Does it ever stop feeling weird?

I'm in the early stages of learning (10-20 hours), and admittedly I only want to learn to wing so that I can get out on days where I can wing out back, catch a wave, 100% depower and then just cruise a wave back in. In all other scenarios I think I'd prefer to be kiting on a directional or foil, or just prone foiling in waves.

I'm getting up on foil fairly regularly now with the wing - but god it just feels so weird and unwieldy compared to kiting and prone foil. The board feels huge, the wing blocks out so much vision, and all the forces just feel so strange.

Yeah definitely starts to feel more normal in time. Took me a while to get comfortable riding toe side.

sounds like you are on a similar path to me
kite strapless surf->prone foil->wing

are you winging your same prone foil setup? That might help keep things simple although it's prob easier to use a larger foil when winging until you get proficient at popping up

beware it's addictive, my kite quiver has been gathering dust for 2 years, especially since Sydney winds are so fickle these days

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zarb said..
Does it ever stop feeling weird?

I'm in the early stages of learning (10-20 hours), and admittedly I only want to learn to wing so that I can get out on days where I can wing out back, catch a wave, 100% depower and then just cruise a wave back in. In all other scenarios I think I'd prefer to be kiting on a directional or foil, or just prone foiling in waves.

I'm getting up on foil fairly regularly now with the wing - but god it just feels so weird and unwieldy compared to kiting and prone foil. The board feels huge, the wing blocks out so much vision, and all the forces just feel so strange.

Sure it does. It's just the learning phase when using big and clumsy gear helps to progress faster. And then in no time you will be winging with your prone board and a small foil and small wing, and everything will be light and effortless.

You will eventually downsize the board and that part won't feel weird. Big boards and big wings will always feel weird.
You get used to the blind spots. I used to breach or freak out every time i blindfolded myself with the wing, but you get used to it and learn to manage the wing. I was out today and found myself outrunning my wing on waves several times, but I know my foil enough to keep it in the water and eventually pulled out of it. It's also more of a problem in light wind. When it's blowing it solves itself.
basically, it will always feel different from kiting but it stops feeling weird.

Thanks all,

I'm on a 120L beast of a board, but really want to head to something like 80L. My prone setup is a nice 32L Appletree, so a little too small to be winging I think. I really just want to go as small as I can stink-bug start on - but not sure where that line is. I can stink-bug to kneeling on my 32L just mucking around waiting for waves... but that doesn't mean I can do it with the wing! 90kg, quite athletic and fairly flexible in the hips, so I think 80L might be good to move to.

My wings are 3.8 & 5.8 PPC Surges, and I definitely have more fun on the smaller one. The 5.8 just feels stupid

Yeah, the 5.8 PPC is pretty massive. Body weight in Litres is what most people progress to as their second board. You might be able to go smaller being an experience kite foiler.

I think their is a second sweet spot at about 75% (So 60L for the avg 80kg male rider), The board does sink under when you kneel on it, but as soon as you get some wind under the wing and move forward the nose and board comes to the surface quite easily. Enough of a reduction in size to be noticable compared to your body weight board (especially if you jump), but much easier to launch compared to a 50% true skinker.

I've windsurfed and kited for 30+ years so yes, wing foiling does seem very weird, especially the lack of strong rear foot pressure and no harness. Gybing is totally different too. But I'm finding the more I do it, the more muscle memory I'm building and the more natural it feels. Even though I'm still falling in HEAPS, I'm can now visibly see improvements ever session so the weirdness is going, I'm selling all my kiting gear and going to persist with it.