Innehållsförteckning för Winter 2022 från Foiling Magazine

Hey Erika. So talk us through that day. Where were you riding, and how was it looking out there? Is this a regular spot that you visit? I was at bayfront park on Anna Maria Island Florida. It’s one of my favorite spots for NE and east winds. It was a very windy day for us, 25mph winds with stronger gusts and beautiful swells churning up the water to be very cloudy. I was excited because it was windy enough for me to use my small fast foil and a 4.5m wing. Our winds have been very light this year, so I’m normally flying a 6m wing and my biggest high aspect foil. The sun was shining but it was cold day, in the 50’s. I was wearing my 3mm…

At the time of the year these shots were taken it is pretty much the end of the southerly season in Tahiti, and a week before this I’d seen something there that looked like they could be the perfect conditions to get barreled with my foil. I’d been waiting a long time for it – there were a couple of occasions it had shown up previously but there were just too many people in the water, and I didn’t want to hurt anyone. But luckily, towards the end of the season there are not too many surfers out there, and that morning only two of my friends were in the water. The swell was just as perfect as it can get, and I felt like it was THE day. I’d…

As a wingfoiler, there are lots of places and spots which are new to all of us. This summer, I spent some days on Gran Canaria, my first time there, and the island really surprised me… Gran Canaria offers a wide variety of spots and wind is blowing full on, all day every day. But some of these spots are definitely not easy places to get in and out of. Imagine having to get into the water, carrying your wingfoil equipment, walking over black lava rock while you’ve got 35 knots of wind blowing from the left and a two-meter shorebreak wave that is anything but friendly… It’s not the place where you want to screw things up and fall, because you know all your gear will be destroyed in…

Hey guys. So here’s a brand with a pretty long and distinguished track record in the water and wind sports industry. Taking it right back, please tell us what those first initial stirrings of Slingshot were, and how things looked at the time? Jeff: We were really entrenched into windsurfing as participants and innovators at the time. We also recognized that windsurfing was a pretty mature sport, a lot had been accomplished in that sport. We saw kiting as a huge opportunity to innovate products that would influence riding and the sport as we know it today. A few of us had a beer one evening on the rivers, and we decided to jump in. We’ve never looked back. And from then, how did the company find its niche and…

Hi Robert. So you have a pretty solid background in sail design before you came to work for Takuma. Tell us how it all began for you… In short, after studying naval architecture, I had gotten into windsurfing sail design at Monty Spindler sail loft on Garda, this was around 1990. I was working for Fanatic / Art until 2000, when I got hired by NeilPryde and moved to Maui. With NeilPryde I had the opportunity to work with the very top sailors in all disciplines, gaining world titles as well as overall speed sailing records with Antoine Albeau. From April last year I joined Takuma and I am really excited about the development of the wings as well as collaborating with Cyril Coste (Takuma’s President) and Laurent Borgna (Designer)…

LOCATION PUNTA LUNA, NORTHERN PERU DATE WEDNESDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER, 2021 It was early in the morning of the second to last day on a dream come true trip that I did towards the end of last year. It was the first intercontinental travel in two years, a spontaneous scouting trip squeezed in between quarantine regulations and mandatory testings, and I was staying at this lodge in the middle of a natural reserve in Northern Peru, with nobody and nothing around except waves and wildlife. Waking up into such a surrounding is pure bliss – even more so after a week with wind every day, plus having had the biggest swell of the season in the middle of it. So, the swell had been coming down, and it looked like the…

Modern small hydrofoils are redefining what we think is possible. Armstrong’s high aspect 725 is the latest addition to this end of the market, and it makes a compelling case for adding a high performance, do-it-all Swiss Army knife to your quiver. A word of caution — this foil might not be for everyone (and that’s alright). If you’re already on Armstrong’s high aspect foils, the 1125 and 925 are staple pieces of kit. If you’re not, they’ve essentially managed to combine speed, glide, and turning ability into a series of high aspect designs that are consistent crowd pleasers in both the surf and winging domains. Users report that they’re able to ride smaller sizes than previously thought possible, giving them more room to grow into the gear instead of…

