Wingfoiling

[nanmoo]

Only thing left to do is wait and see. I think come 2025 it will be a fringe item like SUP or non-foil Kite race boards. It think it might get pure surfers into kiting after they quickly realise how much more dynamic kites are for multi discipline board types and with jumps as high as you are willing to go. That is my prediction. We'll see who is right in 5 years!

[JL]

I enjoyed the video posted by mf4. Those guys sounded like serious watermen. @ least 1 mentioned his windsurfing background. As well as some fine drone footage.

[AJSpencer]

I think that is a bit deceiving. The best students are upwind on a kite within an hour of starting. You can imagine how they'd look after 6 weeks.

Winging just allows you to "start" with very little knowledge or safety training unlike kiting or windsurfing, but it's not easier than kiting or kite foiling and you can do either of those in less wind.

It's an alternative but I really doubt it will stand as a sport on it's own for people who don't already Kite or WS. My guess is unlike BMX/Skateboard/Rollerblade you won't see a third tribe at the Liquid skatepark.

I think you may be wrong on that on two fronts First, one of the main groups online focused on winging are the sup foilers and surf foilers who have no prior wind experience. Winging is seen as an extension of their wave foiling, using the wind instead of having to paddle. To some people, winging is a wind-thing, but to these people it's more a foil-thing.

These are all surfers first and surfers generally hate the wind.
It is amusing to hear these folks, as they are on fire about first time using wind for fun. I suspect a number of these folks will progress beyond winging into kiting and windsurfing once the wind bug has bitten.

Second: following a lot of online discussion about wings in kite forums (and I assume similar in windsurf forums), the vast majority of people who are already accomplished wind chasers see the wings as kooky and pointless. I agree to a point, as they are less efficient. They are little faster to rig and easier to launch than a kite in difficult launch spots. Other than that, if just flat water, you'd be better off to kite or ws. The killer app, IMHO, is wave riding: you can use wind to get in, then can get 100% depower and ride the wave independent of wind.

Ya I agree. I plan to mainly windfoil and windsurf, but I think it'll be awesome sometimes heading out in some big rollers and going upwind and surf downwind on a wing, like around Trial Island area, once I've got it cased.
Pretty stoked on all that.

[juandesooka]

Is SUP fringe now? That's funny as it seems busier than ever ... though I note the former BWD hard cores have either aged out or moved on to brighter things. I am grateful that "performance SUP" seems to be dying out, as the worst of the worst when it comes to surfing style.

Indeed will be interesting to see if wings are fringe or not. For me at least, certainly seems to offer a small niche window in between surf foiling and kitesurfing. Right now I am on the learning curve, so pretty stoked, but once it settles out, there will be some difficult choices between toys on good days.

OTOH, there will be some situations where it'll be a no-brainer. Offshore wind wave riding with a kite is too dangerous, but fully doable with wing. Same with JDF downwinders, where I am sketched by the rescue potential with a kite, but a lot less worry when have a big paddle-able sup. Actually same with downwinders in a whole bunch of locations, jump off 10 mile point and rides those haro strait swells to cordova spit ... even if the wind is the usual up n down variability and there is no kite launch...doable. But it's most attractive to people who are already stoked on riding swells on a foil.

[TonyT1000]

Why are you wing foiling so much?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxz5NDXoC_0

[juandesooka]

https://www.facebook.com/reostevenscoac ... 2089795589

100 percent depower

[nanmoo]

Is SUP fringe now? That's funny as it seems busier than ever ... though I note the former BWD hard cores have either aged out or moved on to brighter things. I am grateful that "performance SUP" seems to be dying out, as the worst of the worst when it comes to surfing style.

Definitely is if you look at the numbers. "Core" brands have seen sales collapse drastically across all board types, some of that is being replaced by budget stuff at Walmart/Costco/Canadian tire (especially cheap inflatables), but it's hardly in the boom phase it was several years ago across all segments. I'm not being a hater to SUP or Rollerblading, both have their place and I still own both. I can't actually figure out why the latter one died out since it is so affordable, accessible and transferable. Cheap SUP boards could offer the same except you can't make one for $100 that you can lift onto your car and have it last more than a few drops here and there.

