Why a Wing Board and a Kite is Awesome for the Lightest Winds

Welcome back to Wing Wednesdays, or Foil Fridays... whatever we're going to call this one. This is Tucker with MACkite, and today I'm going to talk to you about my new fascination. We're going to maximize our light wind fun, maximize our time on the water, and maximize the gear we already own. I can guarantee you'll get a lot more time in the water, have a lot more fun, and use your equipment more effectively.

Ride in Almost Any Wind

Let's talk about how kite wing foiling can maximize our light wind potential and let us do something while we're waiting for the wind to come up. We've all been there... we've gotten to the beach and gotten skunked, so this is my anti-skunk procedure to make sure you can get out there and have lots of fun no matter what.

This is essentially a hybrid of wing foiling and kiteboarding. I know lots of you wing foilers out there don't want to deal with a kite, but if you want to get out there under nine or ten knots, you'll need a kite, and you might as well make use of your wing board, especially if you've got a high wind board that you're not riding that often. You can ride it with the kite, so follow along; we're going to give you a quick tutorial and some reasons why you'd want to do this and mash these two sports together. I know I've been having a lot of fun doing it the past couple of years.

Use Your Existing Board and Foil

Take your wing foil setup: your board and your foil. Ideally, you want to ride your smaller board and any smaller, faster foils if you have them. You don't need a humongous light wind foil for kite wing foiling because the kite creates plenty of power. Even a small board at 50 liters is plenty of buoyancy to knee start it behind a kite. A kite has a lot more power, a lot more lift, and a lot more ability for apparent wind.

Get an Ultralight Kite

Ride that board setup with an ultralight kite. Now, you don't have to ride an ultralight kite; you can ride any kiteboard kite down to 9 knots or a maybe little less if you're good at flying kites, but to get down to that maximum low end, that "unicorn session" so to speak, where you can hardly feel the wind in that 4 knot zone, you really need an ultralight kite like a single skin ram-air that's made to fly in super light wind. For me, those kites have been the Flysurfer Peak or Soul, or the Ozone Chrono or Hyperlink. There are a bunch of other ram-air style kites out there are well, whether they're single skin or dual skin. They're crazy light and they'll fly in almost no wind at all. They give you good power per square meter, they're very efficient, and they're going to build a lot of apparent wind off of your board speed, so that really levels things up and makes it more fun.

Choose Your Harness

You can use your wing harness, especially if you're riding fairly underpowered, but there will be more stress on your ribs. I had a rib injury recently and I didn't have my kiteboarding harness with me, so I used my winging harness. It put a lot of pain into that rib; those aren't designed to hold that kind of power, especially since I was riding a 15m when I probably should have been on an 8m. But that's what I had with me, so I made it work and it was fun, albeit a bit more painful. If I didn't have the rib injury I probably would have been fine, but if you have a kiteboarding harness it's going to be nice to ride with that, especially for riding powered. If you're constantly riding underpowered, most wing harnesses will work to some degree, so you can give that a shot before you invest more money in a kiteboarding-specific harness.

Learn to Fly the Kite

If you're not already a kiteboarder, learn the basics of safety. Don't just go launching a big kite upwind of a tree or a bunch of people. You don't need to hurt people, hurt yourself, or damage your gear. Learn how to do it right. Take a lesson, talk to a friend that does it, watch our how-to kiteboard videos on our YouTube channel, and read our blog. We have a ton of information with step-by-step safety procedures, how to hook up a kite, and all of that kind of stuff, so jump in there and inform yourself so you can be safe. Do not just go out there and launch; kites are not like winging. You can't just go teach yourself; you've got to play it safe and do it the right way, so definitely do that. Thankfully, we'll be out in light winds, so for the most part it's pretty mellow and, if you do make a mistake, the consequences are less, so that's a good thing, but definitely play it safe and learn your safety stuff.

Kite Wing Foiling Tutorial

Oftentimes we'll be launching the kite from downwind. That's a "hot launch", which you normally want to avoid since it can create a sudden, strong pull, but because it's super light wind you really can't launch it from the side of the window. Once the kite is up in the air, you'll walk into the water with your board until it's deep enough. Get on the board on your knees. To manage the kite while you're getting on, point the board straight downwind and let go of the bar once the kite's up at noon. In light wind, it's usually going to hang up there at the apex pretty easily. It might drift a little bit to one side or another, especially if you accidentally pull on one side of the bar, but for the most part it's pretty easy. Pay attention to the kite so it doesn't get away from you while getting up on your knees, then grab the bar again to gain control.

