So Winging has so many sub genres now, it had me thinking about my own riding style and how I would breakdown my favorite disciplines versus common styles of riding. Here's my breakdown in order of favorite to least favorite, with approximate percentage of sessions noted).

Categories:

Wave-Riding - Oceanfront: 10%
Swell-Riding - Inland waterways: 40%
Down-Wing (point A to B) - 5%
Racing - 20%
Freeride / Flatwater / Transitions practice: 20%
Freestyle - 5%
Touring - 0%
(missing any?)

My favorite style would have to be Wave-Riding Oceanfront, but our beach break conditions and my 25 mile proximity to coast limits when the stars align.

Swell-Riding inland rivers and bays is my bread-n-butter and to me is a big part of the magic of winging. Any body of water with a small fetch can yield endless wave playgrounds with upwind to downwind riding, or mini tow-ats. I always remember this occurring dream from 10 years ago where I would surf a wave past the fishing pier on the river near my house and now I literally do that with the wing foil.

Racing has a recently sparked a new camaraderie with a subset of our local riders, with our flat water/beginner spot even gaining permanent race buoys as of last week.

Curious how other riders would breakdown their sessions and favorite disciplines in this young sport. Am I missing any styles? Maybe Light Wind Warrior? Survival Sessions (35+ Knts)? Big Wave?

Here's my breakdown from Rhode Island, US

Wave-Riding - Oceanfront: 10%
Swell-Riding - Inland waterways and Bays: 40%
Down-Wing (point A to B) 0%
Racing - 0%
Freeride / Flatwater / Transitions practice: 45%
Freestyle - 5%
Touring - 0%

If we have swell/waves to ride, we ride it but otherwise we're practicing transitions and playing with Freestyle moves.

DC

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MidAtlanticFoil said..
So Winging has so many sub genres now, it had me thinking about my own riding style and how I would breakdown my favorite disciplines versus common styles of riding. Here's my breakdown in order of favorite to least favorite, with approximate percentage of sessions noted).

Categories:

Wave-Riding - Oceanfront: 10%
Swell-Riding - Inland waterways: 40%
Down-Wing (point A to B) - 5%
Racing - 20%
Freeride / Flatwater / Transitions practice: 20%
Freestyle - 5%
Touring - 0%
(missing any?)

Maybe you could clarify the difference between Freeride/Flatwater/Transitions practice and Freestyle?

I enjoy occasional downwinding in bumps/swell and I've timidly tried some modest ocean swell riding, but I always seem to have the most fun in the less popular category of flat water moves beyond basic transitions, though I'm not sure it qualifies as Freestyle. Bad knee here, so it all has to be strapless. I just refer to it as glorified transitions...

backwinded 360's, handle-pass-behind-the-back tacks, 360 variations like a dragged-luffed-wing-360 or a heelside/toeside tack right into a 360, or jibe right into a tack, etc, etc.. Started working on the Alan Cadiz "starfish" thingy recently. One thing's for sure, no one ever talks about this stuff on the forums (seems to be 24/7 gear talk related to swell riding). Guess I don't fit in very well with the winging mainstream, but I'm ok with that.


Some new glorified transitions I've seen, that I'd love to make a fool of myself trying...

Dspace yeah your style of riding would fall into my loose definition of free riding / transition/ flat water. To be able to pull off your transitions, you must be feeling free! Almost like flat ground freestyle skateboarding (think Rodney Mullen). Very technical and difficult! Nothing better than nailing something you've been visualizing. As a skateboarder who grew up with limited skatepark access, I can relate. You've been one of the best at sharing progress in this area with your session vids.
Alternatively, you could classify it as a segment of Freestyle. Maybe Freeride Freestyle or something. For those who don't want to risk ankles and knees jumping!

The sequences you posted are hard for me to follow, got links to share to the videos? Maybe a dedicated thread (or revived thread if one exists) would be a good call so everyone could share tips and new transitions.

Again, this is where your home spot comes into play. You've got easy access to a shallow sound (bay), with rough shorebreak / beach break Atlantic as the alternative. If you had easy access to a spot allowing easy entry/exit to mellow wave riding, that style of riding may take up a more sizable bit of your riding bandwidth. Compare your location to Hilly in West Oz who has access to numerous reef breaks with channels.
Also, I think these categories really only come into play once the basics are mastered, so maybe another category should be Basics, as there are new wingers joining the sport all the time.

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MidAtlanticFoil said..
The sequences you posted are hard for me to follow, got links to share to the videos? Maybe a dedicated thread (or revived thread if one exists) would be a good call so everyone could share tips and new transitions.

That first sequence is Malo doing an upwind 360. Here's the YouTube Link



Damien Leroy also just posted a how to video on the same move (slightly different looking but same result)



That crazy looking behind-the-back jibe transition sequence (wing-pass jibe) is something I just saw on my Instagram feed. There is a really cool App that Duotone puts out called "Duotone Wing Academy". It has a Freestyle section with all kinds of non-jumping moves (some way harder than others) including a very nice video breakdown of that wing pass jibe. It also has a full section on basics and jumping. Really convenient to pull up wherever, whenever you want







Even though my home location isn't ideal for wave riding, I'll readily admit to an extra dose of shore-break/impact-zone phobia, with brittle old guy bones and not coming from a surfing background. One more challenge to overcome! Like you say, any easy wave riding spot would probably balance out my riding style significantly . ( I have this bucket list fantasy dream of spending a few months in Chicama, Peru.)