Innehållsförteckning för Autumn 2022 från Foiling Magazine

Hey Xavi! So first, please give us a little overview of yourself. Where do you live, how old are you, and what are you currently riding? Hi! I have lived in Tarifa all my life, it's on the southern tip of Spain. I have just turned 15 years old and my current favorite setup in strong winds is the 36 liter AK Phaser, the 850 v2 Tracer, 80cm carbon mast, 260 stab tail and the 3 meter FreeWing Nitro. So you grew up in Tarifa… how is the wing scene out there? Yes, the wing scene is exploding here. I remember seeing one of the first wings here in Tarifa two years ago and it is just getting bigger and bigger. There are lots of pro riders in Tarifa so…

Hey David. So, tell us about your win… you must be pretty chuffed?! Yes, we’re thrilled. Our goal is to accelerate the shift towards cleaner, quieter waterways - and it’s good when a third party recognizes this potential. How many other submissions were there for this category? And what marked you out as the winner in the jury’s eyes? There were about 1500 entries for the awards in general apparently (glad we weren’t judges). The jury identified Fliteboard as a revolutionary water sports product with a surprisingly low energy consumption. This is due to our patented unibody fuselage design, integrating the motor in line with the front wing for optimum, efficiency, performance and stability, giving Fliteboard high sustainability potential. Were there multiple stages to get through before Fliteboard was announced…

The frontside 360 is a must have trick in your repertoire and one of the first rotations you will learn. Once you learn a frontside 360 you have entered a whole new level in wing foiling and you can start to amaze all the people on the beach with your first air rotation. For the best conditions you want a light to moderate wind, flat water or low level chop, and a wing somewhere around 3 to 4.5m. Using a smaller board will help you during the rotation but it will be harder to land the move than it will with a board which has enough volume to not sink underneath you. STEP 1: At first you have to ride in a crosswind direction with some fairly decent speed but…

LOCATION MAURITIUS DATE TUESDAY 17TH MAY, 2022 The stars and conditions seemed to align for Willow-River Tonkin and the rest of the CORE crew as they prepared for a photoshoot of the new CORE gear in Mauritius… But the swell wasn’t quite sure when to stop building… Growing up in Mauritius my whole life has taught me so many things. But one of the biggest lessons I have learnt is to respect the power of the ocean. After arriving home in Mauritius with not being able to get back here for over one and a half years, I knew that I wanted to spend as much of the season as possible here to score the biggest and best swells of the winter. I came to Mauritius with the entire CORE…

LOCATION PROKITE ALBY RONDINA, SICILY DATE SUNDAY JULY 24TH, 2022 We can’t deny that we spent some time looking up flights to Sicily after this piece from Alby Rondina dropped into our inbox. Read on… You’ll probably do the same. Sicilian summer weather is pretty amazing. Just like most days, this day I woke up and the water was glassy, like a mirror. I headed to the office to do some work and at around 10am I sat down with my mate Laci Kobulsky to plan out the rest of the day. A good-looking forecast for summer normally shows a nice northerly wind direction for the afternoon. With this direction the thermal effect kicks in, and it’s easily 5 to 10 knots windier than on the forecast. Just as predicted,…

RRD continues to build on their impressive range of modular cross discipline foils covering everything from entry level foils to down-winding and racing. The Blaze range sits on the performance end of the offerings – aimed at providing a high-performance mid-aspect foil primarily for in the waves but also with multi discipline use in mind. With a reduced thickness and chord (giving an AR 6.5) it's clear that the Blaze has been designed for speed and performance. RRD offers two ranges of masts (aluminum and carbon) in a range of sizes. For this test the 85cm aluminum mast was tested along with the 66cm fuselage and Blaze rear wing. The aluminum mast is 18mm thick and despite a slightly higher weight, one thing for certain when testing this setup was…

Last issue we had Gaastra’s second iteration of the Poison on test – this has more of a focus on the wave sector of the market. This time round we had the Cross – the do-it-all wing in Gaastra’s line up. A year is a long time in the world of winging as we know, and the new Cross has rolled with the times and there are several new and well considered features in evidence. The Cross, as with the Poison, makes use of a new Dacron from Dimension in the leading edge and in the strut. As in the world of ‘kite’ construction, a huge area of competition now is in the world of materials, with the key terms of ‘stiff’ and 'light' being at the fore. With this…