Naish is releasing their latest addition to their foil range, the MA series foils. This review covers the 1200 and 1000 front wings along with the 220 and 280 stabilizers. The MA foil system is a fully modular design with a front wing, fuselage, tail, and mast. All coming in a variety of sizes and configurations to be custom fit for your individual preferences. Each connection is a M6 T30 bolt which is a great improvement from the standard hex head. When bolting the foil together, it is evident attention has been put into the fit and finish as everything went together easily and cleanly. The aluminum fuselage has two mounting locations for the stabilizer allowing riders to get two effective fuselage lengths from one part. Riders looking to increase…

Hi David. Firstly, Series 2.2, launched on 22/2, in 2022. Coincidence or by design?! It was just meant to be. The universe made it so. So please walk us through the new Series 2.2 range. What’s new, and what’s been upgraded? Series 2.2 builds upon our Series 2 platform launched last year which has been hugely successful. As for what’s been upgraded, well firstly, our Flitecell battery has had a major overhaul. The battery is such an important part of an eFoil and we’ve taken what was already our best battery and made it even better. We’ve refined the Flite Controller by doubling the range of movement of the trigger, to allow for more precise power control, and we’ve made changes to our eFoil unit to make it even quieter…

Hey Wyatt. So firstly tell us about the new range: what joys await for established Phantasm fans? Going forward the concept with Phantasm is to sell masts separate from the Lowers (front wing, fuse, stabilizer). What we found is that everyone has very specific desires on what they want out of their mast in terms of length, stiffness, slipperiness and speed. We have two lines of carbon masts, the regular skinny masts come in 102, 92, 82, and 72, and they are incredibly fast and feel especially slippery through the water with a nice thin profile and taper towards the foot. Then for those whose main concern is maximum stiffness (windsurfers and heavy weight wing foilers) we have a line of Wide Body Masts that come in at 87, 103…

We covered the ART 999 in the previous issue. These two popped up pretty soon after, so we’re assuming the 999 was somewhat of a success?! The 999 has been incredibly popular since the first day of its introduction, proving the design direction we’ve been pursuing for the ART range is certainly on target. The introduction of the 799 and 899 has further cemented the ART as the highest performance range on the market and is what our team riders want to ride across multiple foiling disciplines.  Judging by the action shots we’ve seen, carving at speed seems to be quite the specialty for the ART lineup… The ART front wings carve incredibly well, and are happy when exposed above the water. But what is really exciting about the ART…

+ I feel like the future of foiling is just going to be one or two “waves” per session. The goal would be being able to stay up and connect waves for hours without messing up while also doing airs and turns. As the technology of foils continues to improve, it seems like the wings are going to keep getting smaller, faster, and more efficient, all while making soft waves feel powerful. With the way things are going, I would not be surprised if everybody in the lineup is pumping around for 20-30 plus minutes on each ride in the near future. There is still a ton to be discovered and more tricks to be done, new technology is only going to help us there. + Something that will be…

During a week-long foil expedition with Foil Nicaragua, I was able to get some incredible sessions in with the rest of the crew. Around the middle of the week we had a decent sized swell that was creating some great opportunities to get some beautiful rides and explore a few secret reefs in northern Nicaragua. We were working hard on getting in the right spot to be as deep as possible at this undisclosed reef. We saw the wave of the day coming and knew this was our opportunity. As I took off from the ski and dropped down the wave all I could hear was “Come to me, come to me” as the ski went around the wave to the right-hand side. The foil handled beautifully and as I…

Norway is a special country, not only because the people are so super cool, but because the nature is so extreme and special. When I talk to visitors, they all say they come to look at the fjords, mountains, waterfalls, glaciers, lakes, and they all love the wilderness we’ve got up here… And it is true – you don’t find many places in the world with the kind of crazy variety of nature as you do in Norway. The weather is hard to predict. Up north we say that we can have all four seasons in one day – which is true. To plan a day of wing surfing or SUP is hard. You must be ready for anything – and do what fits with the conditions. It’s not like…

