Some of you will know me from the Wind Foiling threads.... I've posted a few!

I've started Wind Winging for a challenge this year since the formal Windfoil / slalom windsurf race season is over already!

This thread intends to aide windsurfers / wind foilers transition to Wing Foiling.

MOTIVATION
My main reason to try winging is a little convoluted and no one thing has drawn me to the sport. A few factors that might resonate with others...
Smaller gear
Easier setup (I'm used to 4 cam race sails...)
Wind range (just hold a big wing over your head to depower!)...
Waves... one day I hope to get out into wave riding and am super reluctant to do that with cammed sails and wind foils boards!
New experience
All the cool kids are doing it
BUT, My wind foiling is at peak skill level, I just cracked 32kts and was leading a few slalom races recently (but dropped a gybe both times...).

Experiences

I had a nice holiday session with an instructor and got up in the first hour, which was enough to get me hooked.
www.facebook.com/share/r/18Wrd9vacS/

Since then the boys at F4 set me up with a great package... but it is NOT a beginner set. Now I have been told that a lot of people need tostart with a big board (130L, or 30L > body weight) and I do agree.... it is what I did, but for less than a dozen rides.

I'm already on a 95L board, 6m wing and 1450 front foil. The F4 setup has a 170 tail wing that is also my go-to speed wing, so for sure you can go bigger.

Setup of the moving foil mast and ideal position... a few tips from an early run


BUT! If you have a lot of experience foiling in general the large slow beginner gear will only be useful for a few times, and you will advance past it quickly.

Keep in mind that I have been windsurfing and windfoiling for 25 years, and can remember taking a 60L speed board out atKyeemagh (lee side of Sydney Runway) one day. I survived uphauling and sinking past my knees one time when the wind dropped... so can balance pretty well. This helps when winging on smaller boards!

Today I went out winging for about the 10th session in 15kt (10-18kt)and it was . relaxing! Apart from the effort to climb on the board, and pump up onto the foil, the actual winging is incredibly easy!
www.facebook.com/share/r/157djEfUab/


16.5kt peak speed, a new PB, but no gybes. I was on a relatively big 1450 front wing but it has amazing lift, and a super chill ride. Oh and I used the harness for 1 run! As I said, apart from pumping up onto the foil winging is ridiculously easy on the body. 2 hours felt like nothing. Holding the wing above your head does get a bit tiring at the time though!

VENUES

I have the great choice of many different beaches around Botany Bay, and most of them have onshore or cross/on shore winds and also protected off shore wind source... so under 1km from opposing land in many cases meaning the wind has little time to upset the water and swell is 10cm to 20cm mostly. OK sometimes 30cm but rarely more if I go to the right beach!

For learning, flat water is essential!

TIPS

Be prepared for pain if you risk smaller gear, but it does get easier!
Get an electric pump. You can let it pump up the wing while you setup the foil, get on the water ASAP!
Wait for gusts, aim cross-down wind on a broad reach and pump up onto the foil. Lift your legs up to the wing. See some videos!
USE THE FRONT FOOTSTRAPS. I windsurf both directions but snowboard and skateboard Natural. SWITCH STANCE is EVIL without a foot strap!
Pushing on the back foot sends you upwind. Windsurfing is all about the back foot. MOVE your backfoot forward to head downwind.
Pumping the foil not the wing is an art. Windfoiling was all about pushing the mast forward, which the wing doesn't have!
Try not to crash on your gear ... but be prepared to patch or repair the wings. My local sail maker has a big business repairing wings!
wingfoil boards become more stable at JUST 2 knots. Getting on your knees and then quickly up to your feet is my hardest part!

WHY NOT TO WING
So why should you NOT get into wingfoiling?
1. Scared of falling. You will get 1m high and crash!
2. Bad knees. If you can't squat to the ground, take a breath and think about it. You need to be able to sit or lie on the board and get to your knees and sail across the wind back to land in recovery mode. You need to be able to go from knees to standing with only a little help from your hands. The wing CAN lift you up about 10% and provide stability but you still need to be able to kneel and then stand without pushing up with your arms. You might be able to stand on a large board, but then you need to pickup the wing from the water which might be just as hard... I haven't tried this method but it would need a bigger board.
3. Rough water. If you live near water with more than 30cm/1 foot chop it is going to be harder to learn. But once you get above the chop foiling is amazing!