2022 heralds the second iteration of North’s Nova wing. It’s no secret that North have access to some ground-breaking design and materials resources as a subsidiary of the North Technology Group, which incorporates North Sails, a long-term colossus in the sailing industry, as well as North Windsurfing. We were eager to see what they would come up with, with wing foiling expanding and developing so rapidly as a sport. From our observations it certainly feels like an almost ground-up rebuild from the previous model, and the most significant update that you’ll immediately notice is the change to the rigid handle system. These are low diameter in comparison to the competition and wrapped in a textured EVA grip to make them extremely comfortable in the hand. They also span widely across…

One of the few remaining established kitesurf brands to throw their hat in the wing ring, CORE have purposely been keeping their powder dry, watching and waiting and all the while honing their own wing foil line-up. Well, the time has come, and they’ve just released a full wing foil package complete with wing, board and foil… Hello team. It’s great to see you join the fun, coming out of the gate with a robust and good looking wing foil package. Firstly, the XC. What exactly does XC stand for, and who’s the designer? In other categories, XC usually stands for Cross Country, which implies a wide a range of use under the most diverse conditions. This is exactly what we had in mind for our first wing. We didn’t…

The Vayu AURA certainly falls off the tongue nicely, and it definitely looks the business… But what’s under the hood of Vayu’s brand-new wing? We got in touch with Vayu chief Philip Horn to find out more… Hey Philip. So… the Aura. Tell us where it sits in your current wing range… Yes, we have two different wing models now, the VVING V2 and the AURA. The AURA is the freerider / wave-specific wing, and the VVING V2 is the freerider / freestyler wing. Your strut design is quite unique in the market, talk us through the ideas behind those graceful contours? We worked a lot on the middle strut and how you can position your hands and still have enough room and a comfortable grip. So we tested different…

Three new pieces of kit land from the SABFoil camp, all given the Balz Müller stamp of approval, as you can see here… Hi team. So starting with the new Full Carbon Kraken Plate, tell us what’s the main reason a rider would choose this plate over the standard version? Hi guys! Well, the reasons are quite simple in the end: the Full Carbon Kraken Plate is more than 200g lighter (30% less weight) while keeping the same strength of the aluminum version. In the end you will have an overall mast system 10% lighter and a full carbon premium product to show to your friends! How hard was it to engineer the part from carbon rather than aluminum? It took a while to engineer the carbon version of the…

A new pro version of a PWR-Foil e-foil landed just before we went to print. We dropped the team in France a quick line to get the full news… Hey PWR team. So tell us first, what makes the Pro Carbon a Pro? Hi Foiling Magazine! Well what makes it a pro is the new slimmed down shape, the new dimensions and the use of the carbon biax which allowed us to make it about 30% lighter. Our machine is very powerful, so for beginners this weight difference might not be that interesting. But for someone with a few hours of flying experience, this difference is sensational in terms of maneuverability and playability. Can you tell us what goes into building a board like this? To build such a board,…

Incoming from North is a new light wind version of their popular Nova wing. We had a chat with North Wing Designer Dano See to find out exactly what’s given it the LW stamp… So there’s a new Nova coming… the light wind version! Tell us why this one is being introduced to the range… You know those days when the forecast has been good all week, but you get to the spot and the breeze still hasn’t come in? When you’re pushed for time, and just want to get on the water? The Nova Light Wind was created to be a super powerful wing with the bottom end grunt to get you up on foil and keep you there as long as possible, through the zero knot lulls. It…

Bryan Metcalf-Perez – windsurfer, wing foiler, prone foiler, videographer, photographer, ski driver, skin diver, and super charger – put the miles in before he became good at any of those exploits. Here he relates the specific revelation that was foiling… and why it’s particularly smart to listen to the less impulsive side of your brain when choosing what to ride. As a young whippersnapper, age seven, I remember driving from Santa Fe, New Mexico to San Diego California to visit my auntie. As the miles slowly ticked down, the high desert behind and the great ocean blue ahead, the countdown to my very first surfboard was on! After 23 road runners, 99 tumble weeds, one million cacti, the paper Road Atlas promised that we would arrive, eventually. Forced into daydreaming…