My name is Jaimie Scott, I am 51 years old… I live a stone’s throw from the water, away from the crowds, and have fantastic waves and wind right on my doorstep. I feel lucky every day to wake up looking at the sea and being able to enjoy the amazing things it provides for myself and my family. Our lives revolve around the ocean. I was a keen dinghy sailor, racing small boats from a very early age, and as I grew my passion for the wind and ocean brewed, leading me into the waves. I became a surfer, and not long after that, when windsurfing came along which combined both surfing and sailing, I was an instant addict at about 15 years of age. When I left school…

Step 1 Make sure you try this trick with a helmet and a small wing. It is recommended that your front wing be smaller than a 1000 to ensure you have aggressive pop. I also recommended that you try backflips on the trampoline first to feel comfortable with the rotation… Step 2 The most important thing to realize before going for this trick is that the power, speed, and height will come from the foil and not so much from to wing. To execute this trick, you have to use the foil for getting the right pop and height. If you count only on the wing, you will have a hard time doing a properly inverted backflip. Step 3 Focus on keeping most of your mast out of the water…

The Dynamic Pro range from RRD is their performance-orientated range which spans disciplines between surfing, winging and kiting, hence the SWK acronym. We tested the 1200 along with the Beluga 150 which served as a perfect compact vessel with a low swing weight for this size of foil. From a build perspective much carries over from the rest of the modular RRD range, and the stabilizer is the smaller and more performant 250 Dynamic Pro that pairs well with the faster wing sets now available. The aluminum fuselage has unique channels CNC-cut down the sides to minimize its drag and weight. All fixings are sturdy M8 size, which screw into helicoil inserts set into the aluminum. Stiffness has definitely been a key design focus as the system has been developed,…

Kitesurf pioneer Bruno Sroka is a notable former world champion over various disciplines from 2004 to 2013, and the first and probably only person to have crossed the 100 mile stretch of exceptionally dangerous water at Cape Horn in Chile by kite. He created his own brand, Sroka Watersports in 2014 and now develops SUP boards, hydrofoils, foil boards, kites, kiteboards and wings with original designs and an affordable market position. The S-Foil HA slots into an already wide, and ever-expanding range of hydrofoils on the Sroka Lineup with complete cross range compatibility. The intended purpose of the HA range is to provide a much more high-performance hydrofoil suitable to advanced prone foilers and wingers alike, but keeping in mind the accessibility of the S-Foil range and maintaining the same…

Technical soft goods manufacturer ION is a sister company to foil and wing manufacturers Duotone and Fanatic; it makes perfect sense with the sport of wingfoiling firmly and rapidly establishing itself that they begin to cater specifically for the wingfoil market. With inflatable wings now changing to stiffer materials, and people riding with more loaded sails for freestyle and racing, it makes sense to build a harness that offers a high level of support and load distribution around your back. If you’re from a windsurf or kitesurf background, what you’ll first notice is that this wing harness is exceptionally light. If you imagine a minimal hardshell kite harness, you are not far off the mark. The molded 3D back plate borrows its design from the ION Riot kite harness. The…

The AXIS ART 999 was the first to drop from the new Axis Research Team range and we were extremely impressed with its speed range and phenomenal levels of glide. Following on closely in its footsteps are two smaller siblings with reduced spans and areas, which carry overall the positive attributes of the cutting-edge ART 999 wing and improve maneuverability, and top end speed ranges. Wingfoiling in positive conditions I was extremely impressed at how quickly the ART 899 got me going in the low end, even in comparison to the 999. What’s immediately apparent is the reduced span really frees up the roll axis, and where the 999 could occasionally feel a little limited around the bends, these two smaller wings, particularly paired with the new Progressive tail range,…

Firstly, tell us what riding style this wing is pitched towards? The SPIN is a high-performance wing for all present and future wing enthusiasts longing to do unlimited tricks and ride waves. Experts in freestyle and wave winging love the SPIN, as well as ambitious riders learning their first flights and jibes. Team rider Balz Müller describes it best: “The SPIN feels like a playful butterfly in my hands – light and hovering. At the same time, the wing is full of power, ultra-stable and direct. The SPIN with its compact design is perfect for me to do the wildest tricks possible.” So it’s called the SPIN for good reason?! Yes! Easy rotations were one of the main goals in the development of this wing. The SPIN is built with…

