The Ultimate Wing Foiling Beginner Gear Set Up

Should I start with new or used gear?  

USED… If you know what to buy.  

If you have the cash, a reputable shop can get you a suitable setup which will get you having fun on the water faster than a mix and match kit that doesn’t necessarily work together or correspond to your needs and will have you spending less money in the long term as they can help you plan ahead.   Be careful of shops that do not have much selection.  They can easily steer you wrong.

Where do I get my first gear?

Method 1:  Take a Lesson (or 5) at the beginning and use the instructor’s gear 

Method 2: Link yourself to a Wingfoil Mentor at your local launch.  Try to borrow or rent a large board for the first few weeks from this mentor or from anyone you can.

Method 3:  Get a LARGE board on the used market, and find 1 Gently Used Wing and 1 foil set up (more on this later).  Make sure you spend most of your money on the Foil and that it is a great foil manufacturer that has a presence in your area so you can get used front foil wings and stabilizers.

You will likely not use a  LARGE beginners board for long, but if you buy a SUP Foil Style Board you might keep using it for SUP foiling if there are waves in your location, or any Large Foil Board can be kept to teach family members or friends.

Get as much information from locals who are way ahead of you in the learning curve and consult the larger, more reputable shops.

Advice from riders should be taken with a grain of salt regardless how well they ride. Many have not gotten to try much different gear and know more or less what works for them; not necessarily what will work for you. 

There are a number of shops these days that are very familiar and competent with wing gear. It is their profession to help you choose the best gear for you, try to talk with the wing guy/ lady that works there, so they can help you out.

What size should I start with?

Big front foil wings that glide - quality!  If you buy quality, you will always keep it for light wind sessions, gust hunting and dock starting  

Learn about Foil Cord Length, Foil Wingspan, Aspect Ratio and Surface Area.  Do your reading.   Typically a Mid Aspect Ratio (7) front foil wing in the 1800 - 2000 cm2 surface area range is great.  These front foil wings tend to be about 100cm (1m) wide.

Sample Wing Specs & Aspect Ratio Calculation:

AXIS Broad Spectrum Carve (BSC) 1060 Carbon Wing - very good starter front foil wing for Medium weights to Heavyweights

Technical Data:

WINGSPAN: 1060 mm / 42 inches

MAX CHORD LENGTH: 200mm / 8 inches

AVERAGE CORD LENGTH: 163mm

ASPECT RATIO: 6.51 (Wingspan / Average Cord Length = 1060/163 = 6.5)

ACTUAL AREA 1803 square cm / 278 square inches

PROJECTED AREA: 1726 square cm / 268 square inches

VOLUME: 2800 cubic cm / 171 cubic inches

What brands do we like in Foils?  

“Most are very good, but you get what you pay for.”  While this is mostly true today, a lot of earlier generation stuff that you’ll find on clear out/ the used market can be terrible. To be clear, this does not mean that it doesn’t work; but it is either poorly built/designed so will fail prematurely or make your life much harder than it needs to be, or both.  Make sure you know what you are buying and that it will work with your board.

When buying a foil choose a system that you want to buy into, look for a well built foil with a big selection of wings, modularity, and cross compatibility with other sport from a big company that’s investing in developing new gear  and have an established system so it will be future compatible.  Some Foil Companies that tick all of these boxes are: Armstrong (NZ), AXIS (NZ), Lift, Slingshot, Gofoil, and SAB/Moses.

Tips:  

  • Get foils that plenty of locals are using (usually because local shops sell them)
  • Spend the most of your money on your foil set up.  They last.  Hand held wings degrade fast, 
  • boards are overpriced for what you are actually getting.  They are still a very important component.  Wing Boards are getting better and better, but they will likely plateau in design well before the Hand Wings and Foils.

There are huge differences wrt wingfoil boards in general ease of use, efficiency at takeoff, feel in the air, and ability to forgive touchdowns. Wing Boards are also retaining their value fairly well for now and beginner boards are easy to sell. 

How long should the fuse be?

Around 70 cm is good.  Stable Ride.  You will go shorter with time and experience.

High aspect or medium aspect wing?

Medium Aspect Wing with an Aspect Ratio around 7 is good to start with.

