Hi All,

I am a long time paddler looking to get into a bit of wing suping, wing foiling.
I am heavy at around 127kg.

I am also looking for my nephews at 45kg and 65kg respectively,

Should I get 6m wing. I like the smik one, or naish, north series.

Kind Regards,

Be at Forster for break 6 weeks and then down ulladulla for work next year.

Also looking at getting inflatible wing board. Because of my weight.

Any suggestions would be great.

Is it wise to buy my nephews wings as they paddle most days in the 6 week break.

Pumpjockey

Sounds like a lot of fun, and getting in the water with your nephews sounds brilliant. Everyman is going to give you his views, so here are mine for starters, obviously at 45kgs your lighter nephew could handle a smaller wing much more easily (keeping the wingtips out of the water and getting overpowered if the wind is strong will be issues with a larger wing). What kind of winds are you looking at. I would think at 8-18 knots or so a 6.0 would give you and the 65kg nephew a wide margin of play. Easy to handle wings are any of the starboard Freewings - they really are tough and easy to fly, one of my fav beginner wings.
As for an inflatable board I would pass, go for a 130 135 liter or so board and everyone can use a big board anyways, after that foil choice is way harder, if you can get a Takuma Kujira good, if not Axis has a very very wide choice of foil wings, now lets see what others suggest were you planning to share between 3 or each have his own gear?

The 6m will be too small unless you have consistent access to +20kts of wind.

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Grantmac said..
The 6m will be too small unless you have consistent access to +20kts of wind.

That's crap advice

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Browy said..

Grantmac said..
The 6m will be too small unless you have consistent access to +20kts of wind.

That's crap advice

Not if you are 127 kg. How much do you weight Browy to claim that a 6m is too large for a 127 kg rider in 20 kts.

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Grantmac said..
The 6m will be too small unless you have consistent access to +20kts of wind.

+1. Especially for a beginner

+30-40L hard board for beginning, and you'll keep this for light wind sessions once you have experience if you have sketchy gusty wind, 28" wide is good, or 30" but make sure it has chimes in the tail otherwise turning will be difficult. Make sure not too much volume in tail and see kalama e3 design for reference of what sort of board to look for then you only have to buy once.

I'm 6'3, 105kgs, winging for two years and use a short board 5'4 x 26' x 104L, and when wind is under 20kn I use a 6'6 x 30' x 141L board, both have chimes.

My main wing is a slick sls 6.5m, and over 20kn I use a 5.5m

First off how awesome is this forum. I've just been working too hard fOr last two years.

More clarification. I will be using my gear all next year in Ulladulla so will have strong winds all year. Most Argos after woRk winds get up to 10-20 knot range. Plenty spots to wing. The gear for my nephews will stay up coast.
I don't plan to foil yet. Just sup surf and wing. At least till Easter. I have old Avanti with windsurfing mid fin slots so I thought I might use that to learn on the wing. I just put 6m down because I thought that was the biggest wing you could get. I thought maybe 4m wing nephews and one big one for me. Two wing surging at start would be ideal. Would they want their own wing. I love Starboard so I'll look getting their wing.

what you guys think about using Avanti as learning board.
thanks for the great advice.

pump.

Winging off foil isn't worth your time.

Agree with Grantmac if you want to wing on your sup, yes it will be fun for the first 3 sessions then I would think you will be done with it, it's slow at best and near impossible to stay up wind with the pretty small sup fins, but hey I agree it's a great way to get a wing and get into handling a wing and then go look for a decent foil to foil wing - I think that's what you are talking about but maybe I missed something (and agree with the others a 6.5 / 7 for you and a 4 / 4.5 for your nephews sounds about where you want to aim for)

Definetly keen to get into some foiling. Its just up the coast I go paddling and it gets windy often, light to medium nor easter. My brother is a bit crazy and I dont want to get into too much trouble with him. I virtually live in wind heaven, we used to have a kite school but guy left for WA decades ago. Its a great actvity to do with my brother and his kids. I dont want to rush into foiling as the kids are not responsible in the water for that (my brother either) yet. Also the equipment is too expensive for me to cover them.

I am sure that I will get into the foil as I work right in jervis bay. Also the surf is pretty crap in the bay so foiling looks like a way better option. It sure gets windy down there too.

So doing bit more research, is the 8m nova north wing an option?

For me at 127kg.
6ft.

Great that you're keen to get into it Pumpjockey,
If you're going to learn, then using a big sup for a few sessions to get used to how to use the wing is a great idea. But as has been suggested, you probably won't want to sup wing longer term without a foil. Foils are where it's at. Generally speaking, you want a sup foil board to be pretty volumous and reasonably wide so that it's stable for you to learn winging on. But this can depend on your previous experience and natural talent.
I'm not sure how much volume the avanti has or it's width. Being a windsurf board, it might be skinnyish and wobbly? Not sure. For learning, many say your body weight + 10-30 litres. I'd say that depends on your talent, determination, local conditions you are intending to learn in and endurance. If you're talented, detemined and can stay out for a long time, then maybe think smaller. However, the big one for me is local conditions. If there's gusty winds, lots of slop (confused chop of various directions), currents and local boating traffic, I'd encourage going bigger. I learned on a 125 litre board and being 70kg it was waaay more than recommended, but it was great in the crappy conditions that I encountered. Even 20 litres smaller and I would have struggled. So going big will enhance your learning curve but might limit your progress later on (6-12+ months down the track). However going even 10 litres too small can make learning really difficult -especially in crappy conditions.
45kg and 65 kg are small body frames (??), so a wing for you will be very different to a wing for them - they may even go smaller than 4m at 45kg. My big thing with wings is not so much the area, but the wingspan. I use Duotone slicks and find the 5m is right on (175cm tall). Anything bigger, and I catch the wingtips when pumping onto foil. So given you're a bit taller than me, a smallish wing (6m or so) MIGHT be a preference for you? (It's hard to know). This can also depend on pumping technique. Best way to tell is to try and borrow one and see what it feels like.
Coming from a windsurfing background, I've orietated towards booms and handles (Duotone Echo, Unit and Slick) for my wings as they give a more locked in feel to the wing and you can twist them better than the soft handles. That said, I've used soft handles before and it's not a deal breaker. The soft handles I find have a lot more play in them.
With all this stuff, try before you buy - if you can.
Good luck.

Marty thanks for advice. I usually paddle daily down in shoalhaven so wind is not a problem the Avanti is a barge. Floaty stable has good fin slots. I'm thinking of getting another one. Yeah the boys are light. I'm thinking two to three wings. Wind up coast gets very usual at 15-20 knots nor Easter.
should I look at getting a sup foil first.

im really looking to get wing for Chrissy.