How to stop an upside down board equaling a hole in the wing canopy

[Dave_H]

Over the past two years I have twice experienced a situation where I crashed in the surf and my board ends up downwind of my wing with the board floating upside down. As I frantically try to figure out how to get out of this situation, the seemingly inevitable happens when a wave hits the board, toppling it over and the foil’s stab punches a hole in the canopy. The wind was side shore in both cases. After thinking about it, the only thing I can come up with is to try and spool out my real leash and swim backwards with the wing to get some distance between it and the board. Then wait for a wave of sufficient size to topple the board back upright. Has anyone else had a similar experience and has anyone figured out a good way to consistently get out of a predicament like this with the wing unscathed? Thanks, Dave

[juandesooka]

Winging is great in many ways. That's the worst! Such a helpless feeling when things go wrong. This has happened to me a few rides...Iike you said I held wing away and let board get taken by waves, until one flipped it. If there is a lull it is probably stable enough you can carefully approach and flip it without risk to wing.

[typo fixed Peter...all thumbs on stupid phone]

[Peter_Frank]

juandesooka, what is "Winfingbis"???

I don't think there is a single answer to your question Dave_H.

But experience helps a lot, immensely in fact, you learn to orientate yourself and your gear while crashing, so damage happens more and more rare when tumbled in waves.

Peter

[ronnie]

The answer to a lot of risk to the wing could be to develop wings that float in the air on a leash.
Useful for paddling out with the board upside down?
Useful when being tumbled in waves?

[OzBungy]

I tried varying leash lengths and that made no difference. There's no guarantee that anything is going to be sitting neatly at the end of a neatly stretched out leash.

One thing that worked is to climb onto the wing. That stops the wing flopping onto the foil, and it leaves hands/feet free to fend off the board/foil.

It's pretty easy to repair a ripped canopy. Taping it up is fine and you can over-sew the edges it you want. You only need a professional if the damage goes across the dacron parts.

There's a certain appeal to having a mongrel looking wing with some decent battle scars. I buy Switch kites and wings because they're really good and really cheap. It's a lot more traumatic if you damage a really expensive wing. I learned long ago that all the fabric stuff (kites,wings,wetsuits) are consumable items. Use them hard and replace when worn out.

[airsail]

I’ve had it a couple of times on my old 95ltr x 27” wide, but the new board is 78ltr x 22” and it’s never happened. The foil can’t balance vertically on a narrower board.

[fluidity]

I use a long leash on the board and always keep hold of the front of the wing in any crashes. A year and a half of winging now, I have 5 wings and the only hole is on my old Naish from when I was trying to get up on my old intermediate wind surf board with no foil or dagger board. I managed to pop the pointy front of the board up and into the wing. Since then nothing. And all my DIY wings I ride now are medium high aspect. I put little winglets on the tip to spread any impact to the wings, they aren't really big enough to deal to wingtip vorticies, I handle those with another aspect of my designs. In any crash, either I kick the board away from me, or I submarine the front and dive away from it.

[Dave_H]

I’ve had it a couple of times on my old 95ltr x 27” wide, but the new board is 78ltr x 22” and it’s never happened. The foil can’t balance vertically on a narrower board.

Good point, I think that board geometry is something that I am going to consider on my next build. My current wing board is 26" wide, however going down to 22" wide is probably beyond my current skill set given the wonky water conditions we often get, but definitely something a bit narrower. I am also thinking that having some convex surfaces on the deck of the board at the nose and tail which sit proud of the flat standing area could help to destabilize the board when it is upside down. Some nose rocker on the deck with a narrow nose might also help.

To Fluidity's point about the tip shape of the foils, I think that some reshaping of my stabilizer tips is high on my 'to do list'.

I really don't mind having some patches on my wings, typically the biggest pain about the whole ordeal is having to stop an epic surf session short because of a some wing canopy damage. Patches also don't help when it comes time to sell the wing.

Thanks for the feedback from everyone so far!
Dave H

[juandesooka]

I am about to jinx myself / anger the gods ... but I've had fairly good success in the water too with avoiding cuts, compared to the early days at least. Same as you fluidity, I try to keep wing with me and let the board go on leash. Priority is keeping them apart.

My last few cuts have been on land, in spots where wind is swirling in the rig zone. Rule #1 now: never EVER attach the wing leash to the mast and leave it unattended.

[airsail]

I’ve had it a couple of times on my old 95ltr x 27” wide, but the new board is 78ltr x 22” and it’s never happened. The foil can’t balance vertically on a narrower board.

Good point, I think that board geometry is something that I am going to consider on my next build. My current wing board is 26" wide, however going down to 22" wide is probably beyond my current skill set given the wonky water conditions we often get, but definitely something a bit narrower.

Dropping from 27 to 22” was not an issue, I did try a mates board and found no issues before I ordered the 22” board. The foil provides most of the lateral stability so as long as you have enough volume, no problem, I’m 81kg on a 78 ltr board. We have very choppy conditions, 2-3 ft chop when the winds up and as long as you stinkbug no issue.
The narrow board also points amazingly well upwind when slogging, no bother getting back to your start point or even upwind of it if the wind drops.