Boards: How long and wide should my beginner board be?  Hard Board or Inflatable?

GO BIG for the board you are first going to learn on.  Try to rent or borrow your first board

Board design is changing fast, but all you need for an Allrounder Board to begin with is volume packed into a short length, a flat bottom, a wide board, Round Rails everywhere except at the back and a twin foil track system. 

There is considerably more to it than that, but we are producing a Beginners Document here.  Other things that need to be considered are foil box position, volume distribution, outline, and rockerline are extremely important as well..  but to keep it simple use the beginner board formula, don’t be scared of volume, buy a wing specific board not a crossover (unless you already do the other sport ie SUP foil/ Windfoil then there could be an argument made), don’t be scared of length (if the board is well balanced/ light even at 7’ it will be fantastic for learning/ progressing quickly), buy a track system not a tuttle box!

Good Beginner Board 30 inches wide, 6 ft long, thick with a flat bottom

 100 Litres - 140 Litres  depending on your weight.

Beginner Board Formula:

Take your weight in Kilograms, add 30 - 35 to that number and convert the number to litres.  

EXAMPLE:  Some dude named Jeff is 188 lbs, that is 85kg.  So… 85 + 35 = 120L

More Board Formulas: 

Intermediate Board / Light Wind Board Formula:

Weight in kg, convert to Litres and add 20 L.

EXAMPLE:  Jeff is 188lbs = 85kg   Convert 85kg to 85L and add 20L = 105L

Expert Board / High Wind Board Formula:

Weight in kg, convert to Litres and subtract 20 L.

EXAMPLE:  Jeff is 188lbs = 85kg   Convert 85kg to 85L and subtract 20L = 65L

You will notice that we try to stay away from boards that are close to out kg weight in Litres. 

EXAMPLE:  Jeff is 188lbs = 85kg   Convert 85kg to 85L.  Jeff would stay away from boards around 85L.  These boards would be in his “Wobble Zone”  If he is good and has great balance he will still be able to ride a board in the “Wobble Zone”, but it is not ideal.

Wings: 

What are you looking for in a good beginner wing? Are some brands better than others?

Power (“low end grunt” is a better term, you want a wing that you can sheet in and go without having to pump), stability, and durability are key.  Try to try wings before you buy them or get your better wingfoiling friends to try as many wings as possible at the beach.

If you are only going to buy ONE WING:

Light weights(under 150 lbs) -  4m-4.5m

Medium weights (150 - 190 lbs) -  5m-5.5m

Heavyweights (200+ lbs) -  6m-6.5m

Note:  if you live in a light wind area (Ottawa) you can add 0.5m to these wing sizes.  

Hard boards are much easier to learn on.  However, if you don’t have much storage room at home or you plan to travel a lot or a large hard board is too heavy, then get a large volume inflatable board with some length and width that has a reputation for a stiff foil connection. Volume alone is a very poor indicator of stability/ease of use of inflatable boards, look rather at the length/width, don’t worry if the volume is considerably higher than what you get with the beginner board formula (inflatable boards are light afterall)

Board Leashes: Coil or straight? Ankle or Waist?  

Waist is best for a board leash

A board leash to your ankle means you are always stepping on it.

Wing Leashes:

Coil or straight? Straight is more comfortable i find! 

Where do I attach it: 

Wrist or Waist?  Wrist is great. Because two leashes on your waist is a lot! 

Full wetsuit, Helmet and Impact Vests: Yes or No?

YES to ALL, or you will get cut up!

Water shoes: Yes / No?

YES in the beginning.  Protect those feet from the foil.

Locations: 

Where should I learn? 

Anywhere with a good sandy bottom and safe launch and land. 

What winds are best?

Side shore with good water depth.  

Strong 15-20 kt wind for learning.  You don’t learn much or get up on foil as a beginner in less wind.  Remember, you will drift downwind in light winds as a newbie

Get time on a foil behind a boat as much as you can in order to learn how foils react.  Then when you get up in foil with a Wing, you will know what to do (somewhat!).

Who gives lessons and where ?

There will be lots of people giving lessons in the future as the sport explodes in popularity.

Ask us.  Some experienced wing foilers are willing to coach you at the beach if you ask!


Writer: Thomas Boyce