Sorry if this topic has been done to death but here is a summary of what's great about Wingfoiling when coming from another water sport:

Winging is a relatively new sport that combines elements from windsurfing, kitesurfing, and surfing. While some will label it as the latest trend, wingfoiling stands out by incorporating aspects from these established water sports while offering distinct advantages.

Wingfoiling's appeal lies in its simplicity. Unlike windsurfing, there's no need for a heavy rig, and controlling the lightweight inflatable wing is intuitive, making it accessible to newcomers. Additionally, the compact and easily transportable nature of the equipment sets it apart from the bulkier windsurfing gear.

One notable advantage of wingfoiling is its freedom from kite-related complexities. Unlike kitesurfing, there are no lines to manage, reducing the risk of entanglements and accidents. Moreover, the absence of a large kite overhead simplifies launches and landings, enhancing safety.

From a wave surfing perspective, wingfoiling offers an array of conditions to explore, including the excitement of riding waves without the crowded lineup (and grumpy locals). If there's no ground swell at your local, wind swells can be ridden similar to a proper wave. By connecting wind swells the foiler can sustain long rides with the wing completely depowered. The ability to depower the wing allows the wingfoiler to turn frontside and backside similar to a surfer.

In my opinion, wingfoiling is not just a fleeting trend but a unique water sport that draws from its predecessors while offering its own set of advantages. Similar to the other sports mentioned, wingfoiling provides another fun way to connect with the water's energy.

TooMuchEpoxy said..
I duno I'm a pretty good winger and I got into MTB a year ago and I don't really wing anymore.and I live in a pretty great winging place and a pretty garbage MTB place.

MTB is just RELIABLE. I never get skunked. I go and rip and do my jumps and go home. Wing and prone are always a maybe. Maybe wind, maybe waves, maybe tide, maybe gear.

disposable wings are the worst part of the sport. My MTB cost $1500 and it just lasts forever and the whole sport is figured out and I'm on my 3rd wing quiver and they're all pieces of ****.
I mean winging is better than surfing for sure(god surfing is the worst!) but mountain biking is awesome.

Also, this is # 1, I can MTB with my kid(7 years old). She can rip the bike park while I jump around and it's great. It'll be YEARS before she's surfing, winging, prone.

finally, the beach SUCKS. All the a holes and rich people who live there with all their money and rules and parking sucks and people suck and you travel and you don't know where to go or how the tides work there and people are extra territorial (ducking surfers). God I travel with the bike and all the trails are on an app and the people are so nice and it's all in the middle of nowhere so nobody cares.

But when you come off, you fall in the water, not hit the ground.

Over the years I have steadily reduced all my activities that require travel. I am guessing there's 5-10:1 ratio between the time and effort of driving (and occasionally flying) around to do stuff. Surfing, skiing, paragliding and MTB have all been dropped off for essentially the same reason, too much time and effort and money spent on getting to the right (or wrong) place and finding conditions that were crap/fantastic/crowded/whatever.

Windsurfing was ok, especially when I lived across the road from the beach for several years. Kiteboarding was very good and the little bit of travel I did was not too bad. Kite foiling is off the scale fantastic in terms of constant sessions with minimal effort, all of them more or less on my doorstep.

Wing foiling fills some of the gaps from kite foiling. Crowded beaches, squalls and sub-optimal wind directions are no longer an issue.

The one thing wing foiling does give is a much closer relationship with waves. Tiny little bay rollers are endless fun. Big bay wind swell is awesome, and all of it at my usual local bay site.

I did a heap of MTB from the 90's through post 2010's, mostly as an adjunct to paragliding. I never hurt myself but I always found the concept of "nude motocross" to be fundamentally flawed.

There's also the issue of water sports vs everything else. I hate getting all sweaty and grimy and all the potential risks of doing those things. I can happily take getting bashed around in the sea and always be cool and clean and comfortable. Excellent wetsuits have extended the season so I can be warm and toasty through the Melbourne winter.

That's another plus for wingdings. Just stopping and sitting on your board and relaxing or chatting to crew makes for a refreshing mid-session break. That's not something that happens with kite sports. With surfing it's a necessary evil to sit in the lineup, but you're also sizing up the competition for the next wave. That sucks, especially when the local hero from the mal club takes all the waves.

>finally, the beach SUCKS. All the a holes and rich people who live there with all their money and rules and parking sucks and people suck and you travel and you don't know where to go or how the tides work there and people are extra territorial (ducking surfers).

