I found no difference betweenoth the Axis 1050 & the NPryde XL Wing in trying to go upwind. Upwind is my main frustration since starting Winging. I do better off the foil & on my knees! This what I do to get upwind as best as possible if I have drifted to far downwind. But so painful on my feet!
I know. More practise needed.

On this particular day you were probably overfoiled and over powered. A smaller foil or wing and you have had better performance. That foil setup belts upwind but you need to be able to sheet right in with the wing.

Thanks guys. A lot of what you have said. I wasn't doing properly.
20 knots plus. Smaller Windwing would have been easier to sheet in.
I have noticed that my Cabrinha windwing has at times surprised me when held in front a bit more has gone upwind more. When initially I heard that you should hold the wing back more.
But anyway will keep this advice in mind like I did about the 1050 hps axis foil which was more board speed & to level out early to avoid the stalls. Which I was comfortable with.