Is it worth it?

Only you can answer that... take a few lessons, hire some gear on a holiday and see what you think.
The stoke is real!

Seabreeze has a lot of 2nd hand gear.
WtsApp groups have a lot of 2nd hand gear.
All the vendors have the latest and greatest gear.
F4 have my personal favourite gear.

Don't mention the full word for the whats application on Seabreeze!

This was EXACTLY my problem yesterday... Getting from knees with wing in the water to first 2kts.

Anyone tried this technique? Any ideas if it is good?

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Slightly different version of same idea.


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What I wanna know

is it easier as u don't have pitch issues from mast foot pressure being on and off..?

If you stay away from sinkers, you don't need those techniques. 10 liters above your body weight, is all you need to stay in the easy zone for life.

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Mark _australia said..
What I wanna know

is it easier as u don't have pitch issues from mast foot pressure being on and off..?

Yes, yes, yes! That is a big reason why I went from wind to wing foil. Much easier and more natural feeling pitch control, particularly when gusts hit. Crashes are less violent too

^^ cheers I figured it was way easier.... so I am leaning.....

Volume distribution is also very important.
I have had a few 85l boards and some have been a challenge to stand up from kneeling
My current Duotone Skybrid 85l is as easy to get up from kneeling as much bigger boards as its volume distribution is perfect for me.
It's fast becoming my go to board.

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Mark _australia said..
^^ cheers I figured it was way easier.... so I am leaning.....

Are there any wingfoiling instructors in Sydney/Wollongong?

Heaps

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Mr Milk said..
Are there any wingfoiling instructors in Sydney/Wollongong?

Ones I know are Rose Bay, La Parouse and Kurnell. I'm sure there are more on the northern beaches.

I'll have a crack at this. Wing foiling as a less violent to crash than wind foiling. Less impact on your knees than sailing windsurfing in chop. Slightly less gear but setup time is about the same. It's a great pathway to all the other foiling sports like wave and downwind foiling. BUT doesn't have the same buzz as windsurfing, you feel a bit grubby blowing up the wing (kitting like) . The wind range is less and the wings aren't a durable but it's still great fun

Had another good session on the Wing today Kyeemagh makes it easy, so flat! even in 25 knot gusts! Swell was mostly under 15cm.

I was riding F4 all the way.
95L board. Emona
5m wing. Maya
1450 foil. GP.
More time up and less time in the water
Only had 2in a row failed attempts to get up instead of 5 like last time!
Wanted to try feet swapping to switch and back on some long runs. but didn't!
Crashed every time I got the wing gybed, but not the feet.
Wing foils are very sensitive and I needed to move my stance wider and also get used to toes.
Practiced toe side downwind turns and back upwind to help prepare for gybes. I was quite wobbly!
Getting the wing overhead and starting to move forward is very important skill.
You can steer by twisting. That's a new feeling!
Finding the balance point of the front wing at different speeds makes a bit of time.
Bend your knees helps for most transitions

This is the stinkbug version I use. It helps to have a narrower board.

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berowne said..
This was EXACTLY my problem yesterday... Getting from knees with wing in the water to first 2kts.

Anyone tried this technique? Any ideas if it is good?

?si=DjZbu1W0xJE5hL2f

This is the original and classic Stinkbug start that I first described and named on standupzone back in 2020 hahaha literally my 1 second of fame

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Cnski said..

berowne said..
This was EXACTLY my problem yesterday... Getting from knees with wing in the water to first 2kts.

Anyone tried this technique? Any ideas if it is good?

?si=DjZbu1W0xJE5hL2f

This is the original and classic Stinkbug start that I first described and named on standupzone back in 2020 hahaha literally my 1 second of fame

Couldn't you have called it something else?

