2023 - what do you need

[Quadzilla]

I’m thinking about a helmet for going up and down. I’ve only worn a hat for the past forty plus years.
Any suggestions? I looked at one from BCA that might fit the bill. I live in the Midwest, no serious mountaineering, just pointing them downhill and aiming for the spaces between the trees. That and those occasional big rocks that aren’t really covered with enough snow.

I use a Salomon MTN LAB helmet and use it exactly the way you describe. On at the car, off at finish. Light weight and has the chops to be protective for resort skiing too. It has a warm and cold weather kit so can be adjusted for whatever the temps are. Downsides are that it is expensive but so versatile.

[SPQR]

I added a Duotone Slick SLS wing to my wing foil quiver. Two years ago I started on a Naish Hover Crossover with Naish wing. This year have been using a Fanatic Sky Wing and Fanatic 3.0 Al foil. The new Duotone wing differs from the Naish as it has a mini boom. With 42 years of windsurfing experience, 20 years of kitesurfing the boom just seems so natural and easy to use with the Duotone wing. With both kids completing grad school and with good jobs we’re headed to Kauai next month and Maui/Kauai in Oct so I might add an inflatable Fanatic foil board to the quiver so I can bring a complete wing foil setup on trips. The new inflatable boards are really nice too and great for storage.

[SPQR]

As far as price goes the wing gear has become more expensive each year. I have a few buddies who have purchased carbon boards and full carbon foils by Armstrong and that adds up to over 4K and that doesn’t include the wing, wetsuit, helmet (?), impact vest, radio for venturing a couple miles offshore or my favorite wing dinging under the north tower at the Golden Gate Bridge. So yeah not so cheap but addictive and fun. Plus it’s good to learn new skills, muscle memory, and new techniques for wind sports.

[Quadzilla]

Quad, interested in your take on these options.

I am 63 kg, not counting wet suit/pfd/helmet.
Time on wing foiling gear = 3 hours
time flying on foil = 5 seconds.
4.5M wing + 135 liter board (6 foot hard board) + 1700 cm^2 foil


Price for these subtract VAT, add shipping = about the inc VAT price on their website
boards:
keeping in mind inflatable boards are generally thicker, so have more volume for the same outline

https://www.gong-galaxy.com/en/product/gong-wing-foil-board-inflatable-hipe-first/

$300
either the 5-11 or the 5-5. I am leaning towards this as a first board, solely because it appears totally adequate and really well priced.

https://www.gong-galaxy.com/en/product/gong-foil-board-inflatable-hipe/

$700
5-3 or 5-5. better than the above but 2x the price

https://www.gong-galaxy.com/en/product/gong-wing-foil-board-inflatable-hipe-pro/

$750
5-3 or 5-6


foil:

https://www.gong-galaxy.com/en/product/gong-wing-foil-allvator-v2-x-over-alu/

$440
in large, 1550 cm^2

I will likely pick up a used wing locally in hood river. looking at 4 to 4.5M as a first wing for the gorge. if its nuking, i will be kiting. if its light, i will be biking.

Well IMO, at your weight you should look for a board that is approx your weight in KG +40 as a baseline for a aggressive beginner. So that means a board around 100-110 liters of volume. At this size you can slog without sinking and uphaul the wing as well as knees to feet starts. It would have the range of light air to maybe low twenties. I would look for a 5.0 wing so you would have the right power for light wind to build a foundation. A 5.0 would still be use able in 20. Foil size around 1200-1600 and mast 70-80 would be a good size too. As far as inflatable versus Hard board. inflatable is light, compact and durable but won't plane up as fast as a hardboard. Around here there are a mainly Gong from France woth their wings and foils, they seem to ave a good price point and good durability. There is also a brand called Lahoma with good price point and look good too. If it were me I would look at the Lohoma complete kit as it is distributed in US. I think where you live there would be a lot of used deals on wing gear.

Winging is a great sport, it caters to gals and kids as it is light and safe. For us we have met some great new people and where we go it is like a family.

Anyway, this posting got me to take my camera out yesterday. I am on the sidelines for a while as I dislocated my hip a month ago and not winging for while. Lynn is really good at winging, she is out everyday and in certain conditions nobody better here. There is a group of gals too and really push each other.

Some pics from yesterday, 6-7 late in the day, just Lynn working on light air foiling tacks and jibes. Her board is a 110, 5.4 wing and 1250 foil. She can uphaul this setup in light air. wind is 10-15

[SPQR]

Quad how did you hurt your hip? Old football injury?

