Wing Foiling Waves | How to Add Some Style and Flow to Your Game

So you've been wing foiling waves a while now and have had some downwinders, ridden swell, and maybe you've even gotten on some breaking waves. You can connect wave after wave, and it's an amazing feeling. But sometimes you wonder if there's more. What could you do to spice things up a bit and make it more exciting?

Just to be clear, there's nothing wrong with a chill session of going with the flow, and if that's your happy place, then you shouldn't feel like you're doing it wrong. But if that's starting to feel a bit stale and you want to add some more flavor, there are some things you can do to mix it up.

Step On the Gas

Try riding faster. It'll force you to constantly think ahead to your next move at the same time you're flying down the wave and carving. Size down your foil and focus on building speed, building momentum, and finding those spots in the waves that have more push and will give you that boost. Now run out the shoulder and barrel dodge. Be sure to turn back and do a nice roundhouse cut before you end up in the flats!

It'll be a little overwhelming at first, but then you'll start to scan ahead and look for that next opportunity. You can come back to the power zone and come across the lip or under the foam. Coming off a wave with speed gives you a lot of options, so make your decision early. The more experience you get, the more possibilities you'll find.

Yes, you will fall, but don't worry about that. It's the cost of ramping up the excitement factor. You'll be taking more risks and getting so much back when it pays off. And every time you tumble, you'll be learning and getting better.

Adjust Your Stance

A lot of the time your stance depends on your personal preference and how you feel comfortable over your feet, but the foil you're riding also makes a difference. Your stance will get narrower on a higher aspect foil, a shorter fuselage, or anytime your setup is more twitchy and you don't want all that leverage.

However, if you're really ripping a wave, sometimes a slightly wider stance can be helpful. Bend your knees a bit. Be sure you can shift your weight forward and backward. Front foot pressure will drive you forward, but you'll want to back off when you hit the pit so you don't ditch the nose.

In the rolling swell, a narrower stance will free up your hips for more directional turns rather than the hard, banking turns you do in breaking waves. If you're standing like you're a cowboy on a bull, your hips don't move.

Don't be afraid to move your feet as you ride. A narrower stance is great for fast cadence pumping, but when you go to rip a back cut turn, drop your back foot to give you more leverage over the pitch of the foil. Pushing harder into it can force a harder turn.

There's also the offset of your stance over the stringer. This is a little more technical but something to keep in mind. In general, the wider the span, the wider your offset should be.

Add Some Style

You're on a good wave and you've ramped up the speed, so now it's time to add some style. There are plenty of things you can do. Maybe you've gotten some ideas from videos you've seen. Try getting lower and dropping the wing a little lower. Or stand up tall and glide it out looking all chill. Drag your hand on the lip.

Draw some creative lines. Turning hard and throwing spray is great, but lots of people can do that. Instead of jibing into the wave, tack in, come across and backside up the face of the wave and wrap it back like a skimboarder or even toeside. Carve into the wave upwind. It's cool and not that hard to learn. Start on small waves that aren't breaking and work your way into bigger ones. There's no feeling like it when you nail a smooth one.

Putting the wing behind your back will add a little style as well, plus it really opens up your field of view. You can see everything without the wing in the way. And if the wind is to your back, it'll give you a little push, too. You can do a couple little pumps and glide on the swell like this.

Use the Wing More Actively

No matter the conditions, using your wing more actively is going to open up new possibilities. We're used to flagging out and letting the wave power us, but what if you use your wing to build speed, carry your weight, grab some extra leverage in a turn, jump over a rough spot, or even do some freestyle on that wave? Now we're talking!

If you see the wing as an inconvenience once you're on the wave, you might as well get a parawing you can pack away. But if you've got a wing in your hand, go ahead and put it to work. It'll level up an average day to something much more exciting. Use it to draw lines you can't as a prone surfer. You're a winger, by golly! Embrace the wing and draw some inspiration from windsurfers, but remember that you can do even more since it's not attached to your board.

Grab the wind to slingshot yourself out of that bottom turn. Let the wing carry your weight through the foam ball if you're hitting the lip. Lift yourself over the chaos. Come over the back of a wave and down the face with speed. Backwind into a swell. Bring your flat water tricks into the wave. How about a Raley off the lip, and then land it back in the lip? Yeah, that felt great.

Make Every Day Count

Think about some tricks that you can bring into the wave, and then practice them on days when there are no waves and you wouldn't normally care to go out. Build those skills, and then when the surf comes up, you'll have some new things to try.

Can you do a backwind 360? If you bring it to the waves, you can use that to transition between waves. It's fun and it's stylish. It keeps your momentum going. Find ways to make small days exciting, and then your waves days will leave you even more stoked.

These are just a few ideas to help you level up your wing and wave game. Don't be afraid to experiment. Every trick out there was a new idea once, and someone got wet figuring it out. Falling in isn't a fail; it's a step on the way to progressing your foil game. And when you finally nail it, it's going to feel amazing. Enjoy the stoke!

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