Part Two of learning to Wing Foil
Last update 26th July 2026
Here on the UK South Coast at Worthing, we've had a very windy Summer season, which has seen me clock up some 30 sessions since June 1st !
After clocking up well over a 100 sessions, I've suddenly cracked it, though still that does depend on where I'm foiling, as flat water is so much easier than the open sea!
Thanks to my log on Strava, I can see that from my first Wing SUP back at the end of June in 2023, I've clocked up 140 sessions.
And if you missed Part One click here
Last update 31st July 2026
Check the video below to see what I've been up to!
Out on the water, I have been riding more toe-side than ever, especially after the inside gybe, and then riding out toe-side to the outside and then cracking a lovely gybe on the outside, which is far easier than entering into the gybe heel side and then switching my feet once I've completed it.
So I have been working on my feet switches, and like I say in the video I rode a directional kite-surfboard and foot switching was pretty critical, however on a foil it's way harder. However, I am getting way better, and am making probably 75%, many are not pretty, and I do pull of some amusing recoveries.
As you'll see, the sea-state further out was quite bumpy with a rolling swell, so this is the real world and not the flat water luxury of a harbour or lake, and I am helped by my barge of a board a 125 and massive wing
Last update 26th July 2026
So yesterday (video below) was probably my best ever session, and I don't know how much was down to my new Ezzy V3 6.0 Wing and the conditions with winds gusting building from the initial 16mph to nigh on 20's by the end in an ever-increasing sea-state, but I think I was close to 85% success rate in the gybes.
On the inside now, what used to be my worst side is now nigh on my best, and if I ride out toe-side all the way, only foot-switching if I come off the foil, then the ensuing gybe on the outside can be uber sweet; which now has me thinking that I should also practice foot switches when riding regular so I'm in a toe-side stance ready for the outside gybe.
Still the big question, which is sort of bothering me, which I allude to further down, is that I have a smaller board and smaller wings that I know I should use, but I'm enjoying my wing-foiling so much and know each session I'm getting better.
I'm also a little concerned as to my feet placement on the board as I am very offset and not at all over the centre line of the board, but again there seems to be two schools of thought on this, and again it doesn't seem to be affecting my progression, and it could be that on a big barge type board (125lt) and 1750 foil you can get away with a wider stance etc
Interestingly, after the session in the video below, the wind continued to build, and it was gusting 30's when I went out again, this time on the Ezzy V3 3.5, and it was quite hectic to say the least, but again I found myself handling the conditions well with a series of successful gybes.
The day before yesterday was my first outing with the 6.0 Ezzy and I headed up wind for around 10km and was stunned at how much better the wing was in overall performance to my Ensis 6.1 and came back home in an ever decreasing wind, and at times managed to pump and get going in not a lot of wind, and it's the full length boom and tight canopy of the Ezzy that helps in that department!
16th July
I have taken quite a battering in the past six or so weeks, and ironically, on the days when it wasn't windy and very calm, I then swam 1,100m along the coast, sometimes twice a day, so my shoulders have not exactly had a rest!
As ever in those six weeks, I had some sessions where it seemed I was going backwards, and then the following day I'd have my best ever session!
My gybes are progressing well, and I've been coming out of the inside one riding toe-side; in fact I can see why so many people choose to ride toeside as the subsequent gybe on the outside is so much easier, especially out on a rough sea with a swell running.
And I'm becoming more aware, looking at all the videos on social media, that by far the vast % are all filmed on relatively flat water in comparison to what I'm enduring, and it reminds me of windsurfing where many never ventured to the Coast as they could not handle the conditions, preferring the flat water of lakes, estuaries and harbours.
And when Wing-Foiling, the chop/swell can have such a major effect on gybing, which is already difficult enough as it is.
In the last handful of sessions, I'm gybing far more consistently and as you can see in the video below, on the outside foot switches are not too bad, and sometimes I'm amazed at my recoveries.
What I should add here, and I almost feel guilty/embarrassed/ashamed, is that I'm more than happy riding my 125lt board with it's large front wing.
I did go out on the 90lt and had a horrendous time, even though I was using that quite a few times last summer, and thought, why am I bothering when I can have a pleasant fun session on the 125?
So I'm still keen and know that I should get out on the smaller board and the smaller wings that I have, and indeed will use those when I go to a location where the water is flatter.
The eye-opener for me this Summer is a small-sized wing.
In the past six weeks, I've ended up being very maxed on my 4.5 Ezzy with winds gusting mid to high 20s (MPH).
