Getting into the water without breaking or damaging your gear
It seems like one of the beginner mistakes for wingfoilers, and maybe you never thought about it, but getting in the water the wrong way can really mess up your day. Once you’re a bit more seasoned, you will do it right without thinking about it, but especially for your first sessions it’s good to read this. As soon as you have it in your system, you can go on to learn how to get on the foil and to maintain flight in wingfoil. See all wingfoil tutorials here.
How to go into the water with a full set of gear
Before your first session, it’s a good idea to learn how to handle the wing while you are not going into the water. Or even consider getting a couple of wingfoil lessons. Now you are standing on the beach, you have your wing pumped up and your board and foil are mounted. You have your wetsuit on and you put sun protection on. It’s time, becuase you are ready for your session!
Grab your board and your wing, a gust of wind comes and it all starts moving. Don’t be the person that has their own foil puncturing their wing and who’s off to an early retirement for the day. Read this set of tips and you will know how to walk around with your wing foil set comfortably, get in and out of the water and not get anything damaged.
In this article, we will walk you through the basics of a successful entrance into the water with your full wingfoil set. The basic rule for walking around with your full set: keep your body between your board & foil on one side, and your wing on the other side.
Make sure the wing is on your downwind side, so you can grab it from the downwind handle. This is the central handle where your leash is connected. That way, your wing just drifts in the air and it’s easy to handle. Your wing has almost no chance of hitting the foil, limiting the chances of damaging it with your own foil.
Walking with your gear: in a nutshell
You want to keep the wing and the foil as far away from each other as possible. The foil points towards the wind, the wing points the other way.
This person is walking out of the water in the right way.
The wind comes from the left. The foil is pointed towards the wind. The wing is held by the downwind handle with the left arm. The wing feathers (hangs) in the air peacefully, so it’s not going anywhere if there is a gust of wind. This way, the risk of the wing hitting the foil is minimal.
There are many ways to walk on the beach. Here you can see that having the foil rest on your shoulders can also work.
What you want to do mostly, is to keep your wing away from the foil. In this picture, the wind is coming from the left side and the wing flies peacefully on the right. It will not get hit by the foil.
8 tips for preparing your gear on the beach (and before getting into the water)
Whether you are preparing your gear in order to walk into the water successfully, you want to take a break, or you just want to have your gear sit there, you make your life a lot easier if you position your gear in the right way on the beach. Once you are actually getting into the water, there is a big difference between having to fight the wind or just being able to pick it up and start walking. Also if you are taking a break or for whatever reason you want to leave your gear on the beach for a while.
What you want is as least movement of your gear as possible. If your gear doesn’t move, it won’t get damaged. If it does move, you want to be the one who decides how it moves. You do not want your wing to be lifted up by a gust of wind and end on top of your foil, risking a puncture.
Here’s a couple of tips that can help you.
In this image, the wind comes from the left.
- Lay your board on the beach, pointing towards the wind. Normally you have the board flat on the beach and the foil in the air (in this picture, I did it the other way around).
- Lay your wing on the beach, pointing the other way.
- Always tie your wing to your board, so it does not fly away! You can use one (or both) of the leashes for this. Make sure there is enough leash for the wing to move on a save distance from the foil. Make the connection as close to the ground as possible so the wing does not get lifted up by a gust.
- The best way to position your wing is with the hollow side up, it has less chances of being grabbed by the wind.
- Stand in the middle, face the water so the wind comes from your left.
- Put your wing leash on your wrist and let the wing “feather” in the wind on your right.
- Turn the board on its side, grab it from the grip on the bottom (normally that’s just in front of the foil).
- You are ready to start walking towards the water, get on the foil and start flying!
5 tips to get into the water without damaging your gear
Now that you have prepared your wing, you can walk into the water. For getting into the water and getting out of the water, the same tips apply:
- Check from which direction the wind comes
- Grab the board with your arm that’s facing the wind
- Do it in a way that points the foil away from you (most boards have a special grip for it on the bottom side)
- Grab the wing with the arm that’s on the leeward side (where the wind blows to)
- Let the wing hang in the air and walk into or out of the water.
Getting into the water with big waves
Ideally, you walk into a calm sea or a flat sea. But sometimes you have no other option than to walk into choppy water. The waves require a different approach when you go into the water. You do not want to go into the water and be thrown back onto the beach with your gear, because that normally ends bad. The trick is to wait for a set of big waves to pass, wait for the water to calm down and get into the water quickly.
You want to make sure your wing is out of the water as long as possible. In order to do so, keep it up in the air so the wind drives the wing up and not down. This way, you can keep it away from the waves, minimising chances that a wave breaks into your wing.
Also you want to make sure you control your board and the attached foil. You can do this by pushing the foil down into the water as soon as you have enough depth. As soon as you are in the water, move away from the shoreline and stand up as soon as you can.
