According to Wyatt brand manager at Slingshot, wings are out selling kites in Hawaii 30 to 1. Just wondering what others are saying about sales vs other water sports products around the world?

And then there are people like me being sucked in who have never done a water sport of any discipline, see wing foiling and go I have to try that.
the simplicity compared to kiting got me in. I could never be bothered to deal with lines etc. and body dragging back to my board when I would eat it constantly while learning. With the wing attached to me, no lines, safety and being able to fly was a major draw card. Now trying to get all my other mates who don't do water sports involved.
only problem now is that I cannot get it out of my mind and concentrate at work, just want to be out all the time.

More demand drives prices UP!
I hardly wing, because of windfoil, and have 4.6,5.2, and 6.0 wings.

Being at ground zero of Wing Foiling here on Maui, 30:1 seems low. There was a confluence of factors last year. The island was shut down starting March due to COVID. People with no work to go to, but allowed to go to the beach. The traffic in the harbor slowed way down due to no cruise ships and less shipping all together. The visitors who usually buy the kite and windsurf gear weren't coming. The US government was giving away money like it was free. All our board shops were cleaned out! Any wing gear was gone in days. I had to buy my first wing board while it was still in the container on the boat. Used gear were going for 90% of new prices because nothing was in stock and everyone wanted to learn this new sport!

That's awesome man.

Grantmac said..
There seem to be quite a few people locally with no wind sport background at all who are learning winging. I think perhaps it's the perceived simplicity.

Perceived is the right word. All the videos I watched at the start were saying how easy wing foiling is and made it look so easy. Maybe if you have experience foiling or windsurfing it is. But as a newbie it was so much harder than I "perceived". When people ask me if it is easy I say no it ain't. It only becomes easy once it clicks but until then it is a lot of hard yards walking up the beach. I can see how some people would give up before they reach a relatively proficient stage and it becomes fun, I know I nearly did. So glad I didn't though.

Have you been to Narrabeen Lake in a NE'r? It's full of Wings! Last time I was out there would have been at least 15 out, which is a lot of windsports people for around here.

I think it's not the wing that is hard, it 's the foil. If you give a wing to anybody on snow, they will go back and forth almost immediately. So the approach with newbies should be to master the foil first.

From what I've noticed is those that have some foiling under their belt AND windsurfing (even if it was in the past) pick it up real quick. Coming from kiting only (and kite and foil proning etc) it took some time and it wasn't the foiling that was the issue. Few guys I learnt with found the same but the dude who had windsurfed was pulling into head high waves after three bloody sessions.

I feel like it's closer to kiting than windsurfing, but I don't kite. Coming from windfoil I didn't find just foiling along that hard including riding upwind with the wing vertical but the transitions are still impossible 12 sessions in. Carving with nothing to balance against is super difficult if you are used to windsurfing.

Oh definitely, people with a prone or SUP foil background seem to progress to winging no problem at all.
Me I fall all over the place pretty quickly if I don't have the wing to lean on but I'm getting better. Wish I'd been able to tow behind a boat though, I think that would shorten the process.

I'm old enough to have lived through several wind sport transitions; first the shift from one design and old school freestyle windsurfing to all things short board windsurfing (slalom, surf), then the whole "windsurfing has been cancelled" transition to kiteboarding around 1999-2000, then the novel, but somewhat modest pickup of kite foiling (it certainly did not overtake traditional kiteboarding), and now finally wingfoiling which has exploded faster than anyone would have guessed. I think even promoters like Ken and Robbie were surprised.

I remember seeing this early video of Alan Cadiz wingfoiling around July of 2019 (see attached). It was just flat water, but he was fast and smooth and tacking as easily as he jibed, all on a board that wasn't huge. I knew right then and there this I what I wanted to do and plunged in head first despite already being pretty committed to kite foiling.....and pretty old to be starting a new sport. Several of my kiteboarding friends here on the Outer Banks quickly followed suit. Haven't looked back since, though I still get out to kitefoil on occasion.

I kinda thought it would be fun to drive down to Real Watersports in Rodanthe here on the Outer Banks wearing a wingfoiling t-shirt with the caption "Triple-S has been cancelled,.....kiteboarding next?'" I'm not too sure Matt would appreciate it.......

I would highly recommend listening to the full interview of that clip here, www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Wing-Foiling/Wind-Wings/Full-interview-with-Wyatt-Miller---history-and-where-wing-foiling-may-be-headed-?page=1 some great insights.