high aspect foils

[jumptheshark]

As far as winging being a passing fad, I think you are wrong but time will tell.

Not sure I think its a passing fad any more than SUP. They are here to stay.... in numbers.

I see a lot of potential for wings.... for other people.

I also get why people in the industry like Gunnar are keen to promote it. It has a much larger potential market. That's why it makes sense for them to post videos that in all honesty are a step backward in pure performance than many of the things they have posted previously.

I know its fun. How could it not be? It's simply incumbent upon me as full on kiteboarding enthusiast to point out the disparity.

I hope all who get them love them, and given the chance, I would gladly give it a go. Not planning on getting one on spec though.

[Eltreato]

I am definitely looking forward to giving wingfoiling a go. Kiting in big well is fun, but it basically amounts to getting pulled down the swell by the kite, save for those brief moments when the kite is depowered and I haven't outridden it yet. Look at any kite video in waves, the kiter is rarely in the right spot, often they are in front of the wave. I added windfoiling to my repetoire and found downwinders in swell to be far more enjoyable given I have no kite lines that require constant tension, the trade off is a big sail attached to the board that gets in the way to some extent, but it's worth it. Wingfoiling seems to address both issues, holding the kite out of the way on the way downwind seems to be the best solution yet.

[gmb13]

As far as winging being a passing fad, I think you are wrong but time will tell.

Not sure I think its a passing fad any more than SUP. They are here to stay.... in numbers.

I see a lot of potential for wings.... for other people.

I also get why people in the industry like Gunnar are keen to promote it. It has a much larger potential market. That's why it makes sense for them to post videos that in all honesty are a step backward in pure performance than many of the things they have posted previously.

I know its fun. How could it not be? It's simply incumbent upon me as full on kiteboarding enthusiast to point out the disparity.

I hope all who get them love them, and given the chance, I would gladly give it a go. Not planning on getting one on spec though.

At first I was a bit insulted by you insinuating that I am only promoting winging for financial reasons. People who know me and have followed me over the years know that I promote what I love doing. Just ask Foil and Tom and other from KF who have visited Fuerteventura recently. They will tell you that I am on my Wings most of the time now and how much I love doing it and why.

But then I remembered that this same conversation came up 10 years ago with Kitefoiling. People who had not tried it yet could not understand why I was so into it. However in the long run they all understood when they started foiling themselves.

I really think you should try to Wingfoil soon. You will get hooked and if you really love riding waves, you will get really addicted to the freedom the wing gives you.

So hopefully see you on the water soon and thanks for your support over the years.

--
Gunnar

[gmb13]

If you work within these sports you need passion to keep going since no one is really making any money of it.

Gunnar is passioned for sure. And has a lot of experience in many areas of the sport.
Sure, he is a team rider too and promotes gear, but why should that be a bad thing?

Learn from his experience. And at the end try yourself which gear works best for you.

[slingshotucf]

High aspect verses low aspect is a total preference, just like kite foiling. I like the pumpabilty and glide of the high aspect stuff but you'll get less lift into the turn with a flatter foil. Any day in the waves winging is a great day regardless of what foil I'm on.

[OzBungy]

Beginner wingfoiler here, semi-expert kite foiler (compared to most of the other crew anyway). I jumped on a wing and a crossover SUP and cracked it almost straight away. It's kind of easy to do. I'm not totally hooked yet, but I am keen for more sessions and I am lining up a dedicated short SUP foiling/winging board and searching about for larger and/or higher aspect foils.

The most appealing aspect at the moment is the physicality of it. Finishing a day with worked arm and back muscles is a wonderful thing. I kite foiler yesterday and it is relatively effortless, which is also fun.

I bought the wing with view to filling several niches. One of those niches is coming today. 15-20knot winds with the odd squall to 45 knots. I suspect the squalls might not happen, or be avoidable. Either way it'll be nice to ride out any nastiness sitting on my SUP with the wing docile in my hand.

Anyway, back to high aspect foils. The term is irrelevant and should disappear. All manufacturers should provide figures for developed and projected area and span and max chord. Ideally they would also provide aspect ratios (or you can calculate them from span and area). That lets people educate themselves and make decisions based on knowledge.

My experience in kite foiling and paragliding has shown that lower aspect ratios generally work better. I need to explore further to see if that applies to winging.

In general foil and kite companies are a bit shit when it comes to providing information and maintaining their web sites. Gong seem to do a good job.

PS If you don't like winging, why are you even posting on a winging forum? Your opinion doesn't matter in the slightest.

PPS Here's a better "why we ..." video. Not me.

[gmb13]

Some small wave high Ar Wing action with the new Moses W1000 Foil.

[Dave K]

I’m having a great time with my W1100 and my Gong XL pro. I’ll be testing out Gongs new Veloce foil wings pretty soon. Have an XL and XXL Veloce on order. I guess you’d say medium high aspect, but very thin! The XL is only 1.35 liters.......We’ll see. It’s kinda fun being involved at the early stages of a new foil discipline and testing things out. Reminds me of the early kiteboarding days.

I know most people here are biased towards wave riding, but just watching the ultra smooth flat water freestyle moves of a guy like Klaas Voget, was a huge motivating factor for me to start winging,.....even if I’ll never get to be 1/10th as good as he is. Guys like Gunnar also have a big influence. I still kitefoil, especially on lighter wind days, but it’s 90% winging, 10% kiting for me at the moment. I love learning new winging moves,...easier to learn than with kiting. Beyond the easy-to-learn jibes I’ve got foot switching, heel and toeside tacks and my first sort-of-ok-looking 360’s. Pretty amazing considering I’m a klutzy ole guy with bad knees. Haven’t even ventured into the ocean yet (never really inspired by the ocean kiting I see especially with our crappy east coast conditions), but looking forward to it with a wing.

[jumptheshark]

The duotone with the boom looks like it can have some one handed advantages. Any wing designs out there that allow for use of a carbon paddle shaft as a boom? Paddle out of the bay just dragging the wing, attach paddle, foil, reverse.

[Dave K]

The duotone with the boom looks like it can have some one handed advantages. Any wing designs out there that allow for use of a carbon paddle shaft as a boom? Paddle out of the bay just dragging the wing, attach paddle, foil, reverse.

Naish S25’s have some paddle attachement points last I looked, but you could probably make something work with most of the handle type wings. Love the one handed boom feel of the Echo’s

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