What do you think of the concept? Beyond the standard safety aspect I think it could add a fun dimension to winging as described. I also think you could make make one from a standard quick release leash if you wanted

I'm new to winging and haven't realized the safety issue with wing leash.
I can see the potential for dumping your wing while riding waves and pumping back out to it.
Impressed how the sea anchor works well, but interesting with the you tube comments on a real practical use of coming back in through shore break with just your board then going back for your wing.
Keep up the great work with your videos

Damian says at around the 3 minute mark, "... shorebreak ... it's a way to get out to not rip everything to pieces ....". I'm not sure how that would work. I guess you could let go of the wing if you get clobbered by a wave.

I once shredded two wings in two days struggling to get out through a shore break where the water was too shallow to get on the foil, and the waves a bit big to paddle towing the wing. I made it out once by furiously paddling but then got clobbered by a set wave and put the foil through the strut. Boom!

I guess you could swim the wing out past the impact zone and leave it out there, then swim in to get the board and paddle out. That sounds a bit convoluted but would eliminate the strong risk of wind and foil coming together with explosive results.

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Gorgo said..
Damian says at around the 3 minute mark, "... shorebreak ... it's a way to get out to not rip everything to pieces ....". I'm not sure how that would work. I guess you could let go of the wing if you get clobbered by a wave.

I once shredded two wings in two days struggling to get out through a shore break where the water was too shallow to get on the foil, and the waves a bit big to paddle towing the wing. I made it out once by furiously paddling but then got clobbered by a set wave and put the foil through the strut. Boom!

I guess you could swim the wing out past the impact zone and leave it out there, then swim in to get the board and paddle out. That sounds a bit convoluted but would eliminate the strong risk of wind and foil coming together with explosive results.

I would speculate, that it takes too much time to swim back to the beach, get the board and swim back out. By that time the wing is already drifted back to the beach probably...

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wingfoilpassion said..

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I would speculate, that it takes too much time to swim back to the beach, get the board and swim back out. By that time the wing is already drifted back to the beach probably...

I would tend to agree. I checked out the video on Youtube and someone posted a comment suggesting exactly that. Swim out with wing. Leave it. Swim back again. Paddle out with board.

Damien got all excited about that, said he hadn't thought of that and will make a video of doing it.

Another idea that the Cloud 9 Crew proposed was a something like a 2 person downwinder with one wing where you pass the "baton" (wing) to the downwind person and keep riding without the wing for as long as you can. Then they pass it back. All kinds of crazy possibilities

Bought one but modified so board is attached as well. Added coiled leashes and a clip so you can move it easily from wing to wing

Does the orange handle also act as a weight i.e. what motivation does the anchor have to open up and get started? Going to sew one up and modify it a bit into my harness pocket, the last thing I need is something else around my waist.

The swivel appears maybe a bit overkill but hard to tell scale exactly. Maybe just a standard surf leash swivel would do;
xmsurfmore.com/collections/accessories-1/products/8mm-stainless-swivel

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Thatspec said..
Does the orange handle also act as a weight i.e. what motivation does the anchor have to open up and get started? Going to sew one up and modify it a bit into my harness pocket, the last thing I need is something else around my waist.

The swivel appears maybe a bit overkill but hard to tell scale exactly. Maybe just a standard surf leash swivel would do;
xmsurfmore.com/collections/accessories-1/products/8mm-stainless-swivel

No, the orange handle is kind of a float and really just serves as a sheath for the QR (identical to a kite leash). There isn't a weight on the anchor component. I think a weight would probably cause it to sink and deploy faster, but based on the video and others firsthand accounts, it sounds like it locks in just fine for its intended purpose.

I recently bought one of these and haven't had a chance to try it. The thing that I found annoying was that its all pretty integrated into their belt (which is fine, but nothing particularly special other than a small "pouch" for the anchor). You should be able to move the more proprietary aspects of the design (QR and anchor) to other harnesses. It would have been very easy for Cloud IX to have designed it that way, but out of the box you can't do that without some needless modification.

It would also be pretty easy to build one of these on your own.

I just don't see ditching a wing as being a good idea, even it for just a short time. I live on Maui and where we go there are lots of other users, sometimes conditions can be crowded. Other ocean users are likely to be pissed off about having to navigate around wings floating in the water.

Wing in solid waves pretty regularly at Margaret River have had many wings destroyed by the leash ripping the front off the wing or the foil chopping it. Better strategy is to release the wing and a mate chases it down for you. This means I can get my own wing if out solo.

I have one they are great , I'm putting together a video myself. Re the shore break scenario watch this video and this is where I wish I had one . I crashed in waist deep water and both the board and wing leash got wrapped around my body as I got pounded in the shore break putting my foil through the wing multiple time . If I had the anchorman I could of released the wing prior to hitting the shorebreak.

Stay classy San Diego

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juandesooka said..
Stay classy San Diego

Ron Burgundy

I rip my knee cuff off coming in. I let my board wash in alone when it's big. My board can take the abuse. The wave quickly takes my board away from me. I'm just as precious as my wing.

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DWF said..
I rip my knee cuff off coming in. I let my board wash in alone when it's big. My board can take the abuse. The wave quickly takes my board away from me. I'm just as precious as my wing.

