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Now we've built some wing skills on the land, it's time to get on the water.
Learn wing surfing basics including launching, landing, turning, and self-rescue techniques in this beginner-friendly guide.
Key Takeaways
- Proper leash placement and equipment handling are crucial for safe launching and landing.
- Mastering basic turns and maintaining the wing across the wind are foundational skills.
- Positioning on the board affects steering and stability; standing in the back third helps track upwind.
- Self-rescue techniques enable safe return to shore in various wind conditions.
- Zigzagging is necessary to make progress upwind before advancing to foiling.
Summary
- Introduction to wing surfing and transitioning from land to water practice.
- How to safely launch and land your wing and board, including leash placement and handling equipment.
- Techniques for self-rescue using the wing and board in different wind conditions.
- How to position yourself and the wing to sail across the wind effectively.
- Step-by-step instructions for basic turns: jibe and tack, including hand and foot positioning.
- Guidance on standing up on the board and maintaining balance while controlling the wing.
- Explanation of the board's pivot point and how wing position affects steering direction.
- Strategies for sailing upwind by zigzagging and resetting your course.
- Preparation tips for progressing from wing surfing to wing foiling.
- Footwork and hand transitions for advanced wing handling.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Preparing to Enter the Water
- 00:37Leash Placement and Entering the Water Safely
- 01:21Landing and Securing Equipment
- 01:53Self-Rescue Techniques
- 02:27Starting Across the Wind and Basic Controls
- 03:07Kneeling Position and Basic Turns
- 04:08Standing Up and Maintaining Balance
- 06:37Turning Techniques: Jibe and Tack
- 08:56Board Dynamics and Steering Principles
- 10:46Sailing Upwind and Preparing for Foiling
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
In this video, we're going to look at wing surfing, how to launch and land safely, how to leave your kit securely on shore, and then when you get on the water, how to go back and forward across the wind.
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Starting on your knees with a basic turn and looking at self-rescue, we'll then progress on to your feet, put the turns in, and make sure we've got all the skills we need to then progress onto the foil later on.
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To make entering the water easier, if you're wearing a wrist leash, wear it on your downwind wrist.
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If you're wearing a waist leash, make sure that the leash is free and clear and the wing is flagging downwind of you holding onto the neutral handle.
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Have the board upwind of you. We can either carry the board by the center fin, if we're not using the center fin then we can use the center handle on the board itself.
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As you enter the water, keep the wing downwind of you. Walk in until you're at least waist deep.
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You can now climb onto the board from the opposite side to the wing, get into your starting position, and move off.
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When returning to shore, be careful of your depth. Drop down to your knees early before you hit the shoreline.
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Get off your board downwind but keep the wing downwind of you. As you come into the shallows, either pick the board up by the center handle or center fin, or even the carry strap.
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Keep the wing held by the neutral handle downwind of you as you bring it out of the water.
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Once you're out of the water, secure your equipment. And that's the end of your session.
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We can rescue ourselves in a few different ways on wing equipment. The simplest is to paddle the board and let the wing flap freely behind us.
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It's effective over short distances, and it could be a good way of launching or landing back on the beach.
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However, if we want to travel upwind for a sizable distance, it's better to have the wing in a more efficient position.
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Point the board towards the wind and bring the wing over your feet, clamping the center struts between your two feet.
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Make sure the leading edge is pointing into the wind. Now, with the wing out of the water, we can paddle more efficiently towards the wind and make better ground back towards the wind.
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If you're on the water in a cross-shore location or even an onshore location, this can be a good way of starting a session.
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Go upwind first. That way, if you drift downwind, you're always coming back to safety.
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Approach the board from the opposite side to the wing and climb onto the board.
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Using the leash, pull the wing towards you and get your weight over the centerline of the board and grab the neutral handle.
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Here, we need to make sure we're across the wind. With one hand on the neutral handle and the other hand on the leading edge, push the wing towards the back of the board and the board will turn towards the wind.
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Swap your hands over and push the wing towards the front of the board, and the board will turn away from the wind.
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When the leading edge of the wing is parallel with the board, you're across the wind.
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This is our starting point. Take your front hand and move it across your body and place it on the front power handle.
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Release your other hand and draw the wing above your head and place your back hand gently on the rear power handle.
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Make sure your knees are at 45 degrees. Keep the wing high and look towards where you want to go.
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You are now kneeling across the wind. To stop, let go of your back hand.
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You're now ready to turn. To perform your first basic turn, we're going to do a jybe.
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Place one hand on the neutral handle and your rear hand on the leading edge.
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Push the wing over the nose of the board and the board will turn away from the wind.
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Keeping your knees and your shoulders opposite the leading edge, move your body opposite the wing as you continue to move it across the nose of the board.
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Once the board's turned through 180 degrees, and the leading edge of the wing is parallel to the rail, your turn is complete.
