When will this stop hurting?

Well I've taken the plunge and started to learn to Wing Foil. I'm 2 sessions in and up and riding in both directions. I have about 13 years of kiting - the last 4 foiling, and prior to that about the same windsurfing. I've got a 5'8" 110L board, a 5m Ozone Wasp V2 and a Moses 950 wing. I'm 55y/o, 82 pies and reasonably fit - well so I thought.

It's not the getting up and riding I'm finding that hard - although its certainly a greater challenge than I anticipated, it's the physical side of it. I do a couple of runs - maybe 2 to 3 min worth and then I have to rest for 5 minutes. I can kite on my foil quite happily for 2 to 3 hours without a break but I'm finding winging pretty brutal. I'm assuming winging gets easier, but interested to know how many sessions did it take for the experienced wingers out there (especially in my age bracket) to not feel like they've done 5 rounds with Mike Tyson. Also any technique tips that helped would be appreciated.

Not sure how young you are, I am in my 50s I discovered that I need some days of break in between days of leaning.

I was in my middle sixties when I started winging. I did not experience as much discomfort as early as you did. I did find I got more tired than I expected. It wasn't until I started sheeting out the wing to reduce the power so that I had just enough power to stay on the hydrofoil that I started to have much longer sessions. Once up on the hydrofoil it required much less power to continue on than I realized. So try sheeting out the wing a bit and having a relaxed grip on the wing. I also found that it was easier if I kept my arms lightly bent rather than straight. I found it less fatiguing. In my mind I thought it should have been the other way and straight arms would be less tiring but that didn't work for me. Of course anytime you do something new your body takes a bit of time to adjust to the new stress so that could just be part of it. Good luck.

Also you may want to watch your stance, often when starting out it's natural to be hunched over which puts a lot more strain on your body overall. You need to make sure you're stacked over the board with the shoulder's back and but in, have your elbows pointed down at the board.

Wait for the gusts before pumping onto foil and let the wing do the work for you. It will get a lot easier to the point you're holding onto the wing without a death grip.

DC

When I first started I was surprised how physical it was (57). im not gybing yet(still a novice) but straight lines are easier, I found I relax more, use the hips more, and try to trim the wing rather than over sheeting. I find it hard standing up all the time after falls and failed turn attempts, knees suffer.

As others have said, try to stay relaxed in both your grip (it only needs to be light, let the wing float a little) and stance. Stay upright - being conscious of pushing your hips forward helps - that is, towards the wing. Once you get the basics down, using a harness will help too.

I'm 55 yrs and learned and so can you. As others have said it's largely technique in holding the wing, pumping on the gust, trimming so to not be overpowered. As you become more skilled, you will substitute the physical brute part with knowing when to applying just enough force. Winging in lite winds even for me is one of the hardest workouts. Better winds make it much easier, but not every place is blessed with optimal conditions. This where better technique come into play.

My Garmin watch rates the exercise intensity for kite foiling sessions between 1.8 and 2.8 Maintaining. Jumps, lots of tacks and big waves pushes it to the higher end.

Wing foiling ranks 3.0 Impacting to 5.0 Overreaching. Light wind pushes it up to 5.0, which is the maximum, as does waves and tack attempts. Riding the wing in steady winds feels effortless but the Garmin tells me it's around 3.0

My average kite foiling session is 1-1.5 hours and the average wing session is 2-2.5 hours.

The kite sessions are generally shorter because I'm better at it and the speeds are higher. I can do a bit of a coast run and a heap of stuff in an hour. It might take me an hour on the wing to do half the upwind distance I do with a kite.

I do longer sessions on the wing, because it's relatively new, and there's a heap of micro-things to learn. Riding and gybing and stuff is easy. Getting the right combination of speed and trim to get an extended wave glide is quite complicated. Crashing on a wing takes a lot longer to reset and get going than riding a strapped kite foil board.

64 years, 1200 kitefoil hours, 160 wingfoil hours.

I do some dumbbell weight training most mornings, mostly to counter the muscle loss that comes with aging. I kite or wing foil almost every day, or go for a walk with the missus. I am an "exercise" sceptic. I think consistent pleasant activity that is fun is more than good enough to maintain health. I have a low opinion of the claims of the commercial exercise industry. All that go hard/push your limits thing just sets you up to fail.

I wore Apple watches for a while. I gave up after the third one died. It wasn't water problems, they just died. Battery life on an Apple watch is poor, and the touch screen is useless with wet fingers. My Garmin has long battery life and I have been using the same watch constantly since May 2016. That's about 1600 on/in water hours and about 500 paragliding hours.

I don't use any apps as such. I just record the session on the Garmin and download it each night or so. I can view the sessions on the web site and see all the speed and distance figures and stuff. I have it configured to show time and speed and duration on the water.

Most of the numbers displayed in apps are just wrong. You get lots of speed transients and errors and variations, especially with a watch strapped to your wrist under a wettie. It's far better to view the speed graph and eyeball the speed ranges and ignore the stray peaks. You can count the gybes and crashes.

PS If you decide you need more gear get a big foil. It will make it less likely you'll get stuck on the surface when the wind drops a little bit, which it will. There's almost no downside to a big foil except for dropping in to bigger faster waves.

Im early 50's. lots of pedalling and water sports to stay fit. I take it you're referring to arms/back in terms of tiredness?
I'd say windsurfing without a harness is definitely the most taxing on the body. Windfoiling is easier once the foil is up and going. Thinking about the "slipperiness" of the foil compared to a conventional windsurfing board, there's heaps less resistance on the foil, meaning it's easier to keep going. When you put a harness on, most of us can sail for ages - windsurfing, kiting or foiling.
The thing about wingdinging is that a lot of foilers don't use harnesses (me inclusive). Perhaps kiting means the load is going through the harness to a large extent and you're not using your upper body much? Then you get on the wingding and get taxed because the upper body isn't used to it? I found the first few sessions dinging I got tired after about a half hour, but can get out for hours now with few problems.
From my experience your technique will improve, and TOW will get the muscles fitter.
I also change the way the wing flies from time to time. So I use it a bit like a windsurf sail and have the wing in a vertical position, arms quite locked out and it uses the back a lot. Then will take a less aggressive approach and have the wing slightly more overhead which uses slightly different muscle groups and gives some respite to the tired muscles.
The other thing that plays a big part is wind strength and conditions. Stronger wind and waves will tax me a lot more than pleasant 10-14 knots breezes.
Stick with it. Fitness will increase TOW.

I went out for my 3rd session today. Unfortunately, there were only a few moments where the wind was strong enough to get me up on the foil but those foiling runs went well and I managed a half decent gybe to toe side on one occasion - but came off the foil soon after.

I kept in mind much of the advice given on this thread and it definitely helped a lot. Focussed on deeper, more effective breathing (with less swearing), a looser grip on the wing and more relaxed arms allowing the wing to fly itself rather than trying to muscle it. I felt far less tired today as a result. Getting up to my feet from a kneeling start is becoming almost second nature on my stronger, left foot forward side, still a bit iffy on the other foot but improving.

I'm really enjoying the challenge of learning something new. I have to admit, kite foiling was starting to get a bit stale for me. Really looking forward to getting good enough to start riding some bumps downwind. Bring on the summer wind.

So much good info here already. I'll just pass along what was passed on to me. Stand straight like you are in a phone booth (feet shoulders apart or less). Use the wind to lift your arms not the other way around. Tighten your core. Don't squat like a monkey taking a dump.

"F the wind (stand straight) and don't let the wind F you (pooping monkey)."