Wow :-) I agree. Them tides! They don't know whether they come or go, effing wan$ers! :-)

I am a big fan of snowboarding. The holy grail of snowboarding is riding in fresh powder. Such a treat! But it is rare (at least in Europe). You have to go out after a heavy snowfall and get out very early before the slopes get skied-out (no complaints again, the tranquility of it, the colours of the sky and the rising sun on the slopes (and no tides!)... But what gets me though is AVALANCHES - you just never know when they decide to feck things up for everyone. Ridiculous! :-)

With wingfoiling you get that fresh powder feeling immediately and it is never ending and "the piste" never gets skied-out. As for the views... Ok, the Alps are beautiful but cruising on lakes and around islands is quite something.Wingfoiling makes it all very accessible.

As for cost... Anything that floats is expensive. Compared to running cost of owning a decent boat, wingfoiling is really in the "cheap thrills" category. Plus all the health benefits. I know a guy who took up wingfoiling in his late 70s after he gave up most sports due to his bad knee.

boardsurfr said..

Ken767 said..
Sorry if this topic has been done to death but here is a summary of what's great about Wingfoiling when coming from another water sport:

Winging is a relatively new sport that combines elements from windsurfing, kitesurfing, and surfing. While some will label it as the latest trend, wingfoiling stands out by incorporating aspects from these established water sports while offering distinct advantages.

Wingfoiling's appeal lies in its simplicity. Unlike windsurfing, there's no need for a heavy rig, and controlling the lightweight inflatable wing is intuitive, making it accessible to newcomers. Additionally, the compact and easily transportable nature of the equipment sets it apart from the bulkier windsurfing gear.

One notable advantage of wingfoiling is its freedom from kite-related complexities. Unlike kitesurfing, there are no lines to manage, reducing the risk of entanglements and accidents. Moreover, the absence of a large kite overhead simplifies launches and landings, enhancing safety.

From a wave surfing perspective, wingfoiling offers an array of conditions to explore, including the excitement of riding waves without the crowded lineup (and grumpy locals). If there's no ground swell at your local, wind swells can be ridden similar to a proper wave. By connecting wind swells the foiler can sustain long rides with the wing completely depowered. The ability to depower the wing allows the wingfoiler to turn frontside and backside similar to a surfer.

In my opinion, wingfoiling is not just a fleeting trend but a unique water sport that draws from its predecessors while offering its own set of advantages. Similar to the other sports mentioned, wingfoiling provides another fun way to connect with the water's energy.

Nice summary. Part of the attraction is the magic of flying above the water on a foil, and for many (but not all), winging makes this easier than the other water sports.

JohnnyDepp said..
Plus all the health benefits. I know a guy who took up wingfoiling in his late 70s after he gave up most sports due to his bad knee.

Funny thing about the knees. I am currently in my second regression in winging. The first one was when I switched to a smaller board, the second is from switching to a higher aspect foil. I had a pretty good dry (but not foiled through) jibe rate on my first big board, and that went to 99% wet when going smaller. Just when I was having a bit success on the smaller board, switching foils set me back to more than 95% wet again. All those starts after crashes seems to have affected my knees, which are now both hurting (in quite different ways). But when dealing with chop on a windsurfer, there would be 2 or 3 joints that complained quite frequently and at least as loud. At least with winging, there is hope that once I get the jibe dialed in properly, starts will become rare, and the associated pain will go away. And as slow and frustrating as learning to foil through a jibe maybe for me right now, progress is still at least 10 times faster than learning to plane through a windsurf jibes (and perhaps 50 or 100 times faster).

Look up patella femoral pain, could be this, I started getting it in my dominant lead leg knee (natural stance). I used the mcconnell strapping technique to really diagnose that that's what it was as the strapping really helped. Anyway I have taught myself to really concentrate on using my glutes when doing my pop ups and its helped massively to petty much eliminate the pain.

I'm in my 40s and recently picked up inline skating on the ramp/bowl/skate park in general. It's the weirdest thing to put it in words, but learning to drop in on inline skates, pump on the ramp/vert was a profound experience that affected every other sport. The amount of full body control/awareness, weight distribution/balance, momentum carry-overs and other nuances required to do basic ramp/vert on inline skates is not comparable with any other sport I've done. Once I got the basics of ramp/vert stuff, I've noticed a significant improvement in every other sport, be it foiling, mtb or road biking cornering.
None of you will probably listen/take it seriously but I wish I knew this 30 years ago...

Could not corner like this before (around 7m mark):

Gorgo said..
Over the years I have steadily reduced all my activities that require travel.

Ah ah, same here...
Last year I filled my gas tank only ... 3 times.