RIDER Tom Court LOCATION The Needles, Isle of Wight PHOTOGRAPHER Sam Scadgell Tom: Every time I go home to the Isle of Wight after a trip, it always amazes me the epic sessions that we get here. Riding my wing has opened up new missions on lighter wind days and there is nothing quite like the backdrop of the white cliffs of the Isle of Wight. So, with a light breeze and a wind against tide situation on the Solent, I headed out towards The Needles to score a session with my father and my friend Sam Scadgell snapping the shots. After attempting to wing foil around the island last season, failing due to light wind and short daylight hours, it is always on my mind to train the different…

I had arranged to meet Ross Williams at Yaverland, our local beach on the Isle of Wight for a day of wing shooting back in April 2022. I knew it was going to be windy but had no idea it would be gusting over 40 knots. When we arrived at the spot, the sea was all whitecaps and looking wild and I was not sure Ross would even be able to get up on the wing. My plan was to shoot from the water. It did not look so appealing. 40 knots and ice-cold water. I would be wearing a 5/3 with hood and boots. Ross was confident he could get going so it was game on. Luckily, I checked my camera as I was going in the water… I…

RIDER ROBERTA SULLINI WEAPON ELEVEIGHT WFS V3 RIDER HEIGHT 173CM RIDER WEIGHT 62KG My preferred size for freestyle is the 4m. It has for me the perfect balance between power and maneuverability. The 5m is great for down the line riding in waves. I can use the wing in nearly no wind and pump easily into some waves. The small 3m works for me when we have more than 25 knots. It's like I don't have a wing in my hand. Very light but powerful. Like the Eleveight kites, the ripstop is a 4 x 4 weave called X4. The ripstop is very durable and has less stretch in all directions which results in a very stable and responsive wing. The leading edge is made from an extreme high tenacity…

LOCATION FLORIDA DATE THURSDAY 16TH JUNE, 2022 It’s a pretty universal trait amongst wave riders that, when a friend visits from out of town, you want them to know just how good your neck of the woods can be. However, trying to match Paul Cooper’s home breaks in Oahu with the patchy reliability of Florida’s east coast could have been a stretch. Except it wasn’t. Not this time at least… Brian Finch This was the first day the NE winds took a break after a week of battering our beaches. I had my buddy Paul Cooper from Oahu in town for a few days and the conditions were far less than I had bragged about! However, this morning was clean and pumping for North Florida, some sets were overhead and…

Appletree have been quietly conquering the foiling sports market in the last 12 months, with their boards seeming to manifest themselves ubiquitously in all corners of the globe on social media. Their Portuguese manufacturing facility has been running at full steam throughout spring and summer, and they’re expanding capacity as we speak. It’s great to see a brand with firm European roots grow and establish themselves. The Appleslice V2 is quite a departure in design terms from the first version’s squarer outline, and its adoption of a more traditional combination of surf and boat hull inspired shapes are very indicative of the wing board market rapidly maturing. We’re presented with a board with far more of a traditional nose shape which almost edges more towards their prone range, maximizing its…

The Freedom Foil Boards (FFB) Fusion board is one of the latest additions to the FFB lineup. Designed to bridge the gap between surfing and foiling, the Fusion has a longer, narrower outline with the wide point forward of center, near the shoulder of the board. Tapering back to a round tail, the Fusion is capable of handling large open face carves, and big boosts off the lip. With a variety of sizes ranging from 4’/28L to 5’/41L, there is a board for almost every rider. The attention to detail from the FFB team is apparent right out of the box, all packaging is plastic free and carefully thought out to mitigate the chance of any shipping damage. Fresh out the box the Fusion has a noticeable gap in the…