Hey Jerome. So firstly give us a fly past of the new range… Our new range offers a whole collection with six Carbon masts and three Carbon fuselages to cover all riders and conditions. Just as with our Aluminium setup, we’ve put a lot of focus on strength and a solid feel and power transfer through the entire system. Our Carbon masts range from 60cm to 105cm, with one special edition in the popular size of 82cm – we’re releasing this length in our standard Carbon version, but also in a slimmer and faster high modulus Carbon Team Edition. In terms of foil wings, our Aero High Aspect range is still one of the easiest foils for winging and at the same time offers a really wide range of use…

These foils are dedicated to the surf, wing and kite market (hence SWK). How much crossover is there between the sizes in terms of what can be used and where? Yes, the Dynamic Pro foils are crossover foils, and we have developed four sizes (1500/1200/900/700) based on the front and rear wing dimensions and different rider needs. For wingfoiling the 1500/1200 and 900 are used for the majority of wind conditions and body weights. The same applies to surf foiling where we have seen those three sizes as preferable depending on the wave sizes. There’s not one size that excels more than the other, they all do the job and have their purpose. The 700 is more of a dedicated foil for kite foiling due to its very small front…

Hey Lane! Firstly - have you foiled today? If so, where did you go and how was it? I was just on winter break so we went on a snowboarding trip. When we came back to Maui, I tried to go wingfoiling but the wind was extremely light and there’s been no wind since. The bright side is that the conditions have been great for surfing and tow foiling the outer reefs, so I’ve been having a lot of fun in the water. So tell our readers a little about yourself - how old are you, and where do you live? I’m 12-years-old and live on the north shore of Maui. I go to school all week and work hard. Wingfoiling and any other water sports are what keep me…

2021 GWA SURF-FREESTYLE Dutch rider Bowien van der Linden has been a revelation this season, winning three out of the four stops for the Surf-Freestyle discipline. The Dutch rider has given competition her full focus and dedication, which has truly paid off. While she may have won the GWA Surf-Freestyle Championship with one round still to go, she has been followed closely by Olivia Piana and Paula Novotná all season. All three women are pushing extremely hard, while encouraging other women to participate and enjoy wingfoiling. “It’s been an amazing year,” said Bowien. “I only came to the first event in Leucate to try it out and now look at what an amazing result I have. I’m amazed when I see how fast the sport is growing. It’s very exciting.”…

ESSENTIALS: » A good wetsuit or two, with attached hoods. I use an RRD Fahrenheit 6/5/4. » Good quality wetsuit boots and gloves. » Cold cream for the face. PREPARATION: » You need to be ready for the cold water – it’s colder then tap water! It’s hard at the beginning but if you have a good wetsuit you should be comfortable. » Never take a break for more than five minutes otherwise it’s game over and you’ll need to change. » A good tip is to have some hot water ready, so you can dip your gloves or boots in to it to get some feeling back before getting changed. » When you are wingsurfing with all this wetsuit gear and in cold waters, you will lose energy quicker.…

01 RRD UNIVERSAL SW ALU 2400 The veritable Swiss Army Knife of foils, RRD’s Universal SW ALU 2400 has got you covered for surf, SUP, wing and kite foiling, with some very easy-to-start pumpability under the hood. This set is recommended for beginners and for the heavier set rider. 02 AK COMPACT AK Durable Supply Co’s wing-focused Compact board is, well, compact, and therefore perfect for when you’re throwing it down like a pro. Built with a low swing weight and as short as possible, the Compact enjoys some well-balanced volume throughout making it a sturdy little number. 03 STARBOARD WINGBOARD (BLUE CAR-BON, ASAP, LITE TECH) There are good genes in Starboard’s Wingboard range, taking its design cues from their high-performance SUP foil and windsurf foil lineup. Available in Blue…

