Speaker A
In this first video, we're going to look at setting up the wing and building the basics of wind awareness and wing skills on the beach.
Learn wing foil basics: setup, wind awareness, handling, and power control on the beach before hitting the water.
Key Takeaways
- Proper wing setup and inflation are essential for safe and effective wing foiling.
- Soft grip and correct hand positioning improve wing control and reduce rolling.
- Building wind awareness and practicing basic movements on the beach prepares you for water use.
- Securing equipment on the beach prevents damage and loss in windy conditions.
- Understanding wing trim and power control is key to maneuvering and progressing in wing foiling.
Summary
- How to unbag, inflate, and set up the wing properly with leash and pump.
- Understanding wing anatomy: leading edge, trailing edge, canopy, center strut, power handles, and leash.
- Securing the wing on the beach to prevent it from blowing away.
- Basic handling skills including flipping the wing and identifying wind direction.
- Practicing neutral and powered positions to control the wing’s power.
- Transitioning hands from neutral handle to power handles for better control.
- Walking across the wind and feeling the wing’s power while maintaining soft grip.
- Techniques to prevent wing rolling and tips for resetting the wing.
- Learning to move towards and away from the wind to understand wing trim.
- Securing wing foil equipment on the beach including the board and wing.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Overview
- 00:32Inflating the Wing
- 00:53Sealing and Pumping Center Strut
- 01:21Wing Anatomy and Handles
- 02:12Securing the Wing on the Beach
- 02:38Basic Handling and Wind Awareness
- 03:00Flipping the Wing
- 03:21Neutral Position and Walking Across Wind
- 03:50Applying Power with One Hand
- 04:20Using Both Power Handles
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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By the end of this video, you'll be able to inflate the wing, set it up, walk back and forward across the wind, put power in the wing, and go towards and away from the wind.
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Once you've got all these skills, you'll be ready to get afloat and make the most of your time on the water.
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Once you've unbagged the wing, we're then going to connect it to the pump using the leash. From here, attach the nozzle into the inflation valve.
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Start pumping the wing up. Make sure that the wind is hitting the leading edge first and the rest of the wing is downwind of you.
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Follow the guidelines on the wing and you're looking to pump up to around six PSI.
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Once you've inflated the leading edge, you can then seal the valve and then start pumping up the center strut.
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Once your wing is fully inflated, you can then use the leash to connect to you and disconnect it from the pump.
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When you first come to the wing, we have the neutral handle. This sits on the leading edge of the wing, and we hold this so we can work out the wind direction.
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And also, we hold it when we're flagging the wing or we're trying to gain control.
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The leading edge is at the front of the wing, and it's important that the wind always hits this first.
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We also have the trailing edge at the back edge of the wing. Between the leading edge and the trailing edge is the canopy and also, so we can maneuver more easily, there are windows within the canopy.
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In the middle of the wing is the center strut which adds rigidity to the wing, and we hold the wing on the power handles.
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The most important part of the wing is the leash. It's connected to both the leading edge and also to our body, either via a waist leash or a wrist leash.
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It means that if we have any problems, we can release the wing and it won't blow away, but also helps us get back on the board and pull the wing back towards us when we're trying to maneuver.
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When leaving the wing on the beach, it's important to make sure it's secure. We can do this by leaving it upside down.
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Connecting it to an anchor point on the beach or using sand placed on the canopy to make sure it doesn't move.
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Always make sure the wind hits the leading edge first. Before we hit the water, you want to build a few skills with the wing.
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This helps build up both your wind and wing awareness. First of all, we look at basic handling and working out where the wind's coming from.
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Grab the neutral handle and lift the wing up with your back to the wind.
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The wing will fly in front of you. So to flip the wing, keep hold of the neutral handle and put your other hand on the bottom of the leading edge.
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Push the wing up and flip it over, spinning it around the neutral handle. Do this a few times to get a feeling for it.
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The higher you get the wing, the easier it is to flip. Always try and keep it as far from the water as you can.
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Walk across the wind. Always make sure the wind is hitting the leading edge of the wing.
