Hi all. New winger here. I've had about 5-6 sessions on the water and finally bought by own gear. While learning I was able to try a few different wings both soft and hard handles. In my 3 or so session I liked the hard handles of the duotone unit but I did end up getting red bruising on the tips of my fingers ( on my leading edge hand). I forgot about it as it was a few months ago and now have bought the same wing. Yesterday I tried out my gear for the first time and after about 2 hours on the water I had the same bruised finger tips. Not too sure as to why or what I'm doing wrong. I suppose I could just wear gloves but I feel I must be doing something wrong. Any ideas or tips

Lubricating skin helps. Also if I go more sessions in a row or few days on end I wear gloves (mine are from ion, but I guess any will work). I always wear long sleeve stuff and shoes also. Protects from minor foil scratches and especially from shells, jellyfish or other stuff thats in the ocean.

Does it look cool? Probably not, but it's no beauty competition and I rather be safe than injured.

Sounds like you might be DEATH GRIPPING it. Make sure you relax out there.

Select to expand quote

TooMuchEpoxy said..
Sounds like you might be DEATH GRIPPING it. Make sure you relax out there.

This is really important and is a pretty common challenge early on in a lot of adrenaline sports (climbing, mountain biking, foiling)...and not just holding the handles while flying, but generally putting lots of energy (often ineffectively at first) into trying to control everything, adding wear and tear to your body. Learning to relax when/where you can has a ton of benefits (good breathing helps too).

...Also if there is much thickness on the palm side of any gloves you use, that tends to make your hands fatigue more quickly holding on...

Hard handles hurt my hands too. I love the hybrid handles on F-one Strike V4 but YMMV.

Thanks for the tips everyone. I'll try relax but maybe I'll just wear some gloves to begin with until I get used to the feel. I'm still very early on in my foiling journey.

No no
windsurfers who wear gloves to fix the problem u raise usually get it worse due to the wet glove rubbing the skin.

now red isn't bruising, it's rubbing so it's rubbing on the skin and/or too tight a grip. It will pass.
don't start gloves ...

I wear fingerless fishing gloves that don't rub.
Not for palm protection, more for sun protection.....sick of getting stuff cut or burnt off the backs of my hands.