Flying Dutchman - Stunning Wing Video

[irwe]

One of the best produced Wing videos I have seen

Alan Cadiz is Winging with the Duotone boom Wing. Who are the other Wingers?

Play it on your TV (Chromecast) for best effect.

[jumptheshark]

Idk, you might just be a sucker for slow mo and a piano sound track!

Of course it looks fun, its a water sport, but I can't help be looking for the details of how they ride and in doing that, I'm not really tempted.

Big rolling open ocean swell conditions look fun, as are big downwinders, but there is not much in the riding that shows something "better".

For one, the gear is always a step away from my personal goal sheet.

Analogy: Have you ever tried wake boarding on a kiteboard? I mean a standard strapped twin tip? Perfect glassy conditions, nice boat that throws up a sick clean wake. Many people have, and its pretty evident that it's crap when compared to using an actual wakeboard with proper boots and rocker line. Now those boots and rocker line take away from efficiency, but you have a boat to power you so its inconsequential. The twin tip is flatter, flexier and has no heel hold down. Makes it better for getting planing and going upwind with a kite, but the improved efficiency of the board is a detriment to how fun the ride is in other conditions, ie. while behind the boat.

I see a lot of that dynamic in these clips of winging and SUP/pump foiling downwind. Those foils are bigger, higher aspect and attached to bigger boards. The wing guys and pump girl are on reasonably small boards, but they are still likely more than twice the overall size and volume of the one a hack like me can kite. The guy with the paddle is on a relative aircraft carrier compared to my 8 litre 109 cm board. That alone has a massive limiting impact on how he rides. The foils are meant for pumping and gliding, and are designed for that efficiency at the expense of carving and dynamic turning. Now, if there was no wind, those design concessions might be well worth it, but its blowing 20 knots out there and I see conditions where an equally skilled rider could be doing a downwinder with a tiny kite and carving far more fluid dynamic lines, without the need for a chartered chase boat. Well maybe not in open ocean like that, but you get the idea that for most of us, who want to show up to a spot, ride and go home from the same spot as a day to day sport, this is just not that inspiring. For sure I enjoy these videos and am not against what is presented, its just that I can't help compare it to what I and many others do and and in that light It's not all that inspiring.

I think Greg Drexler or Stephane Goffinet or Marc Leblanc or Philippe Caneri could all ride with tiny little kites straight downwind on carvey little foils/boards and draw far nicer lines with 360's, harder cutbacks, and various airs along the way..... without the need for the chase boat.

Shoot it with a high def camera, Slow it down and put it to piano and it would make this look rather pedestrian.