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Now we've built some basic skills on the water, it's time to take our first flights.
Learn essential wing foiling skills from launching safely to advanced maneuvers in this beginner-friendly guide by Freewing World.
Key Takeaways
- Safe launching and landing procedures are critical to protect equipment and ensure a smooth session.
- Maintaining a loose grip and proper wing positioning helps in controlling the wing and board effectively.
- Mastering foot and hand transfers is essential for performing tacks, jibes, and powered turns.
- Building board speed and proper weight distribution are key to achieving and sustaining foil flight.
- Consistent practice of body positioning and looking through turns improves overall wing foiling skills.
Summary
- Introduction to first flights on foil boards including safe launching and initial rises out of the water.
- Guidance on carrying and handling foiling equipment on the beach to avoid damage.
- Techniques for getting on the board, positioning the wing, and maintaining stability.
- Instructions on sailing across the wind, stopping, and basic tacking maneuvers.
- Explanation of powered turns, including powered jibes and tacks, with foot and wing transfers.
- Steps to build board speed and achieve initial foil lift with proper body and wing positioning.
- Tips on controlling ride height and maintaining balance during sustained flights.
- Advice on common challenges such as board rolling and wing contact, and how to avoid them.
- Detailed footwork and hand positioning for smooth transitions and maneuvers.
- Emphasis on looking ahead and body positioning to improve control and maneuverability.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to First Flights and Safe Launching
- 00:39Handling and Carrying Foiling Equipment
- 01:18Getting on the Board and Wing Positioning
- 02:08Basic Sailing and Stopping Techniques
- 02:56Basic Tack and Powered Turns
- 03:58Powered Jibe and Tack Maneuvers
- 05:10Achieving First Foil Lift and Initial Flight
- 09:49Controlling Ride Height and Sustained Flight
- 15:30Advanced Maneuvers and Footwork
- 19:35Common Challenges and Tips for Improvement
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
We'll look at launching safely with the foil boards, and then from there, getting our first rises out of the water.
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Once you've got those first flights, we'll look at sustained flights and controlling our ride height.
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We can then start looking at going upwind and downwind, and also progressing towards those transitions.
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When carrying foiling equipment on the beach, we need to be careful of both the foil and the wing itself.
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And we need to keep them as far apart as possible. So when launching your foiling equipment, make sure your wing is downwind of you.
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Hold on to the neutral handle, place your foil board on its side, and grab hold of the handle on the bottom of the board.
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Walk into the water, keeping the wing downwind of you and holding onto that bottom handle.
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Walk out as deep as you can, at least chest depth. That way the foil should stay clear.
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At this stage, climb onto your board. Leave the wing flapping and paddle your way out even further.
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Give yourself the maximum amount of space you need to be able to get the wing flying and get up to your knees or feet and keep the foil clear of the bottom.
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When returning to shore, drop down to your knees, paddle in a little further, and get off your board early downwind of it.
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Keeping the wing downwind of you. At this stage, grab the center handle on the bottom of the board and walk out of the water, making sure the wing and the foil stay as far apart as possible.
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Secure these on the beach and then you can relax, remove your leash, and that's the end of your session.
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It's normally when people are landing that they have the biggest risk of their foil and wing making contact.
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So let people land before you launch. While you're on the beach, you're in a more secure position and you're less likely to damage your equipment.
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Whether we're learning to wing from scratch on a foil board or transferring our skills so we can learn to foil, we need to learn some basics first so we then progress towards foiling.
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So when getting on the board, approach the board from the opposite side to the wing.
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As the board has lower volume, we need to pull the wing towards us and pull our body onto the board.
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When grabbing the wing, we use it for stability. Lean on the leading edge when holding the neutral handle.
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This will help anchor you in place and give you more stability, so you can maneuver yourself on the board.
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Before you move off, you need to make sure you're across the wind. Drag the wing to the back of the board and the nose of the board will turn towards the wind.
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Drag the wing towards the nose of the board and the nose of the board will turn away from the wind.
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Bring the wing back into the middle of the board. Make sure the leading edge of the wing is parallel with the rail of the board.
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You are now across the wind. From here, lift the wing up and move your front hand across onto the power handle.
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Draw the wing over your head and place your back hand on the rear power handle with just two fingers pulling in gently.
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Keep the wing above your head. This is your starting position. Keep looking ahead. Bring your front foot up, placing it on the centerline of the board.
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Once your front foot's up, bring your back foot up. With a wide stance, keep both feet down the centerline of the board.
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Look over your front shoulder to drop the wing into a powered position. And to help maintain your sailing line, look slightly upwind.
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We should now be sailing across the wind. When moving across the wind, it's important that we let the wing sit and we don't pull against it.