SilverFoilSurfer said..
I'm in my 40s and recently picked up inline skating on the ramp/bowl/skate park in general. It's the weirdest thing to put it in words, but learning to drop in on inline skates, pump on the ramp/vert was a profound experience that affected every other sport. The amount of full body control/awareness, weight distribution/balance, momentum carry-overs and other nuances required to do basic ramp/vert on inline skates is not comparable with any other sport I've done. Once I got the basics of ramp/vert stuff, I've noticed a significant improvement in every other sport, be it foiling, mtb or road biking cornering.
None of you will probably listen/take it seriously but I wish I knew this 30 years ago...

Could not corner like this before (around 7m mark):

Nice video. thought I was watching a TDF decent ;)

marc5 said..
Interesting quote this week from FB wingfoiling page:

"Wingfoiling is what we wanted windsurfing to be." A lot to be said for this. I windsurfed for 40 years before discovering wingfoiling.

Living in Melbourne this is definitely the case for me too. 30 years of watching epic windsurfing in Maui, WA and the Canaries then schlepping it out in the bay where you are lucky to get an Ok session a week and only a handful of good sessions a year. Or face the 3-6 hour return trip to the coast for a 50/50 chance of a good wave sail once a month.

Winged 8 out of the last 10 days 15 minutes from home, all great fun and the season has barely started!

Yeah it's great fun and seems to have come along at just the right time. Gobs of late to middle aged men bored with kites and windsurfing and no shortage of cash. Reasonably cheap anyway, at least compared to my brothers catamaran

I do find myself getting a little bored sometimes carving endless turns going downwind, only to rip back upwind and repeat. At least I don't have to drive back upwind. Poor me...

What do you suppose is next?

broVan said..

SilverFoilSurfer said..
I'm in my 40s and recently picked up inline skating on the ramp/bowl/skate park in general. It's the weirdest thing to put ...

I am with you on the skating transitions/ramps/park, except I skate, not RB. I built a 5' x 15' "mini"ramp in my backyard. Best thing I have done in years, especially since I have 3 kids who play on it constantly. Skating to me is like MTB to others. Its reliable and I can do it almost everyday. The feels I get from pumping transitions directly correlates to pumping foils. I am 48 and just got back into skating after 25 year break. On days when the wind is **** for winging, I find myself packing up early and racing home to skate my ramp. I have been foiling for 10 years, kite, sup then wing and now DW. Foiling has so many different applications, one can do it everyday if motivated. I used to call it winging. Now I call it foiling. I am past the honeymoon period of winging as I have been at it since 2018. I live in the mountains/desert and foil all winter. It compliments skiing nicely. When a storm approaches I foil the frontal wind and then ski pow and then foil the clearing wind. I am currently frothing on the adventure aspect of DW foiling. This is something that I don't really get from winging. We are all funhogs. It's interesting to hear everyone's stories. I really appreciate how safe and low impact foiling is on my aging body. Send it!!!!

Yeah, ramp/vert training is one of the best things I've discovered, learning every session, as long as we don't get badly hurt... (wearing all possible protection)

akesy said..
Nah, i've been wingfoiling for a couple of years now and i am already bored, i already feel i'm mowing the lawn: lately i went for a WF, a few runs, a few downwinds surfing the bay swell, a few jumps, some tacks here and there, and 1 hour later i was done, happy for some water time, salt on my face and some of the bay swell i was able to make the most of but nothing memorable, the session was forgotten an hour later.

I still remember and i'm still trothing about my last WS session i had 4 months ago: the feeling of carving on the wave face, hitting the lip into an aerial, laying it out into a full rail bottom turn ... gives me goose bumps just thinking about it. And i am not talking about that back loop i landed years ago, still can picture it. These days, i dream of prone surfing, taking off and carving on a long wave face, i dream of late take off into a tube, even if just for 3 seconds... These 3 seconds will be more intense than the next 365 days of wingfoiling.

Don't get me wrong, love wing foiling in the bay, surfing that bay swell and making the most of conditions that do not offer much to beginning with... but it won't replace WS or Surfing, it doesn't have the same intensity and connection to the power of the wave.

Long live rail to rail surfing

What is it about prone, whether waves or swell that trumps other wind water sports? Is it just the freedom of nothing in your hands and the ability to go heel or toeside at will with no impediment or the purity of surfing the wave/swell with no assistance? All I know is that it is addictive.

I reckon the dud session rate for windsurfing is waaay higher than winging due to days with not enough wind

It only depends on what YOU have the most fun doing.