Once I progressed and moved down to a smaller wing foil board I needed to learn how to knee start. In this video series I show and explain how to go from kneeling to flying, on both low aspect foil wings and high aspect foil wings. The windier it is usually the rougher the water is and the harder it is to stand up. The first four videos are with a high aspect wing at different locations around the San Francisco Bay in 12 to 40mph winds. The fifth video shows my beginner setup: giant board, foil, and wing and how I bypassed the knee start on such stable and easy to fly gear. The sixth video shows how I moved down to a smaller low aspect foil, boards, and wing and explains how I did both standing and knee starts. Both heel side and toe side starts are shown and explained in close up detail so you can see what my feet, hands, and body are doing to stay balanced and get flying.
Video 1 = 12:03
Video 2 = 11:57
Video 3 = 15:14
Video 4 = 18:31
Video 5 = 14:55
Video 6 = 10:42
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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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This series has many videos showing how to handle the wing for foil winging. Starting with the basics, on land and then in the water, of picking up the wing and turning it right side up and finishing at the point of ready to get up on the foil. I show and explain various ways of holding the wing, flipping the wing over, and moving forward and turning around without catching the wingtips. I show a few knee starts of getting up on the foil, focusing mainly on the wing handling (I will make a more in depth series on knee starts and getting up on the foil).
18 Videos.
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A simple and cheap tether to allow anyone to stay upwind while learning to handle the wing.
Only takes a few minutes to setup and remove without needing a new board or additional fins.
I spent hundreds of dollars on 3 piece adjustable paddles, and wasted countless hours paddling, walking, and biking back to my luanch point. I could have just used a tether, which I already had in the garage. I am certain I would have figured out the basics of wing handling on day one if I knew this simple tool to stay upwind.
Video 1 = 2:59
Video 2 = 0:18
Video 3 = 1:43
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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.
After completely flailing for 8 sessions I discovered how to wing foil with ease in sessions 9 and 10. In this first video I explain what didn't work for me and then I show and explain what did work and why it works. The second video I talk about safety and danger in offshore winds, and in the third video I explain what I did when the wind was coming from the opposite direction.
Also I added a video of my wing foil session log from my first 60 sessions, no foiling video just me showing and talking about my notes and how my first 60 sessions went.
For reference I am 6'6" tall and weigh 200 pounds, regular foot (left foot forward) is my strong or natural stance. At the bottom of this page I list my kite/wing/gear size for a given wind range. 8 videos.
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