Another recent convert here. Pretty hardcore wave sailer for 25 years (still do when it's on), then when foiling hit the race scene I got into that pretty hardcore and raced what became IQ foil (against Berowne) in the NSW series, nationals etc. That went full Olympics crazy and all the cool kids ditched the NSW series so I got a foiling Moth for my racing fix (huge wormhole haha)....and that is still my racing fix...but it's an absolute faff if you just want to go for a rip and can end up very very expensive if something goes pear shaped on said rip.

So...after having a go a year or so and not really liking it, a friend sent me a marketplace deal that was too good to pass up and now i'm a wingfoiler ^_^. My take: if you have a very high windsurfing level, including foiling, you will find it very very easy, i'm maybe 9 weeks in, managing a few sessions a week, and I just did my first foiling tacks last week (gybes are way easier) so the progression is fast if you apply yourself.

It helps if you have very adept knowledge of how a foil works as being about to tune it to your capabilities, progression and how you like the feel is imperative. There is a lot of stuff on the internet/youtube that is misleading and you can easily get stuck down the wrong path. I started with fairly big gear, 100L board (i'm 70kg) and a 1550 cruisy foil, you need to do this, it's hard to jump straight onto small board/high aspect stuff. I still have the same board currently as it's pretty small in outline and i'm still progressing but now ride a 900 high aspect foil as coming from the Moth and IQ foil the big stuff is too slow ^_^. The high aspect stuff also has huge glide that if you come from high aspect race wingfoil will be very familiar, this helps when you have things like gybes down but the twitchiness of smaller HA foils will hinder progression if you're still dialling/learning things.

The biggest difference I reckon compared to windfoiling is, you're never really locked in, the thing is always 'loose' to a degree, which is part of what makes it so fun, surfing swells, general ripping etc. A wingfoil, particularly the fast race stuff you can just fully lock it in and even at huge speeds it's relatively stable, this is not the case with a wingfoil, my current setup anyway. I've done 23kts or so max and thought I was about to die, where racing the windfoil you're regularly VMG high 20's pretty easy downwind and it's not a drama.

Finally and one of the best things it's super quick to rig/unrig, almost wave gear like...unlike race windfoil gear which is a faff, not Moth level faff but a pain none the less.

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Faff said..
This is the stinkbug version I use. It helps to have a narrower board.

I guess this type of start was invented back in the days when quite many wings had very short handles and the only way to fly the wing was to hold it with two hands. The lucky ones who started learning a bit later, with wings that had longer handles (like on the pic below), which allowed you to easily keep the wing flying in the air while holding it with one hand only, could skip that method and learn a much easier way.


Just fly the wing with one hand only (the one that is downwind), and use your free hand (the upwind one) to apply pressure to the nose of the board. This helps to stabilise the board while getting on your knees. Such a method allows you to better observe the wind gusts (or see any waves that could kick you off the board), because your eyes are not at the water level, or even worse, covered by the wing. And once you see a strong enough gust coming, only then bring the wing over you, grab it with both hands, and off you go.

32 L board, 3.0 m2 wing, 631 cm2 foil and pretty quiet wind with a few stronger gusts every now and then.

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I guess this type of start was invented back in the days when quite many wings had very short handles and the only way to fly the wing was to hold it with two hands. The lucky ones who started learning a bit later, with wings that had longer handles (like on the pic below), which allowed you to easily keep the wing flying in the air while holding it with one hand only, could skip that method and learn a much easier way.
Just fly the wing with one hand only (the one that is downwind), and use your free hand (the upwind one) to apply pressure to the nose of the board. This helps to stabilise the board while getting on your knees. Such a method allows you to better observe the wind gusts (or see any waves that could kick you off the board), because your eyes are not at the water level, or even worse, covered by the wing. And once you see a strong enough gust coming, only then bring the wing over you, grab it with both hands, and off you go.

Good tip! I've got the Patrik and Mya wings with long half handles and did use JUST the front handle to get to knees once. Might see how easy that gets next time.

I'm also learning more about how the 95L wobbles and reacts to chop so it is getting easier to stay on.

A few times I was tipping back, nose up and couldn't lean forward enought..... so I pushed the tip of the nose down with my forehead!

Kept me afloat!