Hi,

My wife and I started windfoiling with the Blue/Green Gen1 NP Glide Foil series, then upgraded to the Red Gen2 versions. Happy enough.
Wy wife then moved to a Sabfoil windfoil 799/399. Very happy with that, she literally does thousands of km a year, small sails 3.7~5.3, 115L JP Freefoil.

So I decided to Wing a year or two ago and I bought a big 7'2" JP Wingfoil board and 3x Gen 2 Duotone Echo 4m, 5m2 and 6m2 Wings, made some carbon booms for them (there's some posts here with photos how I did that) and I enjoy them OK (better wings than Gen 1!). Bit of a handful when it's strong, but as a previous (and still!) keen Windsurfer, I really enjoy the boom. I even got myself a 5'4" 100L Konrad board (very light but quite fragile!).

Now, I am trying to get my wife into winging, but I do not want her to have a bad experience at the off. It needs to be "I can do this"...!

So, given I am likely to send her out on my current stuff, before I do (and make a mistake), is the current generation of foils, wings and to a lesser extent boards, likely to make her experience "so much" better or am I OK to just go for it with that stuff. The Echo has the disadvantage that the centre-strut sinks so it does make it harder at launch and other times.

cheers and TIA

k.

EDIT: My Carbon Booms for the Echo www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Wing-Foiling/Wind-Wings/New-Duotone-Echo-Wing?page=3

The main thing that I'd recommend is to buy newer wings. Get a Duotone Slick SLS 2022 or newer. There was a huge improvement in range and control from 2021 Slick to 2022 SLS. The 2023 Slick is even better as it's made from more durable material. Only very minor improvements in 2024 Slick.

sunsetsailboards said..

You know your wife best and what she can or can't (or won't) deal with.

Thanks to all for the food for thought!

Yeah on the WAF front, it's more that she has a lot (of time) invested in getting her windfoil setup to be plug and play (can rig and go in 15mins flat) and knows where to put the Sail Mast and Foil Mast, so this is more about me trying to get a jump start on "this is too hard, I'm going back to windfoiling" vs "this is actually really quite easy and a really fun experience".

Hi jksmurf,
While wanting to see people join the foiling cult, I'd firstly ask, What will your wife get out of winging, that she doesn't get from Windfoiling? Not saying she won't get anything out of it, and fwiw, I think it will be good to get her introduced to it, but in many ways, the longer time she spends windfoiling, the easier it will generally be for her to make the transition to the wing - if she eventually goes that way. Is there something with windfoiling that she can't master that she may be able to on the wing?
If she does decide to have a crack at it, put her on the big JP board. For all the learners I've taught, volume and size is generally your friend. It's rare that learners find a board 'too big'.
Her windfoil foil might not be ideal for her to learn with depending on how fast it is and aspect ration etc etc. You might want to put her on one of your foils?
The Echo's are very old tech. Given that she has windfoiling experience, I'd say she'll probably pick up good wing technique in literally 15 minutes. Us windsurfers adapt really well to wings. As for the Echo's a lot of us learned with them, but if you want her to have a better experience, the Units and Slicks are light years ahead. Even the Gen 1 slicks I'd say are way better. Maybe pick up a cheapie for yourself that she might be able to learn with?
I moved away from windsurf foiling because I'm too much of a muppet to gybe the setup and ride waves easily. Can gybe and ride waves dead easy on the wing. It's totally changed my sailing directions. Doubt I'll ever windfoil again. Windsurfing is very limited for me in comparison to winging, so winging is the go to.
Good luck to both of you. Hope it works out.

If she likes to ride swell, wingfoiling is HEAPS more fun.
I,m coming from wavesailing and windsurffoiling. Windsurf foiling is in general faster, but riding bumps and swells, even on bigger lakes is where wingfoil shines. In my experience, most wavesailors learn fly the 2th or 3th session. Windsurf foilers for sure the 2th time so the learning curve is steep. If getting quickly going is a thing, nobody can rig a sail as fast pumping up a wing.Gearwise: 2022 and younger make a big difference on foils and wings, the mid and high aspects making life a lot easier.If she is into sab, and likes the 799, the 945 is a very easy going frontwing that is excellent in riding bumps at a slow pace. She does need a shorther fuse as the windsurf ones and explore from there.

@Jeroensurf and @martyj4

Many thanks to you both !