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Walk towards the wing and see it keep flying. In this position, the wing will fly, but there's no power in the wing at all.
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It's in its neutral position. We use this when we're first getting on the board to help maneuver the board, but also in our basic turns.
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But even when we start to look at things like wave riding as well. To start with, we're going to keep one hand on the neutral handle.
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Draw the wing above your head and place your back hand on one of the rear power handles with just two fingers and gently pull in keeping your touch soft.
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You'll feel the wing fill with power. If in doubt, and if you feel overpowered, release the back hand and your wing will go back into the neutral position.
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Do this several times so you can feel how to pull the power on and release the power.
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With your front hand on the neutral handle, this will stop the wing from rolling, and we're just looking at applying power.
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However, when we're on the water, we're going to want both hands on the power handles.
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So that's what we'll look at next. So to move both hands onto the power handles, start with your hand on the neutral handle.
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Point towards where you want to go with your front hand. Now move that across your body and place it on the front power handle.
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Draw the wing above your head with an extended arm, keeping the leading edge directly above your head.
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Your head will be in your armpit. Now with your back hand, again with two fingers, gently and softly place your hand on the rear power handle and pull in the power gently.
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With the wing directly above your head, with both hands on the power handles, this is our starting position.
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This is the position we get up to our feet from. It's also the position we're in when we're overpowered, and it's also the position we go into when we're about to do a turn so we can check we're clear downwind.
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And from here you can return back to your neutral position by releasing your back hand and working your hands back to your neutral handle.
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Try this in both directions. To move with the wing, we have to move from our starting position into our powered position.
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So draw the wing into your starting position with the wing above your head. To move into a powered position, we drop our front elbow and look over our front shoulder.
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Make sure the wing is pointing towards where you want to go. As the wing drops, it powers up.
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Now start walking across the wind. The faster you move, the smoother the wing will feel.
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You're now walking in a powered position. This is the position we're in on the water to develop power and go faster.
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To stop and turn around, go back to your starting position. Here we can either return to the neutral handle spin and start again, or we can swap our hands from powered position to powered position.
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Remember when swapping our hands from power position or returning to a neutral hand, always release the rear hand first.
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The secret to good wing control is letting the wing fly. The skills you need to develop are holding the wing with a soft touch.
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Whilst you're working with the wing on the beach, see if you can get down to two fingers on each handle, and soft extended arms.
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Let the wing sit in position. If the wing starts to roll, it might be because you're gripping the wing too hard.
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So try and move back to this soft fingered two fingered position. If you keep finding the wing rolls, try switching your front hand to underhand, and this will give you a little bit more control over the wing and stop it from rolling the tips into the water.
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If the wing tips hit the ground when you're handling the wing on the beach or hit the water when you're out on the board, reset the wing above your head.
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Draw the leading edge back above your head and make sure it's the first thing that the wind hits.
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You can even release your back hand to reset the wing before you apply the power.
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The final skill we need to develop before hitting the water is being able to progress towards and away from the wind while we're on the beach.
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And getting a feel for how the wing trims in different points of sail or at different angles to the wind.
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So once you're comfortable in your powered position, walking across the wind, it's time to try and make progress towards the wind.
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Pick a goal towards the wind and move towards it. This time pulling in your back hand until you feel the wing is comfortable.
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If the wing is flapping, you need to pull it in a little bit more.
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A flappy wing is an unhappy wing. So we need to make sure the canopy is tight and air is going over the wing smoothly.
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Once all your equipment's set up, make sure it's secure on the beach. The wing should always be positioned downwind of the board.
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When using the wing surfboard, we can place the wing surfboard on top of the wing to help secure it.
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Make sure the leash is attached to the board. When going wing foiling, to secure the equipment on the beach, we should place the wing foil board upside down and make su
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Always make sure the wing is downwind of the board and the board is pointing directly into wind.
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We can also secure the wing separately to the board. If the wind swirly or it looks like the board might flip onto its side, this is often the best case.
Topics:wing foilwing foiling basicswing setupinflating wingwind awarenesswing handlingpower controlwing leashwing foil safetybeginner wing foil
