How difficult are the various foiling discplines?

[Flyboy]

I've only kite foiled myself, so have no idea how prone foiling, SUP foiling, wind foiling & wing foiling compare in difficulty. The most challenging thing in kite foiling is the initial stage - learning to water start (especially on the earlier smaller wings). SUP foiling, wing foiling & wind foiling would seem to avoid that difficulty to some extent, but have their own challenges. Prone foiling seems like it would be very difficult to get through the initial stages. Any experiences to share?

[Peter_Frank]

My take on this, windfoiling/wingfoiling/kitefoiling, SUPfoiled once but I havent surffoiled.

Easiest to most difficult in order:

1. Wingfoil.
2. Windfoil.
3. SUPfoil.
4. Surffoil
5. Kitefoil.

Based on the fact that kitefoil is by far the most lively board and kite power is tricky to apply correctly.

Wingfoil is very intuitive, board is big and slow, and you can just progress as slow as you like.
Windfoil a bit more complicated as the mast foot pressure adds a new aspect. For an experienced windsurfer of course.
SUPfoil might be easier to learn than windfoil, or about the same, I dont know?
Surffoil requires steeper waves and I think it can be quite challenging controlling speed and height on a steep wave.

Just my take on this, and you have to try to look away from the order you learned things yourself, as of course the first foil you do is difficult.
My order were: Kitefoil, Windfoil, Wingfoil, SÚPfoil, no Surffoil.

Peter

[mirza23454]

I learned to kite foil first and then later to wing foil (still a beginner). I found kite foiling 10x easier to learn than winging. If you already kite foil, winging on foil is easy, but getting up on foil with a wing is a whole journey in itself if you’re learning in choppy waters with poor wind.

[Flyboy]

I am assuming experience with foiling of any sort will be a big help learning other foiling disciplines, as you already understand the feeling of being up on the foil & how to balance the foil.

The difficult thing about learning to kite foil is you are on a very small board and the moment of water starting requires everything to come together immediately in a very precise way ... and in a way quite alien to previous kite water starting. The hard part of winging, SUP foil & wind foil is balancing the board in windy/choppy/wavy board pre-foiling - that's what I see beginners struggling with. Prone foiling would seem to be very challenging, requiring an immediate lift off, like kite foiling, but on the wave ... and without any stabilizing support from the kite, or a sail, or a wing, or a paddle.

[fernmanus]

I have struggled to learn how to kitefoil. Both of the local spots have on-shore wind and choppy water. Most of the local riders have learned to foil behind a boat befor moving to the kite. I bought an efoil and I have found it easy to learn.

[SENDIT!]

I learned to kite foil first and then later to wing foil (still a beginner). I found kite foiling 10x easier to learn than winging. If you already kite foil, winging on foil is easy, but getting up on foil with a wing is a whole journey in itself if you’re learning in choppy waters with poor wind.

100% THIS!! I learned to kitefoil by myself with the original Slingshot Hoverglide with that small front wing. In about 1 1/2 hours, I was consistently getting 30-40 yard runs before crashing. Winging? I’ve been out 4 times and and have only managed to get up a couple of times for just a few seconds. It has been much harder to learn than I’d hoped and certainly harder than kitefoiling.

[tkaraszewski]

I kitefoiled first and found it difficult to learn. It took several sessions to just be able to get up and ride at all.

I wakefoiled second, and found it fairly easy. Being able to kitefoil, it took 20 minutes to learn to wakefoil. The pull angle from the boat is different than a kite, but 3-4 attempts and then you're up and it's not any harder than kitefoiling then.

I wingofiled third and found it about as difficult to learn as kitefoiling had been, except I could already kitefoil and wakefoil, which says something. It took three days to be able to waterstart in both directions. Actually foiling on the wingfoil wasn't hard, it's all in getting started.

I haven't done any of the other foiling disciplines. I wonder who's tried the most of them.

[Trent hink]

Peter, it might be the language difference, but if windfoil means windsurfing with a hydrofoil, I would put way down near the bottom of the list.