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Keep a loose grip on each handle. Your fingers and your weight should be soft.
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Arms should be extended. Let the wing sit in position. When you're ready to stop, release the back hand and place your hand back on the neutral handle.
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Keeping your knees bent and your weight over the centerline. With one hand on the leading edge and one hand on the neutral handle, push the wing over the nose of the board.
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Move your feet and turn your shoulders to always keep them opposite the wing. Keep moving it round until the wing is parallel with the rail again on the new side.
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We can move our hands back onto the power handles, looking across the wind and get into our starting position and look over our front shoulder and drop the wing into a power position and move off.
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We can also do a basic tack on our foiling board. This time put your front hand on the leading edge and now drive the wing over the back of the board.
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The nose of the board will turn towards the wind. Move your feet and move your shoulders so they always stay opposite the leading edge of the wing.
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Now look towards where you want to go and move your front hand back onto the front power handle.
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Draw the wing above your head and again, gently place your back hand on the rear power handle pulling in softly with two fingers.
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As we get more comfortable on the board, we can start to look at more powered turns.
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These powered turns more directly transfer to our foiling turns. Powered turns look at steering in and steering out of the maneuver.
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And rather than going to the neutral handle, transferring our hands to the power handles.
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To do a powered jibe, steer the board away from the wind until you're directly downwind.
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Here you can move your feet. To move the wing, release the back hand and move it to the front handle.
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We can then flip the wing and move our new back hand to the back handle.
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Finishing off your footwork and coming back out across the wind. To do the powered tack we need to steer the board all the way through the eye of the wind.
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We're then going to transfer the wing above our head and change the feet. There are two skills to learn here.
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One is the wing transfer and the other is the foot change. Steer the board towards the wind.
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Keep pulling the wing backwards and pull in hard with the back hand to drive the nose of the board through the wind.
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Once the nose of the board has gone through the wind, release the back hand, drive the wing up and forwards through the front hand, transferring your old back hand onto the front handle.
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Place your new back hand on the back power handle. Keep the wing high until you're settled.
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Now drop the wing back into a powered position. Keep the wing forward to complete the turn.
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The foot change. As you steer into the tack, weight the back foot to help it turn.
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Push across the board with the back foot to make sure you drive the nose all the way through the wind.
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As you do the wing transfer, shift your weight quickly onto the front foot, bring your back foot up and replace your front foot, keeping your weight over the centerline.
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Reestablish your stance, staying low. This wing transfer is exactly the same as we do it when we're foiling.
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We can also do the same foot change when we're foiling, or we can go into the tack having already transferred our feet.
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To first get on the foil, we need to build up enough board speed. To do this, we need enough wind to get us on the foil.
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And we need to change the angle of the board. When you see a good gust of wind, we're now going to keep the board flat and steer the board away from the wind.
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Bend your front leg to keep the board flat. Look away from the wind. As the board turns downwind and with your weight forward, the board will start to accelerate.
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As you first come up out of the water, look upwind, keep the back arm extended, and keep the wing above you.
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We're looking to stay planted on top of the centerline of the board with the wing above us.
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So the wing, you, and the board and foil all come out of the water the same amount.
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If you want to stop, shift your weight forward again, ease out with the back hand, and it'll bring the foil back on to the water.
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Some common challenges tend to happen when you first come out of the water. Often the board rolls towards the wing or we end up lying on top of the wing itself.
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This often happens when we go too far downwind. So make sure
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Sometimes we feel like we've got enough power, but the board doesn't want to come out of the water.
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This is often where we're stalling the board and we've got too much weight on the back foot.
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So for your first flights keep the weight forwards. You can do this by having a wide stance, a bent front leg, and keeping your weight over the center line.
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The wider your feet, the better your weight transfer. You'll get more control over the foil, but also better trim of the board.
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As we move past those first flights, we're going to look at sustaining flight. Here we're going to build some board speed and maintain a ride height.
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Once you're up on the foil, look ahead. And if you want more power, look over your front shoulder.
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Keep the wing stable. Keep the fingers soft. And here we can shift our weight back and forward to control the foil.
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For less lift or at more speed, push your weight over your front foot and this'll bring the board lower on the foil.
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For more lift or at lower speed, extend your back leg and drive through the foil to create more lift.
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If you're overpowered, bring the wing above your head with your head in your armpit.
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If you're looking for more power, look over your front shoulder and drop the wing lower into a more powered position.
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All the time, keep your weight over the centerline of the board. Always using your head to spot gusts, but also control your angle.
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Once we're sustaining flights, we can start looking at heading towards and away from the wind.
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So to head up wind, make sure you're powered, look well over your front shoulder and well up wind.