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From here, look towards where you want to go again. Take your front hand off, move it across your body and onto the front power handle.
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Bring the wing above your head and place your back hand onto the rear power handle.
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You can change your position on the board depending on where you want to go.
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If you're going downwind too quickly, move back on the board behind the foot straps, and this will help you maintain your position across the wind.
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Remember to turn, we always return to the neutral handle and we can push the wing over the nose of the board, but we can also push the wing over the tail of the board.
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Over the nose of the board, this is a jybe, a faster turn that takes us away from the wind.
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Over the tail of the board, this is a tack, a slower turn, but it does keep us towards the wind.
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Every time you set off, make sure you're always going across the wind. When you stand up, you're aiming to get your feet down the centerline of the board as much as possible.
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It's also really important to stand in the back third of the board to keep us tracking across the wind or slightly upwind.
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To stand up, keep the wing above your head. Look forward. Stand up with your front foot first, then your back foot.
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Keep your stance wide and as soon as you're standing, look ahead and keep your knees flexed.
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To power up the wing, look over your front shoulder. This will drop the wing into position, keep the fingers soft and make sure the front of the wing is pointing forwards.
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To stop, let go of your back hand and return to the neutral position. In your neutral position, place your warm hand on the leading edge whilst keeping the other hand on the neutral handle.
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Push the wing over the nose of the board. Just like you did on your knees, move your feet and keep your shoulders and your feet opposite the leading edge of the wing.
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Keep pushing the wing over the nose of the board until the leading edge is parallel with the rail again.
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You've now turned through 180 degrees and you're pointing back across the wind in the other direction.
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From this position, swap your hands over, move your new front hand onto the power handle, draw the wing above your head into your starting position.
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And once comfortable, look over your front shoulder, power up the wing and move off.
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A tack is a turn where the board turns towards the wind. It's a little bit slower, but it keeps us closer to the wind, which is always an advantage when we're on the water.
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So from your neutral position, place your front hand on the leading edge of the wing, keeping your back hand on the neutral handle.
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Push the wing over the back of the board, moving your feet and turning your shoulders to always keep it opposite the leading edge of the wing, until the wing is parallel with the rail on the new side of the board.
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The board will have turned through 180 degrees. Then look where you want to go and get back into your starting position.
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Look over your front shoulder and move off in your powered position. Where you stand on the board is critical to maintaining your sailing line.
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If you're stood too far forwards, the board will steer downwind. If you're stood too far back, the board will swing and steer towards the wind.
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There's a pivot point in the middle of the board and this is normally just behind where the center fin is.
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A third of the way along the wing is our deep point. This is the center of effort of the wing.
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This is where all the pull comes from. This needs to stay above the pivot point in the board to keep it going in a straight line.
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This pivot point is called our center of lateral resistance. If the wing's forward of that pivot point, we'll head downwind; if it's behind, we'll steer upwind.
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So to steer, we can move the wing forward and backward across the board. But every time we steer towards where we want to go, we need to bring that wing back into that central position.
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To steer towards the wind, look slightly towards the wind, lean the wing back, extending the back arm and sh
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The nose of the board will turn towards the wind. To steer away from the wind, keep your weight low and lean the wing forwards and towards the wind.
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With the wing leant forward, you'll steer away from the wind. Once you're heading slightly downwind, return the wing into the middle position and ease out with your back hand.
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Once you've got the hang of steering, we can use this to make progress towards and progress away from the wind.
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To make progress towards the wind, we have to zig zag up wind. We can't go straight towards it.
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We can only sail 45 degrees off the wind. So we'd steer to a new goal point a little bit closer to the wind.
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Hold that course. And after we've made some progress put a turn in. If we're looking to keep going towards the wind, that turn would be a tack.
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We can then reset, steer upwind again, sail another diagonal towards the wind and put another turn in.
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We keep zigzagging up wind untill eventually we reach our upwind goal. To go downwind, We can do something similar.
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We can steer slightly off the wind and sail a line downwind jybing as we go, zigzagging our way downwind.
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Before we progress onto foiling, whatever board we're using, we need to be able to sail it towards the wind.
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That way, when we go out on the water, we can have the best time and stay safe.
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With our new skill of steering, we can start to incorporate this into our turns.
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So if we're jybing we can steer away from the wind before we transition to the neutral handle and then swing the wing over the nose of the board.
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As we feel more comfortable with this, we can move our hands either onto the neutral handle or try and move them from power handle to power handle as we transfer our feet.
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This is the same skill we'll use when we're foiling. When we're going towards the wind, we can steer into our tack by leaning the rig back, continuing to steer the board towards the wind, before transferring onto our neutral handle and completing the tack.
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Over time, we can start to work our footwork and transfer our hands from power handle to power handle.
Topics:wing surfingwing foilingbeginner guidewater sportsself-rescuelaunching and landingjibetackupwind sailingboard control
