Friends that learn foiling together…

Richard reached out looking for wing foiling lessons for himself and his longtime friend Greg. We settled on a couple of dates and watched the weather to pick the day with a good predicted southwest wind. They arrived by 15hp boat that they rented at Key Marina and settled in for a quick safety briefing and tour of the island. Richard had brought his own 150 L Slingshot board and 6.5 m wing. Greg wasn’t sure whether his knee was going to allow him to do any activities.

We did a quick trial on the simulator balance board inside the new Launch Pad building. Both guys were pretty natural at it. Just keep your eye on the horizon not on your feet. So we took the gear down to the point.

Down at the point the flags were flying in the stiffening breeze and we got ready for our session. I went through the full demo on the WeCANfoil gear using my foam “board” on the rocks. Grateful to WeCANfoil for the 5m North wing and 6”4’ North Seek Prime board with 2100 sonar foil. We then moved to the rotating simulator board where the guys got an even better sense of steering the board while in taxi position. They also learned how power up the wing when standing on something very wobbly.

I headed out to do a demo describing to the guys what I was doing over the BBtalkin headsets. I started with a self rescue demonstration. There was just enough wind at 10 to 12 kn for me to be able to pump onto the foil during a gust. There was barely enough for me to jibe. It was easy though for me to explain what was happening and what they would be doing when they got out on the water.

Richard started out on his own gear and was easily taxiing confidently across the wind - something he done a fair bit of. He was certainly suggesting that this was the most control he had - thanks to the simulator. There wasn’t enough wind for him to get up on the foil but he easily stayed up wind both on his knees or his feet. Especially remarkable were his low speed jibes which were very smooth.

Even with the soft top seek board Greg’s knee wasn’t enjoying the kneeling position. Getting up was not in the cards with the bruise he had on his knee from e-foiling a week ago. So he headed back to shore and started pumping up my 8m wing.

The 8m Duotone Ventis wing made a big difference and so I did another session on the water staying near Richard. I was enjoying the beautiful conditions and having two eager students. They were listening to my tips over the headsets and making mental notes from my chatter to make their foiling even easier in the future.

We took a break for lunch and came back out to the point. We decided that Richard would try my 8m wing instead of tow foiling. He did like the boom on it and the extra power. But the wind had dropped sub 10 knots and so he was not able to get up on the foil. Again, he stayed up wind easily and then headed all the way to the dock so that we wouldn’t have to walk back the gear. Pretty amazing he was able to hold the 8m without constantly getting the tip stuck in the water.

We enjoyed a cold drink and had some great conversations with Jen about foiling. After the builders finished for the day we did a longer tour of the new Launch Pad building.

I hope to see them on a nice and even windier SW day later in the fall when Greg’s knee is fully healed. I need to get a photo of the two buddies foiling next to each other (like the father son photo I got a few days later). New Launch Pad goal set - photo of Richard and Greg foiling together!