Hi all,
wondering what's people's experience to reflate a wing after a downwind run? Say if you are practicing your DW supfoil skills and then need to either wing it back to shore or you get tired or for some other reason.
are there good inflatable small pumps available ? What about an air canister ? Anchorman is a good solution to temporarily dump a wing but you do need to paddle back up to it (depending on drift rates etc).
J Casey has a video of that air canister idea from now a while back, I guess that's fallen out of favour now that Foildrive is here.
I think most people doing this are (a) very advanced, and comfortable that they wont fall or come off of foil and (b) many are lashing a paddle to the wing strut. They are using the wing to get out far enough for the big bumps, and then deflating and paddling up for the SUP downwinder. Casey is another animal doing these without a paddle - basically a prone downwinder once you are out there. I have heard discussion about experimenting with CO2 cartridges or mini pumps, but I don't think any of those concepts are broadly practical.
Yes I agree, what he is doing while in flight looks cumbersome and probably takes a whole level of skill. I was thinking more about having a paddle with me and having the option to re-inflate the wing BUT not carrying a big pump around on the water. Where I live the bumps are far out running parallel to the coast with a line of islands sheltering the inner waters so a re- inflate could probably be very practical at times.
Select to expand quoteWindyBear said..
Yes I agree, what he is doing while in flight looks cumbersome and probably takes a whole level of skill. I was thinking more about having a paddle with me and having the option to re-inflate the wing BUT not carrying a big pump around on the water. Where I live the bumps are far out running parallel to the coast with a line of islands sheltering the inner waters so a re- inflate could probably be very practical at times.
Could you carry a 1.27kg airbank puffer pro in your backpack? And re-inflate the wing on the water, sitting on the board.. but don't drop the pump in the water ! 
I guess it's either spending 5000 euro and carrying a few kilo of foildrive setup or spending 150 euro on an airbank.
Maybe someone comes up with a airbank waterproof puffer.
This guy uses a K-mini airpump to reinflate the wing.. takes him 5 minutes to do
