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dejavu said..
I saw the Beatles live in 1966 when I was 16 years old so you do the math.

I learned to windsurf in 1977 and continued to do so until I saw Robby Naish on a wind foil board. I started foiling on a windsurf board, which was at least relatable and added the wing equipment (board and wings) a year later. I want to get reasonably good at winging so I've dropped windsurfing completely and dedicate all my water time to foiling -- my favourite sport ever!

Would love to of been there to watch the Beetles, that was an era to be involved in. I was two then though.

I'm 41 and probably one of the youngest wingers at my local spot, however it's seems like there is a lot of younger people buying kit and a lot of the kitesurfing schools have gone all in offering cheap wing demo days for beginners to full advance courses.

51, been windsurfing for 21 years, windfoiling for 4 years, Winging for 1 year. I gave up windfoiling after my 4th session Winging. Still windsurfing for waves and if it's crazy windy.

DC

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juandesooka said..

JohnnyTsunami said..
Biggest question I get from beach goers is "how much?".

Funny thing is, foiling can be done pretty cheap, as long as you're willing to sacrifice top end. 8 years ago we were DIYing kite foils using aluminum tubing and carving G10, bolted onto wakeskates. 5 years ago we were building sup foils from plywood and retrofitting sups with golf club shaft through-hulls. Now, chasing an elusive pump-monkey downwinding dream, the $1000s quickly disappear in the new must-have foil over and over. BOAT (bring out another thousand) vs KISS (keep it simple stupid). If you give up that top-end, you can be on a $50 DIY foil on a free old giveaway board with $100 in DIY mounts, and it will work just fine, for 90% of conditions.

But back to age: my throwing $$ at the problem coincided with a little mini mid life crisis ... the realization at 53, there's maybe 10 years of going hard(ish), 10 years of cruising, then it gets increasingly iffy. Injuries get harder to recover, unrelated health issues can arise, at any time you get taken out of the water not by choice. The heavy bummer of realizing we face a finite number of sessions ahead comes with a positive: full-on carpe diem commitment, SPEND THE MONEY NOW and enjoy every minute of your (relative) youth TO THE MAX. Chase the fun and no regrets.

Totally agree with this 100%, if you got the money, spend it and enjoy to the max. I've been through so many foiling setups - enjoyed them all even though some of them would be practically worthless now.

52, turning 53 next month. Still have good fitness, but some injury issues and niggles such as a bad knee.

Slightly envious of the youngsters who get to do this with youthful bodies, but that's minor - mainly super stoked to be able to do this at all.

As I improve and the gear gets better and more advanced, it seems to be a lot less effort required.
I now find winging less physically intense than kite foiling even, my sessions have been much longer this year than last.
I'm sure that trend will continue for some time at least, and that there will be further breakthroughs in equipment tech.

I'm thinking this is a sport you can do for life. As long as you have reasonable health and mobility I don't see why not.

However at a certain age and stage you have a slow down a little and it will only be accessible if you already have the skills in place.

Someone who asks how much in my delusional mind is a pretender. I just Chuck out a 5k figure and watch them slowly slink away. Price doesn't matter if you are fair dinkum.

sometimes I get "how can I get into this - looks awesome ". Then I spend time with them discussing options.

Our crew here includes a 13 year old (pro), his parents 40's. me and my wife 50's, couple of 60's, 70' and two bad ass 80 year olds.

I'm 65

At our spot there's a few of my vintage and one 70 year old. There's a fair number of women of various ages and young guys down into their early 20's. We have one teen but he's a sponsored rider and champion and rips on everything so he doesn't count.

I've always done water/wind sports. Even as a little kid in the 60's holidays were at the beach and surfing on foamies, snorkelling and paddleboarding.

It was hard to get into proper surfing and stuff because boards were so expensive and you needed transport to get to the surf. It wasn't until I was working in my late teens/early 20's that I could afford to buy equipment. By then windsurfing was invented.

I need time on the water. It is essential for my physical and mental health. I have zero ongoing health issues because of a lifetime of play on the water (or in the mountains, and occasionally in the desert).

