Sunday, September 22, 2019

I tried "WINGsurfing"

Yesterday I tried the latest wind-powered watersport- WINGsurfing -thanks to my buddy Greg letting me play with his 5.0 Duotone inflatable "wing". It was pretty easy to use with my 10'4 Angulo windsup with a center fin. We were able to jibe and tack and even sort of get planing in the ~15 kt winds.



The gps track is from my first run out, whereas the video is from my second run out. I think I was doing better in the video than on the GPS track.


It was harder when we tried it at another spot later on Greg's tiny 6'6 Jimmy Lewis hydrofoil board with a GoFoil Maliko 280 hydrofoil (not shown in the video, but GPS track posted). I did get some foiling runs, but had lots of awkward falls. The Maliko 280 foil wing floats so it turns the board on its side and makes it hard to remount. Weirdly, the Jimmy Lewis board seems to be set up with the presumption that you'll always ride with the same foot forward, contorting yourself when you change from port to starboard tack rather than switching your feet. The GoFoil Maliko 280 was super duper lifty and pretty slow, and I felt overpowered on it in the gusty 10-25 knot winds where we were riding.

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