My first tries with a hydrofoil we're behind a boat, and I tied that twice, but I never even began to understand how simple it is, until I used a kite that was flying easily.

I'd say that for anyone wishing to get into hydrofoiling, their best bet is to take off from a sport that they already know.

I used to windsurf quite a bit even as I was getting into kiting.

I'm not sure if I could figure out how to rig and tune one correctly now.

My take on this, windfoiling/wingfoiling/kitefoiling, SUPfoiled once but I havent surffoiled.

Easiest to most difficult in order:

1. Wingfoil.
2. Windfoil.
3. SUPfoil.
4. Surffoil
5. Kitefoil.

Based on the fact that kitefoil is by far the most lively board and kite power is tricky to apply correctly.

Wingfoil is very intuitive, board is big and slow, and you can just progress as slow as you like.
Windfoil a bit more complicated as the mast foot pressure adds a new aspect. For an experienced windsurfer of course.
SUPfoil might be easier to learn than windfoil, or about the same, I dont know?
Surffoil requires steeper waves and I think it can be quite challenging controlling speed and height on a steep wave.

Just my take on this, and you have to try to look away from the order you learned things yourself, as of course the first foil you do is difficult.
My order were: Kitefoil, Windfoil, Wingfoil, SÚPfoil, no Surffoil.

Peter

[edt]

easiest to hardest

1) (3 way tie) foil behind a boat. kite foiling or windsurfer foiling. You have complete control over the speed, and you can do start after start after start in perfectly flat water on a no wind day on a boat. windsurf foiling. on a windsurfer you windsurf as normal, and just rise up. That's just from me watching though I've never windsurf hydrofoiled. with kite foiling you have a ton of power, which helps if you are a beginner because you can use pure power to over come technique problems, especially the water start in chop. for some kite foiling is easier for others boat foiling is easier.
2) (tie) SUP foiling and wing foiling. You eat shit so much with this if the conditions aren't perfect, say there is some chop or small waves, you are eating it over and over and over again. Maybe if you have perfect wind and a perfect flat water plus perfectly deep water, not too deep not too shallow, it's easier to learn but who foils in perfect conditions every day, nobody. wing surfing is especially difficult with onshore winds and some small waves. I saw an intermediate friend of mine eat shit for 1 hour before he finally got on foil one day. Not easy! same conditions on a kite you pop up immediately even as a beginner.
3) hydofoil surfing where you swim with your hands, catch a wave and start foiling. I see this done on videos and still don't understand how anyone can get so skilled.

[kct]

I've been foiling less than a year. Mostly prone but I have maybe 20 kite sessions in there now. Also have a little 10HP dinghy which we tow on.

Easiest is towing behind the boat. It's not even fun after a couple days since you just stand there. My boats not big enough to surf on the wake without the rope so maybe that would change things.

For me prone is easier than kite but I've surfed 20 years and still struggle with the kitefoil waterstart. Also my gear is prone oriented. Prone is definitely a cardio workout and requires strong paddling strength as dragging that foil underneath is a lot more work than paddling a surfboard. Plus, unlike surfing, the crowd doesn't matter so you're catching wave after wave all day without much sitting in between. Pumping back out to connect multiple waves is real tough and generally beyond me unless I'm lucky. Riding waves is fast and even little turns on waist high waves feel better than surfing when it's twice that size. Then there's stuff like this but I have no idea how https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfJ1baJP ... _copy_link

The kitefoil waterstart man idk what it is but that really gets me. I strapless kitesurf no problem but when the foil gets involved everything breaks. Once I'm riding it's pretty easy to cruise around and I can usually gybe but not switch feet yet. But that waterstart damn. If not for that I'd rank kiting easier than prone.

The hardest discipline might be flat water? Where you dock start in a lake and pump around looking for boats to steal wake from. This guy has a good channel on it

There's also downwinding. I'm not sure how hard it is I just know that you need to be good to attempt it because if you come off foil even once you're stuck swimming for a long long time. Would be fun to go out and surprise the sailboats