Kite foiling is dying sooo fast

[Kiterisland1]

Just was looking on YouTube and other platforms to see some new kite movies and gear reviews to feed the stoke a bit. They are harder to come by, every one of my favourite channels are maybe putting out one kite video per 30 wing videos.
An example, on real Watersports channel you have to look back 41 videos ago, or 4months, for their last kite related video I think this lack of screen time will have a big impact on kiting. Will get less popular.
Also if you kitefinder guys are on here, please keep making videos, the best by far.

Not that surprising, if you consider that:
1) nothing really changed in kites for the last 5-6 years with very few small exceptions (Aulula, some minor enhancements to foil kites and hydrofoils)
People got really tired of comparing the color patterns between the years.. thus not alot of reviews...
Wings, on the other hand, are still on 1 or second version iteration for most players, so lots of experimenting with shapes, parameters, etc
2) stores are pushing wings to much bigger crowd, not just ex-kiters.. so yes there is much more effort in grabbing that segment while it's hot
3) Overall level of players - most folks are still interested in seeing wingers boosting 1-2m and doing a backroll... For kites you would need to do 30m+ jump and double megaloop to get some clicks

Lol, All very good points

[Windigo1]

https://fb.watch/cDzaWH2sFr/

[Toby]

https://fb.watch/cDzaWH2sFr/

that's funny

[downunder]

Well,

if we want to completely kill off the forum,

lets use captcha, right?

This is bad...

How on Earth did I use max attempts with one single click on Reply?

[nothing2seehere]

Interesting - thanks. No I wouldn’t ever go out in offshore winds kiting but I had assumed you wouldn’t with winging either, unless you were super confident.

I have to say so far most of the wing foilers I have seen whilst kiting seem to be doing a whole lot of nothing before usually giving up and coming ashore. The only ones I’ve seen having actual sun have been on videos!

One of the guys I spoke to did say he went in offshore conditions as it flattened the waves off nicely. He was using the wing to get out to the waves (downwind) and would then use wave power to get back in again. He wasn't specific about how often he had actually done this though.

[Peter_Frank]

Interesting - thanks. No I wouldn’t ever go out in offshore winds kiting but I had assumed you wouldn’t with winging either, unless you were super confident.

I have to say so far most of the wing foilers I have seen whilst kiting seem to be doing a whole lot of nothing before usually giving up and coming ashore. The only ones I’ve seen having actual sun have been on videos!

One of the guys I spoke to did say he went in offshore conditions as it flattened the waves off nicely. He was using the wing to get out to the waves (downwind) and would then use wave power to get back in again. He wasn't specific about how often he had actually done this though.

When learning, we have often ridden in sideshore maybe a bit offshore, but wind coming from over the city and high hills a bit away - USELESS and risky with a kite, no problems with a wing

Peter

[j_dog]

Interesting observations from the forum. I will state that at my local spot and over areas I travel to, the winging crowd is definitely increasing. I don't think kiting will go away, but I think winging is growing at a faster rate than kiting at this time. Should be interesting to see what happens in the future.

[flaps1111]

Partly there is a FOMO in my area, several guys who took the step for reasons such as novelty, being burned out of the increasingly demanding competition equipment and now compete as amateurs in wingfoiling, guys who came from windsurfing or even SUP. The advantages for the ex-kiters was that they could use spots where they couldn't launch a kite before and so they could ride at home.... Finally they need more wind and do more miles looking for wind. LOL.
For coastal breezes kitefoling is clearly superior. You can see how they stop doing well when the wind drops to 12 knots.

[Onda]

I hope that as many folks as possible will switch to winging. Gives me more space and less hassle with my kiting

But joking aside: I decided to wait 2-3 years before I´ll buy my first winging kit. Quality and efficiency will increase, price will decrease. Letting the early adopters mature the products...

[ieism]

I tried it last week, and although it's fairly easy to learn I did not enjoy it much. I could get up on foil at the end of a 3 hours session. But I felt the board was too clumsy and big and the pumping is stupid. The wing is also not as light as I thought, basically with a small single skin it feels as if you're not holding anything and the wing is just in the way more for me. I don't see the appeal honestly, other than opening up spots close to my city that I'm not allowed to kite at.