RIDER HEIGHT 180CM RIDER WEIGHT 80KG The Mantis is Cabrinha’s surf-oriented wing which is a full inflation wing with a large diameter leading edge and tough built construction. I find it’s a great all-round wing thanks to its solid low-end power and stability, especially in the bigger sizes. The bigger leading edge adds a lot of stiffness to the design which also makes for great pumping ability while still having solid upwind ability especially while depowered riding a wave. The Mantis has become my go-to wing ever since the first prototype I tried back in 2020. After starting with the X1 and X2 and trying a few different wings on the market, we came up with the Mantis and that was a huge step up in performance and control for…

LOCATION LAKE ANNECY, FRANCE DATE SATURDAY 25TH & SUNDAY 26TH SEPTEMBER, 2021 When autumn arrives, the early morning atmosphere on Lake Annecy is calm, serene, with the sun rising behind the mountains offering a beautiful contrast of vibrant colours. It was certainly a magical moment to start a weekend of wake foiling up in the mountains… The whole SROKA team was reunited for three days at this magnificent place. On the program: wake foiling, testing, shooting, debriefs and just good vibes. Riders Paul-Conrad Delaere and Gabriel Bachelet, the SROKA office team, and Bruno Sroka himself caught wave after wave under the lens of Jean-Marc Favre, the photographer who has followed Bruno on his adventures for almost 20 years now, including his crossing of Cape Horn by kite. The atmosphere on…

Austrian manufacturer Levitaz have been producing luxurious foil sports products for kite and surf use for a while now, and have recently entered the ever-expanding wing market with some higher aspect surf foils as well as some wing-specific boards with their all new Boom range, spanning from 48l sinkers all the way up to 108l novice volumes. In keeping with their proudly European origins for their foils, rather than outsource the manufacturing to Asia like many, Levitaz have utilized the Appletree production facility in Portugal to bring Alex Schwab’s shape to reality, minimizing transport miles to the European market and maximizing control over the quality. The manufacturing is flawlessly executed, and matches the equally impressive high-end carbon work of the Levitaz foils, to form a jaw-dropping all black carbon affair…

Gaastra is a very reputable company within the windsurf industry already, having been producing sails since 1980. It expanded further in the boardsports industry with kites in 2001 and now has a large resumé of water sports that includes wingfoiling, kitesurfing and windsurfing. The Hybrid is available with two different wing setups, namely the Free range with its medium aspect ratio for entry level foiling, coming in at sizes 900 to 2500cm2. Then you have the HP (High Performance) range of high aspect front wings that are available in three sizes: 1150, 1450 and 1750cm2. The GA foil range is entirely modular with different masts, box systems adapters, stabilizers and fuselages. All the elements are compatible and are designed to perform in both wing and windfoiling. The wings come with…

Indiana have a robust line-up of foils, with six different front wings and three stabilizers that are all compatible with their unique aluminum mast and fuselage. Their four leaf flower-shaped front wing connector fits perfectly into the front wing with zero play. It’s an exceptionally solid system. The stabilizer is mounted using one of the two shims provided – 1 or 2° pitch adjustment on top of the fuselage and locked in with two smaller M8 screws. In the hands the whole system feels super solid and stiff. There is no play, and despite being a marginally heavier foil compared to other alu platforms, it is solid and looks fantastic. The flat projected high ratio wings and that beautiful green reflecting in the clear carbon finish of the wings mean…

Ride Engine are an innovative bunch. Since dropping their very first wingfoiling-dedicated harness, the Vinaka, Ride Engine have led the charge on a light weight and low profile solution for wingers who want to hook in. That said, the California firm’s new Nug takes simplicity to the next level by eliminating 90% of the bulk in a harness. As the old adage goes, minimalism is a double-edged sword… As I eluded, the Nug is an attachable harness hook rather than an entire harness unit. Coming in at only 3 inches/7.5cm square, the piece itself is an eye-catching piece of transparent blue plastic. Beefy but light, it has the aura of a 3D-printed part. The hook looks unlike anything we’ve seen on traditional harnesses, and its short, stout outline appears a…

