If you’re looking for wing foiling lessons for beginners then we can certainly help you on your adventure.
Wing foiling has really taken off around the world and has proved itself as an awesome light wind to high wind option for anyone looking to enjoy watersports.
Powered by a wing held in hand, the sailor flys up on the foil and effortlessly glides across the water silently.
Training with a qualified wing foiling coach
It is important to make sure your wing foiling instrctor is qualified and experienced in both winging and general watersports.
Our own instructors are RYA qualified, which means they have been assessed by the Royal Yachting Association on a multi day training course. All instructors have to pass multiple tests and show their own abilities.
After passing the training course, they need to be validated by doing their hours with a recognised centre.
Surfs SUP Watersports, expects their own instructors to continue with their own personal development and keep improving their training and communications skills.
Where is the best place to learn to wing foil?
When starting out, your best to head out into flat, calm waters. Whilst wing foiling is possible in a wide range of conditions, you will find that it is a lot easier if you stay away from waves and rougher water. Lakes or harbours as usually the best place to try and we favour our own Chichester Harbour that offers some superb conditions, with clean wind and flat water.
What to wear when wing foiling
For anyone starting out with wing foiling, you need to know that you’re going to get bumped about, fall and have to get on and off the board a fair few times, so a wetsuits with knee coverage, a body protector and helmet are a must. Shoes or boots can also be helpful in case you kick the foil under the water.
Communicating on the water
Part of our training setup is a 2 way intercom that really helps us to connect with you and keep dialogue open so you can tell us what you’re experiencing and we can quickly relay instructions. The BBTalkin units are amazing bits of kit.
Is wing foiling easy to learn?
Wing foiling is quick to learn, but you do need to have some experience handling the wing before you give foiling a go. Having teh right conditions makes it a lot easier along with having stronger winds, so you don’t need to work too hard to get lift from the foil.
How long does it take to learn wing foiling?
If you’re starting from scratch and have no experience of other wind board sports then it will probably take you around 5 days or so to start getting controlled, sustained flights.
What kit do I need to start wing foiling?
Getting the right kit will certainly help to speed up the learning curve. A board of about 140 litres and a wing of 5.5 to 6mtrs, with a foil around 1800-2000 will give a good balance of power, stability and ease of use.
That said, it is all relative and a much smaller person could go smaller, butit may not be worth it. There’s a big used marketplace for kit, so whatever you buy can easily be moved on once, you’re done with it.
How do our wing foiling lessons run
To join us on a wing foiling lesson we do expect you to have had previous experience of handling a wing and being comfortable handling the wing in varying strength winds, being able to light wind gybe, tack, self rescue and generally handle all points of sail.
Most of the time the people who have attended our winging, wing sup and wing surfing lessons are the ones who progress onto our foiling sessions as they’ve covered all the training points to a good standard and have had a chance to practice.
Anyway, for those who do join us for the wing foiling lessons, we have a structure that is progressive, whilst maintaining a good level of safety, but that said, everyone is made aware of the risks with foiling before they start.
All said and done, the starting out phase is much like with other sessions we run like the windsurfing lessons. We’ll start off looking at the conditions, as they’re going to be windier than you may have experienced before. With wind comes chop so you’re going to encounter more bumpy water, but this won’t be too bad as our beginner foil boards are big and stable to make your life easier.
We’ll start by looking at the foil and explain how this works. It is important to understand how the foil generates lift and along with that you can then see how you can overpower the foil and what happens when it breaches out of the water. With this information in the back of your mind, you need to focus on the very specific actions we offer you as this really helps to better your progress to First Flights.
Handling the wing foiling kit on land and launching
With the foil and wing in place it is super important to know how to move it around safely. You have to maintain a safe space around you and others, whilst making sure your own kit does not get damaged in the wind. We’ve all ripped our wing on the foil blade so you won’t be the first, so making sure you’re thinking smart all the time on land is really important.
The trick to moving kit on land is look around you and keep room to move. And know the wind direction. Keep the wing flying downwind of the board and keep the foil either over your shoulder or pointing into wind. Sometimes it is easier to walk the board and foil to the waters edge, then bring the wing down afterwards, but remember to keep the foil out of the way of kids running around as it is a lethal weapon.
Basic safety rules apply as with any watersports kit on a beach or land, but if you always have the wing downwind of the foil, it simply cannot get spiked on the foil blade, so that is a huge bonus.
Reading the conditions
Now you’ve got a foil on the bottom of your board, your going to have to plan depths both when launching and landing and general sailing. What you don’t want to do is run aground, hit rocks and or grind into the sand and get catapulted. You could also find yourself cracking the board, so we need to work out if there are any rocks, reefs, sandbars.
We’ll consider wind direction and where this will allow us to sail as well as looking for other people on the water and any outside variables that may affect our safety and sailing zone.
Something else that you need to think about especially when going out alone is the wind and it is set to drop at any time soon or any storms and thunder coming in.
Moving into the water
We’ll run through a basic mounting procedure and swimming around the board so you’re aware of having to say clear of the foil.
You need to keep your sits about you and not kick around, as you’ll end up booting the foil which really hurts.
Being aware of how the leash can wrap around the foil is also important and the ability to unwrap it and get yourself back on board.
Getting up on the wing foil board
Once your on the board, we’ll explain the pros and cons of facing forwards and sideways as well as spinning yourself around, which you sometimes need to do. This is especially important when in small waves and you need to become comfortable with just jumping up quickly.
Getting into position on your feet is no different to what you’ve learnt on our intro to winging course and the next 20 minutes or so is worth being spent just sailing around and getting used to how the foil feels under the board and how it affects the board, when steering and on points of sail.
Going for first flight on the foil
It’s time to give it a go, but there’s no rush. If you’re not ready, then go at your pace until you’re good to go.
One thing we’ll keep drilling through the headset is, “Front foot pressure”. You need to keep weight into that front leg. This helps to stop the board skyrocketing into the air, which is going to happen, but let’s try and reduce the drama.
Same as we did on the Winging course, you’re going to be pumping the wing to generate more power and from there the board will pick up speed and as it does you’ll feel the foil start to lift. Don’t hang back – drive forwards and go for more power – it’s an absolute must, but keep that front foot loaded.
If you feel the board go light under foot, you’ve probably lifted at which point you need to relax and look forwards, not down.
It’s gonna happen, but if you do take a dive, fall clear of the kit and DO NOT try and stay with it. Easier said than done, but this is something that will save you coming into contact with the foil.