The Slingshot Phantasm PTM series is the next generation of the high-aspect Phantasm foil kit. Three different front wing sizes will cover any riding condition and any skill level. The smallest 825 foil will be great for riders looking for top end speed, the medium 930 foil will offer a balance between top speed and glide, and for riders looking for the most lift and glide, the 1001 will be up to the task. Slingshot’s new G series front wings are compatible with the Phantasm system and offer a different feel than the high aspect PTM series foils. The G series foils are a lower aspect ratio than the PTM front wings which will provide a bit more range and stability at the cost of some top end speed. The…

Two exciting new arrivals from Unifoil to cover this issue, the first products emerging from their new department dedicated solely toward wing foil fun… Hey team. So, two new products from Unifoil… can you give us a quick overview? The Hyper² and the Pinion Wind Wing are the first products to be released from our newly established Wind Division, which was formed in response to the huge growth we have seen in wing foiling. Historically, we have been perceived mainly as a surf foil company, with a focus on prone and tow-foiling, but we have had a great response from wingers for our products, especially the race and freestyle guys. These two products are made specifically to satisfy the needs of the winging market, so we are super excited to…

We just thought that the new FLYSURFER MOJO had been on a bit of diet. Turns out it hadn’t… it was their new and nimble Pure Edition model. It was time to find out what had been removed and why… So team… what’s pure about the Pure Edition MOJO? It’s the MOJO effect! The MOJO Pure Edition is a lighter version of our classic MOJO and stripped down to the necessities. We have removed the viewing windows and two handles next to the nose, this means we reduced the weight and improved the balance of the product. What drove your decision to strip the MOJO back to basics? We listened carefully to our customer’s needs and expanded our wing product range. We now offer two different wings they can choose…

New gear ahoy from the RRD camp once again, with a new inflatable board, new foil wings, and their nifty new Quicklock plate. We got in touch with International Marketing and Team Manager Matteo Guazzoni to find out all about it… Hey Matteo. So firstly, what makes the Air Beluga Pro a pro? The Air Beluga Pro is developed for advanced riders. We call it PRO because of its shape and sizes which are quite unique for being an inflatable board. I don’t think there are other brands pitching such small inflatable boards, but if you think about it, the smaller the inflatable board is, the better it works as we were able to reach more stiffness due to the reduced size. More stiffness equals more performance and that is…

Joining the WILF in the AFS wing line up is the new WILD. But exactly how wild is the WILD? We found out from the AFS team… FRESH ARRIVALS Hey Guys. We like the look of the WILD. Talk us through the new addition… Hey Foiling Mag! Thanks, we are really proud of this new product. The WILD is the new generation of AFS wings. They are among our most successful product developments in terms of design and performance to date. We took a lot of time to think about the new design of this wing, but our priority was to focus on how to provide maximum stiffness and therefore power for a race / freestyle practice. To do this, we first developed a stiffer profile structure, and each wing…

Hi Philippe. Another beautiful film! Congrats. Although we took a clue from the bus shelter sign at the start, please tell us where the filming took place and when? The film was shot in Marseille, France. This is where I live. We have a lot of iconic French locations in my city, so we decided to use one of them for the film, but it was shot over an eight-month period, so the beginning of the film was shot in the winter. When I got in my car in the morning for the day of the shoot, it was minus two degrees Celsius… Were there many of you involved in the production side of things? There were four of us who put together this little film. Thomas Di Giovanni is…

The famous lake of Silvaplana was where the GWA parked itself for stop two on the tour, and with afternoon thermals it was the prime location for both Surf-Freestyle and Surf-Slalom disciplines. Over 60 riders registered for the event and a new spot on the tour, the event saw new champions up on the podium. Paula Novotna (CZE) managed to grab her first tour win in Switzerland. Again she was facing Nia Suardiaz (ESP) but from start to finish Novotna put on show-stopping performances that were too much to handle. It was a close final between the pair with Paula Scoring 21.8 with Nia just short on 19. Here you can see Paula mid trick showing great height Young gun Christopher MacDonald (USA) was dialing in his tricks throughout the…