Hey team. So first up, please talk us through the build and material choices on your all-new foil system, the Charger… Lift, efficiency and control are the performance metrics that the Charger Foil was designed to balance. The front wing and integrated fuselage, as well as the tail wing, are made of full prepreg carbon, and the wings feature an EPS core for superior strength to weight ratio. The Charger kit comes in three sizes: 1950, 1600, and 1300. The integrated fuselage joint on the front wing ensures a seamless connection to the alloy mast which provides incredible brain to foil connectivity between foil and rider. The carbon fuselage mates with an interchangeable aluminum tail fuselage with two length options. This, along with two carbon stabilizer wing sizes, give the…

It sounds like your 2022 wing range has had a significant redesign, talk us through the updates. Well we did lots of work on the aerodynamics and on other details, which add up to a big redesign of our wings, leading to improved riding characteristics. The wing frame is quite a bit stiffer now and helps to generate power especially at the low end. Pumping becomes a lot more efficient so that you can easily pump onto the foil in really marginal winds. The wing feels more direct in the hand due to the stiffer frame, which makes it easy to control the wing in gusts and do some rotational moves. We changed the outline as well, using the dihedral angle and the twist of the wings to achieve the…

What are the main differences between the GO and the recently released AIR v2? On the new GO we have really focused on making the wing as beginner-friendly as possible. It has longer handles that are placed in optimal positions for ease of use and guide beginners to the correct position to be holding the wing, whilst still giving them freedom to move their hands on the handles whilst learning what is comfortable for them. The 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 all have a long handle on the front and mid-sized on the back to provide maximum flexibility for beginners, whilst the 5.5 and 6.5 gain a short handle on the front to easily grab the wing as it is larger, and then a mid-sized handle on the front and long…

So Jason, what were your most important performance goals when designing the Wing Air? Jason: For me the most important factors were easy handling, robust power, stability, and built for all-purpose winging… from learning to ride swell and waves, to freestyle. We wanted it to have stable upwind and downwind handling characteristics.  A good time to launch a wing as the designs have evolved pretty quickly over the last few years. What were your main ‘take outs’ from how the market has developed? Jason: It’s fascinating to see a new wind-catching tool developed with so much supporting experience already at play from kite design and also windsurf sail design. These are the early stages still, and there is so much to try here and so much to learn. It’s super…

Amongst all the high aspect wings that are appearing, we understand the HA1095 is pretty unique. How so? Our main goal in terms of development is to have the most accessible equipment and the most performant range while combined with something that’s not overly technical. Our aim is to cater for almost all riders, and not just the experts. And we are really focused on following the general flow of the foiling world and not going too fast in terms of development. For all those reasons, with the new High Aspect 1095, we wanted to have a versatile, maneuverable, easy to ride and yet high-performance high aspect front wing. With the Kujira’s tubercles (inspired by Humpback whales), we knew that in terms of speed and low speed glide, the job…

Hey team. So what were the main design objectives you wanted to achieve when developing the new board? Well we wanted to create a complete board range specifically designed for wingfoiling with a wide range of volume and suitable for all riding levels. For the bigger sizes – 5.8 and 5.2 – our developing aim was more for progressive riders as well as heavier riders in need of a board with more volume. The more compact smaller sizes are optimized for intermediates giving a more dynamic and playful ride highly suited to wave and freeride conditions. You’ve gone for quite an aggressive double concave in the nose, is this board pitched as an allrounder or more of a freestyle board? The Evolve is developed as an allrounder suitable for all…

So what do a couple of America’s Cup, Sail GP and Olympic professional sailors do when they’ve got a day off in Tarifa? Well, they get right back on the water, because they bloody love it… Armed with Armstrong’s latest V2 A-Wing, Pete Burling, Blair Tuke and Nathan Outerridge enjoyed some downtime in Europe’s windsports capital. We got in touch with Pete and Blair to get some background to the film. Hey guys - so not your usual kind of sail… was it Armie (Armstrong) who got you involved in the first place? And did you have any prior wing experience at all? Blair: I got into winging at the beginning of 2021 during the build-up to the America’s Cup. Having some friends and family getting into it at the…