Wing foiling – a few months in

I love it , fully hooked. For me it is a fill in activity for when conditions are not suitable for wave sailing, SUPing or foil surfing. That means I don’t get out that much. But I have found my self getting excited when I see forecasts for conditions that are perfect for winging.

I am really enjoying that it makes conditions that I would not be excited to windsurf in really fun. I can see a lot of potential for wing foiling. It is challenging, but rapid progress can be made quickly. Having said that you have to concentrate.

The amount of time you are able to spend on foil really helps your foil surfing and foil SUPing improve.  The wing gives you something to balance against so you can try turns and carves and get a bit wobbly then use the wing to regain control. Without the wing you would crash. You can repeat multiple times until you feel more control.

Power range

I had heard the wings had a huge wind range and where easy to depower. Initially I found the wind range pretty good but not what I had heard. I have found as my ability has progress the wind range has grown massively. Essential you just lift the wing up above you and feather your back hand. One trick here is that as you raise the wing it is easy to stand up right which results in less weight on the foil and making it prone to breaching. I have and still do have some great wipe outs. Tip here is to keep your knees bent and weight down and forward to keep pressure on the foil when the wing is held high.

Learn to Wing Foil in Brighton with Lagoon Watersports

Going both ways

I found the hardest thing to crack was flying on my weaker side either in regular stance or toe side. I found it easier and I progressed quicker in a regular stance, so weakest foot forward. Initially I was unable to make turns so I would do a run out on my weaker side in regular stance. Crash and the come in on my preferred side. I tried getting going toe side with no success and some big crashes. Toe side was a problem for me. I cracked it by learning to gybe (down wind turn) and coming out toe side then try to foil in that stance. Gradually I was able to increase the amount of time and control I had going toe side.

Another way to experiment with toe side is , on your preferred side bear off the wind and start to head down and then begins to play with your steering and you can gradual ease yourself to be more toe side. I would recommend learning to ride both toe side and in regular stance weak foot forward as it gives you more options and confidence.

My favourite move

Once you can go toe side it opens up my current favourite move which is a toe side carving turn into a on coming wave , sweep or even chop. This is so much fun. The foil accelerates so much through the turn and if you can switch the wing quickly and control the lift on the foil you really come flying out of the turn. Really fun. I have had a couple on bigger swells where I have not been able to keep the foil down and I have literally been launched out on the front of the swell to crash.

Gybing

Leaning to gybe on my weak side in a regular stance was a challenge. It requires some confidence. I initially tried by just before I turned jumping my feet into the toe side stance. This failed as I could never manage a smooth landing and the foil either breached or I came off foil. Then I figured out weight forward tends to work when on foil so I changed to bringing my back foot  up to very close to my front foot so for a fraction of a second both feet are pretty close together. Then quickly move your front foot back and you in a toe side stance and can easily make the turn.

Light winds

You can get going in pretty light winds, 10 knots maybe a bit less but kite foilers will be flying before you. So if you want to get on foil in the lightest winds then a kite is the answer.

If you have not tried and want a go I would still advise getting some time on a foil behind a boat first and then finding a demo day you can try the gear at.

See you on the water…..

Learn to Wing Foil in Brighton with Lagoon Watersports