Wingsurfing wing construction

[foursquare]

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If rigid wings are most effective when fully powered, then maybe that’ll be a race thing.

Anyways...will be interesting to see what evolves in next few gens.

If done properly ; a rigid will have a Way more usable speedrange .

Bille

I get the feeling you are stuck in a mode of feeling you have superior technical knowlege of better wing shapes without practical understanding of the use case in an up close and personal manner. I really think you should put the time and effort, adventure into learning how to wingsurf and retain your ideas, goals, but adapt them AFTER learning, because any wing that doesn't pop straight up to the surface of the water to be easily detached and flown is at an immediate usability disadvantage, most especially learning.

^This. I've never had a kiter critique my wing-foiling rig, but have had a handful of windsurfers do so. "How can you get any leverage with that board?" "What no battens?" "I'm pretty sure you need to shim this, and trim that..." Mind you, none of these guys have ever tried to wing ... and I'm out there foiling circles around them...

[Trent hink]

Yeah, but look at where kiting was 3-4 years in.

Or hydrofoiling...

[fluidity]

Interesting, their site says "The Kitewing is a hand held wingsail designed for sailing on low friction surfaces." and talks about ice, pavement, beach. Their site doesn't talk about foils, not in any of their promo videos, etc.

My impression is this kind of thing failed in the water back in the day because it didn't work with surface riding, not enough power to overcome drag. It's foils that have revolutionized wings, as that makes water a similarly low friction surface. So, with that in mind....anyone tried one of these kitewing like units on a foil yet?

If it worked....sure could be a nice alternative. Winging is awesome, loving it, but the fragility of the gear is a problem both for the fun and the pocketbook.

I think the extra distance from the water's surface is the primary reason wings have become practical for speed on the water. You could use a wing with a harness and a surfboard, but it would need to be a combination of quite windy and very low aspect ratio wing to work well. It's so much easier controlling the wing when you rise on foil. Kiting permits extra distance from the water to the wing with lines, wing surfing permits extra distance from the water with the mast.

[t_huebs]

Rumor has it North Sails 3Di tech is coming to wings. It was game-changing in the sailboat world and they just dropped it into windsurfing. https://northwindsurfing.com/pages/3di

3D molded to shape and effectively no stretch could lead to a much stiffer structure and/or weight reductions and/or bladder size reductions. Everything is a tradeoff in design but I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with.