November 3rd First Wing-foil Challenge (Wing 4.0 m² Foil board!)

2026年1月3日 2026年1月3日

viva-wingfoil

Finally, this day has come.
Today is my first practice on the long-awaited Wing-foil board.

Last time, I was almost swept out to the breakwater by the offshore wind, a bit of a 'near-miss stranding'.
Learning from that lesson, I thoroughly prepared countermeasures.
One is to attach a paddle to the board, and the other is the introduction of simple hand paddles.
They are for swimming training, but they significantly increase the efficiency of paddling by hand in an emergency.
Fortunately, today the wind was southwest onshore. I didn't end up using them, but it's always good to be prepared.

I arrived at the beach at 10:30.
The forecast predicted the wind to gradually pick up from 4 m/s to 7-8 m/s.
Many windsurfers were already setting up,
creating an atmosphere that suggested the wind would pick up.
However, at this point, it was still a light breeze.
Only a few people were out on the water.

After consulting with the instructor, I rented a dry suit and went into the sea today.
Until the wind picked up, I warmed up with SUP surfing.
The waves were small, but perhaps because I've gotten quite used to it,
rather than riding the waves, I simply enjoyed the sea.

After about 30 minutes, the wind started to pick up, and it was time for the main event.
I prepared the Wing, and Foil board practice began.

The foil is a sharp wing made of hard carbon or aluminum.
When launching, care must be taken not to injure oneself or others,
and riding in shallow water will damage the foil.
You ride it after taking it to chest-deep water—
I learned these basics from the instructor.
All of it made perfect sense, and I couldn't help but agree when listening.

Now, for the first Foil board experience.
I'm using a 140 L board for beginners.
However, compared to the over 200 L windsurfing boards I've used until now,
it easily becomes unstable with just shifts in my center of gravity forward, backward, left, and right.
A voice involuntarily escaped my lips, 'This is a completely different beast...'

First, practice catching the wind with the Wing while kneeling.
But even kneeling made it difficult to balance, and I quickly sank.
Nevertheless, the sense of Wing operation I had developed over several months came in handy.
If I felt the wind and finely adjusted my center of gravity, I could stand up and ride.
However, today's goal was not to 'foil',
but to practice upwind sailing without planing.
Although there was a temptation to plane,
I followed the instructor's guidance and focused on solidifying the basics.

Due to the characteristics of the Foil, the board is extremely unstable.
Jibing from a neutral position was more difficult than imagined,
but the accumulated practice from before paid off,
and the success rate was about 70%. I was surprised by how responsive it felt.

After repeating about 10 round trips, the wind picked up even more, and the swell also grew larger.
At this point, today's practice concluded.

Honestly, I didn't reach planing, and there was a slight feeling of regret.
However—I gained the conviction that, as long as there is wind, I can reliably sail with this Foil board.
Gaining that confidence was the greatest reward.

The timing of lifting off, the transition to planing, and then wave riding.
I could finally see the path forward to the next steps.

First Wing-foil experience, a solid step.
Today was a satisfying day.