jumptheshark wrote: ↑Wed Apr 17, 2019 12:19 pm
Quick, Ronnie, you gotta start wingfoilforum.com!
IDK, Im a huge, HUGE foiling fan and I can't get over how easily over hyped people get. Look at that clip of Brett Lickle in the Duotone wing thread. When your getting passed by surface planing windsurfers going twice your speed, its just so obvious. This wing pursuit dumbs down foiling to pre 1980's windsurfing levels. All simply for the sake of being able to say, "Look ma, I'm foiling!!!". Well see if it evolves, but for now, have fun taking a quantum step backwards.
IMO it's important to remember what it is intended for.
If the wing is only for downwinders, that is fairly simple to get it to work well. You flag it out to surf the wave and if you need extra power, it's available at the end of your arm. It seems to be a cert to work for that. The foils are designed to go at a speed that suits the wave speed.
Going upwind to get back to where the swell/wave starts so you can flag it out and ride the swell/wave downwind again is much more difficult, so we will have to wait to see how that goes. It should be doable, but it depends on how well it does it.
I think those are the two things the wing is intended for. It is maneouverable and seemingly easier to gybe and in particular, easier to tack than a sail, so it could maybe as a by-product sell as a freeride power source because of that, but it has been said before, it is not intended to compete with a kite or with a windsurf sail for freeride, racing or powered wave riding - it is competing mostly with a paddle.