Hello all. Windsurfer for over 20 years and am toying with learning to wingfoil. Where I sail is on a bay so is a bit choppy to start with and then the prevailing wind is a Westerly which is always gusty. Base wind 10 knots the gusts will be 20. These conditions are tricky on the windsurfer and I was wondering if a wingfoil would handle these conditions any better. We have a couple of wingfoilers in the area and they seem to get out on the water a lot more than I can.
Yes I think wingfoiling handles gusty up and down conditions better than any other windsport. In the low end you can pump the board and wing to get going without much power. In the top end you can depower the wing really well. You can either sheet out to depower or you can complete flag out the wing and kill all the power.
You can also adjust the foil, board and wing size ratio for the conditions. For instance if I had a day with low average wind and strong gusts I would use a bigger board or foil and smaller hand wing.Giving good reliability and low end from the board/foil and still plenty of top end from the smaller hand wing.
another good reason to try foiling is all the choppy bay waves that are annoying when windsurfing become a super fun skate park on the foil. For windsurfing in the waves you need proper waves whereas with wingfoiling any bumps or rolling swell can be a lot of fun.
You describe my local conditions, although I'd rather be wave windsurfing in smooth air, where I am winging is far more pleasant and exciting.
I say go for it.
