The first summer of winging, in a year of deep sorrow, brought me great joy. Uncertainty, chaos, fear, AND super super stoked! Riding the wind has been around forever, and yet this is the first year I really dedicated myself to learning how, or winging is so appealing the only choice for me, was YES! Seeing all my friends either join me in wing foiling or show a palpable curiosity in this new winging adventure, is proof for me that this is special. Who says "no thanks" to endless waves?
Length of Video - 8:12 (YouTube preview):
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After 6 months of Wing Foiling I can noticeably feel and see an improvement in my surf foiling. Ballpark this spring and summer of 100 wing sessions averaging 10 miles each is at least 1000 miles of foiling! Best guess is that the previous 3 years of surf foiling I had around 500 miles on the foil. The old saying, "Time on the water...", well time on the foil is huge for skills and mastery.
This video is of one of the best surf foiling days I have had yet. I had 3 peaks all to myself, 300-500 yards rides, s-turns all the way to the beach!
Length of video - 4:10 (YouTube Preview) :
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Looking back on my first handful of sessions, the hope of ripping around the bay on a wing foil seemed pretty far out of my reach. What gave me inspiration was how intuitively and quickly I learned the basics of flying a wing. Then my confidence plummeted as I tried to apply these skills in rough water. I kept going, listening to my gut as to what I needed to try next, on my 9th session I figured out what I needed and had success.
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Another 6 months or so of foil sessions, guesstimating my total to be somewhere between 250 and 300 sessions, I stopped counting at 150. I have not ridden a non-foil board since June of 2018 (2 days in Maui). The speed, length or ride, and maneuverability of a foil is so far beyond what I can do on a surfboard.
The best part is the freedom, the expansive open space to roam AND share a wave with multiple foilers, and we are stoked and welcome each other dropping in. The crowded, sitting in a claustrophobic pack of hostile short board wave jockeys seems so stifling and antiquated, I literally cannot imagine going back to that.
I now feel much kinship with the pelicans and all birds. A foil lineup looks more like the ancient Hawaiian and Polynesian depictions of their surfing - together - for joy and playing with each other in the ocean.
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A couple years back I tried a 360 camera while surfing. I scored some footage but the editing was an unexpected ridiculously long and tedious ordeal, and the camera was really heavy. So I sent it back and gave up on 360 VR video.
This week I found a lighter camera and am surprised at how relatively easy the software is to work with, and the GPS speed and distance overlay works! Foil surfing can difficult to capture with the long rides and the board being above the water and the hydrofoil submersed. The 360 cam seems like a good solution. So here is my second go at filming in 360 and first time uploading in immersive VR:
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Here is a video tutorial showing how I build with bamboo. I dedicated years to discovering how to make an action camera mount out of plants: bamboo, hemp, and plant based resin.
I procrastinated in making this tutorial partly because it's difficult to build and film at the same time, I had already made mounts for myself, and I enjoyed being one of the few with this unique camera angle.
Now with foil surfing I have seen a revival in foilers using pole cams, myself included. So I was inspired to make an ultralight bamboo design for foiling.
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