[downwind dave]

id like to give this wing foilin' a go, i think i'm a good candidate with my WS background and fear of stringed toys (guitars exempt). Just waiting for guys to figure out what works. then i dumpster everything bigger than 4.7

[winddude]

Is SUP fringe now? That's funny as it seems busier than ever ... though I note the former BWD hard cores have either aged out or moved on to brighter things. I am grateful that "performance SUP" seems to be dying out, as the worst of the worst when it comes to surfing style.

Definitely is if you look at the numbers. "Core" brands have seen sales collapse drastically across all board types, some of that is being replaced by budget stuff at Walmart/Costco/Canadian tire (especially cheap inflatables), but it's hardly in the boom phase it was several years ago across all segments. I'm not being a hater to SUP or Rollerblading, both have their place and I still own both. I can't actually figure out why the latter one died out since it is so affordable, accessible and transferable. Cheap SUP boards could offer the same except you can't make one for $100 that you can lift onto your car and have it last more than a few drops here and there.

Wonder if that's a sign to the start of the decline, places like Canadian Tire apparently used to sell the plastic style windsurfers, than tried again to get in with the inflatable wind gliders in the early 2000s.

[Windjunky]

I think most people who buy sups (canada tire etc.)only sup on lakes or flat water which is great exercise but gets boring pretty quick sup surfing is a whole different story very popular in Hawaii and here on the island easier to catch twice as many waves hence more fun and faster progression. However prone surfing will always have its place.

[TonyT1000]

id like to give this wing foilin' a go, i think i'm a good candidate with my WS background and fear of stringed toys (guitars exempt). Just waiting for guys to figure out what works. then i dumpster everything bigger than 4.7

I'm with ya. As mainly a SUPer these last few years I am mainly intrigued by the DW bit. And that seems to be a possibility right here at Clover Pt/Cook St with enough skills. Laps/repeats without needing to run shuttles? Not having to drive hours to get to a wind spot? I'm in. I fully expect to get laughed at initially by the kiters and WSers!

[juandesooka]

Jury is still out on them for sure, whether a fad or here to stay. I had my first taste of wave riding and it was a gas ... but it's a foil thing. Could have been kiting them with a 12m too, so it was a choice of wave riding preferernces (probably not enough wind for ws unless sup style slog).

The race to provide these has been amusing. Several brands claim to have been working on them for years, refining, etc...but it's pretty obvious one company pursued it and the rest scrambled to follow. The differences between quite a few brands seem fairly subtle.

But there already is some separation between which ones appear to work well and those that faded out or got quickly replaced with a V2. I expect there will be a divide between high performance gear $$$ and low end entry level costco gear ... much the same as in surfing, sup, and other sports.

[nanmoo]

I've still yet to understand the "why" in the timing of the wings given it was not a new idea; whether it was a patent expiring or what other reason existed. The technology to build the wings has been around for more than a decade and foil boards had been mainstream for years prior.

Two of the people I know involved with brands who chose to chase the wing market said it was a necessary evil in part since the boards they are selling and people are buying cross over to other segments they don't want to lose out on; ie. you are selling a SUP foil boards but don't have a wing to sell so customer goes to brand Y who sells SUP foil boards and wings. Obviously it is a fun thing to do to, but fun doesn't always make business sense.

[winddude]

Trying to push the "new" thing to get people to buy more gear.

[KUS]

id like to give this wing foilin' a go, i think i'm a good candidate with my WS background and fear of stringed toys (guitars exempt). Just waiting for guys to figure out what works. then i dumpster everything bigger than 4.7

new kites = amazing, no comparison

Trying to push the "new" thing to get people to buy more gear.

Tell you what, those SUP foilers at the Gorge are about the most annoying thing I’ve ever encountered on water...I think they beat idiot jetskiers....at least those are bored very quickly and then leave and don’t keep drifting by over and over just as you line up a beauty for a ride or aerial maybe wingers are a lot like ‘em