Once you're on your knees, point the board in the direction you want to go. Move your kite in that direction, and if you get to a plane and build speed, at that point you can get to your feet. You can do that in a couple of different ways. You can put one hand down and pull yourself to your feet, almost like a surf style setup, or, if the kite has enough power, you can use it to pull your body weight up by bringing it up and pulling in so it lifts your body to a standing position. Once you're there, build some speed on the board until you can lift off.

What's the Advantage of This Setup?

This is better for light wind than a kite foiling setup. Kiteboarders out there might be wondering why you wouldn't just kite foil. Well, you need enough power in your kite to board start from a sitting position with a kite foil. The boards are small and you need a lot of power from the kite to rip you out of the water with that waterski kind of start. However, by starting on your knees you can plane out with almost no power from the kite and build apparent wind, and that really helps you maximize the range on the low end because you don't need all that extra grunt. That lets you fly a smaller kite which is more agile and fun to fly, easier to keep in the sky, and better for surfing.

It's also going to let you ride a smaller foil. Since you don't need to come up on foil immediately, you can plane out on the board and build speed. That allows you to ride a foil that has a higher lifting speed, and that's going to maximize your efficiency and top speed once the foil and the board do start moving together and building that apparent wind. If you've ever flown a really big foil in light wind with a kite, especially a faster ram-air kite, you know there's a point where the foil just can't keep up with the kite. You build apparent wind to a point, and then it just stops and there's not a lot of glide there.

What's special about this setup with a bigger board and smaller foil with a kiteboard kite is that you can plane out in really light winds and still ride a really small, fast, efficient, glidey foil, which helps a lot with the jibes and tacks in those super light winds. A lot of times, the hardest thing is transitioning to go the other way. One option is to go downwind in a jibe. The lines slack, it's a huge kite, and it can jellyfish and start to fall out of the sky. If you don't have a foil that can glide through that until you create line tension again, it's really not going to work too well.

You can also take a tack, but then you would need a kite that can lift you up and a foil that's fast enough to glide through the tack upwind, which is challenging. You don't have a lot of kite power a lot of times, so you're not getting that lift from the kite that's going to keep it flying. The smaller foil allows for easier transitions and more grace when you make a mistake or the kite movements aren't perfect. If you hit a lull going into a tack or a jibe, it's really going to help with that, and if you do flub it up, you've got a big board to land back on, plane out, gather yourself, get the kite moving, and lift off again, which really helps in those light wind scenarios.

Those of you that already kite foil in super light winds know it's really hard. You've got to have great kite skills and the right equipment, and wing foil kiting is going to allow you to expand the range of the kite you already own and ride in 10 to 12 knots. With your wing board, you can get it down to 6 or 7 knots with no problems at all and have a kite that's more fun and better for drifting, riding waves, and doing different tricks. With that faster, more glidey foil, you unlock some performance there as well.

Who Is This For?

I don't recommend this for new riders. You really want to know how to foil and at least be confident in flying and handling the kite before you go mashing them together in super light wind. You could definitely do this as a new rider in that 10-12 knot zone with the proper size kite, but if you're learning kite foiling, it is easier just to get a kite foiling board and learn to board start like you're used to with your twintip. This would be for a level up in experience since it's a little bit more difficult.

If you're looking for the magic bullet answer to riding light winds when you show up at the beach, carrying your winging gear, all stoked, and the wind just tanked or it's just not quite there, this can save your session. It's a lot of fun and it's going to save you from sitting on the beach or driving home disappointed. I've done this in any wind that you can feel. You don't see flags moving, but you can be out there riding. I'm not under any illusion that this is a high performance thing because it's not, but it is fun. It gets you on the water, out there having a good time even though you're not pushing any boundaries of speed or performance. It's just about getting out, having fun, and making use of the conditions that you have.

If you're already a winger, it's pretty accessible to get a kite and a bar. It gets a little bit more intimidating, price-wise, when you're talking about buying a whole new foil and board, but bring your wingboard and a kite to the beach, and you're set and won't get skunked.

If you have any questions, you can always ask us here at the shop: phone, email, chat, whatever. Let's get this thing started; I want to see more kite wing foilers this year. I want to see guys making use of those junky days. Get yourself a kite for those light wind days. This has been Tucker with MACkite, and we'll see you next time.

MACkite Subscription Links:

YouTube  |   Instagram  |   Spotify Oddcasts

Contact MACkite Below:

800.622.4655  |   Kiteboarder@MACkite.com  |   LIVE Chat Messenger