Numerous months of failures and struggling to get up in bumpy swell and chop. The struggle is so well worth it!
It was most definitely a self humbling experience going from flat water wing foiling, to entering the sea at Moffat Beach on the Sunshine Coast. Fellow wing foilers, most told of similar experiences of how their journey humbled them. First becoming proficient at wing foiling on safe flat water. Completing gybes and tacks with the occasional foot switch thrown in as a skill bonus. After months of enjoyable flying at Golden Beach it was time to start playing with the big boys of foiling. I was most definitely nervous and anxious the first time but i felt i was ready and able. I got this!

Seriously, was I wrong! The swell and chop was another dimension of wing foiling...I had no idea. This was difficult. The walk of shame had re-entered my life once more. I watched vicariously with envy and admiration, the other wing foilers, who so effortlessly paddled from the beach, proceeded to get up on foil on first attempts, and subsequently fly into the on coming waves, swell, and chop. Wow, they looked good doing it!

After several months of failures I finally cracked the code. I still get a little anxious and nervous, sometimes even fearful of the ocean and its raw power. But man o man, the sensation of merging with the wind, waves, ocean and sun...the experience is cathartic. It changes you from the inside. There are few moments in this world that connect on various levels of being. Wing foiling on the ocean is phenomenal. Seeing turtles, fish, bird life, the rocky headland cliffs of Moffat beach. All while disappearing in between the troughs and riding high on the tops of...what seem like mountains of seawater...is an experience like noting else.

On flat water I am a foiling God, in the real world of the ocean I am just another piece of flotsam.

Definitely relate to this Dorothy. I dip my toes in the open ocean and it is usually a humbling experience, with me dropping from being a ok winger on flat water to being the worst winger out there. Despite this I feel I am making progress in the rough. I think it's important not to gauge yourself against others, some people develop their skills quickly whereas others (like me) are slower to learn. As long as you're improving, that's enough

I had wave kited and kite foiled for many years before starting winging. I learnt to wing in flat water and it was fun but I wasn't feeling any big advantages over kiting. When I first got out in the bumps and waves and got some flagged out rides on swells that's when I really got hooked on winging .

I still have so much fun just upwind/ downwind riding bumps and waves, it just doesn't seem to get old

Yup sounds awesome - moffats is somewhere I am trying to progress toward. I've sat on the hill up near the paragliding launch and watched frothing on the dudes flagging the wing, riding the swell in, then powering the wing back up and riding out back. Wing foiling is like hunting in the wild. The only thing I can compare it to is kiteboarding in big surf, but that was fast. Foiling feels more like a dance. I am almost there. It is a synergy of equipment, experience and being ready for the right conditions. Have fun and see you out there

Thanks for sharing. As a very slow learner married to a very quick learner, I've been quite frustrated even on flat water, needing hundreds of sessions to get my jibes mostly dry and halfway decent. Then we traveled to Western Australia, and my usual option to sail away from the bumps towards flat water disappeared, making me feel like a beginner again. So your post (and many of the comments) are encouraging. A big plus that limits my current frustration is the perfectly warm, clear, and uncrowded water, and being surrounded by flying fish while flying above the water is simply fascinating.