I do have a 3.5 Ensis but it has soft-handles, and the Ezzy's with hard handles, have just been in a different league, so I'm now the proud owner of an Ezzy V3 3.5, and that is even better than my V2 Ezzy's, as it has a one-piece carbon boom, slightly narrower, and I did think that on launching I really should be on the 4.5 but I had no issues getting going, and it seemed that with the smaller wing I wasn't having, in tennis speak, so many unforced errors, aka Wipe-Outs, so talk about coming full circle, two years ago advocating go big with your Wings, and now singing the praises of smaller sized wings.
And then a few days ago, we had a very gusty cross-offshore wind, and from the North East, so not our usual side, in fact, we refer to it as the Devil's tack, and we very rarely windsurfed in it as you never had a good session, and you certainly would not kitesurf in that direction!
Even though there was not a lot of wind on the inside, on the 125 I was able to wobble out to the wind-line and had by best ever session, as you can see in the video, and blink and you'll miss those feet switches :)
And like I mentioned, I think it can be very easy to get into a habit of riding toe-side for fear of the foot switch, and I totally get that, plus you can pretty well make the outside gybe and feel like a super-star, so going for the foot switch just increases the chances of falling in etc, however maybe that's one of the advantages of a bigger board, as it's more forgiving.
I'm just hoping my years of kitesurfing with a directional surfboard and subsequent feet switching will finally help me in this sport :)
Back out on to the sea where I live and....
So just when you think you've mastered the gybe?
I was thinking that this week (see below) after three sessions, with the wind ballistic, gusting 40+mph, and I was on a 3.5; however I was on flat water, which is so much easier than the open sea with a running swell after those winds! I live more or less on the beach, so for me it's so much easier to just walk across the road with my gear, however.........my newfound confidence in gybing did help, and I was even attempting to "flag" the wing, but the swell did have a nasty habit of bringing out the inner cussing demon.
And apologies for the flailing red rope in the video; and I should mention the helmet I'm wearing, as I switched from a heavy Gath helmet that when wet must have weighed 2kgs+ and would help with the whiplash when hitting the water hard, the helmet I'm wearing is Petzl Meteor climbing helmet weighing only 200gm which I use for ski-touring, and it's SO MUCH better!
Last update 6th June 2026
What a week!
I arrived back to the UK last week of May, and to a bonkers heat-wave, so it was out with the SUPs and some truly glorious conditions with the sea temperature the warmest I've known for that time of year, but no wind.
Then as ever, we went from Summer to Autumn in the blink of an eye it seemed, though to be fair my first two sessions were out on the sea in front of where we live and where I run the Weather Station and webcam and it was classic Worthing South Coast conditions with hardly a cloud out at sea but yet inland was a massive cumulous nimbus cloud fest and looking at the rain-radar there was a lot of rain with occasional thunderstorms.
My first session back out I went with the Ezzy 5.0 and RRD 125 and was all over the place for the first 15 minutes, but then I gradually calmed down and started to get better runs and even a few survival gybes, and it was a slightly better scenario the next day, but on the Ezzy 4.5 in ever increasing winds, and again I managed some nigh on decent gybes which were so much better than usual in terms of feeling as they just seemed to be in slo-mo with loads of time switching hands with the wing overhead; it was most encouraging!
After my session the wind really kicked in gusting mid 40's (mph), and sea-state started getting very big.
Next day there was a big sea running and wind's still gusting mid 40's and the forecast was grim, but still on a high I went down to the river at Shoreham, which I refer to as the playground, the only issue is that in a S'ly you can only really sail straight across it, shore to shore, so there was no option but to gybe all the time, and again even in nukin winds in foul weather I was getting a much better success rate; that was on an Ensis Score 3.5 with soft handles and the RRD 125 Beluga.
Next day even windier, and still on the soft handles Ensis Score 3.5 and RRD 125 Beluga; but brighter and wind WSW'ly, which means you can sail along the river, so cover more distance. Some of the gusts coming through were ballistic, but again considering the conditions I was getting a fair % of gybes in, and even linking some toe-side ones together!
I was hoping to be able to wing the following day from home as it's a bit of a stress fest driving down to the river, what with the parking and remembering to take all the gear, and then not leave/loose any of it; the previous day I lost my glasses for around 3 hours, the joy of someone of my vintage :)
However the left over sea state was still too big even though the wind's had eased, and this time I opted to put my contact lenses in after I'd bought a small magnifying mirror so could see what I was doing, or more importantly be able to take them out afterwards.
