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Writer's pictureThe Launch Pad

Launchpad lessons for James and Sean

Updated: Aug 27

James called looking for wingfoiling lessons. He is a really nice guy and we quickly realized we knew each other from a past work lives - including when he did website work for my wife, Jennifer.


He had reached out looking to do a birthday event for his buddy Sean. We finally found a day that worked and it looked like there would be some wind. I picked them up and brought them out to the Launch Pad as they had booked multiple lessons. We saw a cute bear swimming across the river on the way there!


They were both interested in learning how to wing foil, but only had limited experience windsurfing. James was a sailor and had foiled before but I still felt a windsurfing refresher course would be beneficial for both of them. I was happy they agreed to my idea of doing some windsurfing, especially since the wind was a bit light. I sent James out on the 4.2m Fanatic Ice sail on the Fanatic Viper 80. Sean, being a bit smaller and with less sailing experience, I put on the Fanatic Viper HD with the 3.5 Chinook rig.




They did great and did not need any rescue or tow back upwind. I suggested we might want to break for lunch, but they both just wanted to keep sailing, having never quite realized how awesome windsurfing is. It was fantastic to be able to chat with them the entire time on the BBTalkin headsets.


Eventually, James and Sean did come in from windsurfing and we did a wing handling demo on the rock. They really liked the North demo wings we have on loan from WeCanFoil.


It had gotten windy for just a brief moment so friend Tom had a session on his 8m wing. I also took out Tom’s board and got one very, very very short moment of wing foiling in front of James and Sean. I was describing what I was doing to get on the foil during the 12 knot convection winds that came in nicely from 12:30 till 1pm.



After lunch we headed back out and the wind was decent for some more wing handling skills on the simulator. I think that was an awesome learning moment for James and Sean. Wing handling on the simulator uses fore and aft movement to steer the board and sheeting in with the back hand for power, just like windsurfing. After a few minutes getting competent with the wing on the simulator, we went out on the water.



James & Sean were both able to sail and steer the big windsurf boards with their wings. They didn’t even need a tow up-wind! After a good amount of time on the water we decided over the headsets that it was getting late in the day and it would be easiest to have them sail the boards down to the dock with their wings. They both came and landed gracefully on the dock.



We weren’t done for the day though. James felt he had enough energy to try foiling behind the boat. We set up the small 20 HP for the complimentary part of the lessons. I did the first demo on behind the boat with Jen driving and James taking photos. The big Stingray 140 windfoil board with the slow Slingshot 99 foil and short 60cm mast is so beginner friendly - but still fun for me!


Now it was James’s turn. He got up foiling amazingly well. We did a 180 out past the pier. As we came back and I insisted he try “over-foiling” and he fell off very gracefully.



With James’ help, my wife Jen got convinced to try it as well. It was her first time foiling behind the boat. She did great as well balancing nicely on the board with a very short moment up on the foil before the wake caught her from behind. Definitely, James being able to stay outside the wake contributed to his much longer run.



We had a solid debrief around the picnic table and had a great talk with Tom and Fauna about gear and what things to try next. My strong recommendation was to spend some more time windsurfing and then do some winging on land in the winter. Maybe a vacation in Hatteras or Bonaire, too?


Wow, just loving teaching here at the Launch Pad. What a great day with great students!

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