Who makes the best Wing Thing

[bragnouff]

Never tried a wing but heard that wingtips touching the water often resulted in crashes?

Yes, this is to be avoided! Same on land where scraping the wingtips on concrete will also destroy your wing in no time. But, and this is the big thing, the wing can be angled at will to keep the wingtip at the required height, up to a point. It's not like windsurfing where you keep your rig as upright as possible.
Sure, eventually there's a limit. If there's a massive wingspan and you're super short (or sitting on a buggy), it'll become not really comfortable and you'll get sub optimal efficiency from your wing. Hence why the large wing sizes seem to be designed with more of an increase in chord than wingspan, or with a bit more dihedral.

[bigtone667]

With the arrival of bigger wings on the market (6m, 7m?) the question is, do you have to be 1.9m tall to avoid the wingtips touching the water or can smaller riders use them too?

Since it is possible to use a 5m Wing on a kite buggy where the bum is barely 10cm off the ground, then yes, I'm 100% certain that smaller riders can use big wings too! If they're small and light, they probably don't need them though.
There are diminishing returns.

Never tried a wing but heard that wingtips touching the water often resulted in crashes?

When you first start learning yes, but once you get decent it will only occur occasionally when you are pump starting in lighter wind conditions (and you hardly ever crash at that point).

[edt]

some say hooters but buffalo wild wings is better

[bigtone667]

I personally think the best wing is the one you are enjoying the most. I have flown four different brands now and they all good. All of them flew well.

Your selection criteria should be based on: general wind strength, steadiness of the wind and your weight.

A 4m mark 1 Naish was too small for me @ 15 knots and 105kg, but the new 6m mark 2 is fantastic
A 5m Duotone was pretty good and I love the boom but not the static one hand handling
A 7m Gong was better but the flex while pumping annoyed me in light winds
A 6m WASP was better still but I hate the handles but the pumped strut is as stiff as a metal boom

A BRM Cloud wing is what I will look at next.

Try as many wings as you can.

[caduo]

one think to notice is that the boom of the duotone may damage the board when flapping.

[PugetSoundKiter]

i believe the umbrella is still the undisputed gold standard in wing thingies™.

Innovations peaked with the Pineapple, come on 2020

PinnappleInnovation.jpg (36.17 KiB) Viewed 1373 times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2nQKu9JElo

[Peter_Frank]

The Pineapple beats the umbrella by MILES, I want one

Peter

[OzBungy]

...

Never tried a wing but heard that wingtips touching the water often resulted in crashes?

Dragging a tip is not a great thing, but it's not as bad as people make out.

Skimming a tip over the surface of the water doesn't really do much. If you're a little off balance a dab of the tip can stop you falling. Some wings have fat tips for exactly that reason. It's a bit like dabbing your paddle on a SUP.

It's surprising what sort of ugly positions you can get into and ride on through. You would have seen videos of people riding backwinded or in starfish position.

As for the best wing, not sure about that. Gong and Switch kites sell the cheapest wings by a long way. They work just fine.

[Wazza Foil]

I sold my first windwing to a skillfull guy - it was the very first version of a 5m Gong.
Its his only windwing and uses it on an 85l board in all wind strengths doing all the basics with skill.
Me, well I have several size windwings, foils etc and I am no match for him.
I love it when he stuffs up a jype.

[pākihiroa]

I am just getting into this. The only wing I have flown is the Duotone Echo and then only on land. FWIW, coming from a windsurfing background to me the windsurf style solid boom seems like a big plus compared with the handles used by the competing brands.

I did notice that the Echo was somewhat unstable (ie: it would oscillate from side to side rather than just sit there), when held by the handle on the leading edge bladder. Is that the "Duotone wing has issues when hanging free," complaint ?

However it seemed to calm down a lot with the hand moved onto the boom right up against the bladder. Would that be a practical solution to the problem ?