Weather was superb, wind more mellow and I went with the Ezzy 5.0 and that really was the best ever session, even though at times the wind was all over the place, but that comes with the territory of sailing inland searching out flat water.
One of the benefits of completing a decent % of gybes is that your average speed shoots up as you’re not flailing around in the water after each failed gybe.
So the big question is why all of a sudden I can gybe, for sure there are still many issues, one of the most frustrating being the leash getting wrapped around various parts of my body restricting a more fluid transition of the wing above me, and then there are the feet sometimes getting glued to the board and not wanting to hop back to heel-side; I sometimes wonder if that's why you see so many riding toe-side, but there again pulling off a toe-side to heel-side gybe is so much easier :)
A friend, an instructor also told me to push the wing more forward and almost forget about it, and then look at your watch or something, and I sort of get that
That's been five days of pretty intense winging and I'm having a day off, as weather is again grim, and it's still windy though tomorrow is looking windy and sunny again.
So do I opt for the river again, though tides are not as good or wait and see what the sea-state is like to wing in the front garden which is always hassle free as I just walk out from home, take my board out of the van and walk across to the beach.
Only issue to all the above was that I was hoping to film my new found skill-sets with the GoPro but the SD card in it failed, so whilst I think I did get some good footage it is lost :(
Last update 4th September 2025
So it's been two years now; however, I should add that I spend less than six months in the UK*, though I do try to foil for a couple of weeks in June on the lake near to us in the mountains of Serre Chevalier at Lac Serre Poncon, in the Hautes Alpes, but the wind Gods have never really delivered the goods there, as that would be such an excellent place to progress.
*which usually ties in with my threshold of not going out in sub 10° wind chill.
Just a quick recap about me, now approaching my 67th year, weigh circa 80kgs and I have windsurfed and kitesurfed for a good 40 of those to a reasonable standard.
I live on the beach here at Worthing on the UK South Coast, so I often opt to wing from here rather than get in the van with all the gear, and maybe that's restricted my progress in terms of consistency when it comes to gybing, but I can handle quite rough conditions that I think would be challenging for good "Pond Wing Foilers", and of course we have the dreaded string wind, just to add to the overall frustration :)
Looking back at my Strava log those 100 sessions roughly equate to 100hrs, and an hour in tough conditions on the open sea is roughly all that my body can take, whilst on flat water in more favourable conditions I'll do 90 mins no problem and it's usually the tides that curtail a session, well especially on the tidal river local to me at Shoreham.
And that time spent raises some interesting conclusions as it were, when I reflect back on the time we used to spend windsurfing a long time ago, as it seemed that we spent hours on the water, coming back in for a chat, drink, and then going back out again, but also back then (like the kids below) maybe we had no domestic pressures?
Maybe it was the kitesurfing that seemed to put a cap of around an hour on a session, as it was not so easy to take a break. And when I witness the young 50kg kids on the lake, they're out for hours, and it's no wonder that compared to guys over 40 they progress so rapidly due to the inordinate amount of time they spend on the water and they will merrily be playing around with the Wing even if there's not enough wind to get up on the foil, similar to how we'd freestyle on long windsurf boards when there was not enough wind to get planing.
I did purchase a 125 RRD Beluga with a massive 1750 foil and 373 rear, which was more for the lake as bouyancy was much more of an issue there with the lighter winds, (though still keeping the Nasih 90 Hover) and that is far more forgiving and stable than the more twitchy 90 married with a 1400, and in looking at numerous "how to gybe videos" many often reccomend a larger volume setup, and I need all the help I can get :)
The "Intermediate Goal", like in short board windsurfing, is about nailing consistent carving/foiling gybes.
So far this year, 2025, as at the end of August, I've had 25 sessions, and 17 of those have been on the sea in front of where I live, and when I've been on a lake and or the river with decent wind, then my gybe attempts are so much better/consistent than on the sea (video below) where I live.
I'd probably had a run of ten tough sessions on the sea before I ventured back to the playgound (river) where I first learnt, and where normally on the sea out of 50 gybes I might get close to making 5, on the river it was nigh on the opposite with me dropping only 10% or so, admittedly not all were foiling and a fair number I ended taxiing out of them, but great progress, but why?
I did think that stiff handles made all the difference over soft ones?
I was 90% sure that using a Wing (Ezzy V2) with hard handles over my Ensis Spin 6.1 with soft handles made all the difference; or was it my technique just getting better?
And to a certain extent, I do think it's down to technique, as yesterday I was on a 3.5 Ensis with soft handles and had my best sequence of consistent foiling gybes, or maybe it was just the smaller wing?
