VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

That is sick. If I was a newbie and just getting into wind / foil sports, it would be a no-brainer.

The size of the inflatable boards makes wing foiling quite amenable to travel.
In case anyone is looking, its not obvious yet on the GONG website how to find these boards (at least to me).

https://www.gong-galaxy.com/en/product/ ... able-hipe/

I need something to keep me going amongst the excruciating (but necessary) border closures. So, keep talking foilers, pole-foiling (aka windsurf-based foiling) and/or wing foiling. What are the pros and cons of each.

Random piece of advice from a newbie wingfoiler: I am realizing that the advice of getting some towed "foil time" (ski or boat) is gold. And wear a PFD or impact vest to protect ze ribs. I figured this out the hard way a week or two back after a few violent "wheelies" in 30kn winds. Loving the challenge of figuring it all out though. Feels great to be back into a wind sport again after about 30 years off!

Some say a con of winging is lack of speed. But Gunnar is moving pretty quick for strapless light wind winging on a 5m.

https://www.facebook.com/kitechino/vide ... 5221734538

As a kite foil racer, he'd know as well as anyone how to milk that max speed. Would be interesting to hear his opinion. I suspect the wing will be half as fast or less than the equivalent kite potential, and maybe wind foil just slightly under that. Even with higher aspect foil wings, the energy transfer seems fundamentally less efficient.

BUT: personally I have never aspired to the speed that the kite foil racers achieve, I don't want to go 50mph...quite happy to get 20mph. Maybe 25 if I am feeling dangerous.

The pursuit of speed is something that has changed dramatically in kite foiling, with early incarnations entirely pushed by the racers, it took a turn to being more about carving turns and playing in waves, so slowing down to enjoy them. Bigger wings, more stable.

And now the funny thing is, winging started on low aspect sup foils and big sup boards, and is now moving to high aspect racey wings and tiny boards.....full circle.

The biggest Con it's another thing to spend your money on and be that much poorer!

firstonlastoff wrote:The size of the inflatable boards makes wing foiling quite amenable to travel.
In case anyone is looking, its not obvious yet on the GONG website how to find these boards (at least to me).
https://www.gong-galaxy.com/en/product/ ... able-hipe/
I need something to keep me going amongst the excruciating (but necessary) border closures. So, keep talking foilers, pole-foiling (aka windsurf-based foiling) and/or wing foiling. What are the pros and cons of each.

Living in North Van makes it simple to go hang at North Shore Ski and Board...had a good chat with Vince a few days ago about these Gong foil boards. Don't think they are available for a bit, but they do look good. He agrees. Vince says supply is an issue for wingfoiling stuff...lots of people are asking for it. Hard to source with all the COVID crap going on. The other issue he mentioned is that he thinks the wingfoiling gear will change a lot (again) over the next year (as he has seen it change over the last year)....so I'm gonna save my $ and wait and see what comes out between now and next year re wingfoiling. But I think I'll do it. On a side note he gave me a killer deal on some 182cm Black Crow Animas and Salomon Shifts...

In the meantime, with Nat closed all summer (fack! I was actually gonna get back there this year), and now the border shut until at least late July/August, I'm gonna concentrate on windsurf foiling at Hornby and Kootenay. Looking like a light wind gear summer. Not sad I sold most of my ws gear a while back....

Keith

[quote="winddoctor"


...I'm somehow more intrigued by the wing-foil set up as a swell chasing device than a wind-foil or even kite foil. It's also the one I've yet to try. Too bad shops and demos aren't a thing here.[/quote]

Well, the jury's in! Tried it; definitely fun. Definitely stupid looking. But so much fun. Had Covid not hit, I would have been smugly basking in the after glow of a windy/wavey 2 week trip to Oregon and would have continued my silent judgement of this ridiculous bastardisation of a wind sport. Instead I've been converted and have fully invested in roller blading of the sea.

Is this a wind-borne virus affecting our judgement? Is there a vaccine yet for wingers?

Roller blading of the sea is my far the best description so far.....

grantmac wrote:Roller blading of the sea is my far the best description so far.....

Bzzt. That is already taken by kiting, long ago.

Given age demographic, maybe the pickleball of the sea.

Even better! Is it a problem that I think pickleball is pretty fun too?

Ok, Chris, NOW you are dead to me....

tempy wrote:Ok, Chris, NOW you are dead to me....

I'm late for Macrame class. Gotta run. Slowly. 'cause of the achilles strain playing pickleball. Where're my teeth?? Dagnabbit...

AtomicC's safety post raises a few thoughts with winging:

1. Board leash is crucial: big boards with heavy foils float downwind really fast, way faster than you can swim! It is a sinking feeling to see that board gaining distance on you as you frantically chase it.

2. Swimming is slow: there is no way I know of to body drag the wing the way you can with a kite. If you lose your board, you are swimming...so think hard about how far you can swim and how warm your wetsuit is.

3. Kelp can be a hassle or disastrous: for general riding, loose strands are worse than kiting, there's such a fine line for getting up on foil, I've found even 1 strand can give enough drag to make it not work right. But that's not what I have in mind ... getting the foil stuck in kelp is major. With a kite, you can turn your board over, body drag over it being pulled by the kite. That doesn't work with the wing. I have had a vision of daily wing downwinders in the JDF thermals, get dropped off at Muir Creek, down wind in the swells to sooke, easy peasy. But thinking about it further, there is a MASSIVE kelp forest that stretches out from sooke harbour up past the Sooke bluffs. It would be impenetrable with a foil, no way you could swim it through. Once your foil is stuck in it, I have my doubts you could get it out ... and then worse still, once you are in midst of it, how you will you swim through it, holding the wing? I hate to sound alarmist / chicken little, but I can envision how this could quickly and easily turn into a loss of gear and potentially life threatening.

Winging is a mostly safer alternative to kiting ... no launch issues, offshore wind is more doable, can paddle it in if wind dies ... but these are the exceptions I can think of so far.

Quick rookie windsurfing question while on this subject. I'm a fairly weak swimmer but could probably go decently for a short distance to catch up to a board/rig, but one thing I've wondered is: can a windsurf with foil and rig in water pick up enough speed to get away from you in certain conditions?
Usually I hang on tight to the boom, but the other day it slipped out of my hands and the whole thing went on the other side of a wave. I adrenaline-swimmed and got to it seconds later no problem, but am still wondering if in certain conditions it can get out of reach.
What about breaking-wave sailing, if you wipe out? Can you usually swim no problem to it or does it sometimes surf its way to the beach faster than you can swim to it?
I've been a shit swimmer my whole life despite most of my life on top of the water on boats. With the 5/4 wetsuit I find it can pretty well float me without swimming almost, so I feel quite safe in it. But now that I'm getting a bit faster on the water and can potentially launch board and rig a fair distance away from myself in a crash, I wonder whether I should be keeping it slower for that reason.
I'm assuming the sail in the water always makes it slower than a slow swimmer but its something I should ask for sure, rather than finding out for myself.