Hi Breezers - what's your thoughts on using a DW board to learn winging? I'm frothing to get into DWing and my son is keen to learn winging. Not sure if a 19" or 20" wide board would be stable enough? He was struggling on my 75L board before which is 5' x 26"
I've just started using a 7'2" x 19" 103 litre DW board for winging and find it plenty stable for my 82kgs. On my second session on this board yesterday the wind came up enough for me to use my 4M wing for the first time so plenty of chop and gusts. The board was easy to stay up and standing waiting for a gust and when flying it doesn't seem to be affected by wind coming across the nose, it points exactly where I want it to go.
The Kalama E3 is 6'1" x 23" for 105 litres in comparison
Using a DW-board for learning - good idea!
We experienced the following:
As far as there's enough wind for the wing to stabilize the unbalanced beginner it's fine. Balancing on the Dw-board without wind or even with waves/bumps is more comfortable with a (wide) beginner board, of course.
My girlfriend (not on the foil yet, no board sport experience) usually confiscates my DW-board now as she appreciates the acceleration and less pumping effort very much.
The higher speed of the board also enables smaller wing sizes (-1 or -2 sqm) which are maybe easier to handle.
Yeah definitely heaps easier to learn to start plus you don't need as much wind , only down side I found in pretty solid surf the narrow width in the broken water was tricky to start the wider foot stance was better . Calm water though no down sides .,
Something I found interesting about winging on a downwind board is that it stays upwind so much better than a regular large volume board taxiing on the water's surface. The length of the board's rails seems to prevent me from slipping downwind. Perhaps it was the tides but I felt like I could stay upwind much easier. I'm curious if this is just me or if others have also noticed it. Part of the equation is that I spend way less time taxiing too, given how early the board takes off.
I started winging on my One Egg Pro 92L Downwind board. It worked great at 23 wide. Not too tippy.
Its very efficient while still being compact. works great SUP downwind too. (currently for sale, see Buy&Sell)
Learning to ding on a DW board should be all good, really any board will do! Some like the longer boards might come of the water a little earlier while shorter might eel nicer when pushing some turns.
Best thing to really help when learning is oversize the wing a little as being under powered sucks.
I do have to be honest and dinging on the longer boards kinda sucks after a while and besides getting up easier they just don't feel as nice. Great for maybe the learning like you want but long term smaller is better IMO.
5ft
5'10
7'2