[Quadzilla]

Quad how did you hurt your hip? Old football injury?

Actually first joint on me to dislocate and I have had plenty of surgeries and broken bones. No dramatic wreck but just doing something stupid. I have been doing some balance drills as part of my workouts and lately pushing it. So I was doing some one legged drills on a bosu ball blind folded and got my weigh going the wrong way and my hip just blew out of the socket. I hit the floor and grabbed my knee and was able to get it in. I got to my feet and was able to walk, I decided to not go to ER or Ortho unless it developed inpingment or locked. Anyway, it got swollen and black and blue but pretty mobile, now a month later riding my bike about 80% and back to balance drills on a lesser level. I actually feel blessed it wasn't worse

[jasonq]

quad,
thanks for the thoughts. my plan is to buy gong new over winter for what i can't find a better deal used locally. Lots of stuff used local, good used wings at good prices can be found regularly (i JUST missed getting a really nice swingwing v2 at a great price), but foils and boards seem overpriced on the used market here.

i'm also going to the AWSI trade show in hood river in a few weeks to see the next years gear. I have a "shop", Sherman WindSports Supply, and i go every year. My shop is on sherman ave, in my garage, and has a very exclusive clientele. Nothing like touching all the goods to figure things out.

[SPQR]

You can learn on used gear but if you want to grow into your gear I would say buy new if you can. My latest foil for example isn’t backwards compatible with older Fanatic ones (fine by me) but equipment improvements are being made in this sport constantly.

[SPQR]

Well Quad glad to hear you are ok, that hip stuff can be bad.

[levieu]

First for summer i purchase a gravel bike BMC URS LT2 with Enve AG25 weels 2000k already. Now for skiing WTB a pair of Scarpa F3 26,5 + Michael bolt-on for Linx large…then for east coast Jay and Bromont a pair of ski for both carving and moguls with Outlaw. Need advice for this ski please?

[Quadzilla]

quad,
thanks for the thoughts. my plan is to buy gong new over winter for what i can't find a better deal used locally. Lots of stuff used local, good used wings at good prices can be found regularly (i JUST missed getting a really nice swingwing v2 at a great price), but foils and boards seem overpriced on the used market here.

i'm also going to the AWSI trade show in hood river in a few weeks to see the next years gear. I have a "shop", Sherman WindSports Supply, and i go every year. My shop is on sherman ave, in my garage, and has a very exclusive clientele. Nothing like touching all the goods to figure things out.

Good plan, you are the kind of person who would love Wing Foiling with the technical aspect of it and of course where you live. Compared to kiteboarding you will get many more days on the water as you can get out for a session in marginal conditions without worry of getting stuck or finding someone to launch you. Anyway, If possible try to match the board with a foil from the same brand because the foil would be designed to work with that board. So Gong/Gong. As far as wings, V3's are way better than V2's across all brands, not so much durability but range and performance. You will be good at this..............

[bauerb]

yesterday I signed up to teach little kids to nordic ski race out here in Montana. so looks like I will need to buy some nordic skis...I grew up nordic racing, just haven't owned nordic skis in a long time

I also need to sort out my 22yo bike. I bought it before "gravel" was a thing...but I can see the gravel potential...it has high pressure road-ish tires on weird aero rims...the bike is bone-stock the way I bought it. hopefully the rims can support a modern gravel tire.

[Quadzilla]

Well go down to your LBS and see what a gravel bike is. Your bike is basically a hybrid mtb/street bike and more leaning to dirt bike with the front shock. Gravel bike tires would be too skinny for your rims and yours would be 26 and gravel is probably taller. If it were me I would strip that bike of all that unnecessary stuff, replace the tires with the biggest aggressive tires that would fit and ride it on legitimate mtb trails ....

[bauerb]

my nearest bike shops are either in Cody or Billings. maybe I will take a look next time I am in either of those places.
I basically keep my bike around so that I can stash it at the tops of mountains and ride it down after roller skiing up.

[jtb]

Did you move? For some reason I thought you were in Pennsylvania.

Those wheels look like the ones on my old school road bike that is my practice rig (27x1.25 in my case). They strike a nice balance between low resistance for packing on the miles but a large cross section for comfort/safety/durability. I agree with Quad that they don't really belong on a gravel bike. I think these days we would call them touring tires.