It seemed that quite often with the 6.1 Ensis I'd end up with the wrist leash wrapped around my head, and or my elbow, which was really frustrating just as I'd come out of a gybe ready to try and switch and then having leash issues.
What I have learnt is to try and get the wing as far above my head as possible, though I suspect if I was videoed I could still position it higher, and with the hard handles it seemed that switching hands was not so much of an issue, even if I found myself coming out of the gybe with an underhand grip, I could if neccessary switch my grip to overhand without letting go of the wing, which was often the case with soft handles!
But by far the biggest technique gain is "Speed is your Friend"
When skiing the old adage "Speed is your Friend" is never truer when skiing off-piste and encountering different types of snowpack, in fact, nearly as bad as hitting string weed with a foil :)
My last few sessions on the river I seemed to gain more confidence with nigh on each gybe, as I went into them with more speed, leaning into the turn pressinng my knees forward, all pretty similar to a fast short board windsurfing gybe; and then it was getting to the point where the whole transition of the wing was nigh on in slow motion as it seemed I had so much time, and that was quite a "light bulb moment", it also helped that it was solid wind which made for being able to pull off surprising recoveries as I could balance in effect against the pull of the wing.
And again back on a choppy sea with little waves rolling in on the inside, I found it very difficult to get anywhere near the same speed, trying to search out a flatter stretch of water, though unlike windsurfing, on a foil you're somewhat handicapped as you can't come in too close where the water is flat, so I'd catch an edge, or the nose would run down into the chop in front, or the foil would simply breach; and if that didn't all happen, the string seaweed would finish me off :)
However, on the outside, I had better luck as I used the swell to commence the gybe and found I had more time to try and transition, but it was still very difficult, and I surmise not helped by the barge of a board* and size of foil* that I'm using, but it is very forgiving.
And then there's the feet
I've been kiting with a directional surfboard for quite a few years, and did think my foot switching would not be an issue, but again on the sea and up on the foil it was another area of weakness, but again "Speed is your Friend" and a quick hop is better than a shuffle, but I still find myself waiting for the right moment to change and the longer you take so the chances seem to increase of it going wrong.
And in the midst of writing this up, I've been back out kitesurfing on my directional in a relatively big sea, and my feet were hopping back n'forth without too many issues all the time thinking why can't I do this on the foil :)
At one point I did think that I was going down the route of finding one side better than the other, but now I'm not so sure. When kitesurfing on the surfboard, I could kite along toeside/switch all the time, so often feet were not an issue, but that on a foil is still a long way off.
When I look back at how many hours it took to master carving gybes at speed windsurfing, especially when racing in the old Fat Face events at Hayling maybe wing foiling has a shorter learning curve?
But again, the difference between flat water and a challenging sea is immense.
But aside from gybes, what next is exciting me?
The last few sessions out on the sea I've been out with quite a long period swell running and I've tried letting go of the backhand and trying to glide, and I'm up to around ten seconds, though I'm not truly flagging out; but I know that the conditions we have here are ideal for gliding as we don't have classic surfing rollers, but out to sea we often have a good rolling swell, so I'm quite motivated at the thought of that.
However, I know I'll have to get back onto my 90lt board (video below) and smaller foil more often to try and give me a better chance of mastering the gliding rather than consistently breaching using the barge* :)
*RRD 125 Beluga matched with 1750 front and 373 rear
And one slight dehabilitating issue, Wing Foiling with Plantar Fasciitis
Over the past year of so I've had a few issue with what I thought was simple bruising of the heel, and this is very much brought about by the amount of running I do/did. My campaign this year was quite intense for an old guy, running up and down the likes of the Col du Galibier and Col d'Izoard and then on returning back to sea-level, banging out a 5km Park Run in 23:42.
And the coup de grace was another fast 5km wearing some carbon-plated ultra-light race shoes, and that did for me, and that was nigh on 8 weeks ago, and now what is worse apart from not running is that both wing foiling and kite surfing very much exacerbate it.
In that time, I'm now very much up to speed on the ailment that is Plantar Fasciitis, and I have numerous stretching and roller protocols I follow nigh on three times a day and is slowly working along with wearing orthotics from my ski-boots and having new ones made.
So I've taken to wearing orthotics in my Atan water slippers, and that has gone some way to help when wing foiling, but not when kitesurfing, so something I'm having to manage, and I did find kitesurfing that the full length orthotics were a bit restricting when hopping around on the surfboard changing tack, so I've ordered up some 3/4 length ones.