I found all the conventional sports (football, cricket, golf, tennis, etc) boring and no fun at all. More importantly the fun is controlled by everybody else with rules and scores and bookings and fees. Getting out on the water is pure fun and it's all down to me. Surfing goes close to the restrictions of conventional sports in that you're subject to crowding and tides and everything that entails.

In terms of dollars per hour, by far the cheapest is kite foiling at about $5 an hour. Kiteboarding is closer to $10 an hour. Wing foiling is sitting on $50 an hour at the moment, but I think I've broken the back of the equipment arms race. Everything I have works really well and I don't feel the need to buy more and more gear (Switch wings, One SUP foil board, Gofoil RS1150, 93cm mast all carbon).

At 65 I can afford whatever I want, and it's a reasonable guess I have 5-10-15-20 years of active fun left. There's not a lot of time to waste. Pissing money up against a wall makes me very unhappy, but getting the right gear and getting out and using it is priceless.

Tomorrow I turn 48 and most of the guys around here are about that age. More or less the same with SUP and wavesailing.Only with prone surfing and kiting you see more youngsters , mid twenties/ thirties, I doubt that any teenagers around here know that they can actually surf here.Crossover sports: 30+y wavesailing, Sup since the very beginning and MTB. Finally at an age that I can afford everything

63. Very understanding wife of 34 years who lets me play..

Most of our local Outer Banks crew is 50+.

Bad right knee; I'll always have to ride strapless. No jumping. Knee pads in summer
Bad left shoulder; limit my session time to about an hour, never more than two. No harness since I turn (tack, jibe) constantly. I'll tack both heel and toe, and do 360 variations more times in an hour than most riders do in a week, but I'm still a complete wimp in ocean shore-break conditions and big swell
Old back surgery; tons of core exercise and have to stay skinny, traditional knee start required vs stink bug

Actually made a few behind-the-back tacks last year but practically ripped off my middle finger in the learning process. Choosing my very modest skill progression goals more carefully.

'My winging hero: Cynthia "cynbad" Brown. She is 60 yrs old and can wing circles around virtually everyone on this forum....

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eppo said..
Someone who asks how much in my delusional mind is a pretender. I just Chuck out a 5k figure and watch them slowly slink away. Price doesn't matter if you are fair dinkum.

sometimes I get "how can I get into this - looks awesome ". Then I spend time with them discussing options.

People spend that much on a bicycle.

Yep definitely for cashed up old farts who want to get away from the crowd and have less impact.

Will turn 46 later this month. Most of the wingfoilers I see around here are 40 to 50 years old. Same goes for wavesailing. At least this time of the year.

cost of the equipment is a giant hurdle for most people to get into the sport. With wavesailing the complexity and necessary conditions are steep hurdles to deal with.I recommend anyone interested in Wingfoiling to take lessons first. Fortunately there are some schools, now. Sets you back a couple of hundreds, but you'll get the taste (or not) and your first investment can be directed to gear you can progress on.

37 here. Our local crew is mostly guys in my age bracket (bunch of yuppies and military/ex military) with a few in the 50s and I'm starting to convert the windsurf crew, which is manly in the 50-60-70 range.

We are so lucky to have foiling! Just sent a 10 mile downwinger on the river by my house. Furthest out I've been from the shore and it felt amazing. Long gone are the butterflies I used to get when I started a few years ago.

55 but part of a pretty diverse crew in LA (SoCal). We have guys and girls starting at 13 yrs old (LucaV on Instagram!!) But most fall into our "Young guns" (20's) or "50 cal's" (you can guess) with a few 30's-40's in there.

Yes we have kiters and windsurfers who converted but a really high percentage are converted surfers who have never done wind sports. This is the interesting metric I think. How many surfers switched or added kiting or windsurfing in the last 5 years? Right?

As to expense, we are now to where the used market can get people into it for pretty low dollars. I've got a whole set of old gear I'm just loaning out now to get people into it without buying the crappy gear you need for the first couple of months.

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surfcowboy said..
55 but part of a pretty diverse crew in LA (SoCal). We have guys and girls starting at 13 yrs old (LucaV on Instagram!!) But most fall into our "Young guns" (20's) or "50 cal's" (you can guess) with a few 30's-40's in there.

Yes we have kiters and windsurfers who converted but a really high percentage are converted surfers who have never done wind sports. This is the interesting metric I think. How many surfers switched or added kiting or windsurfing in the last 5 years? Right?

