Author Topic: Wing foil sessions - beginner  (Read 50920 times)

surfcowboy

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Re: Wing foil sessions - beginner
« Reply #150 on: June 20, 2022, 07:54:09 PM »
Glad you got started man! Keep us posted. Hopefully you pick it up faster than I did lol. 15 months to jibe consistently. Oof!

surfcowboy

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Re: Wing foil sessions - beginner
« Reply #151 on: July 09, 2022, 07:16:53 AM »
Update: 18 months or so later I did my first downwinger with 3 buddies (2 pairs of similar skill for safety.)

Launched at a local surf break (Leo) and headed south with a 5 mile goal. Struggled with kelp for way too long, should have gone outside but we're advised to stay in to ride waves (which were fun but I wasn't ready for both waves and DW yet.) So instead of my usual 5-10min or more on foil the kelp was keeping me to a minute or so. So frustrating but part of the curve.

Made it 3.5 mi and rested and decided that my buddy and I would cut it short and go in at the next safe beach. Good call and we got out stoked like teenagers laughing and high fiving among the tourists taking pictures on the beach.

Lessons, first, you can 100% learn to surf for miles in the open ocean with a wing. It's eye opening. That's the best part. Second, avoid kelp lol. Build your skills up so you can ride switch and jibe at a minimum and be ready for a butt kicking if you only ride lakes but over time you will adapt. I am now thinking that I may learn to surf open ocean swell before I learn in surf breaks since you can just roll downwind and power up when you need to and then ride another swell. Yes, bigmtn Bill, you were 100% right lol. But I wouldn't have thought of this since it's counter intuitive.

Safety? Do all the things people say, phone/radio, impact vest, helmet, buddy, float plan, etc.

Ok now, about swell. Our coast is angled mostly to the prevailing wind swell. So the waves were 1-3' at the beach, perfect knee to waist high. But 200yards out the swell running down the coast was waist to head high and so fast. When you get on one your front foot blows up underneath you (this was on an Axis 910b 1200cm2 or so) and you can put your foot down and just gooooooooooo. You start with your head like 8-10' in the wair and it feels like you are dropping forever and then you see your board barely above the surface and you pump a little or sheet in and start all over again. It's got to be the best way to see how DW riding works for any purpose.

Another weird thing is that you start out in what feels like crazy wind and then of course you turn downwind and it all goes silent and still as you start to match the wind speed. Then you want more.

Great experience overall, I'm ready to do it again, and it makes all the last year of learning so worthwhile. Love this sport. Today I hope to launch at the spot I mentioned in the first post of this thread. Run upwind to my fav surf spot, then DW back for a 4 mile round trip. What a journey this has been.

PonoBill

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Re: Wing foil sessions - beginner
« Reply #152 on: July 11, 2022, 07:03:02 AM »
Upwind/downwind is pretty much all I do with a foil in the Columbia. So much fun, and so much easier than just mowing once you're comfortable with the vagaries of swell. Eliminating the shuttle is liberating. I can do three or four 4-mile loops in less time than one shuttle 10-mile downwinder and focus on the best spots for swell riding. My sweet spot is from the hatchery to below the white salmon bridge. Much fewer windsurfers trying to see how close they can come, and not many kiters either. Most importantly, no beginner wingers at all--they tend to stay out of the channel after their first experience with high current.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

surfcowboy

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Re: Wing foil sessions - beginner
« Reply #153 on: August 29, 2022, 06:57:14 PM »
Wanted to update that I'm now jibing toeside (regular) and heelside (after riding toeside.) Making 80% of those jibes. Still working on foot switching but finding that switching to toeside is harder than switching to my regular stance so need to think about that. Might try adding front straps or maybe just visual cue (green tape.)

In the meantime I'm working on toeside switch jibes which would leave me switch toeside and that's likely an easy foot swap back to my regular stance.

Moved down to a 4'6" x 22.5" board at about 65 liters. Self-made and it's too floaty for the width and length but I'm making it work stnkbug style after 4 sessions and pretty much constant trolling from Hdip and BigMtn Bill, as long as the chop is under knee high.

 Got a 4'9" x 24" 70-75l-ish board for when the water is rough on the shaping stands. This will be my 6th home made foil board. Moving down from my 90-95l current daily driver. Need to start selling my old boards.

I rode 10.4 miles at the lake the other day. Several rides about 2 miles on foil without falling chasing my buddy around in solid high teens wind. Loving every session now.

Headed home for a week and taking a borrowed 6m wing to try and ride some mountain lakes in the Ozarks. Expect UFO reports.

Hdip

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Re: Wing foil sessions - beginner
« Reply #154 on: August 29, 2022, 08:54:58 PM »
Got a 4'9" x 24" 70-75l-ish board for when the water is rough on the shaping stands.

I don't think you should be having any water on the shaping stands. Let along rough water on the shaping stands.

surfcowboy

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Re: Wing foil sessions - beginner
« Reply #155 on: August 29, 2022, 10:13:10 PM »
It gets pretty hairy in that garage.

 


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