01 FFB HALCYON 1030 FOIL KIT Freedom Foil Board’s full carbon Halcyon 1030 Foil kit is designed to offer riders plenty of low-end lift while being dynamic and responsive in flight. The Halcyon 1030 is a great option for those looking to step into the world of higher aspect foils and want a stable yet progressive foil. 02 FLITEBOARD CE IMPACT VEST Fliteboard rider and big wave warrior Glyn Ovens says that Fliteboard’s new personal flotation device (PFD) is the best he’s ever worn. For someone who regularly finds himself on the business side of Nazaré bombs, that’s advice you can trust. It’s also got great Batman vibes. 03 FANATIC SKY AIR PREMIUM As inflatable boards go, they don’t get much plusher than Fanatic’s travel-friendly Sky Air in its premium…

Firstly Ivan, give us an overview of SPG. How did it all begin, and who started it all… SPG was born in 2013 by a group of riders, designers and shapers that were passionate to create a performance brand that had an authentic family ethos and would also become a global platform for other shapers, athletes and designers to expose their hidden art to the sports world. At the helm was myself and family, who, apart from designing boards for over 40 years, personally also came from a professional sports and media production background, with roots in both South Africa and Hawaii, two perfect destinations for innovating new gear and operating logistics on a global scale. Nicki Carstens, former world champion athlete headed up board design, while Michael Oxley and…

William Bill Hansen is one of the pioneers when it comes to developing and conceptualizing new and advanced designs in watersports. It all started for Bill with a love for all things flying. As a child, he built small airplanes and spent much of his time making things fly. As Bill Hansen's life progressed, it became apparent that it wasn't just his childhood interest. He got his pilot's license when he was just 16 years old, saving up the money with his job as a newspaper delivery boy. He never lost his interest in aerodynamics, specializing in applied physics in college and sailing on the team for his school at the time. Applied physics and especially aerodynamics then brought Bill to Berkeley University, where he graduated a few years later……

LOCATION CAMPS BAY DATE SATURDAY 9TH JULY, 2022 A change of scene took Dylan Wichmann out of his usual close-to-home haunts to some of Cape Town’s other unique wave spots. Despite a few miscalculations with the conditions (and one needy puppy), nothing was going to stall the adventure… Zac and I had been planning to shoot Camps Bay for a while. We had been doing so much shooting at Muizenberg that we wanted to try to mix things up a bit more and have a bit of a change of scenery. Cape Town has so many different spots, all with very unique setups, and we wanted to slowly start ticking off some of the spots where we think there is potential to get some different kinds of content. I woke…

Naish has released the latest iteration of their Wing-Surfer, the MK4. Designed as an “all round” freeride wing, the MK4 is a do-it-all workhorse capable of optimizing low end power, rigidity, and twist to create the ideal sheet-in-and-go power delivery. With a larger diameter leading edge and strut supporting the airframe, the Wing-Surfer MK4 is perfect for riders looking for one wing to handle all conditions and all styles. The MK4 kit includes a high-quality large storage bag, coil leash with a triple Velcro connection identical to a standard surfboard leash, and a pump hose adapter. The bag has ample space for the wing, pump, and additional accessories like wetsuits, towels, etc. The one-pump inflation system uses a SureLock valve which requires an adapter for your pump. This adapter connects…

KT’s Wing Drifter is a foilboard designed to be a light, forgiving, and extremely stable board that’ll get you going with minimal effort and minimal input. It is reactive, and as we discovered, provides a truly next level winging experience. The range comes in thirteen sizes from 4'4 (34L) to 6'4 (160 L) – one of the largest quivers any brand has ever provided for a wing board. This variety of sizes allows anyone from a child to an adult, or a beginner to an expert to have access to the amazing features that are quickly realized in this board. For this test we took out the 5’0/72 liter board. I’m 186cm, and 85kgs. The Wing Drifter is built in an ultralight, super rigid EPS/carbon sandwich construction with a reinforced…

It’s a mark of how far foiling has come in the last four years, when popular brands such as Armstrong start revisiting their first release beginner-oriented CF range for a comprehensive second iteration tune up. Armstrong’s ingenious modular A+ system has been in place for over a year now with elegant drag free connection points with the integrated fuse, and all M6 titanium fixings keeping things super tight, corrosion free and lightweight. As standard in its foil set package, the CF V2 system comes with a 700mm titanium fuse, 100mm longer than the standard, and a CF300 V2 tail. This revised tail is quite a carbon sculpture and has a lot of curvature across its span, with a deep anhedral dip in the center and an opposite dihedral flick into…

