WINGS - what has gone wrong and one thing that hasn't

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RAF142134 said..
Hey to all you amazing wingers
so I guess I am about hitting the second winter of winging (stood on a poisonous rockfish the other day - wow it burned)
and this is what has gone wrong with the various wings I use

- handles wear and tear off
- canopy rip stop rips up
- canopy gets pin holes
- canopy gets stretched and bags out
- canopy top side gets worn through abrasion on rough concrete surfaces
- bladders have hematomes
- bladders leak at the heated seam
- bladders get pinholes
- bladders pop out of tip pocket and burst
- valve inflation structure leaks and doesn't seal air out
- main valves and one pump valves leak at their heated seam
- deflation valve at center strut the pull tab breaks off and there are sealing issues
- one pump hose valve to valve deteriorates splits and leaks
- center strut and leading edge splits on a seam
- center strut and leading edge the dacron rips open
- center strut and leading edge material balloons out of shape into a 'bump'
- center strut and leading edge tips get very worn
- leash swivel breaks
- rope type leash cord frays and breaks
- wing bag gets dirty and torn

the one point where I have not yet had a failure is the zip, none of my zips has failed so far, so thumbs up to the zips

Geeze, you should name and shame those mfgs....

In 2.5 years winging I've:

Ripped off flag handle punching thru a wave (Epic wing)
Broken wing leash stitching (Reedin) resulting in wing on the rocks

Seems like a lot of people have bladder issues, I've never had one across any of the brands I've used (Epic, Reedin, Gong, PPC, North). I roll my wings up immediately after deflating, never hung one to dry or rinsed off the salt water, coincidence or good luck?
I guess I'm also lucky that I rig on grass or sand, no pavement or thorny plants around

Otherwise it's all been foils through the canopy, can't blame that on the wing.

PPC.....no issues so far, but like Hilly, plenty of self inflicted. Been on the same wings for three years. I refuse to try my mates new wings as I am really happy with mine, and don't want to know of just how good the new models and makes of wings are.

Select to expand quote

RAF142134 said..
Hey to all you amazing wingers
so I guess I am about hitting the second winter of winging (stood on a poisonous rockfish the other day - wow it burned)
and this is what has gone wrong with the various wings I use

- handles wear and tear off
- canopy rip stop rips up
- canopy gets pin holes
- canopy gets stretched and bags out
- canopy top side gets worn through abrasion on rough concrete surfaces
- bladders have hematomes
- bladders leak at the heated seam
- bladders get pinholes
- bladders pop out of tip pocket and burst
- valve inflation structure leaks and doesn't seal air out
- main valves and one pump valves leak at their heated seam
- deflation valve at center strut the pull tab breaks off and there are sealing issues
- one pump hose valve to valve deteriorates splits and leaks
- center strut and leading edge splits on a seam
- center strut and leading edge the dacron rips open
- center strut and leading edge material balloons out of shape into a 'bump'
- center strut and leading edge tips get very worn
- leash swivel breaks
- rope type leash cord frays and breaks
- wing bag gets dirty and torn

the one point where I have not yet had a failure is the zip, none of my zips has failed so far, so thumbs up to the zips

I wonder what you do to your wings and what brand they are.
I've been in the sport a year longer than you and my wings get used frequently throughout the year in saltwater and freshwater in all sorts of wind speeds and in temperatures ranging from about zero to 35 degrees. With the whole family having started, they get a fair bit of use by riders from 35 to 90 kilograms.
While my second AK Phazer has almost had it (the first one died within a year and was thankfully repleced by a new one),
my Ensis wings have caused my no trouble.
The Scores range from 2,8 to 4,5 and some of them have patches in places where they were pierced by foils or stabilizers, can't blame them for this.
My 5,2 had its front handle reattached, This was a construction issue those wings had back then. It was the only occasion my favourite sailmaker had to do work with them, I fear he will soon go out of business if everybody changes to winging from windsurfing.

Some of my friends have had quite a history of destroying boards but none of them seem to have noteworthy issues with their wings.

Well, ok, one of my ION leashes broke, which I found unexpected, irritating and dangerous, so I go along with you in this respect. I had expected the leash to have a thin cable in the telephone cord but failed to find one.

About 400 sessions between 2 wingers on F1 and Duotone wings. Aside from damage in crashes, the only problems encountered were a couple of pinholes in the center bladder for which there was no good explanation. But that was easily fixed.

One F1 wing was "used up" in somewhere between 100-150 sessions, and replaced with a new one (purchased). The old wing still works, but is very bagged out. It still gets some use when working on new tricks, where the likelihood of falls where the wing may hit the foil is high.

A few other local wingers had more problems with their wings (mostly pinholes), but they could often be traced back to careless handling.

The only piece of winging equipment that I was really unhappy with was a board that took damage way too easily. The repair showed that was partly due to "light" construction, but mostly due to a manufacturing problem (sanding through the glass on a rail, so the top layer was directly on the foam). This was from brand that sold at about 1/2 of the price of other brands at this time (while still selling through stores), so no big surprise there.

I mountain bike with a friend who is always complaining about how stuff breaks all the time...we ride the same trails, if anything, I ride faster. He has a special knack for breaking things, and I almost never do. I do see plenty that he does that I would never do, because they cause things to break...whatever, but I don't buy into his complaints that everything is junk.

That said...I have no idea what explains your experience...that's a bummer