Looking for any suggestions / game plans to help me get into this sport. I want to pick this up as a competitive outlet and want to train with the specific intention of competing in races eventually. Would love to spend this whole season taking lessons, learning, practicing with local groups, etc and by next season I want to be participating in local races - even if I'm finishing last every race at first.
I have wakeboarding and advanced snow skiing experience but no wind sport or foil experience. I live in Southern California by the ocean. Seems like there's a big community in Long Beach.
What are your tips for everything I should be doing this year? I plan to take lessons for my first 10-20 sessions and then will look to get my own gear.
Where should I go from there? How to progress towards racing from lessons, anything I can be doing to advance on non water days, etc.
Almost certainly getting ahead of myself, but do you think it's worth taking lessons at a local sail racing school once I have a certain level of proficiency on the foil to understand wind dynamics, course racing strategy, etc since I have no wind sport experience?
Thank y'all! Any tips are welcome. I'm a big planner so just trying to develop a strategy of how to progress the quickest this next year.
Racing can be your goal and motivation, but don't worry about that until you are much farther along. You need to focus on the basics. Riding, staying upwind, gybes, tacks, foot switches, etc... There's no reason you can't (and shouldn't) be racing within your first year of riding, so long as you have consistent enough conditions and access to be practicing often.
10-20 lessons is definitely overkill (and expensive). 5 lessons should be plenty with your background. Take 2-3 lessons, but then practice on your own for a while and spread the rest of your lessons out so you can use them whenever you hit a plateau. Tag along with better riders as much as you can - these sessions are almost like free lessons. Don't overprogram - learn by doing.
Make sure you learn both your natural and unnatural stances. As soon as you learn something one direction, learn it the other direction (easier said than done and advice I could take to heart).
Is there even a good racing scene in your area? Racing is a niche aspect of the sport in most of the US.
You must have an extremely competitive spirit to want to learn one of the hardest time consuming sports in order to race. I have a hard time trying not to compare myself with others that started the same time as me that are learning to tack while I can't nail my gybes yet. No judgement bro but gotta ask - what is your motivation? I think you may need to have a try first & realise there's way more to this sport to unpack than going fast.
Go to a windy place that has flat water, gear rental and lessons. Stay there for a month (or as long as you can afford to).
well, you are lucky(ish). competitive wing racing is just 6 hours north in the SF Bay. The St Francis Yacht Club runs a summer race series (one race per month), plus there are several other annual races here like the Bay Classic, Bridge to Bridge, etc... and perhaps the Cal Cup series will continue this year out of Berkeley.
Don't think there's much of a race scene in LA/OC/SD area... a guy I know drives up for all the races (windsurf foiling).
You can be as serious or not serious as you want... lots of recreational racers plus a good crew of die hards.
One of the best things about foiling for me is that unlikey other pursuits it ISN'T competitive. Nothing can suck the fun out of an activity like trying to measure it.