The natural next step for Freedom Foil Boards was to produce foils to pair up with their established board range. Well, that rubicon just got crossed with the Halcyon and Phoenix. We spoke with FFB Founder Chris Sayer to find out all about the two new members of the family… Morning Chris. Firstly, you’re primarily known for your excellent boards, and this is Freedom’s first move into actual foils. What spurred the move? Appreciate that! As a board builder there was never a bigger compliment than hearing from someone “I didn’t think boards matter, until I rode a Freedom Board.” Whether it’s design features or high-end materials, our goal has always been to build boards that create a unique connection to your foil. Although our attention has been concentrated on…

A new inflatable range of BOOM boards from Levitaz has hit the shops. Product Manager Michael Zeilinger talked us through the range, and simultaneously handed us an interesting German saying which has already become an office favorite… Read on. Morning Michael. So talk to us about the main challenges of developing an inflatable wing board? Well, it is a completely different technology. It was obvious that we at Levitaz, as a specialist in composite manufacturing, couldn't produce the inflatables in our factories. Therefore, one of our most important objectives was to enable this project with a reliable industry partner and a solid supply chain. We were working on that project for quite a while to make sure that we can offer the inflatable boards in the best quality paired with…

AXIS recently dropped their new ‘Pump and Glide’ (PNG) 1310 carbon wing, which went a little viral in the foil community when it was seen being pumped for a whopping 17 minutes around a bay in New Zealand. We got in touch with AXIS HQ… Hello team. So firstly – talk us through the PNG1310, how it came about, and its primary positioning… As a direct result of our successful new Power Carbon and Power Carbon High Modulus mast family testing, we saw the potential to finally truly benefit from and take advantage of larger span wings. How better to test the potential of a mast than subject it to the forces a wing this size can generate? In-house the PNG1310 was designated the Pumping Machine, and it has certainly…

Some Xtra special goodness from Starboard as they drop a new wing race board into the scene. Starboard’s Chief Innovator Svein Rasmussen filled us in on the details… Hi Svein. Tell us what led you to create a new high performance wing foil race board with the Xtra? Coming from watersports like windsurfing and paddleboarding, we understand the need for special equipment tailored for maximum speed and control, not only to enjoy the feel of going fast, but also to pass your friends on the course and win races. Talk to us about what you’ve done to make the Xtra such a speedy weapon? The Xtra’s performance comes from the sum of all its parts. The sharp rails allow for immediate release, while the lower rocker helps to pump the…

RIDER FACTS AGE: 19 HEIGHT: 1.82M / 5’9 WEIGHT: 76KG SPONSORS: OCEAN RODEO, LEVITAZ HYDROFOILS, FORWARD WIP COMPETITIVE FOIL DISCIPLINES: SURF-SLALOM AND SURF-FREESTYLE BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT TO DATE: 1ST RACE WORLD CUP, TARIFA 2022 EUROPEAN RACE CHAMPION Hello Mathis! Tell us where you’re at right now, and when was the last time you were in the water? Hello! I’m now in Guadeloupe for a wing and surf trip, and the last time I was in the water was a few hours ago in Le Moule! So how long have you been riding professionally? I’ve been winging professionally for a year and a half now, but before that I was involved in Olympic class windsurfing, in the RSX and then the IQFoil disciplines. Tell us about your journey to being a pro…

+ I don’t like to talk about my feelings generally, but the feelings I get while foiling I can talk about for days with my friends. Usually using my hands a lot to demonstrate! Every session in the ocean I get all these waves and remember every little detail from the session. It’s so easy to get into a flow state and just let your mind and body take over. Foiling lives in the sub conscience. We are literally flying. I talk to my skydive friends about this all the time. When we are flying angles in the air, we are using our whole body as a wing just like a foil through the water. It’s a perfect comparison. I love the feelings you get while doing both. Life is…