Anyone tried foiling with a wing?

[juandesooka]

Agreed on potential for kite ban areas and also for overly challenged launches.

However the story above is a non kiter, wind sports newbie, who has taken up winging. He is a surfer in a kiting mecca but has had no interest. Now he is chasing wind and is quickly getting it and having a ball.. That has nothing to do with no fly zones....the crossover appeal would apply anywhere in the world where there are sup or surf foilers and wind. Or wake foilers too. It's a very small market but a primo one

[Topaz]

No need of a harness to ride the wing? Or it's only for athletes?

[scottnorby]

No harness necessary
That is appealing to a lot of people....especially those who have no wind sport background.
Winging will attract people from fringes.
They will appreciate the simplicity.
There is nothing between you and the wing. Nothing between you and the board and foil.
All one unit--- bending in every direction
A harness can limit movement.
No harness also means less things to buy getting into it.

That being said you can attach to the harness attachment points on the wing.
In heavy conditions it could be useful.
But not all wings come equipped with harness line option.
The SPG wings we have are equipped with them.
Nathan and Ivan have been using harness lines on their SPG wings.
A couple of the videos show them using those harness lines --- if you look very close.
https://spacesticklab.myshopify.com/col ... s/airwings

[revhed]

Toby,
R H

[OzBungy]

I have been watching the local wing surfing crew learning how to ride. I have once seen a wing surfer get up and foil and it looked pretty good. I believe that there is a niche for these things.

Most of the time they just slog along on the surface. The other day I saw the cutest scene. In the distance were three wing surfers plodding along in a line, each one a different colour. They looked like a family of snails heading home.

[nothing2seehere]

Am I right in thinking they might work well as a high wind setup for a kite foil for those not chasing speed? E.g. for your low wind setup you'll have a little buoyancy in your board anyway. Then once the wind picks up (and invariably gets more gusty) then instead switching to a 4/5m kite, you change to one of these?

[Adolfo]

Am I right in thinking they might work well as a high wind setup for a kite foil for those not chasing speed? E.g. for your low wind setup you'll have a little buoyancy in your board anyway. Then once the wind picks up (and invariably gets more gusty) then instead switching to a 4/5m kite, you change to one of these?

Mmmm.
I don’t think so.
I’ve being kiting for almost 20 years, sup surfing for 12, kite foiling for 3 and recently picked up wing foiling. I’m foiling it OK in the chop, but hadn’t had any chance to take the wing to the surf yet, so my answer is based on what I think I will do, and not what I actually do.
For wing foiling, you use big boards and foils. That setup won’t be my weapon of choice when it gets very windy and the waves get bigger.
For those conditions I think I will be happier with a small surf kite and a strapped surf board.
My guess is that I will use the wing in between sup surfing or sup foiling and kite surfing conditions. Wind in the 12 to 18 knots range and smallish surf, when it gets too choppy and windy for paddling, the waves are too small to have any fun kite surfing, but are good for sup foiling.

[OzBungy]

Our local guys have been making their own huge wings, and are using SUP foil boards or have taken to making their own SUP foil specific boards. Short, lots of volume, a step in from the tail to eliminate "sticking". Some of these guys are pretty serious "watermen" and they have a pretty good idea of what they are doing. The best performance I have seen is from a home made plywood, high aspect foil.

Apart from not enough time on the water, the only obvious flaw I see is people trying to ride toeside and pump up onto the foil.Trying to pump with a wing "behind" you just looks wrong.

My vision for wing surfing is to be able to go out in the surf in stupid gusty, cross offshore conditions. Literally gusting from 0-20 knots. I get that a lot at my favourite surf spot and it would be good to mess around with a wing and SUP foil in small surf, rather than drive around the bay to get a better wind direction.

The other thing is in stupid strong gusty conditions. I went out kite foiling the other day in 30-50knot winds. It was doable but unpleasant and felt wrong. Again, mucking around with a wind wing and strapped foil board of some kind would have been a relatively safe way to get wet.

[nothing2seehere]

Thanks @Adolfo!

Its one of those things that I'm trying to see how it would fit into my particular situation. The only person who I have met who has one says it works for him foiling in cross offshore wind as he is more comfortable with a swim back in with one of those and a floaty board

[ronnie]

Flashing back to the earlier discussions of who these wings are aimed at. They are less efficient than kites or windsurfers, so not surprising that both groups of wind chasers aren't too impressed.

I also follow the sup foil and surf foil forums, where there's lots of surfers with no wind sports experience. Surfers generally hate wind, seems only a small % make the crossover to kiting. One of the most frequents posters on the surf foil forum stated recently that he's getting a little bored in surf foiling, having gone at it hard last couple years, and reached a plateau where it's getting repetitive. But he's since picked up a wing and is flipping out stoked. His feedback: "I'll never paddle for another wave again" ... just 6 sessions in and he's winging out, riding waves in with the wing unpowered, rinse and repeat. Though it helps he is in Kanaha Maui, which is about as optimal a set up as you'll find...weak waves breaking way outside, lots of sideshore wind.

Having brought lots of people into kiting and witnessing the froth, I am sure he'd be just as stoked if he took up kiting. But it's interesting that the wing was the easy entry to wind sports, pick it up quick without lessons, and less expensive gear. That's a pretty small target market, compared to the multitudes on sups on lakes, but it's a natural extension ... suspect we'll see a lot more moving across. And then as posters suggested here, no doubt some of these people will carry on to kiting or windsurfing, to expand conditions and capabilities. Wing may be the gateway drug for surfer types.

It's fun to read this guy's stoke, think back to starting kiting, opened my eyes to a whole new possibility for massive fun. That starting out phase is magic.

i think you hit the nail on the head...

these things were made for...and are IDEAL for folks on the north shore of maui.
in particular beaches under the flight path of the airport and in the precious windsurf areas that they dont want tainted by us sullied heathen known as kiteboarders...
i'm certain there are kiters in similar "less free" parts of the world that are are oppressed by similar byzantine laws (those are areas i'd expect to see these things)

This is on the North shore of Maui in very marginal to 'not-enough' wind.