Now that is fully sending it. Wow.

[plummet]

I'm not usually a purveyor of wing surfing, but that is fully sending it with reckless abandon.
Holy hell.

[andylc]

Think that vid has been on already and some moaning that he got a tow in and therefore it's rubbish. Personally I agree with you - looks amazing regardless of how he got onto the wave, most big wave surfers get towed in so doesn't seem like a cheat to me. Crazy stuff.

[plummet]

Think that vid has been on already and some moaning that he got a tow in and therefore it's rubbish. Personally I agree with you - looks amazing regardless of how he got onto the wave, most big wave surfers get towed in so doesn't seem like a cheat to me. Crazy stuff.

I bet the moaners have never ridden anything that sizable or done anything in anyway similar.
That is off the charts batshit crazy. Who cares what about the start.

[andylc]

I certainly haven't - and probably never will!

[bragnouff]

The moaning (my moaning) was directed at a poster who thought that Wings allowed to self-tow into big waves (on a non foiling board). And also a little bit targeting the editing of the video who could let an unsuspecting viewer think that it was the case.
Kai does what he wants and pushes whichever sport the way he sees fit. All legit and no cheating there!

[longwhitecloud]

Reminds me of his Ocean cleanup journey promotion video while holding a Red Bull can... better than a plastic bottle but we all know the truth is that non reusable containers/ packaging are the biggest problem and his $ponsor was clearly more important than the message.

No idea if these were all towed or not, but I saw footage somewhere else of a jetski towing and if that is the case I think it is narcissistic and dishonest not to show it in the edit.


There are a couple of videos on insta of winging with a surfboard (no foil), in 40 knots! Looks serious hard work but doable. I would post them up but can't remember where they are. The volume of good footage on insta blows my mind.

[andylc]

Most of the vids of big wave surfing don’t show the tow in, just the surfing of the wave so I’m not sure I care whether they include that bit as it’s not particularly interesting and it seems to me anyway fairly obvious that you’d need a tow to be hitting a wave that big that fast.

[fluidity]

No idea if these were all towed or not, but I saw footage somewhere else of a jetski towing and if that is the case I think it is narcissistic and dishonest not to show it in the edit.

I don't think it's misleading, you have to consider that Kai works as a sponsored inflencer. Everything coming from brand ambassadors is suspect and you have to determine their credibility through intuition and their history. I respect Kai for his drive to be a water sports poineer in different and new fields. He's likely also tried a lot of things that didn't work and that is the biggest secret of inovation, to map out the interesting paths by finding and ruling out the failing ones.
There are many people more narcissistic than Kai and before making that call you have to be able to logically define the character boundary between brand influencing work and self promotion as an actual personality disorder. If I was scouting for a red bull brand ambassador I'd not be looking for an introvert

[OzBungy]

It's strange these videos are getting such a reaction now. He first published video of winging at Jaws in January 2. It got a pretty good reaction then. There's nothing particularly new about these later videos.



It's great. It's awesome. Full respect. It's got a fair way to go.

In terms of soaring the updraft he's got the wing pitched up too high. He's half stalled and dangling. According to Rob Whittall Ozone are working on a wing that will be better suited to soaring the updraft. That is what I want to see.

[longwhitecloud]

That is true. Being the best rider or being transparent has less and less to do with sponsorship these days.

Only he can answer why he didn’t show it was a tow when it is a new concept and most people would have no idea that it was towed? I don’t even know if they were all tows.

Views / exposure become conversions. There is a value in a following of a sponsored rider that can turn into conversions (sales ultimately).

I’m off to buy a Tag Heuer watch.

It looks cool, but I spoke to so many people and when I mention he was towed.. they were like ohhhh uhhh?

Sure we know tow guys cut out the tows, but we know they are towing.

There I go again, doing some free marketing work again lol!!!