Hello all. Windsurfer for over 20 years and am toying with learning to wingfoil. Where I sail is on a bay so is a bit choppy to start with and then the prevailing wind is a Westerly which is always gusty. Base wind 10 knots the gusts will be 20. These conditions are tricky on the windsurfer and I was wondering if a wingfoil would handle these conditions any better. We have a couple of wingfoilers in the area and they seem to get out on the water a lot more than I can.
Yes I think wingfoiling handles gusty up and down conditions better than any other windsport. In the low end you can pump the board and wing to get going without much power. In the top end you can depower the wing really well. You can either sheet out to depower or you can complete flag out the wing and kill all the power.
You can also adjust the foil, board and wing size ratio for the conditions. For instance if I had a day with low average wind and strong gusts I would use a bigger board or foil and smaller hand wing.Giving good reliability and low end from the board/foil and still plenty of top end from the smaller hand wing.
another good reason to try foiling is all the choppy bay waves that are annoying when windsurfing become a super fun skate park on the foil. For windsurfing in the waves you need proper waves whereas with wingfoiling any bumps or rolling swell can be a lot of fun.
You describe my local conditions, although I'd rather be wave windsurfing in smooth air, where I am winging is far more pleasant and exciting.
I say go for it.
I just came back from Corpus Christi where there were plenty of windsurfers and wingers to observe. Wind is offshore at BIB so it tends to be gusty. Wingers were generally foiling the entire time (except perhaps for beginners). Windsurfers had plenty of fun since the water is flat and shallow, but quite often where waiting for gusts, or going in to change sail sizes. We rarely used our windsurf gear, and were mostly wingfoiling. One wing size can cover about the same range as 3 windsurf sail sizes, once you've learned how to pump and wing fully powered (which is a lot easier to learn with a wing than with a sail).
Wing foiling wins in gusty crap wind.
When I windfoiled, I found the weight and drive of the sail into the board directly, complicates the foil balance and trimming.
The hand wing not being connected to the foilboard is a huge advantage.
All that sounds good. Thanks for the replies. I wanted to use something in the lighter conditions because I can always get the windsurf gear out when the wind is up. I was a bit concerned about the ribbon weed getting caught in the foil (I always use weed fins) but the weed probably won't be much of an issue in the lighter conditions because it is not being stirred up as much. The windfoilers I ride with don't seem to have much of a problem most of the time.
Select to expand quoteRumChaser said..
All that sounds good. Thanks for the replies. I wanted to use something in the lighter conditions because I can always get the windsurf gear out when the wind is up. I was a bit concerned about the ribbon weed getting caught in the foil (I always use weed fins) but the weed probably won't be much of an issue in the lighter conditions because it is not being stirred up as much. The windfoilers I ride with don't seem to have much of a problem most of the time.
Seaweed is the Devil!!!
If you were having issues with seaweed when windsurfing it will be way worse when foiling. Also light winds and seaweed are the worst, you work so hard to get up then seaweed drags you down. If there's already plenty of foilers at your spot then the seaweed is probably quite manageable but you will definitely learn to hate seaweed with a new passion once you start foiling.
