Downwind Foiling: What they don't tell you.. 

very instructive. thank you so much

I can’t wait to try this sport as an old skimboarder.A tip . Pump with front leg only. Use back leg to stabilize nose. Just to get it down then pump both legs when get better.

Nice one it sure takes a lot of organising 😊

Will follow your journey with keen interest. I think you have the right attitude and plan, working on your paddling and wave riding, then down winding 👍🏻

Gong Cruzader is also really nice for lightwind wingfoiling. Im tempted, too 😅

Just learning on my 8x21 DW. Learning to stand up and wing in medium wind in a bay. I’ve been told our area (San Diego) is not good for DW but we do have surfing potential in remote spots. Following your journey. Good luck.

I've started the DW journey and at the point where I can do 10km runs in about an hour, so still lots of falling! I would suggest you carry on doing the winging upwind to come back downwind up to the point where you are riding the bumps for long enough that the wing really starts to get annoying and intrudes on the whole riding experience. Then you are starting to read bumps and beginning to understand where you need to put yourself and can then start thinking about bringing the paddle and DW board into the mix. While learning how to read bumps on the wing, get out on the DW board regularly and practice paddling up on to foil. It doesn't need to be flat water, and SUP foil surfing is a good idea, but you need the physical fitness and power and technique that only time with a paddle can give. The fully committed route is to give up winging and just take the DW board and paddle on the train like you say, and throw yourself into doing it. It's brutal, but probably the quickest way of learning, along with getting some coaching, from the Coach Casey Club for example. Good luck, and remember to enjoy the process and celebrate the small victories... 🤙

Better parking upwind, and comeback by train. By doing so you'll only have to carry a waterproof backpack with a screwdriver, a belt, a short and a t-shirt. Lighter and less bulky than a pump + you can stop at the train station you want. I'm very used to shuttle by train/bus/inch-hiking because I do whitewater SUP, and both way have pros and cons (for example if you have 3 trains a day, better taking the train first). By the way i gave up supfoil dw. With a wing, of with an hybrid kite, you can go kilometers downwind much more easily, and you can do the upwind first. You can as well go upwind with the wing, then deflate, but it's more difficult because you have to carry your wing on your back (deflate it dry at shore if you can, because you don't want to carry sea water in your backpack), and you start already a bit tired by the upwind ride. Same as with the train: if you can better downwind first (there are very small pumps for wings, it's not like the pumps for inflatable sup). Attaching the paddle to the wing works quite well, no issue on that point

My sup foil board is also 120L and your experiences mirror mine. I can navigate that volume all day long on flat water but being ~100KG it becomes quite the workout to balance on choppy swells. I do have a good amount of sup experience but I could also use a higher volume sup foil board for a downwinder.

Would it be possible to leave the pump and the bag at the upwind spot? Or is it too risky for somebody to steal them?

really nice video, congratz! is it possible to do downwind in a big wing board? I have a F-One Rocket Wing 5’10 110L board, is it possible or it will be very hard?

All good ideas, achievable. You also need to invest time in pump training; it's incredibly important!

I am looking at the zuma6.0 95l for wingfoil ... I did a lot of kiteboarding and downwinders and we usually have a kite buddy, So we used to drop one car downwind and then drive to the spot together pump the kites and put all unneeded equipment in the car then launch, we would finish the downwinder and drive back to the other car. You can also ask your wife to take you upwind luanch there and then exit at your local beach. I think your over complicating things a little with the equipment. The zuma 6.6 should be good as a downwind board as it has volume and length for lulls. Maybe bigger front wing or taller mast will give you more room for error and reduce touching down all the time. Truthfully the reason we did the downwinder was to take advantage of the waves and ride without having to go upwind to the break again, sometime we were a little short of wind so going upwind was hard, once we got really good/or had good wind we found a spot and would were able to go downwind and upwind at will the downwinder was a little obsolete. You can also do smaller downwinders and given the wingfoil goes upwind well just head back to your beach of origin. From what I hear avoid inflatable boards they are harder to work with and get on foil...

Interesting! Thanks! Where ist your spot? Seems to be good...regards from Germany 😊

Like surf foil it's much harder than it look and they dont tell you of course. Some said even in wing it's was complicated because the board are very narrow. Carefull with thw hipe cruzader one guy reviewed it in the french forum he got the board while waiting for the hard version and he wasnt happy about it’s, those thing need to bounce properly on the water it’s how they fly earlier balancing back and forth.

Buy a foil drive!!!

Brands are Selling dream with DW as they do with winging. Winging avertissement and mag you see pro riders in very hollow wave in Maui, etc. Average winger ride Max shloulders high onshore waves.... DW communication is nearly all about riding open sea far from shore, big swell , Strong wind. Reslity will be big DW foil, 8 foot 19inch , dw board riders going to pour waves , Small near, where it is already crowded with blue foamy boards, paddles inflatable, in Beaches with parking lot Not far from spot😂 Only very fiew will go outside above 2km from shore.... Only fiew guys

Find a friend 😂😂😂

Just get an efoil problem solved 😊