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Start to apply a little bit of heel pressure, and this is where we're going to start to pull in with the backhand.
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Make sure the wing doesn't flap and pull in, keeping the wing tight to your body.
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To go downwind on the foil, we look downwind, keep the wing high and ease out with the back hand.
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Here we need to stay dead on top of the foil. The wing will feel lighter in your hands.
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And there's a risk that we could accelerate into the wing. So stay dead on top of the board.
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Look downwind, keep the wing high and ease out with the back hand. We can start to get the board out the water earlier and earlier.
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Here we're going to use the skills of wing and board pumping. Pull gently in with the back hand, extending the front arm and move the wing in an oval.
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An effective pump is with a quiet wing so the canopy doesn't flap. As you pull in the back hand, keep extending the front arm forward and towards the wind, opening the wing each time and repeating the action to generate power.
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We're still going to take off at the same angles. Look across the wind and pick your gust and we're going to start to pump the wing.
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As the board starts to come out the water, press down through your back leg hard and keep the wing above your head to finally release it from the water.
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Drive the wing forward whilst pulling with the back hand, moving it in an oval, moving the wing faster and faster as the board accelerates.
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To pump the board, seesaw the board pushing down on your back foot and then leveling the board out with your front foot.
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If we're underpowered, we can keep pumping the board or keep pumping the wing. Sometimes we can do both of these together to generate more lift and more speed.
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Every time you pump the wing or pump the board, make sure you flatten the board off again.
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After every pump you need to let the board accelerate. If we just push down through the back foot we'll either stall the foil, or we'll drive it out the water.
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To gybe we need to accelerate. But as we accelerate, we need to control our ride height on the foil.
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So this is where your weight needs to go forward. Sink your weight low and pull the back hand in, looking downwind and driving the wing forward.
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As you do this, shift your weight forward and look through the turn. When the wing goes light, release the back hand and keep the wing high.
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Move your old back hand onto the new front handle, then place your new back hand on the back power handle to ride out switch.
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We can either continue to go out switch or change our feet. Keep the wing high and keep your weight over the board.
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Push off with your back foot, shifting your weight onto your front foot. Drop the wing back into a powered position and off you go.
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The more speed you can take into the jybe, the easier the wing is to handle.
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So to take speed in and stay in control, keep your weight forward, drive the wing forwards and extend your front arm.
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The higher you keep the wing, the less likely you are to run it over.
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So when you release your back hand, hold the wing above your head. Make sure the leading edge is still being hit by the wind first.
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Keep looking through the turn. Looking through the turn is the key to keeping the maneuver going.
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The easiest way to learn to go switch is do it coming out of a jybe.
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It's easier to be switch going deeper downwind, but over time you'll be able to come closer and closer to the wind.
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And even ride up wind as a key skill when moving on to smaller boards.
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To go switch, once you've come round the turn keep the wing high. As you pull the power on with the back hand, try and turn your body away from the wing.
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The more you can separate your hips and your shoulders from the power in the wing, the better you'll be able to resist it.
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Push your knees over your toes, try and look upwind, look away from the wing.
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Remember the board still controls the same way. If you've got too much lift, your weight needs to go forward.
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And if you need more lift your weight needs to come back. With your back hand apply power softly.
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This will stop you getting pulled over by the wing. To get out of the switch position, we can either change our feet by bringing the wing up, like we did in our jybe, or we can simply gybe out
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and back round to our normal position. To gybe out look slightly downwind, bring the wing high and release the back hand.
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You can then turn underneath the wing and do a nice tight turn and put the back hand on to regain power.
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Whether it's for tacks, jybes or freestyle, foot changing is a key skill. And being able to go from one side to switch or back from switch to normal riding is absolutely critical to progress on the foil.
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The key to this is how you move your weight and how we shift our weight and then switch our feet.
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When riding along, we give a little push down through the back foot to rise us up on the foil.
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Then as we go to change the feet, weight your front foot heavily. This will release the weight off your back foot, which you then bring forward, and then bring your front foot back.
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The other top tip here is you need to create room on the centerline for your feet to change.
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So twist your front foot slightly so it points forward. That means as you bring your back foot forward, it will slot onto the centerline.
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All the time during a foot change we need to be planted on top of the board, and to do this wing position is key.
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Bring the wing up and bring it over your head so that the wing, you and the board are all directly on top of the foil rather than angled to one side.
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If you're using straps, to make things easier take your back foot out first. This way you've got one less foot to move out of the foot strap during that foot change.
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As you progress, you'll find that you can go quickly from strap to strap.
Topics:wing foilingfoil boardwing foil beginnersfoil launchingwing handlingpowered turnsfoiling techniquesfoil ridingwing foiling safetyfootwork wing foil