As to expense, we are now to where the used market can get people into it for pretty low dollars. I've got a whole set of old gear I'm just loaning out now to get people into it without buying the crappy gear you need for the first couple of months.

Melbourne, Australia - lots of wavesailors took it up "for the light wind days", except what they now consider light wind is well North of 20 knots, haha.

52 and loving my foiling.
Met a great crew of people.
Every body is stoked to see each other improve.
Foiling allows you to get out there way more than windsurfing and it allows you to sail at more places. All adding up to more sailing time and more fun.

44. Surfer, SUP surfer, SUP racer, SUP downwinder, SUP foiler, prone foiler and, of course, wing foiler. Also like skiing a lot.

Also, anyone over 70 foiling is a legend. Thx for inspiring me.

i haven't seen the locals break out the chairs yet, but it probably won't be long

Not trying to sound like a flog, but I'm just going to throw a somewhat controversial opinion out there.

It's funny how the common theme on this thread is that most people relate +age to +wealth

I've known then 22 year olds who at one point were earning north of $300k pa - albeit for a short period of time in a niche industry with a bit of luck and nepotism thrown in haha!

I'd argue most action sports participants are a little bit unconventional when it comes to the time / effort / cost spent chasing the stoke

But it's kinda all relative how you justify spending cash I guess - I did see someone mention cycling and even boring (to me) ball sports like golf are pretty expensive to participate in

As far as I see it servicing big mortgages, kids, and (negotiating with) spouses are the main drag on funds not necessarily how old you are

I say this as a 35 year old anomaly who has zero intentions of having children or ever getting married - (my choice, not interested in your opinion on the matter)

I'm quite a minimalist and I do have a mortgage, but my biggest lifestyle spend pre-COVID would have been travelling - chasing the wind kiting with a quiver that was probably worth about $8k

When that was off the table I did consider a pivot to wing foiling, but landed on the eFoil as a way to maximise water time for the best part of the last 2 years

Now I haven't looked back and even bailed kiting

This is a significant step up from the barrier to entry for other flavours of foil sports with a strangely different demographic too and quite comical conversations on the beach

Each to their own I guess - if you can afford it, why hesitate?

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surfcowboy said..
Also, anyone over 70 foiling is a legend. Thx for inspiring me.

You're welcome, I am 71.
I started Foiling four years ago; started SUPing 15 years ago; started Windsurfing 44 years ago; started Hanggliding 48 years ago, and started surfing 60 years ago.
All of those were started with 2nd hand, cheapest possible, equipment.Learning stuff is fun and keeps you humble.

Mid 50's, lots of guys in my age bracket. Starting to see more and more of the local windsurfing crew switch to the dark side. I came from a background of shortboard surfing, but finding not doing as much due to work. Hoping this is a temporary thing. I find my skills on the surfboard or winging have been good enough to still make it worth a go.

I'm 57 and just retired, good to know from previous posts that I have plenty of time on the water ahead of me.
Winging, kitefoil, windsurf and surfing should hopefully keep me occupied in the coming decades.

58 still going strong and enjoying all foil genres . Ding , Sup , Tow & Prone . I foil with Guys & Gals 16 to 65 this sport has no limits, so cool . Age is never an excuse it's just sometimes you have to try harder to keep up with the young bucks , you may not catch them but you never stop trying . I did used to kite foil as well but sold all my kiting gear. The ding is my all-time wind thing .

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Freddofrog said..
How old are you?

I'm in the 50-60 yrs old bracket < for those sensitive about their age.

I have a sneaking suspicion wing dingers are more mature, have already had years experience with other wind based board sports and now after a new challenge with something more chill.

Depends alot on the location. I'm on Maui, seeing a large exodus from kiting and windsurfing, as well as a large influx of non-windsports participants. I also see ages from 10 to 70+. I am 68, been windsurfing most of my adult life but at some point the knees can't take the slapping. I'm not there, but in anticipation of that happening I decided to adapt to the foil. Hoping to add 10 years to my TOW.

I am 54 started started windsurfing in 1984, then kiting, now only winging, loving it. My two sons 12 and 14 are hard out wingers, love this as a family sport