I've got the reel leash so I will try and real out as much slack as possible, but that's a two hand job, so no wing control. Next time I'll let out all the slack, then loop around the reel assembly to prevent retraction before entering the exit zone. That way I can ditch the board and hold wing, running up beach and dragging board in hairy situation. But I like your thinking about ditching the board all together in a situation where you won't be able to control the board much anyways. Just need to make sure no swimmers or riders are near by obviously.

The cool thing about ditching the board is, many times the waves end up tossing the board up on the beach. I don't even have to go back in the water to get it, after securing my wing on the beach. The beach needs to be free of tourists swimming.

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DWF said..
The cool thing about ditching the board is, many times the waves end up tossing the board up on the beach. I don't even have to go back in the water to get it, after securing my wing on the beach. The beach needs to be free of tourists swimming.

One other requirement is to have a bomber board - not a problem for you

Spent some time playing around with this thing. The first couple times it's a little never racking to let it go - but it actually holds! No issues at all. Tried ditching the wing right side up and upside down and it seems like right side up is better. The wing is more active upside down.
At first I thought it was limited to the waist belt it comes with but now I've l retrofitted all my harnesses to be compatible with the anchor. All you need is a loop somewhere and you can make it work.

Tucker from MACkiteboarding: Good review with good info

I picked one up but haven't tried it yet. The current in the Columbia River is extreme right now and I don't want to lose it! Maybe that's the perfect time to test it though!?

I think trading it back and forth on down winders sounds like a cool idea. Using it in the surf is a cool idea. My intent is to use it to sail out to less populated spots, park the wing, pop out a paddle and work on SUPfoil paddle ups. When I'm done, head back to my parking spot, pick up the wing and sail home.

The first I heard of a controlled wing release was in this episode of the Casey catch up with old school boogie board legend Kyle Maligro. In this podcast they call this move the "drop wallet" which is an appropriate name considering you're probably dropping $1500 worth of gear hoping to get it back. Kyle talks about using the move with great effect both in the surf and down-winding. One of my friends does the drop wallet a fair bit around the perth metro area. It works great for down winding in the bumps we get around here. It's pretty cool to see him come flying past bare handed, a bit of a party trick. He just uses a kite leash with a small weight but has the issue that the wing drifts a bit slowly for down winding so he always has to paddle back out to it. I am keen to give it a go and might have to rig up my own anchorman using a kite leash and a sea anchor/Drogue. I can definitely see the safety benefits as well both for getting slammed in big surf and for getting out through the shore break. Swimming out the wing then board separately would work great in nice side shore conditions, onshore perhaps not so easy.


This video of James Casey shows what magic can be done doing drop wallets in super light wind and surf. Of course results may vary for us mere mortals!

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neebs4964 said..
I just don't see ditching a wing as being a good idea, even it for just a short time. I live on Maui and where we go there are lots of other users, sometimes conditions can be crowded. Other ocean users are likely to be pissed off about having to navigate around wings floating in the water.

Looks like they're already doing the drop wallet on Maui! Let us know if it does end up annoying other water users.

More feedback on this anchorman. My buddies were trading wings and solo ditching their 4Ms in 30-40mph sideshore bump conditions for hours and they didn't have a loose wing once i don't think. I could hardly hold onto my 3M. I did get to laugh at my friend as he paddled upwind and asked me to fetch his wing though.

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MidAtlanticFoil said..
More feedback on this anchorman. My buddies were trading wings and solo ditching their 4Ms in 30-40mph sideshore bump conditions for hours and they didn't have a loose wing once i don't think. I could hardly hold onto my 3M. I did get to laugh at my friend as he paddled upwind and asked me to fetch his wing though.

Only issue I have had with mine is it came out as I was riding. Had a bright orange tutu.
note to self check it is packed correctly at the start of the session.

I ended up using mine a ton this summer. The main place I found that it pisses other users off is on facebook but yes, a little common sense from the user is important. Plenty of obvious good places, and obvious bad places, to drop the wing.

Bumping this up to ask if you're all still enjoying your anchorman leash or gone back to tradional leash/harness? If so has anyone compared the orange and red chute sizes?

I've never used one but I've watch my mate use one only to have his wing disappear down the beach when the parachute failed to catch the water.
It looked like it happened when he did the high throw and the wing starts to tumble before it can grab the water especially if the wing flips and chute line is laying on top of the wing and not dragging. In strong wind the wing can just tumble away. If you watch the video above you'll see that happen a few times.

Still love using my anchorman but have learned to only use it when slightly under powered or less. It's such a fun way to fling into waves. Prefer using it over my FoilDrive as it feels closest to prone with no weight trade off. I don't mind a long paddle back if I do a long dw run. Would like to try the new 24in version to see if it holds in higher wind conditions. I think adding some weight might help prevent some run aways which are caused when the anchor get caught on the wing when it flips over.

I picked up the red chute recently but haven't tried it yet since it's super cold water right now. I expect it's mostly overkill as my orange chute was pretty darn good. The red chute is a little harder to pack but I always just tuck mine into the belt during the session. New release handle, belt buckle, and new stitched chute lines look good
A few of the pros posted those videos of them chucking the wing in the air and it set a bad example for others. Just set the wing down in the water, no need to make a scene when deploying it. I've only had super small wings tumble. Put a shorter leash on them and that eliminated the issue.